Fabulous Rebuttal
Posted by: tony on 03/23/2006 11:22 PM
Updated by: tony on 03/24/2006 10:28 PM
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Expires: 04/24/2006 12:00 AM
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Sometimes I enjoy reading articles from Catholic dissidents. I can sit there with a big grin on my face shaking my head at the things they come out with.
Such is an article from Beverly Beckham, a writer for the Boston Globe (big surprise... dissent and Boston go together like fish and chips).
She writes:
I turned a deaf ear to Rome's dictates about premarital sex, divorce, artificial insemination, and contraception. Yes, the church was against these things, but when I returned, it was to a parish where there was no finger-pointing. This church was holding out its arms.
And this church also was not Catholic. Oh sure, it probably looked somewhat like a Catholic church, it probably had a mass that said some of the same things they say at the mass at my local Catholic church, but probably the missals were altered so that every reference to "He" (for the proper pronoun for God) was replaced with "God" or maybe in some cases, "She". There probably wasn't a lot of stained glass, and I bet you wouldn't get a whiff of incense.
Al Kimel would ask her some pointed questions:
You write that you disagree with the Catholic Church's positions on divorce and remarriage, birth control, abortion, homosexuality, and the male priesthood. May I suggest that you bracket these convictions for the moment and consider a more fundamental question: Is the Catholic Church who she claims to be? This question must be asked and answered before you can reasonably address the specific teachings of the Catholic Church, for if the Catholic claim is true, then you will be forced to reconsider your present beliefs. Let's be honest. Given the beliefs and values of our culture, you would be a remarkable person indeed who did not disagree with the Catholic Church on the issues you mention. Since your birth you have breathed in a spirit of inclusivity, relativism, and anti-authoritarianism. You are a grandchild of the sexual revolution. You have been indoctrinated in a worldview that is hostile to the Catholic faith. The teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual morality is especially offensive to secular culture. The Catholic Church now exists in the United States as a counter-cultural community. I propose that this counter-cultural stance be considered as one piece of evidence in favor of the claim that the Catholic Church speaks to the world with divine authority and truth. How easy it would be for her to conform to contemporary sensibilities. How the cultural elites would applaud if she would just affirm the permissibility of abortion or gay marriages. Yet the Catholic Church will not accommodate. She knows she is entrusted with a solemn responsibility-to guard the faith once delivered to the saints and to pass it on intact to future generations.
This is the most fundamental question of all... "Is the Church who She says She is?". If yes, She has the authority to speak a truth we are required to follow. If no, then you might as well be Protestant.
But she is already one of the Protestants in the Catholic pews, who as Martin Luther said: "Has a pope in her belly".
But David at Cosmos, Liturgy, Sex says so eloquently:
Because she does not state the Church's position it is hard to see what she thinks it is. If she thinks that "gay" is ontological she is confused in her anthropology. If she thinks that God hates anything He creates, she is confused in her understanding of God. If she thinks the Church teaches that God hates sinners, she is confused in her dogmatics. If she thinks that one can sin mortally and be saved without repentance because God loves everyone, she is confused in her soteriology. If she thinks that her opinions (no doubt formed by her culture) can somehow trump divine Revelation, she is confused in her fundamental theology.
I think I detect a pattern here. It is one of confusion.
I think it's more pig headed, fingers-in-the-ears-nyaaa-nyaaa-I-can't-hear-you-ness.
She has it all figured out. She, like many dissenters, has a direct pipeline to Jesus. She knows what He'd say if he were here.
The problem is, He is here. He is speaking to her, through His Church.
She's just not listening.
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