Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Softie Christians Anonymous

Hi, My name is Glenn...[sigh]...And I'm a softie Christian. Or at least I was for a while there. A little too much "pastoral care" indoctrination in my Yale Div and clinical pastoral education, valuable as it was for some things. No, I'm definitely not amongst the worst offenders, but I've consistently experienced discomfort hearing the full-throttled offensives from many orthodox Catholics, even after you filter out the neo-fascists. Maybe it's a Nietzshean ressentiment over not having the wit or intellectual fiskpower to pull them off, maybe it's just my personality. Whatever the case, I no longer lean on any specious WWJD, "New Testament" arguments for a kinder, gentler polemics. This article puts the nail in the coffin for that argument:
There’s a massive contrast between the weighty and satirical, the masculine and hilarious modes of communication employed by the inspired biblical characters versus the whiny, saccharine, nicer-than-Christ, strained Gerber’s goo served up by evangelicalism and Catholicism’s effete clerics. Have you noticed?
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Concerning these greatest of biblical characters, we not only see great acts of compassion toward the repentant; we also see an unapologetic verbal “gloves-off” approach with someone God wants and needs His spokesman to offend.