Great post. In fact I’d really like to see an open thread where Catholics explain the mass to us, but I don’t think they dare to.
Mind reading? Childish much? Or DISHONEST much? Do you REALLY want an EXPLANATION? What does “open thread” have to do with it then? Why specify an open thread?
I would avoid attributing to others the fears one finds in oneself. I would also avoid the dishonesty we sometimes see where somebody SAYS "explain" but MEANs “defend” and that against the unreasoning howls of those who don't know the difference between insult and discussion.
Here are the thoughts of a Protestant poet:
I did but prompt the age to quit their clogsAstonishingly, Milton wrote this without ever experiencing the Religion Forum in full cry.
By the known rules of ancient liberty,
When straight a barbarous noise environs me
Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs:
As when those hinds that were transform’d to frogs
Rail’d at Latona’s twin-born progeny
Which after held the sun and moon in fee.
But this is got by casting pearl to hogs,
That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,
And still revolt when truth would set them free.
Licence they mean when they cry liberty;
For who loves that, must first be wise and good.
But from that mark how far they rove we see,
For all this waste of wealth and loss of blood.