I have been refreshing Facebook this weekend, watching a heated conversation get more heated. On his personal Facebook page, my pastor shared a recent Michael Sean Winters piece, saying he didn't agree with all of it but found it thought-provoking. People flipped out. One woman said she'd been in the parish for 40 years but after that post (on a personal FB page, expressing reservations about the linked article) she was never coming back. It's bananas. I mean bananas.
The thing I find most frustrating is the people saying "don't get political!" I'm like, my dudes, we have been political at church for a long time now. There is no "getting political" here; we already got political. All of those "pro-life voters' guides" that went out from the Respect Life committee with an "unacceptable" rating next to the Democrats' names? Political. All of those Priests for Life pamphlets on the literature table every October, the handiwork of a renegade priest whose MAGA hat is more visible than his collar? Also political. Saying "don't get political" in this context is like saying "don't get injured" after the car has already crashed.
I'm trying to summarize the comments succinctly but they make me a little dizzy. The logic, such as it is, seems to go like this: we couldn't have a conversation with someone like Winters, because he's a heretic and his ad hominem attacks against the former president are unacceptable, so therefore we shouldn't have a conversation about Winters, because talking about his ideas would be too divisive. And if there happens to be the merest soupçon of heresy and the occasional ad hominem attack sprinkled into some of the offended comments-- well, that's just how it goes on Facebook.
Sounds like a good time for another Facebook break, huh?
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