Now, This Is Inspiring!

Thanks to TL Hines for bringing this onto my radar!

Janny

That's It!

And to think all this time we thought getting ahead in the writing biz was hard....

A big shout out to Pub Rants again for this!

Janny

Holy Spiritual Smuggery, Batman!

or...Just. Shut. Up. (Part II)

A popular contemporary Christian song refers to Christians slinking through life shy about sharing their faith, as if they’re “spreading some kind of disease.” It urges Christians to be bold, not to be ashamed of the name of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, I identify with that song for more reasons than one. And you know what’s coming, don’t you?

I don’t think anyone who knows me would have a problem with how I relate to non-Catholic Christians. I try to be nice. Accommodating. Laissez-faire. Live-and-let-live.

Trouble is, as a rule…the other side doesn’t.

Those of you who don’t exhibit this attitude, scroll on to another blog entry if you like—this rant doesn’t apply to you. You know who you are. (Although you might want to scoll down to the end of this for the mini-quiz…just for fun.)

So what brought this subject to the fore again?

I had a telephone conversation a few days ago with a man who called to raise some problems he had with one of our pamphlets. It’s one called Are You Saved?, dealing with the issue of Catholics being confronted by evangelicals convinced we’re all going to hell—or at least that we’re misguided about our own salvation—and how we answer them. It’s Scriptural, it’s Catholic, and it’s darned good, if I do so myself, because it’s written by one heck of an author.

Dr. Paul Thigpen is that author, and this man witnesses joyfully to two conversions in his life: from atheism to Christianity, and then from Protestant Christianity to the Catholic Church. He knows his Lord and he knows his Bible, and he engages in the preaching and teaching of the Word with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. In other words, he’s about the farthest thing from a fanatical Papist slaving for the “whore of Babylon” that you could possibly find.

But our phone caller didn’t care to hear about any of that. He called to tell me all about how we were “lying” about what Protestants believed. How no “genuine Christian” believed some of the things we’d stated in the pamphlet, and how we ought to be ashamed of ourselves for spreading such things…etc.

Problem was, the caller was dead wrong.

Dr. Thigpen comes from a staunch Baptist background in which many of the things he wrote in the pamphlet had been preached, and continue to be preached. I know this because I, too, sat in the pews of various Christian churches, from Baptist to Lutheran and a few in between—not to mention the fundamental Bible churches and nondenominational churches—where I also heard those same things preached. Every point Paul brings up in the pamphlet is something one can encounter, in one form or another, on the evangelical side of the fence. It’s not like anyone’s hiding these things under bushel baskets.

Our caller, however, refused to even listen to the possibility. He quite flatly told me that “no genuine Christian” would believe those things, and if we’d heard them, we weren’t in Christian churches to begin with. (Would have surprised those ordained men up at the pulpits, it would.) But when he went to the place where he point-blank said that our author “obviously wasn’t a Christian” either, because he was in the Catholic Church, which “wasn’t a Christian church,” I stepped out of “customer is always right” mode and told him, gently but firmly, that he had made a quantum leap that no one, and I mean no one, has a right to make.

I wish I could say this man was an extreme case, or an isolated instance. Unfortunately, he’s not. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to who say, “Oh, yeah, I used to be a Catholic, but then I became a Christian.” Invariably, it’s said with a smirk…

…which leads me to wonder whether, in their minds, being “born again” also entitles one to be rude as hell. (I don’t want to believe this, but I’m beginning to wonder if I’m wrong, since it happens too consistently to be coincidental.)

But what happens next is, if anything, even ruder. As surely as night follows day, these people then assume an earnest expression—which almost, but not quite, disguises the rubbing-hands-together-and-salivating—and proceed to launch into a smug series of assertions designed to poke holes in the “hypocrisy” and “apostasy” of the Catholic Church. Of course, all the information they use to point that out to me is, more often than not, itself inaccurate or at best incomplete; at the very least, it’s not based on any actual Catholic sources. But, ironically, that appears to be considered its strength. As one memorable critic said when a Catholic blogger challenged him, “Oh, I don’t debate with Catholic apologists.”

Which makes you wonder, then, who in the world he—or any of these people—think they ought to be debating Catholicism with.

In any other academic, intellectual, or yes, even spiritual discipline, this kind of ignorance would be seen as the prideful noise it is. You don’t even attempt to instruct someone else about a subject until you’ve read its authentic source material. I don’t attempt to explain Mozart by reading only Salieri’s account of him (unless I want to write a hit movie :-) ). I don’t explain Bach by studying Pachelbel. I don’t explain godliness by reading Dawkins, and I don’t explain the genius of modern invention without at least looking into the studies and notes of Edison, Ford, and—if I want to go back far enough—Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo.

But somehow, apparently no such discipline or education is thought needful when it comes to “instructing” Catholics in how wrong we are. No one who tries this seems to operate from the basis of having read the Church Fathers—or Scott Hahn, or Mark Shea, or Patrick Madrid, or John Salza, or Fr. Benedict Groeschel, or any one of a thousand good, solid Catholic sources that are both Scriptural and faithful to Catholicism—in order to think them over, dissect their arguments, and prevent convincing evidence of any fallacies.

On the contrary, I’ve usually been “witnessed to” with either “Biblical authority” (forgetting who gave us that Bible in the first place) or one of the many flavors of anti-Catholic bigotry spoon-fed by either secular media (an interesting source for preaching, I should say) or a pastor (who also knows nothing personally about the Catholic Church, because he wouldn’t be caught dead stepping through the doors of one) to convince me to leave my “apostate” Church and find the “truth” of being a Christian.

In other words, these smug souls consider that being Catholic is spreading some kind of disease, and it’s their duty to cure me of it.

Do any of them have any idea how sinful that whole mindset is?

Once again, apparently not.

We have a very large, very popular and very committed version of “Christianity” that further feels it has the right to tell me that when I gather (or “fellowship,” if you want to use an unbiblical word) with other Christians, I’d just better watch myself. I have “no right” to assert too much Catholic belief, to claim to belong to the true Church, or anything else that might ruffle a Protestant’s feathers. Even in the best of circumstances—when I can see some of these people needing a chiropractor soon, because they’re doing so much “charitable” bending-over-backwards to be “tolerant” of me—I hear one ignorant, insulting question over and over.

“If you know Jesus Christ,” they ask, “then why are you still Catholic?”

(Hint: if you don’t know why that question is ignorant and insulting, then you don’t know a lick about Catholicism, and you’re part of the problem.)

Swallowing the insult, I’ve answered that question in various ways over the years…always from a position of attempting to be humble, to answer Bible references with other Bible references, or otherwise “bridge” the gap between us. But after you’re asked the same dumb things over and over, by people who are supposed to know their Bible and their Christianity—after you have to explain for the 4,302nd time that it’s neither accurate nor intelligent to assume a Catholic is “unsaved”—you get tired of it all. You get discouraged.

And then it dawns on you, as it’s dawned on me…that the wrong people are asking the wrong question. And it’s time that the shoe goes on the other foot.

You see, evangelicals have no business asking me why I’m “still Catholic” unless they’re willing to answer why, in the face of 2,000 years of Spirit-led scholarship and history…they’re not.

So let me propose a modest challenge. A few questions of my own, as it were. But be forewarned: if you’re not prepared to answer these questions convincingly, don’t open your mouth around a good, devout Catholic and start spouting off about their “nonscriptural” Church or their “apostasy.” Otherwise, you’ll just bear out the Mark Twain adage, “Better to keep silent and have people wonder if you’re a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Take these on, if you will.

If you belong to the Biblical Church, and I don’t, then tell me…

…why you don’t believe in transubstantiation, when Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you,” and “my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”
…why you don’t participate in an ordained priesthood of men who offer sacrifice. Jesus didn’t spend the night before He died preaching to the apostles; He offered a sacrifice and told them to do likewise.
…why you don’t reverence Mary, when Luke writes, “…all generations shall call me blessed.”
...why you believe ‘once saved, always saved,’ when Paul refers to “working out our salvation with fear and trembling,” and James says “faith without works is dead”…

…and a few hundred more things I could bring up. (Need more Scripture stuff from my Church? Just ask. I can give you a line-by-line breakdown of the Mass that’ll blow your socks off.)

It’s time Catholics stopped apologizing for being Catholics and quit putting up with the browbeating and the condescension. We’ve got it, folks. Let’s quit hanging our heads and shuffling our feet and buttoning our lips about a Church that draws her beliefs from the words of Jesus Himself, draws her apostolic succession from Jesus’s commission to Peter, and draws her life from the very Real Presence of the Body and Blood of the Lord on every Catholic altar and in every Catholic sanctuary.

That should never make us smug…

…but it does make us really, really fortunate, and really blessed. And it’d be really nice if, for once, the rest of the Christian world would see, accept, and respect that.

Maybe this will be a start.

Thoughts?
Janny

Press On!

In times of deep discouragement you should never make a change, but stand firm in the resolutions and decisions that guided you the day before the discouragement.

— St. Ignatius of Loyola

More to come soon....

Janny

Just. Shut. Up. (Part I)

Let’s face it. You take one look at the title above, and you figure the Catholic Writer Chick is probably hacked off about…something.

Well, yes and no. :-)

Fact is, something did fry my bacon this week, but that issue will be dealt with in another post. This, however, is simply a quick and dirty complaint.
Or maybe…shall we say…a suggestion?

Please…
PleasepleasePLEASE…
If you are putting together a blog, website, or other online station where I’m likely to land and stay awhile to read, please resist the urge to use the “playlist” feature to piggyback music onto the reading experience.
PLEASE.

I don’t mean to sound like a curmudgeon here. Heck, I’m a musician. You’d think I’d love to sample the music that other bloggers enjoy, and listen while I read...right?
Well, actually, not so much. Here’s why.

The first, and most obvious, reason is that my tastes in music and yours are probably not the same. In some cases, I wouldn’t be caught dead listening to the music I find on blogs. So the blog itself—the writing—is often compelling, witty, entertaining, or otherwise extremely enjoyable…but I can’t enjoy it because in my face is some rattly noise that sets my teeth on edge.

This does not encourage me to stay and page through your blog; it encourages me to get away, and fast. To be blunt, creating a setting that makes people want to escape…is rather counterproductive to the idea of blogging in the first place.

The second reason—one more specific to me—is that unlike many writer/readers, apparently, I am not wired to be able to write or read with music playing in the background, especially very active music. Even music I enjoy—actually, even more so, with music I enjoy—I simply cannot do those two things at once. I can edit with music in the background, as long as it’s fairly quiet and fairly subtle: think classical here, or the most subdued Celtic folk. But trying to create something? Or trying to read things I’ve never read before?

Let’s put it this way. My hearing is extremely sensitive, to the point where if there’s music playing around me, no matter how quietly, my brain gravitates to it like a cat to canned tuna. I have bought not one, but two, “white noise” machines in the past several years, just for the purpose of blocking out external sounds while I’m trying to concentrate. They work, I relax, and the brain stays clear. But I can’t plug in my white noise machine when I’m surfing the Net…especially not when your music completely takes me by surprise.

No doubt some of you are muttering, “Well, you dolt, just mute the stuff.” Easier said than done; in every blogging/playlist platform, the ways to do this can vary slightly. So making your readers hunt for which link is the “magic key” is, to say the least, inconveniencing them.

Some of you add insult to injury in this matter as well: one particular blogger (who shall remain nameless) didn’t help matters by tossing off a remark about “those of you who are too stupid to figure out how to turn off the sound.”

Lemme get this straight, then; not only am I subjected to your taste in music just by clicking on your link—but should I find it tricky to escape having this stuff shoved at me, then I’m stupid, too?

Yeah, that makes me want to come back!

The late, great Uncle Bobby at WGN Radio used to say, “It’s easier to stay out than to get out.” He was referring to trouble, of course—in all its varied forms. But in this case, that “proverb” seems to apply equally well. Want to avoid irritating your readers, inconveniencing them, or giving them an excuse not to read your blog? Simple. Keep it simple, keep it straightforward…and keep it quiet.

Many, many, many of us will thank you for it.

Thoughts?
Janny

What’s for Dinner?
The menu at Glenfarg over the past week:

• Chuck Wagon Chow...if you don't know what this is, I'll post the recipe. :-)
• What my dad used to call "Concoction" and what I call "College Student Spaghetti": the most unbelievably simple recipe on God's green earth. It's 1 medium onion, chopped and sauteed in butter until transparent; one 6-oz. can of tomato paste; and cooked, drained spaghetti. Combine, salt to taste, and watch it disappear! Perfect for Fridays in Lent. :-)
• Pork steak simmered with garlic, chopped onion, fresh sage, and frozen french cut green beans. In the last three minutes, add 1 package of Oriental flavor Ramen noodles--break up the noodles, add a bit of water, and sprinkle the seasoning from the packet overall. Works with chicken just as well!
• And, of course, the usual grilled delights: yesterday we had thin, lean beef steak, cheddar dogs, and turkey burgers with all the trimmings, plus potatoes, garlic, and broccoli roasted in foil on the coals. Can it get any better than that?

As for the rest of the weekend, it was spent the way weekends should be spent: mostly, working in the yard, interspersed with sessions of watching baseball in lovely air conditioning. This was, of course, after we puttered on Saturday chasing dust bunnies...

Hey, it's not a frantic life, but it's mine. :-)

Tonight? We putter in office, probably chasing some more dust; we work on writing tasks; and we watch THE CLOSER.

And then it'll be Tuesday!

Perking along,

Janny

When in Doubt, Reboot!

more cat pictures

I will write more as soon as I clear the Cat Jam. Really.
Janny

The Absolute Sure Cure for Writer's Block!

Thanks to Pub Rants for this wonderful stuff!

Janny