Comments on: Ave Maria is just another home for religious nut cases http://www.bloggernews.net/18853 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:01:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Shawn Lazar http://www.bloggernews.net/18853#comment-72840 Shawn Lazar Sat, 11 Aug 2007 02:19:31 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/18853#comment-72840 Let me begin by saying that I'm an evangelical, with no connections to the Catholic Church. Let me continue by saying that I couldn't disagree more with this ignorant article, and would like to raise four points. First, it is nonsensical to claim that the Catholic Church has been religiously secluded. It is the largest religious organization in the world with well over a billion baptized members, in every country you can think of, with an unrivaled intellectual tradition. Moreover, it has been on the forefront of "inter-religious" dialogue for about 2000 years. Calling it religiously secluded is ridiculous. Secondly, perhaps Mr. Burns is critical of Mr. Monaghan for staying devoutly Catholic instead of being nominally so. In which case his idea of religious seclusion would be to have any strong belief at all. Indeed, Mr. Burns goes on to say that belief is just an opinion and no more than that. I suspect that Mr. Monaghan (and anyone with a hint of reason) would reply that the real question at hand is whether or not Catholic beliefs are true, not whether they are popular, or fashionable, or in step with secular society, or "secluded". Beliefs are not just opinions, they are beliefs about facts, about true or false propositions. To think otherwise is to seriously understand the whole issue. Third, as to the issue of what makes a good person... again, I find Mr. Burn's view to be untenable. He thinks that Catholics (and orther Christians) can agree with non-Catholics about what it means to be a decent human being. I beg to differ. In secular society being a "decent human being" can include killing your own children (abortion), watching copious amounts of pornography, using drugs, committing adultery, fornication, and all manner of ummentionable moral perversion, et cetera. So I would have to object, and say that we certainly do not agree on what makes a decent human being. Which is why living in a town like Ave Maria, with like minded moral families, would be very attractive even to a Non-Catholic like myself. Fourth, and lastly, it is wrong for Mr. Burns to be critical of Mr. Monaghan for wanting to found a Catholic town for two reasons. (a) Practically every city in Europe, South America, and much of North America were founded as Catholic towns, so why should anyone think this trend should stop? (b) Thanks to religious freedom in this country people are free to live how they please, including being free to live as devout Catholics. For Mr. Burns to want to restrict the freedom of Catholics and non-Catholics to build and live in a Catholic town is to deny basic freedom of religion. There's so much more to say, I don't even know where to begin. What an ignorant article. Let me begin by saying that I’m an evangelical, with no connections to the Catholic Church. Let me continue by saying that I couldn’t disagree more with this ignorant article, and would like to raise four points.

First, it is nonsensical to claim that the Catholic Church has been religiously secluded. It is the largest religious organization in the world with well over a billion baptized members, in every country you can think of, with an unrivaled intellectual tradition. Moreover, it has been on the forefront of “inter-religious” dialogue for about 2000 years. Calling it religiously secluded is ridiculous.

Secondly, perhaps Mr. Burns is critical of Mr. Monaghan for staying devoutly Catholic instead of being nominally so. In which case his idea of religious seclusion would be to have any strong belief at all. Indeed, Mr. Burns goes on to say that belief is just an opinion and no more than that. I suspect that Mr. Monaghan (and anyone with a hint of reason) would reply that the real question at hand is whether or not Catholic beliefs are true, not whether they are popular, or fashionable, or in step with secular society, or “secluded”. Beliefs are not just opinions, they are beliefs about facts, about true or false propositions. To think otherwise is to seriously understand the whole issue.

Third, as to the issue of what makes a good person… again, I find Mr. Burn’s view to be untenable. He thinks that Catholics (and orther Christians) can agree with non-Catholics about what it means to be a decent human being. I beg to differ. In secular society being a “decent human being” can include killing your own children (abortion), watching copious amounts of pornography, using drugs, committing adultery, fornication, and all manner of ummentionable moral perversion, et cetera. So I would have to object, and say that we certainly do not agree on what makes a decent human being. Which is why living in a town like Ave Maria, with like minded moral families, would be very attractive even to a Non-Catholic like myself.

Fourth, and lastly, it is wrong for Mr. Burns to be critical of Mr. Monaghan for wanting to found a Catholic town for two reasons. (a) Practically every city in Europe, South America, and much of North America were founded as Catholic towns, so why should anyone think this trend should stop? (b) Thanks to religious freedom in this country people are free to live how they please, including being free to live as devout Catholics. For Mr. Burns to want to restrict the freedom of Catholics and non-Catholics to build and live in a Catholic town is to deny basic freedom of religion.

There’s so much more to say, I don’t even know where to begin. What an ignorant article.

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