Nasty Internet Stuff

St. Thomas More

I sometimes think that the internet brings out the worst in people.  Lately all over the internet and social media, I’ve been seeing a lot of nasty religious arguments.  I’m not against arguing at all as that is the goal of this blog.  I’m against being nasty, especially being nasty all the time.  I don’t want to name names or groups but here is my take on it.

Now, when you call people out they usually give three defenses.  The defenses are Matthew 23, Galatians 1, and the Saints of the Church.  Here we go!  I’ll deal with them in order.

Matthew 23 deals with Jesus being nasty to the leaders of the pharisees.  If Jesus can do it, I can do it as well, right?  This is one chapter.  We have to take it into account but it’s one chapter.  The four gospels contain a total of 89 chapters and in one of them, Jesus is exceptionally harsh.  In the other ones, He is mild, calm, articulate, firm, and even mildly angry.  Still, 1 out of 89 is 1.1% of the time.  Taking the words of 1.1% percent of the gospels and applying them to 80% of your behavior is not following Christ, it’s an excuse to act how you want, when you want.

The same case could be made with St. Paul.  He has one chapter that’s extremely harsh and in the other chapters, there is a range of ways that he articulates his message.

Now to the saints.  There are a number of saints who are known for their harshness and even nastiness.  We must remember that saints, being holy men and women are still flawed.  No saint is perfect.  Let me take two examples of Catholic saints who argued against the Protestants: St. Thomas More and St. Francis de Sales.

St. Thomas More argued against Luther, Tyndale, and other Protestants quite viciously.  It’s almost painful to read at times.  St. Francis de Sales was the exact opposite.  He was gentle, mild mannered, but firm and spoke the truth when he needed it.

Was St. Francis in the right and St. Thomas in the wrong?  It wouldn’t be against the faith to say so.  I’ll say that he was.  I would also like to point out that England was lost to Protestantism under More while the Savoy was won back not only under but by St. Francis.  Now, to be fair, there were other and probably more important factors at work here.  However, we can’t completely exclude it either.

I don’t want to brag but I’m very good at controlling my anger and temper.  I understand that not everyone is gifted like me in this regard.  This post isn’t about people who lose their temper from time to time.  It’s about people who cherry pick sources and use that as an excuse for acting how they want, when they want, while wearing a religious mask.

Please don’t let the internet get the best of you and cause you to sin.  Read Ecclesiastes 3 as well.

God bless.