I do not sell it.

Over at Chamblee54, the author makes an interesting application of something I wrote about arguing. It made me realize something that I had never really quite understood about myself. This is the comment I left:

I may be atypical, but I have never felt the need or desire to argue religion. I have also never felt the need or desire to market or proclaim the "Good News". I always felt that I was different from many religious people in that way. I always thought that someone would be converted only if he or she felt that there was something irresistible about me that could be traced to some inner spirituality that they would then pursue for themselves. That may be rooted in the fact that nothing - and I mean nothing - that the Catholic Church ever taught me brought me to Jesus. I got there on my own by exposure to what I read of him in the gospels. His words and teachings and parables had all the integrity and truth I needed. The church got it all screwed up. It's like when you are having a really good conversation with someone at a bar or a party and a loud drunk horns in on you and spills stuff on you. That is what the church is between me and Jesus. And that is exactly what the church was not supposed to be. Yup. Catholicism is a loud obnoxious drunk who breaks up the conversation between Jesus and the human race. That is why the Catholic Church needs to be cut down to the root. So it can re-grow itself correctly. It's almost too late, but not quite.

Tomorrow on Bilerico: "Can you love a gay priest?"

You will have to jump over to Bilerico tomorrow after 2PM to see my response to this letter:

From: XXXXXX
Email: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
IP: XX.XXX.XXX.XX

Message: Dear Father Tony,

I recently read something about a closeted gay pastor. After decades of service, he is being told to leave after coming out to his superiors. He is having to give up his job because his church decided he wasn’t fit to serve solely on the basis of his orientation. His choice was to be true to himself or fulfill his calling. We can only guess the pain and questioning he is experiencing.

What are your thoughts on gay clergy? What hope does this man or any LGBT person have in today’s religious climate?

Faithful Reader

Update: Here's my response.

Oh dear, did something I say offend the clergy?

Here is a comment I received from “Thomas Tucker” on my “A Simple parable for you in church”. I like this guy. He’s not afraid to mix it up, and I think our dialogue, when we are not mud-wrestling, is worthwhile. His comment is followed by my expanded response.

Yikes.
It is rather presumptuous to be predicting the decline and fall of the Catholic Church. People having been doing so for centuries, yet it endures. And it will endure long after you are gone Father Tony.
But if it makes you feel empowered and grand to make such predictions, I guess you should do so.
Of course, it was relatively easy for you to leave- you weren't a true believer in the first place. And judging from your past writings, you were there for the wrong reasons anyway.
I think the parable is sophomoric and rather narcissistic.


Dear Thomas Tucker,

I am so happy to hear from you! Where have you been? If this post hadn't have "plucked your nerve", I'd have been worried that it was toothless. Let me address the "delectables" in your comment.

a) The Church will in fact be around long after I'm gone, but it won't be run by you and your kind. You guys have squandered the franchise. You guys have pissed out all the grace that ever entered you.

b) Empowerment, narcissism and grandiosity are not my drugs. If they were, I'd have never left behind what I left behind. I've been humble in ways that no ground-kissing pope-on-the-tarmac could ever be humble. Give me a break here; you know that's a cheap, ad hominem shot.

c) About whether or not I am or ever was a believer, do not be so quick to say there's no gold in those hills. You only get to see the parts of me that I give you - and many of those parts are the stuff of the performer in me. Understand the premise here.

d) A sophomoric parable? Jeez T.T., all parables are like that. They're supposed to be like that. Something tells me that if you had been standing in the crowd when Jesus delivered the parable of the Prodigal Son, you'd have sniffed dismissively and said something condescending to your brother pharisees about how childish Jesus was. Oops, there I go again, comparing myself to Jesus. Damn, this narcissism thing is sooo hard to deal with.

You know what I think really scares you, T.T.? The fact that I am not afraid to talk, and that you know in your heart that I'm right. The day I realized that I had nothing to gain and nothing to lose by speaking the truth was a very liberating day for me. At that moment, I finally understood why I had been ordained and what my little prophetic voice in the Church ought to have been saying all along. Now I speak from just outside the walls, but I firmly believe that if there is any intent on the part of our God, this is the vocation he intended for me. You, more than many others, validate this. It doesn’t matter to me if no one else ever hears me. I will know that you have heard me, and that I have finally discharged my responsibility. Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Thomas Tucker.

OK. Your move. Have at.