Deal Hudson’s Tea Party

Last updated on: February 16, 2010 at 6:35 pm by Morning's Minion

Deal Hudson’s Tea Party 2010-02-16T18:35:57-05:00 Morning's Minion

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.

Well, I admire the man for his honesty. He says what he believes. I’m talking here about Inside Catholic’s Deal Hudson, who has asked for a Catholic tea party movement. This is part of a larger trend, as the Catholics aligned with a certain ideological tendency in the United States – that tendency associated with the Republican party and the broader movement that incorrectly dubs itself conservative – are more and more willing to ape the tactics and strategies of that broader movement, and to bring this kind of discourse into Church discussions. I’ve been here before.

Let me be blunt. This movement has increasingly turned into a noisy, nihilistic, know-nothing distraction. It eschews sober debate and cares little about the social order or how policy affects the common good. It’s positions are contradictory, inconsistent, and not predicated on facts and circumstances. Indeed, it proudly rejects reason and seems motivated only by will. It is all about scoring symbolic victories and belittling your opponent. It presents a stark us-versus-them mentality. It is cultural Calvinism on steroids. It is anti-intellectualism on stilts.

And what does it actually stand for? It claims to be pro-life, but is more inclined to use the unborn as cover for its deeper agenda, an undistilled (and yet inconsistent) laissez-faire liberalism and a muscular nationalism that seeks to solve problems with force and were macho bluster takes the place of sobriety. It is suffused by the remnants of a southern white culture, and its tone is anger and bitterness. This bitterness is directed not only against a black president but also against an official Washington that (for the first time in a very long time) is not dominated by southern white men, against the perils of non-white immigration, and against an amorphous elite with nefarious intent. Its religion is evangelicalism, its theology fundamentalist, its mindset dualist, its worldview apocalyptic.

There is nothing Catholic about this movement, this movement that has most recently taken shape as the tea party movement. Most non-American Catholics would scratch their head in utter confusion. What is it all about? Until relatively recently, so would most American Catholics, who enjoyed their own Catholic culture.

But times have changed. More and more Catholics are adopting strategies in line with this movement. We’ve seen this over the past decade, but developments since the election of Obama have taken an exponential turn. There was the faux-FOCA furore. There was the Notre Dame tempest. And then came healthcare, where it became clear that Catholics in this movement were willing more than ever before to use the unborn to kill a healthcare bill they opposed on ideological grounds. Ultimately, they objected to forcing people to purchase health insurance, and especially to forcing the healthy to subsidize the sick, either directly through community rating, or indirectly through budgetary subsidies. It was the cult of individualism, pure and simple. And this group salivated over the election of a pro-abortion pro-torture senator, simply because he might be able to kill healthcare reform once and for all. That was a very telling moment for me.

But how many sharks can this group jump? They seem to have some more lined up. They are now taking on the USCCB, attacking people like John Carr and causes like the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). In the past (in other words, up until a few minutes ago), this was all uncontroversial. The CCHD was intended to empower people in local communities, to foster social change at the grass roots. It was a perfect twinning of solidarity and subsidiarity, Catholic social teaching in action. But with the election of Obama, “community organizing” suddenly entered the realm of the enemy, the other, to be opposed and destroyed. It was socialism, and it was linked with those who supported abortion (there they go with exploiting the unborn again).

But as I said at the beginning of this post, at least Hudson is honest. When he complains about the USCCB, here’s what he says:

“Criticism of the USCCB among lay Catholics, as well as many priests and bishops, has been a constant since its march to the political left in the years after its creation in 1966. Pastoral letters, including the ones on the economy (1986) and war and peace (1983), created a clear line of demarcation between the liberal politics of the conference (aligned with the Democratic Party) and the Catholics, both lay and religious, who interpreted the Church’s social teaching differently (in a way inclining them toward conservatism and the GOP.)”

Think about this. Hudson is seeking to do precisely what Pope Benedict XVI has said on numerous occasions (most recently in Veritatis in Caritate) should not be done – splitting up Catholic social teaching into parts that can be embraced and parts that can be discarded. Notice how this is framed – the “liberal” bishops conference is wrong and the “conservative” Catholics are right. It’s not a matter of “interpreting social teaching differently”, it’s a matter of ignoring what you don’t like, of putting ideology over Church teaching.

Of course, it’s not that Hudson rejects the USCCB out of hand, he just wants them to support his point of view. He tells a tale of archbishop Burke being shouted down when he objected to the Faithful Citizenship document, a document that succinctly laid out the moral issues in voting, and a document voted on by the bishops themselves. Is it not more likely, more reasonable, that the other 99 percent of bishops were actually right? After all, a small but significant minority opposed the major documents of the Second Vatican Council – does that cast doubt upon their content?

The Catholic Church has always stressed unity – unity of the human race, unity of God and humanity, unity of a single sacred deposit of God’s Word – but Hudson and his friends want disunity. They want to rip the garments of Catholic social teaching asunder and salvage what they can from the wreckage. They want to take a faith based on reason and the intellectual order and align it with a movement based on emotion and sentiment. They want to replace a legitimate respect for authority, a pinnacle of true conservatism, with a “pick and choose” individualist mentality. Hudson knows this well, for he admits that “the very notion of a tea party goes against the grain for Catholics, with their inbred sense of deference to authority”.

There is plenty of room for legitimate disagreement in Catholicism, but we must resist the temptation to shift the debate from the foundations built up over 2000 years, on the shoulders of giants, to an unmoored alien landscape. I think this is one shark too many.

Bishops

Catholic Social Teaching

Morning's Minion

Politics

USCCB

Previous Post

February 16, 2010

Look Up.

Next Post

February 17, 2010 Ashes, ashes

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2019 A Consistent Ethic of Life Aaron Weldon Abortion absurdity Abuse Scandal Academics Adoption Advent Africa agreement/disagreement with Church teaching Alexander Schmemann Alexham Alterity America Amnesty International Anarchism angels Anglicanism Animals Annual Statistics Anthony Anxietas Apocalyptic Apophatic Appalachia Aquinas Art Atheism Atonement Augustine Authority Baptism Beauty Bible biblical criticism biblical scholarship Bioethics Bishops Black Catholics Black Theology Blackadder Blogs Books Breastfeeding Brett Salkeld Buddhism Bush administration Byzantine Catholic Calvinism Canada Canon Law Capital Punishment Capitalism Caryll Houselander Catholic Blog Awards Catholic Blogging Catholic League Catholic Social Teaching Catholic Worker Movement Catholicity CFL Charity Children Chris West Christ and Culture Christian Democracy Christian Unity Christmas Christology Church Church Doctrine Church History Climate Change Cohabitation Colbert Collegiality Communion Communism Comparative Theology Competition Conferences conscience conscience rights Consequentialism Consistent Life Ethics Consumerism Contraception Contrition Conversion Converts Coptic COVID-19 Creation Critical Thinking Cross Cuba Culture Culture of Death Culture of Life Darfur David Cruz-Uribe David Wheeler-Reed Death Death Penalty Democracy Demons Desert Fathers Devil Dialogue dignity Disability Disarmament discernment Discipleship discrimination Dissent Distributism Division Doctrine Domestic Church Dorothy Day Double Effect Doubt Down syndrome Driving Early Church Easter Eastern Churches Ecclesiology Economics Economy Ecumenism Education El Salvador Election Election 2020 Ellul Embryonic Stem Cell Research Empire Energy Enlighenment Environmentalism Ephraim Radner Episcopal Church epistemology Equality Eschatology Ethics Eucharist Europe Euthanasia Evangelization Evil Evolution Excommunication F.X. Durrwell Facism Facts Fair Trade Faith Family Fashion Feddie Feminism Feminist theology Fertility Fetal Rights Fiction Film Finances First Things flags Folk Religion Food Foreign Affairs Forgiveness Frank Sheed Free Speech Freedom gay & lesbian persons Genocide George W. Bush George Weigel Gerald L. Campbell Girard/Mimetic Theory Global Warming Globalization Gnosticism Good Friday Grace Gratitude Greed Grey Cup 2009 Guadalupe Guest Post Guest Posts Gun Control Gustave Martelet Habitat for Humanity Hans Urs von Balthasar Harry Potter Hate Speech Health Health Care Healthcare Heather King Hebrew Bible Henri de Lubac Henry Karlson Herbert McCabe Heresy HHS Mandate Controversy History Holidays Holiness Holy Spirit Homiletics Homily Homosexuality Hope Hospitality How Far Can We Go? How Far Can We Go? Human Person Human Rights Humanae Vitae Humility Humor Hunger Hunting Identity Idolatry Ignacio Ellacuría Imagination Immigration In Memoriam Income Inequality Inculturation Indigenous People Individualism Inklings Intellect Interdependence Internet Interpretation Interviews Introduction Iraq War Islam Israel Jain James Alison James Martin Jazz Jesus Christ Jews Joe Biden Joe Hargrave Johann Baptist Metz John Allen John Henry Newman John Paul II John the Baptist John XXIII Jonathan Josef Pieper Joseph (the husband of Mary) Joseph Bernardin Joseph Ratzinger Josh Brumfield Journals Joy Judgment Just War Justice Kari Lundgren Karl Rahner Katerina Ivanovna Kenya Keynes Kingdom of God Kyle R. Cupp Labor Language Latin America Law Leanne Ogasawara Legion of Christ Leisure Lent Liberalism Liberation Theology Libertarianism Libya Lies Life life & dignity & responsibility of the human person Literature Little Way Liturgical music Liturgical Year Liturgy Living Simply Living Wage Local Church Lombard Lord of the Rings Louis Dupre Love M.Z. Magic Magisterium Mark DeFrancisis Mark Gordon Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Jr. Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masculinity Matt Talbot Matthew Fish Matthew Levering McCain Media Memorial Day Mennonites Mental Illness mercy Michael Iafrate Middle East militarism Miroslav Volf Mitt Romney Modesty Moral Theology Morality Mormonism Morning's Minion Mother Teresa Music Muslims Natalie Nate Wildermuth Nationalism Native Americans Nature Nazis Neuhaus New Evangelization New York City News NFP nihilism Nonviolence Not Abortion Nova's Ordo Nuclear weapons Nuns Obama Occult Old Age Opus Dei Ordination ordination of women original sin Orthodoxy Oscar Romero Other Voices Pacifism Palestine Palin Papacy Papal Peace Messages Papal Social Encyclicals Particular Affections Partisanship Patriotism Paul Paul Ryan Paul VI Peace Pentimento persecution Personalism Phantastes Philosophy PKD Planned Parenthood Pluralism Poetry Policraticus Politcal Apathy Politics Poll Pope Benedict XVI Pope Francis Pope John Paul II Pope Leo XIV Population Postcolonialsim Poverty Power Prayer Preaching Predictions Predictions for 2012 President Barack Obama priestly formation & discernment Pro-Life Progress Prophetic Witness Proportionalism Public Diplomacy Public Policy Question Quotes Rachel Maddow Racism Radical Catholic Mom Radical Catholicism Raymund Schwager Real Catholic TV Real Presence Reconciliation Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange Religion religious freedom Responsibility Ressourcement Resurrection Rick Garnett Ridiculous Crap You Never Thought You'd See Robert Barron Roe v. Wade Roman Curia Rome Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation History Sam Harris Sam Rocha Same-sex Marriage Saskatchewan Roughriders Satire School of the Americas Science Scripture Seamless Garment Second Vatican Council Seeing Sex sexual violence Sexuality Sia Sin social justice Social Security Socialism Society of Jesus Sofia Loves Wisdom Solidarity Sophia soteriology Soutenus Spirituality Sports St. Dismas St. Joseph Stanley Hauerwas Statistics Stimulus Suffering Sunday Reflections Supernatural Supreme Court Symbolism Syria Taxing Technology Terrorism The State The Tea Party The Trump Administration Theological Anthropology Theology Theotokos Thomas Merton Throwaway Culture Tim Muldoon Tim Riley Tim Tebow Time Titian Tolkien Torture Toys Trade Traditionalism Transgender Transportation Transubstantiation Trinity Truth TV U.S. Affairs Uncategorized Unions unity among people who disagree US Catholicism USCCB Usury Utilitarianism Utopia Valentine's Day Vatican Vatican II Veterans Vicarious Suffering Video Violence Virgin Mary Vocations Voluntary Associations Voluntary Poverty Voting Vox Nova vox nova blog war War and Peace War Strategy Wealth Weirdness Welfare state Women Women Priests Work Woundedness Youth

Select a Month June 2026 May 2025 February 2025 January 2025 July 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 July 2023 March 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 November 2021 September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 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 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 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 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Hebrews states that it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE