Why Truth Is Not Bullying (Even When the Crowd Says So)

Last updated on: June 14, 2025 at 5:17 pm by Dennis Knapp

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Why Truth Is Not Bullying (Even When the Crowd Says So) 2025-06-14T17:17:13-06:00 Dennis Knapp

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Recently, I received some pointed criticism—both in my comment section and on another Patheos blog—accusing me of being an inhumane, psychopathic bully for supporting and promoting Catholic moral teachings. These charges stemmed particularly from my writings on abortion (Do You See Yourself? If Not, Why Not?) and gender ideology (Should Catholics Celebrate Pride or Fidelity?). The claim that I lack humanity came from an atheist reader, while the charge of bullying came from a Catholic. Ultimately, these criticisms amount to nothing more than attempts to silence and delegitimize me. After all, the Catholic commenter advised me to “shut my d**n mouth,” so…

Worse still, the harsher accusation—that I lack humanity—was made on a blog that does not welcome conservative commenters, effectively barring me from defending myself publicly.

Fortunately, I write for Patheos and can respond here while also setting the record straight on what the Church actually teaches.

The Criticisms

To avoid misrepresentation, I quote the original comments directly below.

Unthinking Inhuman

It’s not just that he doesn’t care, it’s that he doesn’t think. It’s like all this is just an abstraction, completely divorced from real consequences for real people. Like the whole thing is just a game, and he’s just trying to score points on ‘debate club’ or something.

At this point, I feel like my interactions with him are the equivalent of a Captcha trying to ask him ‘are you human?’ And he fails every time, without fail.

A “Psychopathic Catholic Mindset”

Here’s thing, I don’t really expect Catholics as a whole to be supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, especially the more conservative leaning ones. However, if your response to someone from your own community telling you that the way you’re going about proselytizing is driving queer people to suicide, is to act indignant, double down and say that the Church’s priority is to save souls not lives, then I’m sorry but there’s something wrong with you.

And a similar dynamic plays out on other subjects, even with other commenters. Arguments about harm reduction? They go right over his head. It’s as if following his prescribed edicts are a goal onto themselves, regardless of the actual consequences. Or the people who get hurt in the process.

Still, my biggest issue is not about him specifically, or others like him; after all, it’s not like they came up with any of this themselves. But I do worry that there is a significant contingent of the Catholic Church, and its adjacent institutions, that promote and enable, what is functionally speaking, a psychopathic mindset and ideology.

I’m constantly reminded that they didn’t get that way on their own. And when I listen to the stories of a lot of the more progressive-leaning Catholics, there is often an element of having to unlearn and deconstruct things from their past. It does make me wonder what kind of people the Catholic Church is producing by “default”, you know?

Bullying

I’m referring to bullying people, especially children, teens, and vulnerable adults. If you mean by promoting a religious view in a way that a person can interpret as bullying, then yes: you should keep your d*** mouth shut and hold your counsel.

My Responses

The Claim of Inhumanity, Lack of Empathy, and Treating Suffering as an Abstraction

When critics resort to personal attacks, they reveal the weakness of their position. My writings consistently call Catholics to remain faithful to the Church’s teachings on gender, sexuality, and human anthropology. I argue that Catholics must speak the truth clearly, even when it’s unpopular. I insist that love is not the affirmation of confusion, but fidelity to God’s design for the human person. For this, I was called inhuman.

The Church teaches that each person is a body-soul unity, created male or female. This belief is grounded in divine revelation and confirmed by biological reality. To say so is not hatred, it is love. It is caring enough to tell the truth, especially when the world demands silence.

I also reject the false binary between “saving souls” and “saving lives.” The Church’s mission is to save lives—eternally. That doesn’t mean we are indifferent to mental health, suffering, or suicide. On the contrary. It means we offer something greater: hope, identity, and healing in Christ. Telling a confused teen the truth about their biological sex is not cruelty. It may be the only sane voice they hear before being pushed toward hormones, sterilization, and irreversible surgery. That is not harsh. That is compassion in a culture of confusion.

The Claim That the Catholic Church Promotes a “Psychopathic Mindset”

This charge accuses the Church of fostering the most extreme kind of moral defect: the absence of empathy and remorse. The implication is that my faults come not from within, but from a malevolent institution. Specifically, her views on sin and sexual morality. These views clash with the current cultural zeitgeist which focuses on a fluid moral spectrum when it concerns sex and sexual identity.

But I take these accusations seriously—not because I believe them to be true, but because I care about the underlying concern: the suffering of real people. Gender dysphoria, suicidal ideation, and identity confusion are tragic and real. People deserve compassion. But compassion does not mean compromise.

Again, the Church’s voice may be the only one offering clarity amid chaos. To label this voice “psychopathic” is not just slander—it is a move to silence the last source of sanity. That silence would result in real, lasting harm.

The Claim That Promoting Religious Views Constitutes Bullying

As I understand it, the claim here is that religious teaching is bullying if someone feels hurt by it. The proposed solution? Silence ourselves. Or in the words of my Catholic critic: shut our “d**n mouths.”

To this I say—no. Catholics must stand up for the truth and say what is hard when the world demands silence. Human dignity is not found in affirming confusion, but in discovering the truth of our creation and identity in Christ.

Final Thoughts…

To my critics: I write for those searching for clarity in a chaotic world. I write for the parent afraid to speak up, the seminarian hesitant to preach boldly, and the teen wondering if anyone still believes what the Church teaches.

If that makes me seem harsh, so be it. I speak not from contempt, but from conviction—and from love. I don’t aim to win debates; I hope to offer a lifeline to those drowning in lies.

Fidelity to the truth will always be worth defending—even when the world calls it inhuman, psychopathic, or bullying.