Monday, February 6, 2012

Adios, Mr.Shea.

Not that he would even care if he knew, but Mark Shea's blog has been on the "un-link-to- list" for quite some time.

For starters, I'm amazed at his dislike.....might I even say, hatred ...... for Michael Voris and RealCatholicTV. Shea is, of course, entitled to his opinion of Voris, but most of what he's written about Voris seems a bit petty.

Shea's comments to some folks leaving comments on his blog can come across as petty as well. In a recent post [Question] Shea put forth an argument which quite a few of his readers had, what I'd say were legitimate reservations with his proposition; Shea's responses could be called snotty.

He posted a jpg -which I've included below - which has the following stats:
1 in 7 American Houses are Empty -
1 in 402 Americans are Homeless -
24 Houses are available for each Homeless American.



Shea's post:
What would a civilization do about something like this if it really and truly believed, rather than reluctantly and tepidly grunts at the fact, that “Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me”? What would a civilization look like if it marshalled as much energy and creativity to deal with this as it does to prepare for war and amass mammon? What if it was as afraid of hell and as eager for heaven as it is afraid of discomfort and eager for power?

When many of his readers pointed out that the idea of giving the vacant house to the homeless was simplistic and/or impractical, Shea could not answer their concerns; he could only give a simplistic and/or impractical comment - such as;

"Yes. Always look first for reason why it *can’t* be done. Counsels of defeat are the best initial prophylactic against any incipient works of mercy.
Your affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape."

or
"Yes. Something could go wrong. So it’s pointless to even try. Don’t even attempt safeguards against such obvious possibilities. instead, just ignore the entire problem because it’s hopeless and besides, it’s just worthless homeless people we are talking about. So no big deal. Give up. There’s no point in even trying."

and
"Yes. And if I am not personally prepared to drop everything and adopt a dozen children, I have absolutely no right to express the view that abortion is wrong or to suggest any changes to the system. Any discussion of change to an inhuman system is just foolish talk and we should give up now because it will never work so there’s no point. Give up. Don’t try. Don’t even think about it. Abandon hope.
It’s amazing how much I’ve heard that today. On this thread."


Readers had pointed out to Mr. Shea that the vacant homes, obviously, were owned by someone.
How could we give vacant houses to the homeless without violating someone's property rights?
The vacant homes might be located in Location A while the homeless were in Location B; how do you give a house in, say, San Francisco to a homeless person in Atlanta?
The house in Location A might be empty because there are no jobs there; how would the recipient survive without income?

I'm OK with Mr.Shea and I having different opinions. I'm a bit turned off by his "superior" attitude towards readers who disagree. I'm not saying I'll never return to his blog, but I am removing the link from my "Places of Interest" on the right.

3 comments:

Joe @ Defend Us In Battle said...

There is a quiet group of bloggers who have removed him from their link lists. I would say 95% of those folks have done so not because of his posts, but because of his work in the comment boxes on his own blog.

He has some very exceptional apologetics work, and I know that many that have removed him have done so with a "heavy heart."

Larry Denninger said...

I removed the link shortly after he got absorbed by the Collective. I don't even have him on my Google reader either. And let me tell you - anything Mark Shea has to say is said much better by dozens of other bloggers.

Also, "so that no stupid thought of mine will not go unrecorded", or something to that effect, is not the sort of tagline a Catholic blogger of his prominence ought to be proud of.

Joe - I agree with you about his combox work. But I had no heavy heart about de-linking him.

Brent Stubbs said...

Agree. Agree. Agree.