So it appears The Remnant is thinking about libelling me

Last updated on: March 2, 2018 at 12:53 pm by Mark Shea

So it appears The Remnant is thinking about libelling me 2018-03-02T12:53:18-07:00 Mark Shea

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Steel Magnificat has the story.

Dunno if they will go through with running this silly charge that I advocate violence against the GOP and the Gun Cult now that Mary has done such a hilarious takedown. But for those metaphor-impaired readers who seriously think that my calls for the destruction of the GOP and the Gun Cult at the polls and in the free market mean anything more than that, here are some samples of my condemnations of violence, including threats of violence against the GOP and Trump:

I endorsed this in 2015:

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My comment on this was “Well done! Hear, hear! “If anyone is thinking about shooting an abortionist, let him shoot me first.” – John Cardinal O’Connor. I second that emotion.”

When Robert P. George wrote:

Donald Trump is President-elect of the United States. Those of us who opposed him (and, as in my case, opposed his opponent as well) should wish him well and hope he surprises us by being a good president. We should support him when he is right and oppose him when he is wrong. We should not question his legitimacy or say that he is not our president. This does not mean we should forget the appalling things he said or the sometimes gravely unjust policies he proposed (e.g. killing family members of terrorists, forcing Muslim citizens to “register” with the government). Nor should we lay aside our concerns about his personal character. At the same time, while honoring the right of peaceful protest, we should condemn those who are burning flags, hanging the President-elect in effigy, and resorting to violence and intimidation. And we should equally condemn violence or taunting by the fringe element of Trump supporters. I don’t often agree with President Obama, but he is right to call us now to unite and, as a nation, try to heal. E pluribus unum.

I said, “I agree 100%” (and I still do).

I said the same here on Patheos.

I also spoke in condemnation of Kathy Griffin’s ugly “severed head of Trump” stunt:

The basic difference between Left and Right in this country is not that the Left has no jerks advocating violence and the Right does. It’s that when the Left advocates violence (see “Kathy Griffin’s severed head of Donald Trump”) there is a *torrent* of self-recrimination and soul-searching from Lefties, not to mention hands reaching across the aisle to acknowledge the justice of Righty critiques of such filth.

Meanwhile, when Trump calls to carry protesters out on a stretcher and Gianforte physically assaults a reporter, the few small voices on the Right rejecting this are shouted down by a mob of increasingly exultant Right wingers who scream “Snowflake!” and (with the sensitivity for which “prolifers” are now justly famous, yell at “libtards” to learn to get used to it, because this is what the Right in power looks like.) The *only* other thing the Right does in addition to this is shriek that the Left “does it too”–flatly ignoring the torrents of Lefty self-recrimination and focusing instead on its own butthurt.

Increasingly, Trump remakes the right in his image and likeness: unreflective brutal morons who hail power as the ticket to violence and the occasion of immunity from the need for self-examination, humility, or repentance.

Kathy Griffin apologized within hours of her awful stunt. Donald Trump openly confessed to sexual assault and then lied that it was “locker room talk”. It is the closest this chronic liar has ever come to an apology for anything and it was a lie. And his enablers then demanded that the Libtards get over it and move on and joined in the assault on the women who came forward to confirm his history of sexual assault. You know, the same people who used to pretend to care about Bill Clinton’s history of sexual assault.

The Party of Trump are storing up wrath against themselves for the hour when judgment will surely come. The Greeks called it hubris. Scripture calls it sin. Postmodern Christian Trump supporters call it winning.

And by the way, do note that the “hour of judgment” refers to Judgment Day, not to acts of earthly retribution. One presumes the Remnant still believes in Judgment Day.

Here is something reflecting my position on non-violence (though I do believe in Just War theory–and that vigilante violence *never* fulfills Just War doctrine) published right here on Patheos.

Once, after Nazis marched in Charlottesville and I protested this and Trump’s description of them as as “very fine people” I was attacked by the usual gang of Christianist white supremacists on Facebook. I summarized their libelous attack this way and gave my response:

It turns out I am “on record for supporting anti govt. anarchists right? He has also come out in favor using violence against those with alternative ideologies. Indisputable.”

To be clear, every word of that is a lie.

If you feel you need to defend the Nazis who murdered Heather Heyer in Charlottesville I will oppose you too. That does not make me an advocate of violence. It makes you an advocate of violence.

And when the National Review chided the Left for being slow to condemn anti-Trump violence, I made fun of Hillary’s slowness to respond:

Obama and Sanders offered condemnations of anti-Trump violence. I believe Hillary’s programmers have almost completed the algorithms governing emotion simulation for her speech on the matter. All they need is the latest polling data for the finishing touches and she should be ready to emit sounds replicating a principled response pleasing to the maximum number of voters within the week.

So let me be clear. If the Remnant chooses to libel me by publishing the absolutely false claim that I advocate violence against the GOP or the Gun Cult they will be guilty of the sin of calumny.

They need not worry about me taking them to court over it. St. Paul says:

When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, matters pertaining to this life! If then you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who are least esteemed by the Church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your own brethren. (1 Co 6:1–8).

So, if the Remnant chooses to wrong me, I will choose to be wronged. But I also choose to warn them and the author of this piece that there is a greater Judge awaiting us all and that as He lives I will swear before Him that it is false that I advocate violence against any politician or member of the Gun Cult.

I am not a pacifist. I believe in Just War doctrine. But Just War doctrine strictly reserves the use of violence to the state and set up criteria designed to make it hard even for the state to resort to violence. There is no room whatsoever for vigilante violence in the Church’s teaching. None.

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