Not so shiny, not so happy

It’s been a minute since I posted here, my apologies. I have spent the last week writing a speech. Yes speech writing is something I do from time to time and if you would like a speech written please call me at 1-800-IHATEWRITINGSPEECHES extension, DONTCALLME.

Writing speeches is a whole other skill set, a craft that I can do and do pretty well but it takes a lot more out of me than some of the other writing I do and I’ve pretty much spent whatever brain power I had last week.

Part of it is the anxiety about the occasion. You see, if I don’t quite hit it at a conference I’m speaking at, I might annoy the people who hired me or disappoint the people in the audience (I don’t think that that has happened yet but it could) but I won’t have changed a significant event in their lives. This speech is to be given at Seton’s high school graduation and that is really significant. I’m not the main speaker but I am Chairman of the Board and as such I give a speech to the grads and their families. If I make a mess of this it can really place a black mark on what should be a joyous occasion. Now, I don’t think I’m so significant as to ruin the whole day for anyone, but who wants to listen to a boring speech ever? And especially on such an occasion. People are coming from all over the country and from several other countries so it is imperative that the day go smoothly and that they enjoy every minute.

No pressure right?

If you think of it say a prayer for me on Saturday morning.

Thanks for all the enthusiasm for the Five Fun Things post. I seem to have turned several people on to that book series which pleases me immensely. I will continue to recommend books, but please feel free to do the same for me. I love a good book talk.

If you are enjoying the content I provide here would you consider helping me by either upgrading to a paid subscription or sharing my newsletter. I am so grateful to all of you who subscribe here, paid or not.

This writing thing is a funny sort of creature. Despite a notebook full of observations and ideas sometimes you just sit in front of the laptop with nary a thing to say. After writing the speech I was feeling a little tapped out and then I watched the Shiny Happy People series on Netflix.

What the hell?

I didn’t get to the fourth episode because, quite frankly, I was so disturbed I couldn’t bear to watch anymore. The havoc that Bill Gothard has wrecked on the lives of so many women and children will surely have him roasting on a spit at some point.

Say what you will about the Catholic Church, and there is plenty you can say these days, having a teaching authority, a magisterium, which gives authentic interpretation of the Word of God. Through scripture and tradition the Catholic Church has one divinely revealed deposit of faith. Which, by the way, was the only teaching source for over 1500 years so if you are reading a Bible, thank a Catholic.

You are going to point to the scandals in recent decades. Yes priests did awful things. Horrible things were done to children, young people and women and those who covered it up and allowed it to continue are, in my eyes, equally culpable. The difference is that nothing in the magesterium of the Church encourages this kind of depravity. No teachings make this easy. There is no place that says beating your wife and children into submission, creating an atmosphere of toxic authority so cowering that it is impossible to say no or to cry out when you are abused is permissible. Not one teaching can be interpreted that way without twisting and probably outright lying. It’s why leaning on one guy’s interpretation is problematic. Two millennia’s worth of backup teaching is much more likely to be the true course to take.

The scandals of the Catholic church are entirely the sin of those priests complicit in the abuse and cover up. The abuse going on at this IBLP organization is actually part of the doctrine.

The kind of person to whom this would appeal must be already so broken and weak that preying on the weaker would seem appealing. To hit a baby every time they crawl off a blanket in order to break their will at such a young age would only appeal to a person who already feels helpless and insignificant. It’s a horrifying betrayal of trust, calling yourself a pastor and then leading people to give in to their worst instincts, creating fear and shame where none should exist and using sacred scripture as a weapon to beat over the heads of your followers.

This is not what Christianity is. This is not what humanity should be.

This is a cult. If you are a follower of anyone proclaiming their interpretation of Scripture then you are likely in a cult. Follow Christ, live the gospel, humbly and meekly confess your sins and then avoid sinning again. Living in constant shame because they are women and might attract the attention of a man, as these women seem to have been taught, is not what God wants for them, for any of us. There seems to be no expectation that a man will have any degree of self-control and this inability is entirely attributed to the women’s mode of dress, speech and even eye contact.

I call B.S. on that.

These teachings seem to rely on a lot of formulas. If you do this + this God will love you because you’ve proven yourself to be good. Purity + Courtship = Godly marriage. This is nuts.

You can do all the right things (don’t get the idea I’m knocking purity, I’m a big fan) and still have life upend on you. You can do everything wrong and you are still a child of God, worthy of love and destined for His infinite mercy should you seek it, and maybe even if you don’t, I can’t say.

A formula is contrary to faith. A formula or equation is supposed to give you a concrete outcome. Faith says I will follow you and rely on you and the graces you’ve given me to live the life you will for me.

A formula says I will not risk anything and I will not trust anything. Faith says I will lay it all down for you, my life is yours.

Formulas are for the fearful, faith is for the courageous.

Christianity is not cruel or corrupt, it does not advocate physical or sexual abuse. Husbands are meant to love their wives as Christ loves His Church, that means they are to give selflessly and heroically for the good of their families, it does not mean controlling them to the point that they can no longer make a decision for themselves.

My heart breaks for the women and children subjected to this anti-Christian cult that robs them of their agency and leads them away from God. While I am not a fan of sensationalist T.V. I am glad the curtain has been pulled back on this horror.