Comments on: But You Gotta’ Have Faith

By: Erica

Erica — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:48:07 +0000

I’d be really interested in getting this guy in touch with a young friend of mine. When I met him he was in the closet and as an undergrad planning on becoming a priest. While he’s now out and has a bf and in grad school not directly headed for priesthood, I imagine he’d be interested to chat with this friend of yours, and possibly find some mentoring, etc.

By: karyn

karyn — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 12:59:43 +0000

But did you send him the link to your blog about How I (Karl) Hate Catholicism?

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 20:59:25 +0000

I’ll reiterate Mike’s question – Jesuit? They’re among the organizations, the Paulists being another, who hold out some eventual hope for the Roman church. It’s a bit like steering a tanker, but put into a glacial rather than maritime time-reference-frame. It only took them about 500 years to apologize for what they did to Galileo, etc…. Like any immense, rich, old powerful human organization, the levels of corruption and doublethink are staggering (think of Harvard…at an only slightly smaller and poorer scale…), these are the people who, essentially, INVENTED the term “Byzantine,” but there are also pockets of grace, eh what? Andrew Sullivan is quite good on the topic of “why stay in?” – as are a number of Paulist Center types I know. A good deal of it comes down to “if we all left when the going got rough/things went against us, who would ever be there to hold out hope of something better in the future/keep faith alive?!” It would be as if all of the members of the French Resistance said “Nah, fuckit – I’ll move somewhere neutral and sit it out!” I’m very proud of my fellow American Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans these days – hardly boring or quiet being all pro-gay and in turmoil over it! As to being Unitarian, the theology is very appealing (”One God, at the most!” I’ve heard it paraphrased in jest…), but it’s terribly hard to get very excited over except in a political context…but, then, I’m an agnostic aesthete – they don’t really make a church for us, though we camp out in various high-church Episcopal belfries…

By: Lise

Lise — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:39:22 +0000

Sorry Karl & Mike! I wuz just kidding. But it did sound like you were very stimulated by the conversation. INTELLECTUALLY!!!

By: snarl

snarl — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 18:34:25 +0000

no crush, no FB, no relationship (other than friendship).

Sheesh!

By: Lise

Lise — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:24:39 +0000

Funny Mike! So what is being a Unitarian like? So Karl, is this a potential crush/relationship/FB????

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:48:23 +0000

hmm…then being Episcopal is like being from Massachusetts. Pleasantly boring, beautiful, quietly progressive, lots of money. (That’s the church, not me.)
This guy sounds great…is he a Jesuit?

By: chrispy

chrispy — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:33:21 +0000

being catholic is like being from new jersey : you know its wrong on so many levels, but theres an ironic component to being proud of it, like a badge of honor that says “ive survived it”, but its not like id go back to either of those things.

By: chrispy

chrispy — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:29:53 +0000

dude, im a “recovering” catholic.

By: snarl

snarl — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:20:15 +0000

I asked that. He is not celibate…and never has been. Nor, apparently, have any of the other priests (though, not necessarily with each other).