“What I need is for [Christian] people who aren’t complete weaklings to engage with the degenerates. That’s what I need. What I don’t need is for these weaklings to come on and try to represent [Christianity] at probably the worst time that I’ve ever seen for degeneracy.” —Andrew Wilson
A friend asked: “Do you consider yourself to be a freethinker even though you’re a Catholic?” I responded: “I’ve never been a freethinker. I’ve always been just a plain old thinker. And for thirty-five years I’ve been just a plain old Catholic thinker.”
My whole approach is this: However we might conceive of what the Christian life is supposed to be, our conception has to be rooted in actuality. No escaping into some hyper-emotional, overly abstract, overly sentimental, overly “spiritual” bubble. Our faith has to be practical and grounded—connected to our real experiences and the lessons they teach us as much as to the lessons of the Scriptures.
I’m pushing 70. After all these years, I’m still a smart-ass. I’ve concluded that it must be one of my gifts. Now, get off my lawn.
Have you noticed that the best comedians are often prophetic?
My advice? If you’re a committed Christian—whether Catholic or some other flavor—keep asking questions about your faith, your church’s history, your Bible, your assumptions, your leaders and their qualifications, etc. Seek truth. Get answers.
Let’s face it, over the centuries we Christians have succeeded in taking the one Church and replacing it with “denominations” and “non-denominations”. In other words, we’ve made a royal mess of things. I guess it was to be expected, given that we’ve never met a form of tribalism we didn’t like.
“There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.” —Bp Fulton Sheen