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‘Practicing Catholic’ (a liberal who goes to church discusses politics and "mainstream theology")
The New York Times ^ | April 10, 2009 | James Carroll

Posted on 04/11/2009 12:37:34 PM PDT by presidio9

Why am I a Catholic? There are a thousand ways to answer that question, and this book will take up many of them. By its end, there will be one answer.

-SNIP-

...and in America (continuing racism), with the recognition that hatred of the Other (whether Jews, blacks, or, say, Muslims) is still virulent. Women came to a new self-understanding, from the workforce jolt of World War II to the claustrophobia of the suburbs in the 1950s to the liberation of the 1960s (the birth control pill) and 1970s (Roe v. Wade). Sexual sensibility itself was upended, with gay rights, the loosening of marriage, male insecurity, and the eroticizing of mass culture.

-SNIP-

The most striking instance of this new alliance centered on the U.S. Supreme Court, which had long been a hostile forum to Roman Catholics. Only one of the first fifty-four justices was a Catholic. -SNIP-

...But then, under a succession of conservative Republican presidents, a string of Catholic conservatives was appointed, until, with the naming of Samuel Alito in 2006, the Supreme Court had a Catholic majority for the first time, a majority composed of right-wing Catholics who were poised to reverse precedents on antidiscrimination statutes, conservation, women's rights, free speech, and government intrusions in the private lives of citizens.

But the brand of Catholicism represented by the court majority was out of step with the generally progressive social teachings of the Church (the Catholic justices were not, for example, opposed to the death penalty). Indeed, the court's five Catholics could be seen as holding out not only against the dominant current of contemporary American life but also against a new Catholic mainstream that had been set running in the mid-twentieth century,

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: apostateandstate; catholicism; cult; culturewar; excommunicated; godgap; jamescarroll; judges; religiousleft; scotus
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1 posted on 04/11/2009 12:37:35 PM PDT by presidio9
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To: presidio9

Puhleeze. James Carroll, ex-priest, and (if you want to come right down to it) ex-Catholic. But a force for evil.


2 posted on 04/11/2009 12:41:38 PM PDT by livius
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To: presidio9

This is why I sometimes wish the Church did away with infant baptism.
Adult converts are usually the most devout Catholics.


3 posted on 04/11/2009 12:44:37 PM PDT by SMCC1
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To: presidio9

I don’t get it. Why do people belong to ANY group if they do not want to follow its teachings?

It’s not like belonging to the Catholic church, or ANY organized religion, is mandatory. So why join or stay, just to argue with the leadership over doctrine?


4 posted on 04/11/2009 12:45:11 PM PDT by Joann37
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To: presidio9

This person talks about American Catholics. I am a member of the Roman Catholic Faith, not the american catholic faith. To me american catholics are CINOs


5 posted on 04/11/2009 12:48:52 PM PDT by mom-7
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To: Joann37

I think it’s because organized religions usually have pretty substantial followings. If the left can usurp the leadership, they already have a structure in place to spread their ideology to the members of the group. Infiltration.


6 posted on 04/11/2009 12:50:44 PM PDT by SMCC1
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To: presidio9

Okay. Now I am washing my hands. I read that, and my computer feels dirtier for having gone to the NYT website to read it.

His God is not God, but Liberalism. Basically, he says that anything you think of God is okay. It leaves a big, open tent for everyone. Like Qeequeeg in “Moby DIck”, I can worship my little brown, carved wooden God, and be welcome in the church of “everyone”. I guess people who worship dog feces are welcome as well. Hey, as far as he is concerned, how can we be too sure our God is the “right” God to worship?

This guy is someone who likes the sound of his own voice, too. I read it, and “Ivory Tower Intellectual” bells went off.

In particular, this passage: “During my lifetime, America fully embraced the ethos of global empire, fulfilling what had begun in the merely continental notion of Manifest Destiny...”

Oh yeah. In his referral to “...my lifetime...” we have taken over and oppressed so much of the world.

What a tool.


7 posted on 04/11/2009 12:52:29 PM PDT by rlmorel ("The Road to Serfdom" by F.A.Hayek - Read it...today.)
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To: presidio9
>> ‘Practicing Catholic’

Sounds like he needs to continue his practicing.

8 posted on 04/11/2009 12:59:24 PM PDT by NewJerseyJoe (Rat mantra: "Facts are meaningless! You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!")
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To: SMCC1

Good point.


9 posted on 04/11/2009 12:59:40 PM PDT by Joann37
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To: SMCC1
This is why I sometimes wish the Church did away with infant baptism. Adult converts are usually the most devout Catholics.

That's baloney!

10 posted on 04/11/2009 1:02:24 PM PDT by notaliberal (Obama: The Abortion President)
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To: SMCC1

We should begin infiltrating leftist organizations and spreading discord.


11 posted on 04/11/2009 1:05:47 PM PDT by Trod Upon (Obama: Making the Carter malaise look good. Misery Index in 3...2...1)
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To: SMCC1
Adult converts are usually OFTEN the most devout Catholics.
12 posted on 04/11/2009 1:07:53 PM PDT by presidio9 (Islam Is As Islam Does)
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To: presidio9
. . .Once a believer has learned to think historically and critically, it is impossible any longer to think mythically. That is the ground on which this book stands; its subject is the positive transformation of religious thought that has defined much of Christianity, including Catholicism, during my lifetime. I intend to offer a defense of that transformation.

Translation: once a "believer" has decided it's OK to sit in judgment on the Bible, rather than being judged by it, membership in the First Existential Church of the Warm Fuzzy confers a lot of perks.

13 posted on 04/11/2009 1:08:15 PM PDT by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: rhema
Translation: once a "believer" has decided it's OK to sit in judgment on the Bible, rather than being judged by it, membership in the First Existential Church of the Warm Fuzzy confers a lot of perks.

Haven't heard? The Bible is a living document.

14 posted on 04/11/2009 1:09:49 PM PDT by presidio9 (Islam Is As Islam Does)
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James Carroll aka the dissident, excommunicated, VOTF, vichy Catholic, stooge.


15 posted on 04/11/2009 1:24:46 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: Joann37

Carroll is not a “Catholic”. He hates the Church and goes to pains to do anything to weaken or destroy it.


16 posted on 04/11/2009 1:27:43 PM PDT by big'ol_freeper ("From hell's heart I stab at thee... I spit my last breath at thee." ~ Khan Noonien Singh)
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To: mom-7

Me too. IIRC God warned us of those who call themselves Christian but profess evil and hw they will work witihn the church for satan.


17 posted on 04/11/2009 1:38:19 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: presidio9

This was a special Good Friday treat from the New York Times?


18 posted on 04/11/2009 2:08:32 PM PDT by madprof98 ("moritur et ridet" - salvianus)
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To: chris_bdba

Taking the
lord’s name in vain is what he is doing.


19 posted on 04/11/2009 2:16:34 PM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: SMCC1

Not always.


20 posted on 04/11/2009 2:26:27 PM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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