At least that is what Shea’s position amounts to:
Shea hates the GOP so much that he has made his peace with a million abortions a year in this country. If he had his way, the Democrats would completely control the government, no doubt mandating public funding for all abortions, persecuting pro-lifers and persecuting pro-life churches. So long as the GOP is exterminated, Shea is fine with all of that. For God’s sake Mark, take a hard look in the mirror, and see what you have become. Take to heart his statement by one of your readers:
I fear Mark has become this way partly because:
“Spoken like a good little Trump minion for whom Trump can do no wrong, despite the preponderance of evidence of the thoroughly bad man to whom you bow and grovel… I’m calling you on your tactic. It won’t work with people who have the intelligence and presence of mind to know what Trump is, and to know that his cult will do and say everything and anything to defend and support him. God help you to get out from under this filth and mire.”
From one of Mark’s remaining followers and supporters, doing what they do, and that’s rush in to defend Mark and attack his critics in a manner similar to Mark’s. In answer to the second quote above.
With pro-lifers like Mark Shea, who needs pro-aborts?
Even if Trump is as evil as Shea says that he is, shouldn’t Shea be offering prayers for the salvation of his soul instead of damning him to hell?
Shea will receive what Shea has so freely given. he will get all that hate, bile, vitriol, hysteria and prejudice dumped right on his head. He will be the recipient of all the name-calling, slandering, lying, demeaning and libel that he has done towards others. He is sowing the wind. Let him then reap the whirlwind.
PS, does he even read TAC? Does he even get any feedback (other than the occasional person who dares to disagree with him in the Com Box) outside his own little circle of psychopathic baby murdering sodomy sanctifiers? Yes, name-calling. Rightful name-calling because that is now who and what he is. Not slander. Not lying. Not demeaning. Not libel. He is what he is – an emasculated liberal progressive feminist. Katholyck.
“PS, does he even read TAC?”
He has claimed not to in the past. However, judging from comments he has made over the years, and his appearances in our comboxes, I suspect he has, at least in the past. His appearances here stopped after I made this comment back in 2012:
“Back from Springfield and I will have a write up about the trip later this week. I find quite a few of the contributions in this thread to be serious grapplings with the moral questions involved. Congrats, as usual, to Mike Petrik, and to Paul Zummo, Paul Primavera, Foxfier, Nate, Tom Mckenna, Art, Greg Mockeridge, MPS, Dale Price, Phillip, Mary DeVoe, Bill Bannon, Elaine, Tim, Anzlyne, WK and TShaw. I apologize for any worthy contributions I have overlooked. A special thank you to Mark Shea and Zippy for giving us a hilarious sample of their Pharisees-R-Us tag team routine that has made them so beloved throughout Saint Blogs. More comments tomorrow after I have rested up from today’s festivities.”
https://the-american-catholic.com/2012/07/24/father-wison-miscamble-defends-bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/
Mark who?
Many years ago, I was banned from commenting on “Catholic and Enjoying It.” Since, I have self-eliminated. I may go back if he would limit his misguided diatribes to 50 or less words. Is he paid by the word count?
Why bother with a liberal that obviously believes his wrong-headed prejudices are infallible and anyone that disagrees is a heretic.
It has been a puzzle for a dozen years or more. He has been escalatingly incapable of viewing public life with any degree of detachment.
By just typing his name, you give him strength like the folks at Peter Pan clapping to save Tinkerbelle. By merely thinking the name, you enliven it. By responding, you prop open the gates of liberal hell. [darn, I promised never again to say ‘baby puppies’]. Stop the applause. Whenever you see his face, whenever you see his name, whenever a text or screen says MSBS* or the like, do what I did for BSBO – Barry Soetoro Barack Obama – I turned the computer, the cell phone, the radio, the TV off. I refused to listen, I refused to look. Did the same for HRHHRC. I excised him [and her] from my life. Throw some water on the wicked wookie wizard of the web. And watch him melt away, not with a bang, but with a wuss whimper. Guy McClung, Texas
* MSBS: M___S____B_____S_____ . . . . you can figure out the rest
I’m convinced Mark is in the grip of a devrloping mental illness. He swings from being absolutely manic about a topic, then he will slip into a depressed funk after a while. Combine that with the leftist views he has adopted, that’s a sure fire recipe for disaster and tragedy. BTW, I know a guy who’s just like Shea. He’s overweight (477 pounds!), has a bitter, sarcastic attitude that has costed him the friendship of many people, and is a political/religious extremist. He’s now in a rehab center, because his weight is threating his life. Yet, he’s fighting any attempt to help him. If Mark doesn’t wise up like my former friend.
I am not to smart but I, too, turn off heretics, although I ought to hear what they are spouting. I turn on The American Catholic to learn what I missed.
I recall listening to Bishop Sheen with my dad and the Good Bishop’s talk on the demonic. “Mention the cross and it’s frightening to see the diabolic amongst our own priest. They squirm and become uneasy…” For the past several decades one could detect a radicalized soul (being kind) by the very suggestion of defending Life. The reaction of an almost militant rage overtakes the body to the point that the human cannot hide it. Now we have another trigger: utter one word of support of Donald Trump and we have the same reaction. The fact I felt forced (due to his opponent) to vote for Donald Trump nauseated me. In hindsight I have never been prouder of any vote cast in my adult life.
As I said, part of the problem is that Mark has surrounded himself with people who will celebrate him and defend him and attack his critics, no matter what he does. Years ago, someone in his comments section thanked him for showing her the value of stereotypes. I kid you not. I thought, at first, the individual was being snarky – setting him up for a real insult. No. She meant she loved that Mark showed how to stereotype people who deserve to be stereotyped. As far as I know, stereotype is almost never a good thing. But there you had someone cheering him on for doing such a thing. Just as others defend him or even encourage him to judge, insult, name call, or accuse. If he had stayed away from Patheos, I can’t help but think he might not have gone into this weird Fred Phelps style approach to Catholic apologetics, if you can even call what he does now any sort of apologetics. Prayers are definitely in order.
Oh, for the record, I don’t think Mark is pro-abort. I think he, like many trying to cozy with the emergent left, is a useful fool. He repeats almost verbatim the arguments and memes of the sex, drugs and abortion movement. He disparages those who oppose abortion, and has joined a growing number of Catholics who seem to throw up their hands and say abortion is now the law of the land, deal with it. He attributes abortion to the fault of capitalist policies and sexist men, and he assumes that only the political and economic and social policies of liberal democrats can make a difference. Which has always been the position of the pro-choice side. Technically they don’t ‘want’ abortions, but they insist that abortion must be available on demand until such a time as the problems of the world are solved by the efficacy of liberal doctrine. Which is just what Mark repeats like a campaign poster.
I think it comes down to something Mark said years ago. He once said that, in school, he was the kid who never belonged, who never joined clubs or teams. Yet he made the mistake of thinking that just because he doesn’t officially join a team, it means he isn’t part of it no matter how zealousness he cheers it on. They don’t call the fans the Twelfth Man in football for nothing. Mark might be technically pro-life, in the way a growing number of Catholic leaders seem to be. But he is as useful for the pro-abortion, sex, and drugs side as he ever could be without becoming officially pro-choice.
A confession: I used to (from, roughly, 2009-10 until 2016) read “Catholic and Enjoying It!” on a daily basis, even though I didn’t agree with everything Mark said, because I appreciated his insights on various topics, his quirky sense of humor (e.g., posting clips of the Star Wars Holiday Special as Advent “penance”), and his posting of prayer requests from readers. And, as a firm believer in the Aristotelian concept of virtue as the Golden Mean between extremes of excess and deficiency, I thought that his — then occasional — comments about the “right wing noise machine” and being “anti abortion but not pro-life” and not equating political conservatism with Catholic orthodoxy might serve as a needed counterbalance to what I was seeing on other Catholic blogs. I also, prior to the 2016 election, shared some of Mark’s misgivings about Trump’s moral character and fitness for office (since taking office, he’s done significantly better than I expected) and ultimately decided not to vote for either him or Hillary (knowing that, as an IL resident, it wouldn’t make any difference in the electoral vote; but if I had it to do over again I would vote for Trump). However, after Trump won and Mark went into 24/7 “Trump and everyone who supports him are evil incarnate” mode, I stopped commenting there and now I don’t even bother visiting the site, which saddens me because I used to enjoy it a lot. Just one more symptom, I suppose, of how poisonous contemporary politics has become.
Mr. Griffey,
Mark went off the rails long before he started blogging for Patheticos.
Greg,
I noticed him changing before, I just think his being on Patheos prevented him from turning away from the cliff.
Elaine,
Not to boast, but I was the one who first emailed him a link to the SWHS years and years ago in the early days of his blog. I had just started visiting myself, and thought he would appreciate it. He did, and when we met, he let me know that I was the one who was responsible for his newfound interest in posting that classic piece of television. Those were happier times.
David,
You make the case that his move to Patheticos hastened his drive toward the cliff, although I personally don’t think it had much to do with it. He had been rapidly moving in that direction for over a decade.
Katholyk pro-aborts like Tim Kaine, Nancy Pelosi, and the Land Whale miss these two facts:
1) “Making abortion illegal” is not merely the chosen “strategy” of a fringe of the pro-life movement. It is absolutely mandated by the Catholic Church. It is in no way an OPTION that a Catholic is at liberty to take or leave. NO Catholic is ALLOWED to make peace with “legal abortion” and just “move on.”
2) As long as we are governed by people, and judicial decisions, etc., that permit abortion–THERE ARE NO LAWS. And because they specifically claim that abortion is protected by the Constitution–WE HAVE NO CONSTITUTION.
Now, we have muddled along without any Constitution for 45 years. But this situation cannot endure. Eventually, abortion–and being governed by the kind of people who support abortion–will destroy the ACTUAL COUNTRY.
What I meant to say is you “can” make the case.
It took over 100 years to get to the point where we are right now: Margaret Sanger was working before WWI for the “birth control movement.” Pro-aborts have taken over and are in control of every field connected to abortion: health care, social work, education, the legal system, the media. The pro-aborts worked hard in these areas for almost 100 years before the cherry on the cake of legalizing abortion came to pass! Pro-lifers have to think long term, too, if we ever want to reverse this. Electing pro-life politicians is a good thing, don’t get me wrong! But where are the efforts of pro-lifers to infiltrate and affect the policies of the other organizations? Pro-life politicians can play defence and trim the edges a bit, but it is unreasonable to expect any significant progress on the legislative front in most of our lifetimes. Pro-lifers have to work hard amongst doctors and nurses, social workers, teachers, the legal system, and the media first. Like it was for the pro-aborts a century ago, getting a law will be the cherry on the cake.
It’s sad what’s happened to Shea. He should retire from blogging for a while and spend time on a writing project unrelated to politics or the contemporary church. But he seems to enjoy his shtick as The Last Honest Man too much.
Just one more symptom, I suppose, of how poisonous contemporary politics has become.
You’re not describing the work of an abstraction. “Contemporary politics” wasn’t behaving poisonously. He was.
There’s really no mystery about the Land Whale. He’s just another lefty Democrat whose loathing for Republicans fits comfortably with his desire to believe, with the USCCB, that Catholic Social Teaching and the Democratic Platform are one and the same. Oh. There’s that abortion thing…mumble mumble…but TRUMP MOCKED A REPORTER’S DISABILITY!
(Except he didn’t.)
There’s really no mystery about the Land Whale. He’s just another lefty Democrat
I don’t think you can find any books or magazine articles by Shea on political topics. IIRC, Catholic and Enjoying It did not for its first two years of postings have much political content and to the extent it had a perspective it was an affinity for what was published by the Rockford Institute.
Let’s have no more comments about Mark’s weight. That type of comment simply demeans the person making the comment, not the target of the comment.
Still commenting over Mark who???
The Corporal Works of Mercy, Feed the Hungry.
I apologize. I couldn’t resist.
Article quoted at Instapundit. “‘It’s so serious now that close to 40 percent of Americans are obese.’”
” . . . it’s written by a professor of endocrinology, who should know . . . “
Marco D’Aviano wrote, “The pro-aborts worked hard in these areas for almost 100 years before the cherry on the cake of legalizing abortion came to pass!”
I do sometimes wonder how much impact a change in the law, without a corresponding change in public attitudes, would have on abortion rates.
Anyone who remembers France in the 1950s & 1960s, before the Veil Law of 1975 (Law No. 75-17 of 18 January 1975), will know that pretty well every village seemed to have its « faiseuse d’anges » or “angel-maker.” Everyone knew about it, nobody talked about it and the police regarded it as “women’s business” and turned a blind eye. Occasionally a woman died and, then, the Parquet, like Captain Renault in “Casablanca” would be shocked, shocked to discover that such things went on and there would be a brief flurry of prosecutions of unqualified women, quickly rounded up and, so, obviously known to police. Medical practitioners, doctors and midwives, were never, ever, prosecuted.
Older people will recall « le manifeste des 343 salopes » on 5 April 1971, when 343 mostly prominent women admitted to having had an abortion and challenging the authorities to prosecute them. This, needless to say, did not happen, as their confessions could not be corroborated. Perhaps even more significant was the publication of a similar manifesto on 2 February 1973 by 331 doctors, including clinical professors in the leading teaching hospitals, admitting to performing abortions and, again, challenging the authorities to prosecute them. The Procurator of the Republic excused himself on the grounds of lack of evidence.
Similarly, in Scotland, under the old law, according to the Scotsman (23 December 1966), one pregnancy in 50 was terminated in Aberdeen, compared to one in 3,750 in Glasgow, the difference resulting from the rival interpretations and clinical practice of the two Regius Professors of Midwifery, Dugald Baird at the University of Aberdeen and Ian Donald at the University of Glasgow, both of whom voiced their rival views in public
Some people are overweight because of physical ailments, such as diabetes (my current case). Other people are overweight because of gluttony. We cannot judge which affects Mark Shea, physical ailment or gluttony. But from the public torrent of putrid invective which originates under his internet ID, we can say that he behaves arrogantly, pridefully and angrily. Little if anything he writes is any longer authentically Christian. His essays are wholly given over to liberal progressive leftism. That either physical ailment or gluttony resulting in an unhealthy overweight condition affects him is something about which we should be as deeply sad as we are his anti-Christian behavior elsewhere.
For the record, I do wish I could lose my weight. At 59 years of age, it is very difficult and yes, I feel like a land whale (and perhaps look like one). Due to a concurrent cardiac condition, I am unable to exercise as I once did. So Mark Shea could have mitigating circumstances behind his overweight condition. That he is a leftist only make this all the worse because over-stressing the heart by fits of liberal progressive rage against Trump and the GOP isn’t healthy either. In a rare moment of sanity (which will leave me after I type this), I say pray for him (and for me too).
“Oh, for the record, I don’t think Mark is pro-abort.”
Nor do I. But I do believe there are two risks for him. First, as others have pointed out, his radical leftism leads him to positions that are de facto pro-abortion. Like so many of our “Seamless Garment” co-religionists, Mark makes peace with abortion on demand in order to increase marginal tax rates, expand Medicaid benefits etc. Second, after years of such hard left activism, Mark in due course will find more agreement with those who talk of the “difficult choice” of abortion. After years of the vice of calumny, he won’t have much reserve to resist the evil call of other lies.
Mark does seem to have a memory issue that apparently affects his ability to read and digest articles. Most of the articles he links to don’t support what he claims they do. And once he attacked Ed Feser for his support for the death penalty claiming that EF “wants to kill as many people as possible” (all 6 billion?) EF pointed out that he was not a death penalty maximalist like Kant. Mark apolovgized but in a few weeks was back attacking EF for wanting to kill as many people as possible.
MIke,
That is one of Mark’s goto tactics. He accused me of the same thing – and I didn’t even say I supported the Death Penalty, I just questioned the idea that we are somehow closer to preventing crime. It’s like he writes in Macros. Unfortunately, this false accusation becomes the basis for so many of his arguments. Contrary to the Catechism, he assumes the absolute worst about those he disagrees with and doesn’t admire (for if he admires or likes you, you’re free to disagree all day and night and he’ll heap praises on you), and from there dismisses any suggestion or arguments, since he has already established that you want only the most evil outcomes imaginable.
1) Shea had admitted he has diabetes.
2)
Ding ding. This is his bit of sloth. He doesn’t bother to work at the mental effort to understand anybody or anything, just toss off whatever fits his worldview. This leads to hilarious results like “Republicans like to be in charge of death panels” by referring to a guy who had already been voted out of office before Shea wrote his post.
Don’t even get me started on his repeated “American gulag” lie.
Yes I know it might not “technically” be a lie, but that’s only because he’ll steadfastly refuse and ignore any possible correction or counter information. For someone who so claims to love and seek truth, he spends a lot of time and effort avoiding it.
Like Trump (I don’t particularly) or hate him (I don’t hate him either), it is an inescapable fact that in terms of deeds, not just words, Trump has been the most Pro-Life President this country has had.