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To: Quix
I'm reminded of prep school where the sophomores
would run up and down the halls screaming,
thinking they were wise.

698 posted on 02/25/2010 8:43:31 AM PST by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 119:174 I long for Your salvation, YHvH, Your law is my delight.)
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To: All

Interesting site with regard to the subject of this thread:

“What is anti-Catholicism?

This page is devoted to identifying anti-Catholicism on the Web. Anti-Catholicism (like anti-Semitism in some ways) is not easy to define. I am often tempted to apply the “definition” of pornography advanced by Justice Stewart of the United States Supreme Court: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”

My definition is drawn from the history of anti-Catholicism in America: I believe that modern anti-Catholicism continues (with some interesting variations) the religious themes of the Protestant Reformation and the secular (anti-clerical) themes of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment periods. In the United States these two strands became intertwined in nineteenth century Nativism, and they have continued (though attenuated) up to the present. Their presence on the Web simply reflects the fact that all kinds of ideas (mainstream and marginal) are now disseminated in this way.

Anti-Catholic themes may be loosely categorized as follows:

attacking Catholicism as being un-Christian or a cult (in the pejorative and not the sociological sense);

ridiculing or misinterpreting Catholic doctrine or practice;

ascribing to the Catholic Church a sinister role in an anti-Christian or anti-American conspiracy;

distorting or taking out of context illegal or scandalous behavior (especially sexual misconduct) by Catholic clergy or laity.

I label a web-site as anti-Catholic if it falls into one or more of the above categories. Obviously, there are some gray areas: How to distinguish between anti-Catholicism and legitimate differences with the Catholic Church? Further, given the ever widening sexual scandal which has engulfed the Catholic Church in the past few years, a great deal of material has appeared on the Net which is highly critical of the Catholic Church but which cannot be considered anti-Catholic. How to decide when a site crosses the line? These are difficult questions and I have indicated any site about which I have doubts. I am always willing to discuss this question with anyone who disagrees with me. Surprisingly, only one person has ever challenged my description of his site as anti-Catholic; even more surprisingly, a number of webmasters have written and asked that their sites be linked. (One correspondant asked if his site was not “anti-Catholic enough” to be included.)..”

More here:

http://www2.trincoll.edu/~dcruzuri/anti-catholic/anti-catholic.html


703 posted on 02/25/2010 8:46:44 AM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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