Back when you were running the seminary in Chicago and doing those great little teaching videos on Youtube, it was a huge honor, as a theology dork who appreciates good catechesis in vernacular language, to meet you:
But in the last few years… I don’t know, man. I’ve been more and more horrified to watch the whole celebrity bishop thing take your eye further and further from the ball and into the whole American political wealth and power scene.
I was disappointed when you sidled up next to a libertarian like Dave Rubin to talk, not about the Faith so much as “liberalism” (as though it is anything like the clear and present danger that a fascist thug like Trump is), but I hoped maybe you were trying to bridge the growing divide between the Church and the gay community. You did, after all, blurb Fr. James Martin’s book and earn thereby the rage of the Greatest Catholics of All Time at CRISIS. And the seemingly endless hatred Church Militant had for you suggested that I should be patient with what I hoped to be “all things to all men” evangelism.
In the same vein, I was embarrassed for you when you decided to platform a weirdo like Jordan Peterson and recommend him to your audience as some kind of guru, but I again hoped you were attempting the “all things to all” method of reaching somebody who at least appears as though, in addition to grifting off conservative Catholics, he might also be considering Jesus himself.
The problem, however, became harder and harder to overlook: namely, you looked less and less like you were all things to all and more like you think all are equal but some are more equal than others.
Most famously, was your almost instantaneous, knee-jerk and impenitent assault on what you instantly caricatured as “vile wokism” and your stony refusal to so much as have a conversation with Black Catholics when they begged you for a chance to discuss racism in the Church.
No Very Special Dialogues with perfectly decent and orthodox Catholics on that score, Nosirree!
But platforming MAGA douchebros? Can do!
The Left wields blackface as a political cudgel, feigning offense and making excuses according to political convenience. Conservatives need not embrace the same cynical and vindictive tactics. We would prefer to live in a society marked by grace and civility rather than one marked by petty opportunism and cancel culture. – Michael J. Knowles, Heroic Catholic Defender of Racist Mockery
President Trump committed obstruction. From the moment he defeated Hillary Clinton, Democrats have tried to overturn the 2016 election, and President Trump has obstructed their efforts every step of the way. – Michael J. Knowles, Heroic Catholic Defender of Crime, Violent Insurrection, Election Interference, and Treason
No one actually cares about blackface. – Michael J. Knowles, Heroic Catholic White Spokesman for the Black Community
Capital punishment is neither cruel nor unusual. Michael J. Knowles, Heroic Catholic Defender of the Church from the Magisterium, Eager to Offer Innocent Human Sacrifices to Moloch So That He Can Courageously Slaughter People Who Do Not Need to be Killed
A proper criminal justice system exacts justice – that is, punishes criminals for their crimes. Rehabilitation and deterrence are worthy goals, but they are secondary to retribution. – Michael J. Knowles. Heroic Catholic Advocate for Equating Vengeance with Justice and Prioritizing Vengeance over Redemption
For the Left, victimhood has long carried social currency. – Michael J. Knowles, Heroic Catholic Champion of Contempt for the Sin of Empathy
Shrillness is not the inevitable curse of the fairer sex. – Michael J. Knowles, Heroic Catholic Champion of Condescending Misogyny
The Left, however, resists anglicizing Spanish terms because its political agenda relies on encouraging illegal immigration from Latin America and discouraging the assimilation of Hispanics into American society. – Michael J. Knowles. Heroic Catholic Champion of Making up Pure Bullshit to Account for the MAGA Cult’s Monolingual Illiteracy and Why it Treats its Victims with Contempt
That you recommend a racist, misogynist, scapegoating swine at war with the Church’s teaching on multiple points with zero pushback has driven me to the conclusion that, when you are not actually parroting the documented teaching of Catechism, I cannot trust what you say.
Accordingly, since I spent several years platforming you, I feel I have an obligation, by way of reparation, to warn my readers of the growing problems in your ministry.
Of which more tomorrow.
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6 Responses
I’m glad someone got around to saying this.
I am wary of “celebrity Bishops.” Also didn’t he complain that Democratic Congressmen did not applaud Trump enthusiastically enough at the State of the Union? Another Trump sycophant. I could care less what he says.
Thank you for diving into this, Mark. It’s so heartbreaking but I’m looking forward to getting a bit more informed about… well, how bad it is!
Mark,
I too have seen a drift. A few years ago, I listened to every Sunday homily, and often read his daily reflections.
I’ve recently not paid much attention. This Sunday, though, I listened to his homily, fully expecting to hear something about the good Samaritan. Heaven knows, there’s a multitude of lessons there for our own time. Instead, I heard about the necessity of religious freedom. Good stuff, but I’ve heard this message for 20 years or so. It’s a very comfortable topic for those of us on the right side of the political spectrum, not personally challenging at all. A comfortable message to preach, I suppose.
Read Matthew 25. Tax cuts for the rich, and Medicaid cuts are the mantra for MAGA. How Christian is that? Why doesn’t the good Bishop mention this?
I’m sad, but I still have hope.
This thought keeps coming back to me: the greatest saints suffered in a kind of desert. They were marginalized, put in prisons, sent to places the elites turned their faces from.
We were given a Francis and a Leo because they were able to suffer with the poor. It transformed them.
“And if I have the knowledge of angels but have not…”