06 February 2008

Lofty and 'Reader Response'

So I think up and commit to these 'entry series' generally in the worst possible times of my life. There is too much on my plate already. However, I will plod through it, since this is my sort of 'rough draft' attempt at making cases of this sort - cases like, for instance, the Nazarene Theses project on Facebook. Hopefully I will have some time to work on that before the 2008 General Assembly (seriously doubtful at this point).

Hard as I try, these entry series - geez, entries in general - end up being my setting out with a vision in mind and (typically) ending up somewhere else. It obviously helps (as with the Nazarene Theses project) to have other voices to add context. In this case, I approached hypocrisy as the least challenging of the arguments; RomanIbis's Catholic reflection on Catholic hypocrisy/falling-short, however, helped me to remember that this is indeed an issue just as detracting for some as the 'Mary-worship' arguments are for others. Actually, in considering the entry, it occurred to me that several of my acquaintances who would convert to Catholicism with relative theological ease are disenchanted by Catholic behaviour. I hope I'm being fair to both parties involved here; some reports of 'Catholic hypocrisy' are far too vague, focused, or sensationalised to take seriously, whereas completely overlooking the reality of hypocrisy in the Catholic Church is dishonest and detached.

With that said, I don't felt I gave hypocrisy enough weight in the entry.

-a-