Austin Ruse, the President of C-FAM (Centre for Family & Human Rights) a New York and Washington DC-based research institute focussing on international legal and social policy, has written an important article in Crisis Magazine.Various writers there have taken an anti-historical and anti-catholic stance on the great and pure, Saint Maria Goretti. You all know the story of this holy virgin, I do not need to repeat it here.
What I do need to say is this.
Simcha Fisher, Mark Shea, Mary Pezzulo, Father Dwight Longenecker (yes, him too), Dave Armstrong, and many others write "click-bait." They receive their income from their writing and every click at Patheos and Aleteia feed them. Some, such as Mark Shea, goad people into fighting in the combox with him, a direct attempt to get more "clicks."
Not only that, in the case of Patheos, they also feature pages on Wicca, Paganism, Atheism and more. Why would any faithful Catholic write on religion for any group that just places the One, True, Faith on the panorama of world religions as if all are true and equal?
It is frankly, blasphemous and that is what Longenecker, Shea, Fischer and the others are doing when they write there.
Austin Ruse challenges the writing of these people on the great Saint.
It is a must-read and should be shared.
15 comments:
Never read Aleteia, but I know Patheos and I don't like it one bit.
There is silly confusion on both sides. St. Agnes is not a saint because she successfully resisted being raped and preserved her virginity. She is a saint because did not agree to do something wrong under threat of violence. The man could have taken her violently. He wanted her to submit, and he was angered when she would not. If she had been taken violently, overpowered, it would not have lessened her sanctity, because her will was inviolate.
If your faith is strong, and your knowledge of catechism likewise, then there is nothing to fear about reading heretical content. You really won't know what is good without understanding evil.
Both of those sites are nothing but crap propaganda for the USCCB.
"If your faith is strong, and your knowledge of catechism likewise, then there is nothing to fear about reading heretical content. You really won't know what is good without understanding evil."
If you're faith is strong and your knowledge of catechism likewise, you will not want to read heretical content. Sheese! Do I really need to do drugs to know they're bad? Countless Saints and Doctors have admonished to RUN from heresy and error as from the plague. You are playing with fire otherwise Alex, and putting dimes in the error-peddlers pockets with each click.
Ha. These people are NOT making any money off Patheos. It is a labor of love. You can disagree all you want, but to make such ignorant statements, is, well, what can I say. Ignorant.
We're really gettin' rich over here. Lessee: in June I made the huge amount of $75 at Patheos. By a 40 hour work week average, that is a whopping 47 cents an hour. I'll make the same this month (esp. since 13 days of July were consumed by our vacation). If I work like a dog and put in 2-4 articles a day all month, then I get up to $150, or 94 cents an hour (but never higher than that). I've decided NOT to work like a dog for $150 all month. I'll work much less and settle for $75 (which requires 25,000 page views: no easy task).
What a racket, huh? Imagine that: busting my butt working full-time and making 94 cents an hour! Such materialism! Such greed! Such money-grubbing and lusting after filthy lucre!
How would I survive spiritually without the intellectual and spiritual giants of Vox Cantoris to keep me in line and rebuke me publicly for my manifest sins?
Gotta love apologetics! We get insulted regularly, make a pittance (well, at least some of us; others are indeed doing quite well), and yet are accused of being money-grubbers, anyway. Hey, if I'm gonna be insulted for being so rich, at least I could actually BE rich, huh (like some of my comrades)?
But no, I have to be poor and be insulted for being "rich". Very few professions have to put up with this sort of inane and asinine silliness.
Hi Dave,
How honoured I am to have you comment here. It's been a long time since you and Ross your Minion insulted me and harassed me on Facebook and then that dyspeptic blog of yours. So very Christian of you.
A professional apologetic? Where do I get one of those credentials?
Your "Patheos" whom you make money for and from, also features Wicca, Paganism and other "isms" right along side the One, True, Faith; as if the Catholic faith is just one like all the rest. You feed them, they feed you. It is a symbiotic relationship. It is a disgrace to associate yourself with them.
For such little money, you should really make better choices.
Who could possibly resist responding to such an idiotic article? Your comment is even dumber. Ross dissed me a year and a half ago . . .
I make money (though relatively little) from many sources: mostly from my books. Patheos is only one thing. The point is that we make VERY little per click. Now you know that, so I assume (perhaps too graciously) that you won't lie about it any more.
The rest of your contentions are too silly to waste ANY time replying to. So I won't.
Dave, I must congratulate you. That is the shortest thing you've ever written.
Much better to write long than stupid . . .
Dave,
First, this is my blog, do not leave insulting comments to me, show some respect, I know that it is hard for you to do that.
Second, your first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln once said, ""Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
Would that you would take his advice.
Now, go away.
It's unclear to me why it's wrong to make money off of clicks for copy that you write. Scripture says, "The workman is worth his wages" (Matthew 10:10), and "And let him that is instructed in the word, communicate to him that instructeth him, in all good things." (Gal 6:6, DR) But supposed that it were. By putting "catholic" in quotes, you impugn people's faith. Since when does doing something wrong cause one to forfeit one's Catholicity? Apostasy, heresy, schism, yes -- but writing click-bait? Or posting on "pagan" websites? Do we invalidate our claim to be Catholic when we sin? Did Peter cease to be pope when he refused to eat with Gentiles (Gal 2:11)? Is this a traditional teaching of the Catholic Church? If so, produce the evidence. Let's be reasonable.
To answer your question about the other content on Patheos: That is a well-known fallacy known as guilt by association. One might as well say one shouldn't have one's books in the library because of all the other bad content there. Or one shouldn't write on the Internet because there is pornography or what have you there. We are called to be in the world but not of it. "Why would any faithful Catholic write on religion for any group that just places the One, True, Faith on the panorama of world religions as if all are true and equal?" Because it's the only way to reach out to some people who are seeking, that's why. Preaching to the choir does not lead sinners to conversion. I wonder if you witnessed St. Paul preaching in the Areopagus (Acts 17:19-34) what you would think of that. Egads, St. Paul even quotes a PAGAN POET! GASP!
The only time I read them is if pewsitter links to them, and I usually get bored after the first paragraphs of their propaganda and X out.
Dave Armstrong is not worth having a civil conversation with, because he's incapable of being civil. If he shows up again, just delete the him, he's not worth the time you will waste conversing with him.
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