I think it's fair to say that most of us struggle with selfishness.

But I'd like to tell you the story of one young man whose selfishness nearly cost him his life, and what he learned from that experience. 🧵👇 Seth Adam Smith is an introvert. But his dislike and avoidance of other people very nearly killed him. "I thought only about myself," he writes. "My wants, my feelings, & my problems. My selfishness was a downward spiral that led to a veritable prison of isolation and despair."

People ask why I sometimes refer to Catholicism as a “cult of masochism”. It’s because Catholics have a tendency to not just resign themselves to the idea that God desires suffering, but often proclaim that they deserve it.

Quote from John Vianney. Others from 2 different kids’… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… A friend was telling me, “Fr. Ripperger had a talk on hell on his website that goes into graphic detail about all the different physical, mental, and spiritual torments the damned have to face. It’s almost literal torture porn. And then he concludes by saying, ‘And even after a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Odd to refer to this phenomenon as "adolescent atheism." Forcing a teen to act as though they believe something they don't is not a productive course of action.

Because Most People Grow Out of Adolescent Atheism the-american-catholic.com/2023/02/08/bec… via @TheAmCatholic In fact, it demonstrates complete disregard for their intelligence, judgment, and nascent autonomy.

My mom was once complaining to me about my youngest sister not being willing to participate enough in devotional activities - stations of the cross, daily Mass, etc.

Christianity tells you that you're a miserable sinner who deserves hell for merely being conceived in original sin; it claims you can never do anything good without God holding your hand & mostly doing it for you. You'll never be sinless, never be truly virtuous, always live... ...in wretchedness, needing a redeemer. It tells you that YOU can't change you, only God can. And if you take that to heart, you absolutely won't. You'll believe it, right down to your core, and you'll pray & plead & beg to become better, to overcome this sin, that vice, but...

🧵I'm using the new #midjourneyAi update (version 4) to re-run old prompts I did when I first started using an earlier version last summer. What a difference. (Prompt: "alfons mucha cyberpunk geisha assassin")
For all coparisons, Left image = old version, right = new: Prompt: "pope francis is a demon"

Not an endorsement of her entire oeuvre - she's way more aggressive about this stuff than I care to be. But this resonated. I hear people all the time try to downplay the strong psychological ramifications of growing up in a devout religious milieu with its attendant beliefs. 1/

https://twitter.com/GodlessLiz/status/1519293802246193152

Or else they say, "My experience of religion isn't like that." That one's funny, because as a Catholic, I have spent much of my life pointing out that the majority of the religion has become a joke. The Church doesn't take its own core teachings seriously anymore. 2/

Honestly, I think Pa Ingalls is the role model with this. Definitely a man doing man things, taking on the danger & hardest work. But he had no problem teaching his girls & pitching in @ home. And Ma was a hard worker right alongside him. A better model than any I’ve seen.

https://twitter.com/TheBrometheus/status/1518530305258364928

A lot of us guys these days were never really taught how to do man things. At most our dads modeled going to work every day no matter what, but many saw providers who sort of turned into Archie Bunker are home. Traditional gender roles are weird, bc there’s really no “tradition”.

🧵My wife told me about a debate she saw over modesty. Some guy was complaining about how much skin women are showing, some leftie with an audience decided to shame him, saying it was his problem & nobody else's. Pile on ensued.

But it got me thinking about consent. Take religious morality off the table and just look at biology. It's a known fact that men and women have different triggers for sexual arousal. You don't have to take my word for it. Here's an article from Nature:

nature.com/articles/ijir2….

In a discussion about papal infallibility, someone mentions the relatio of Vatican I's "Pastor Aeternus" (PA) as the official explainer.

“An explanation of a dogma is not infallible,” someone replies.

So we have a definition of infallibility, but not an infallible 1/ explanation of infallibility, so we have no way of knowing what infallibility really means, at least not infallibly.

Nor, it should be noted, do we have an exhaustive list of infallible papal statements. And if we had such a list, it, too, would not be infallible, by nature. 2/

I used to be the floor manager for Franciscan University Presents on EWTN. Back in the 1990s. I remember when she came on to discuss promulgation of the so-called "Fifth Marian Dogma" -- namely, that Mary is mediatrix of all grace & co-redemptrix.

She opposed it. Adamantly. 1/

https://twitter.com/FrTveit/status/1482004901442039813

I don't recall it being because she disagreed with the theology behind the push, but because the Church was facing so many other problems. I recall her saying that when people don't even believe in the Eucharist, it's not time to push new controversial dogmas on them. 2/

An online friend sent some images from a book he's reading in the hopes it would be helpful to me as I navigate the agita of this interminable existential crisis. This image sort of stopped me in my tracks: 1/ So much of this mirrors my own constant thoughts, and the battle going on inside me.

And that raises an interesting set of questions. 2/

The first time I entered encountered something like this, I was in high school. My mom made me correct the priest after mass because she said I could do a better job than she could.

But my life as a Catholic was just watching one heresy or abuse after another play out. 1/

https://twitter.com/AdrianFonze/status/1480519009921642498

The thing is, when I get on a plane, I don’t want to have to fly because the pilot is doing it wrong. Same thing with a doctor. I may know more about something, I may not, but it shouldn’t be my job. Certainly not on every plane, or in every doctor’s office.

2/

One of my favorite flavors in Chinese cuisine is also one of the simplest: scallion & ginger oil. It's especially good on chicken.

The Cantonese poach their chicken, but any roast chicken will do. Rotisserie from the store is fine. In fact, if it's dry, this sauce will help. 1/ I learned how to make this from my wife's late uncle. He barely spoke English so I don't know any of the nuances.

First, start a pot of rice.

Then, grab your ginger & green onions. You don't need to use the bulb kind. Any will do. Quantity varies, but shoot for a 1:1 ratio.
2/

Was having a FB discussion with a friend the other day who was trying to promote the SSPX as a way to deal with the sitch in the Church.

My reply was that I believe "recognize and resist" is a manifest absurdity, not found anywhere in the Church's tradition. 1/ That a default hermeneutic of suspicion of anything that comes out of Rome is completely unworkable, and would be an unrecognizable position by any Catholic in history. That claiming loyalty to a pope you cannot trust because he wishes to destroy your entire raison d'etre, 2/