An Odd Providence

Consider Fr. Barron's latest (perhaps one of his best):


Then Marc Barnes' latest: 5 Reasons to Kill Christian Music.

Writing a Jesus-song is a well-intentioned denial that Jesus is the transcendental source of every song. We cannot actively attempt the creation of something beautiful without reference to Beauty itself, who is God. We cannot sing something true — even if it is the most misunderstood truth that “all you need is Love” — without reference to Truth itself, who is God. We cannot attempt to lift the spirit and transcend the world — which is the innate goal of all music — without acknowledging a transcendent reality towards which we have the incredible capacity to lift our spirits.

All of which serve to further reinforce the maxim I create by:
The artist serves the muse, never the agenda.

If you want to write a novel that will lead people to God, don't call it How to Get to God. Call it This Is a Beautiful Novel.

John C. Wright Gets to Say Who Is and Who Is Not Brilliant

I copied and pasted my previous post verbatim to the comments of Marc Barnes' hilarious article about Vegans for Meat Catholics for Choice President Jon O'Brien's piece on the Huffington Post which my previous post was an all-too-easy parody of (50 internets if you can diagram that sentence including this parenthetical remark). I checked back today to find that, not only had it been voted the top comment, but a hero of this blog had also commented on it!

Archiving

This post is mainly an archive for myself, in case I ever remember that one thing I wrote (remember that one thing?) and I want to reference back to it, but I can't find it in my archives because Blogger's search is so awful and oh, that's right, I didn't write it on my blog but in the comments of another blog and oh gosh, I have no idea which blog it was and have no idea how to find it and am I really going to have to search the entire internet for it hey this is boring let's play WoW.

DEAR FUTURE SELF: YOU DIDN'T WRITE THAT COMMENT HERE. IT WAS ON BAD CATHOLIC. (Bad Catholic, of course, being the blog of Marc Barnes, that Alma Mater-attending kid whose wit and wisdom I want to have when I grow up, and who is described by this blog's other favorite writer as "wise beyond his 18 years upon this earth.")

Anywho, since I'm archiving this in a public place, I might as well let you in on the joke so you can follow along.

Marc recently wrote a piece against the heretic Christina Pesoli (whose last name is at the very bottom of the last name uncanny valley), who wrote at HuffPo about why she was hoping for a schism. In the comments, one well-intentioned but clueless commentor wrote the following:

I wonder if you have ever had a moment to sit back and think about exactly what it would feel like to be a woman in the Catholic church. Like a man, you have two vocational options: marriage or service (or single life, but that never feels like a real choice). Let's follow your life path if you choose marriage: you hope to find someone who believes the same things you do, but for goodness sake you better attract him in a holy way! Feminine but not slutty. Sexy but modest. Pretty, but don't try so hard ok? Then when you find him, despite whatever place you are in your own career, you have to immediately start making babies. I mean, you don't HAVE to, but shouldn't a good wife "take care" of her husband? Then here you are, five years later with 3 children and suddenly you can't work anymore and your whole life is consumed with diapers and other peoples laundry and you better LIKE IT BECAUSE IT'S YOUR VOCATION. So you spend your entire adulthood taking care of other people, not once getting a chance to follow one of your own passions or interests, coupled with a constant guilt for being so selfish as to even have a personal passion, that you must not be very good at the Catholic thing. Over and over. Oh woman please, stop complaining, WE "VALUE" YOU so you better deal with all the ****, literal and figurative. Isn't being a woman fun? Doesn't motherhood fulfill you totally? 

Or you could opt to go the other direction and skip the babies to serve the poor as a nun. Then, when you have spent 60 years of your life serving the poor, suddenly the Vatican, the leaders of the Church you love so much, start accusing you of not loving Jesus enough because you are "ignoring" something you thought best to stay out of, it seemed like other people were taking care of it. 

Let's say you are a smart Catholic woman and you think the Church should do something differently. The minute you open your mouth you will be labeled a radical feminist and ridiculed from your brothers and sisters in Christ. 

The Vatican called those who challenged the practice of indulgences in the Middle Ages heretics. We have come to understand.. they were probably right. What good is our 2000 year tradition if we don't learn and grow? Not all traditions are good, (like the problem of reassigning abusive priests and covering up their crimes), so stop drawing on "tradition" and stop name calling the minute someone says, "maybe we need to rethink birth control." 

I go to mass because that's where I meet Jesus. It takes a lot of mental energy to forget about people like you and the woman fearing Vatican leadership, and remember that the Sacrament is what it's all about. No matter how much you **** me off. The one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic church is the Church that brings people closer to Christ. Even women.