Several people have written…

Last updated on: December 30, 2014 at 5:14 pm by Mark Shea

Several people have written… 2014-12-30T17:14:08-07:00 Mark Shea

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wondering if there was some sinister implication to my words about “not supposed to say ‘gay brownshirt'”. Were there Forces at Work behind the scenes? (Meaning “was Patheos trying to tell me what I can and can’t say?”)

Answer: No. Nothing like that. I simply meant I’ve gotten email from various readers who argue, rather reasonably, that in the words of Leah Libresco, “It’s hard for me to hear you over the sound of your Nazi analogies“.

I can appreciate that. My goal is, after all, to communicate and persuade people not to be, to make excuses for, or to be intimidated by bullies and thugs. It is not to self-medicate my intense dislike of bullies and thugs, nor to give anybody the impression that I regard all gay people as bullies and thugs. When a decent sort like Leah just feels shouted at, then communication is not happening, and it’s my responsibility to change the terms of communication, no matter how good it feels to let rip my deep contempt for savages (hmmmm… “savages” would be an appropriate turnabout on “santorum”….) who bully, intimidate, threaten, vandalize, physically abuse and even murder people for the “crime” of failing to celebrate homosex.

So I really do intend to drop the “gay brownshirts” thing since it appears to me to block, rather than facilitate communication. It doesn’t mean in the slightest that I mean to back down before the bullies in the gay community. But it does mean that, particularly after the… illuminating.. experiences of last week with the Righteous Inquisition of the Combox and their condemnations of Perry Lorenzo–whose chastity and profound love of the Catholic faith was not enough for them, and who was judged Severely Suspect of Evil because he did not sentence himself to perpetual loneliness for the sin of being same sex attracted–I have a better appreciation of how much same-sex attracted people have to put up with from those who are more holy than the Church.

So, for instance, I find it easy (after last week’s displays of uber-righteous condemnation of a great man like Perry Lorenzo by the Crackerbarrel Inquisition) to sympathize with Joshua Gonnerman when he too, as a chaste gay Catholic, finds that his obedience to Holy Church does not seem to be enough for all those Righteous Catholics[TM] who deem themselves holier than Holy Church and who firmly relegate good Catholics like him to second class status or who even have the temerity to treat folks like him as being dubiously faithful instead heroically faithful. With friends like that, the struggling SSA Catholic doesn’t need enemies. It’s one thing to have homosexuals reduce all love to sex. It’s quite another when even Catholics do it and assume that any relationship a chaste gay man might have must certainly be seeking to be homoerotic and sexually active rather than seeking friendship or chaste love in Christ.

Update: Lizzie Scalia ponders related matters.

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