Tag Archives: Catholic

Point of View

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There's an interesting post on The Dawn Patrol about counterproductive evangelization. Specifically, several Catholics clumsily tried to convert her from Protestantism. I understand the reasoning, but the approach left a lot to be desired. I have a news flash for self-righteous catechism thumpers. Protestants aren't the spawn of Satan. Nor are they doomed to Hell. They are Christians like us, with whom we should work to make the world a better place, rather than treating them like heathens or pagans.

As an ex-Protestant who cares deeply about reuniting the Body of Christ, I cringe at preachy attempts to, as one friend puts it, "upgrade" Protestants. I wasn't so much won over by argument as I was by Christ-like example.

There is a flip side to this, though. Each time a Protestant tries to "free" me from my "bondage" as a Catholic, I get a step closer to beating one with a clue-by-four. The Catholic Church is not the whore of Babylon. We do not worship Mary or the saints. We do not believe works save us. We are Christians just like you. Jack Chick is a moron who spreads hateful lies.

Ya got that?!? Now…The next one of you primates…even touches me…HYA!!! *BANG*

Flawed Statistics

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Statistics and I don't always get along well. I'm getting better at detecting fishy conclusions drawn from statistics, though. Take this article about abortion among Catholic women for instance.

Almost half of the clinic's 6000 patients last year identified their religion and of this group almost 40% said they were Catholic. A further 23% identified themselves as "Christian", while fewer than 5% said they were Protestant. Seven% were Muslim and 5% were Buddhist.

Nowhere does this article mention what percentage of women in the general population consider themselves Catholic. All it says is that 40% of those women who (1) have an abortion and (2) identify their religion, are Catholic. If Catholics outnumber Protestants in Australia, such a disparity is to be expected, all other things being equal.

Let's simplify the numbers a bit to clarify this. Suppose 100 women have an abortion. 40 are Catholic, 23 are generically Christian, 5 are Protestant, 7 are Muslim, 5 are Buddhist, and the remaining 20 are something else. Let's divide the 23 generic Christians equally between Catholics and Protestants, since we have no data to support a more lopsided grouping. That makes 52 Catholics and 16 Protestants. Let X denote the number of Catholic women in Australia and Y the number of Protestant women. The percentage of Catholic women who had an abortion is 100*52/X. The percentage of Protestant women who had an abortion is 100*16/Y. These percentages will be equal when X = 3.25 * Y. If the multiple is smaller than 3.25, the percentage goes up and vice versa. In other words, if Catholic women outnumber Protestant women by less than 3.25:1, Catholics women are "more likely" to have an abortion than Protestant women. Too bad the article doesn't give us a population breakdown. To make matters worse, only about 50% of those women having abortions identified their religion. The numbers given are essentially meaningless.

The Fallacy Files site has a good explanation of this kind of statistical goof.

Speaking of fallacies, this site is sort of a Cliffs Notes version of Fallacy Files.

Spiritual Snobbery

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The next time I’m tempted to turn my nose up at mass that contradicts Redemptionis
Sacramentum, I’ll try to think of this quote. (Thanks, Being! Or Nothingness)

I can recommend this as an exercise: make your Communion in circumstances
that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar
friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children — from
those who yell to those products of Catholic schools who the moment the tabernacle
is opened sit back and yawn — open necked and dirty youths, women in trousers and
often with hair both unkempt and uncovered. Go to Communion with them (and pray
for them). It will be just the same as a Mass said beautifully by a visibly holy
man, and shared by a few devout and decorous people. (It could not be worse than
the mess of the feeding of the Five Thousand — after which our Lord propounded
the feeding that was to come.) – J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to Michael Tolkien, November 1,
1963

Mawwage

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"Mawwage. Mawwage is what bwings us togethew today. Mawwage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam. And wove, twue wove, wiww fowwow you fowevah…So tweasuwe youw wove,…" – The Impressive Clergyman

Today I watched a beautiful Ukrainian Catholic Divine Liturgy in which my friend, and occasional cohort in blogging crime, Jerry Nora, entered into the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. I wish him and his wife, Krystia, all the happiness in the world. May God bless them with a marriage that sanctifies them, unifies them, and provides them with many children.

Due to in part to this blessed event, I have a mildly polemical point to make. Continue reading →