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I know there are Christians, and Catholics, out there who struggle with others thinking that things they can’t help are their fault. These people feel, with a lot of justification, that others see them as “evil” for it. I don’t feel like being more explicit about that right now.
I have so much sympathy for them.
Why do people assume that if I appear to challenge any part of the conservative Christian mindset, that I must be going off the deep end and need to be preached to?
This isn’t the first time and I suppose it won’t be the last. And right now I’m tired and under stress and lonely, so I’m taking it far more seriously than I need to.
What they don’t realize is that if I’d continued on the path they tried to make me follow, I wouldn’t be me. I’m not even sure I’d be Catholic anymore.
This time I challenged the Calvinist view of the will as intrinsically disordered., and have been essentially accused of helping lead people out of the Church. Last time, I was singing country songs that involved the word “beer” and was (gently, I admit!) encouraged to reconsider my listening habits. (Hm. Maybe I should cut out the Palestrina, he challenged the Council of Trent’s inclination to ban sacred music. And definitely no Tchaikovsky or Britten, they were GAY. And Wagner is just evil.) I suppose it’s easier to laugh about the last time because it was so obviously silly. But this time it bothers me, because I see this attitude so often, the attitude of judgement, the attitude of paranoia. How many people are really being driven out of the Church and away from the light by this attitude?
What would it look like to treat everyone with true charity?