Saturday, January 22, 2011

As I was letting the color soak into my hair at the salon tonight, I flipped through last week's Newsweek. All the way in the back was a book review. Even though I'm not interested in yoga, I have many acquaintances who are. There was a nice picture of Marilyn Monroe to head off the page, and the word "Christian" in the first few sentences caught my eye. Why shouldn't I read the article? What else am I going to do?

So, I'm reading the article and I see a slight error in the print edition (it has been corrected online):
It’s hard to imagine C. S. Lewis writing about his conversion to Catholicism and making fun of the goofy priests and wacky incense.
I can only wish!

Even in the corrected, online edition, the belittling isn't entirely erased because the phrases "goofy priests" - I don't know any goofy ones - and "wacky incense" - wacky, really? - remain, although without their antecedent. Not every Christian church features priests or incense, wacky or otherwise, so the general reader has a keen sense of who is cited.

The concluding line ought not be missed:
A yoga memoir by a conservative Republican Catholic NRA member? Now that would be a real stretch.
Again, really? The second page of the full article appears below.

4 comments:

Glenna said...

Oh for heaven's sake, a 7th grade Catholic student could've done a better job with that article. It's so easy to fact-check now that all I can think is that, since so few people read those 'news' mags anymore, no one really bothers or cares.

Barb Schoeneberger said...

Funny, if it cited the incense sticks Bhuddist's use I bet there wouldn't be any ridicule. Just another Catholic hating writer who doesn't know what he's talking about. I am always embarrassed by my stupidity. I wonder if these people are capable of any kind of shame for theirs.

Joann said...

"There are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic Church." Fulton J. Sheen

Moonshadow said...

That's an interesting quote, Joann. "Hate" is a strong word.

However, I know personally and have read from people who hold significant doctrinal disagreements with genuine Catholicism. So, the good Abp was apparently trying to soothe Catholics. To his credit, he did foretell Stalin's death.

It's possible that this article is yet another example of the tendency I've encountered among non-Christians - when asked who the Christians are, they'll say the Catholics. Protestants seem to be the only ones in the world who don't think we're Christian. Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims think we are.