How to Make Yourself Beloved at St. Blogs

Last updated on: December 31, 2014 at 2:27 pm by Mark Shea

How to Make Yourself Beloved at St. Blogs 2014-12-31T14:27:59-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Tip #1: When you suck up the oxygen in my comboxes by importing dumb disputes you have with other people on other blogs and I delete those disputes because I don’t care about your personal spat with somebody, be sure and try to drag the extremely busy Kevin Knight over at New Advent into the discussion by writing him (and cc’ing the target of your righteous ire–in this case, me):

Dear Mr. Knight:
I wanted to express some concern about a link you recently posted to a story on Mark Shea’s blog. The article Mr. Shea wrote made reference to another article by Louis Berlanger, who looked back nearly 30 years and discovered that a group of psychologists and doctors advised that the “visionaries” of Medjugorje have their visions in front of a group of responsible priests “to eliminate any reinforcement of a suggestive type.”

Without taking issue with the article, which I found lacking merit, I simply wanted to make you aware that Mr. Shea did not allow a free flow of conversation in his combox but made a point to immediately remove nearly all the posts that I wrote which offered a critique of his views or those of his readers who expressed views with which he agrees. Mr. Shea is clearly not interested in even correcting the misconceptions regarding Medjugorje that his readers post (I would be happy to provide you with examples of this, which he immediately deleted without offering any explanation). The discussion section of his website is filtered to the point that the readers are left with a carefully constructed and clearly biased viewpoint. Especially targeted for deletion were any comments whose point was to critique Mr. Shea’s article or his comments. I find this behavior to be dishonest and I think it shows a lack of courage on Mr. Shea’s part (it’s ironic that his blog’s subtitle is “Mark Shea’s Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!”–clearly a misnomer). It also demonstrates that Mr. Shea is not at all interested in getting to the truth regarding Medjugorje but only making sure that he his views are heard without serous critique. A chief concern of his is to ensure that the postings of anyone who expresses sound criticism and well constructed arguments against his views are quickly expunged without explanation. A few of my comments were left intact, however, the vast majority, especially those that took issue with the article, critiques Mr. Shea’s writing or the mistakes and misunderstandings of his readers, were all immediately deleted. I will add that Mr. Shea refused my request to delete a message left by a reader, Elaine Spencer, which would be extremely insulting to the Virgin Mary if she is in fact proven to be appearing in Medjugorje. I did not think you would want to use your own website as a platform for such rude and intellectually dishonest behavior, especially when directed at the Mother of God. Given that you gave Mr. Shea’s article a prime place on your website for two days, I would hope that you would think twice in the future before linking to another article by Mr. Shea, especially one regarding Medjugorje.

Kevin, I am sure, was thrilled to receive this. Nothing gives him more pleasure, I have no doubt, than the demand from a total stranger that he drop everything to adjudicate a complaint by a disgruntled comboxer who believes I owe him a platform. Indeed, everybody in St. Blog’s undoubtedly feels that way and would be thrilled at the opportunity to forsake their busy lives in order to dance attendance on some guy who thinks I am somehow bound by some moral law to let him suck the oxygen out of my comboxes. If you have a crank cause you think I owe you a forum to talk about, please do be sure to CC, not just me, but every Catholic blogger and explain to them, in long (and hopefully repeated) letters, why it is so important that they drop everything and command me to hand the mike to you, the most important person in the world. Just for extra persuasiveness, tell them that the phrase, “So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!” actually means that no thought of *yours* should ever go unpublished again. And ignore them when, like me, they tell you that I don’t owe you a forum and that if you want to bleat ASCII about your personal obsessions, then you should feel free to start your own blog.

Oy!

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 7, 2011

Andrew Sullivan Perfects His Charlie Sheen

Next Post

March 8, 2011 Grace and Sin in the Small Things

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz