…is told in these two tweets. The first one is joyous and without bitterness by the power of the Holy Spirit:

The second is proud, ignorant, contemptuous, stupid, and bitter, by the power of the MAGA antichrist white supremacist religion of which this man is high priest:
Both of these people are Catholics.
One of them–having experienced American racism in the flesh and yet, by the power of the Holy Spirit, chosen love, mercy, forgiveness, and justice–bears witness to the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that is credible, beautiful, attractive, and gives honor to her Father in heaven.
The other says “Lord, Lord” and proudly refuses to do what Jesus says. For the sake of MAGA money and honors, he dances attendance on the worst impulses of a racist, sneering, mocking cult at war with the gospel and gives scandal to decent people everywhere. Jesus warns such people that if they cause little ones to stumble, they are fitting themselves for a millstone necktie.
“But, Mark! How dare you judge his heart like that?”
I’m not judging his heart. I don’t know why he says evil things like that. Nor do I claim to know his future. May he repent the evils he so often speaks and does as a social influencer. I judge his fruits, as I am commanded to do by Jesus:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.” (Mt 7:15–20).
Matt Walsh is a false prophet, consistently punching down and mocking the victims of slavery, Jim Crow, and racist oppression. I hope he repents and may God forgive him.
Gloria Purvis lives out her Christian prophetic office, given her by virtue of her baptism, not only to bear witness to the dignity of all human life, but even to extend mercy, charity, and love to ignorant bullies like Matt Walsh. The fragrance of her Catholic witness is a sweet savor in the nostrils of God and of all decent people everywhere. May her reward be great!
Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30)
13 Responses
Conservative American rule 586: opposition to legal abortion is the only thing that matters when we assess a person, unless said person is black and female, in which case she should also shut up about issues involving race and womanhood.
I despair that the holiday is already being culture war’d, even worse, there’s an attempt to culture war it over and against the Fourth of July. God have mercy on us!
As eye-rollingly bratty as Matt Walsh’s response is, Juneteenth *is* a very important and significant holiday.
jj
Well, if it helps you feel better: Upon seeing the name “Gloria Purvis,” I immediately thought: Awesome! I love her!
Upon seeing the name Matt Walsh, I immediately thought: Who???
It just kills me that some white dude can garner more likes disparaging the day than a black woman.with God only knows how much suffering her family went through. Trauma alters our DNA.
What a crazy world we live in.
That he calls himself Catholic puts a shiver down my spine.
Wow, what a stick in the mud. Where does he live that he’s literally never heard of Juneteenth? There’s like, events and parades and stuff where I live. Why not have a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States? If you don’t like a holiday, then just sit at home and be depressing.
I grew up in New York, moved to Colorado and have lived in California for over 30 years. I reasonably well versed in American history, and own several books on slavery and Colonial times. I literally never heard about Juneteenth until Trump held that rally in Tulsa. And while I grew up with news of black sit-ins in the South in the 60s, and heard and saw MLK and others, I have no memory of hearing about it back then, though there were stories in papers and TV about Jim Crow, etc. I suspect that most Americans outside of the South never heard of it either.
I would say that is a fair point. If being totally honest, I didn’t hear of it until I was a teenager and we moved from a small town to a larger (midwestern) city. The town was very small and homogenous (acquaintances at school knew my family was only one of two Catholic families, and knew there was only one black kid in town). I wrongly assumed I hadn’t heard of it because I didn’t live in a more diverse area. Still, I think my point about Matt Walsh being a stick in the mud stands. I really wouldn’t consider learning about a holiday that celebrates the end of slavery to be a snarky eye-roll moment.
Similar to towa1, I had never heard of Juneteenth until last year. I grew up in the Pacific NW, and have lived variously in rural, urban, and suburban neighborhoods. I would rate my overall historical education as better than average, and Juneteenth never came up.
Anyways, clearly Mr. Walsh is being sarcastic and facetious, which is not productive.
I called a relative over, someone not born in this country, so he could see for himself what is going down here in the U.S. It’s difficult to sum things up so succinctly.
He read the two tweets and asked me how to say c_ _ _ t in English for a male. I said, “you don’t”. I hate that word. Absolutely hate it. But as I wracked my brain, I couldn’t think of the answer. He was urging me on to find the right word, saying, “you know, like a vicious coward, a guy who is brave behind his Mom’s skirt.”
I realized that there ISN’T a “C” word in English that fits the bill.
Trust me, Juneteenth is very important and significant.
https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth
I’ve got no opposition to the new federal holiday, although at the national level, I have to say that Emancipation Day is much more significant than a Texas holiday that didn’t even represent much finality in Texas. On the other hand, there is no uniformity in the date for observation of Emancipation Day (the most logical date would be September 22).
From another perspective, the events leading up to enacting Juneteenth as a federal holiday seem more closely aligned with the theme of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
One more minor thought is the title “Juneteenth” is awkward and indicates nothing about the significance of the holiday. On the other hand, the name at least has been in long-standing use. Yet, there’s not really any reason we can’t call it Emancipation Day since even though the date is relevant to one specific city, emancipation was still the reason for the celebration.