Replies

After several posts by Mark Shea on the subject of “conservatism”, I must admit I don’t like those conservative Catholics very much. Anyway, at least how Mark Shea describes them. Fortunately, I haven’t met very many who fit Mark’s description. And I think I would have run into them, for I am a conservative Catholic....
....My name is Patrick. I am a Catholic. I call myself a conservative. I put my Church first and my party about 108th. I prefer small government because I believe it protects our God given liberties, including our religious liberties, best. I believe in the Constitution. Not because it is a document handed on from on high but because it was written by men who understood what dastardly deeds of which men with power are capable. Moreover, I support the Constitution because it is the arrangement to which we all agreed. Until that changes, it should still apply, no?
I believe in free enterprise, not because I hate poor people, but because I think that it offers the best chance at prosperity for the most people. Does it eliminate inequity? Surely not. However, all the other systems I have seen tried produce even more inequity or even worse. So free enterprise seems like the best idea.

I believe in a strong defense, but a strong defense that never subjugates the dignity of any individual to a greater good. No ifs, ands, or buts. No way. No how.

Mark Shea is speaking to stereotypes in his own mind.

I know Catholics like him. They believe, first and foremost, but they really, really want to be Democrats. They know they can’t, because they do believe, but as a result, they spend their lives trying to show that conservatives are just as morally bankrupt as dems (or those that support abortion etc.)

It seems to me that Mark Shea resents the fact that he can’t be a dem, so he will demonize conservatives to make himself feel better.

I saw the topic and thought it was "WHAT is Mark Shea talking about?" and I thought "Hooray! Finally an answer!" Alas.

From the article: "I sometimes grow weary of the broad brush and using combox kooks to prove your point. It really doesn’t. Really." Well that's a truth worth sharing around here...

But best of all:
I don’t watch Glenn Beck and I can’t watch Bill O’Reilly for fear of throwing something at my television.

PREACH IT BROTHER!

they would rather get their social teaching from a talking hairdo on FOX than from the bishops

How about when those aspects of the talking hairdos has more in common with Rerum Novarum and Humani Generis (Papal encyclicals) than the bishops writings? How about when the bishops disagree with each other? Is some Schmuck in L.A. stuck with Mahoney's social teaching while I get Doran's? Or are we all stuck with the U.S> bishops conference while the folks in Africa and Chile get better stuff from their bishops.

It is all about Church teaching, dogma, and papal authority. The bishops, as things now stand, is as hit or miss as those talking hairdos.

I stopped reading Mark Shea about a year ago when he seemed to lose a nut and bolt over the issue of waterboarding. He simply can’t talk about anything else, and it’s in this quote. His comment about war crimes is referring to conservative Catholics who believe waterboarding is a legitimate means of interrogation. From that he is extrapolating to a whole host of other issues.

I think the comment below, about Mark wanting to be a Democrat, but not being able to because he does believe in the teachings of Christ, is spot on. I never could put into words what made me skeptical about him, but that’s it in a nutshell.