Masterful Work
If you enjoy the dissection of pompous people you should be reading Charlie Pierce, especially if those people are in any way involved in the Catholic Church.
Charlie has dusted off all of his old religious studies textbooks and has them on his desk as he goes after the ‘Clan of the Red Beanie’ and Catholic politicians attempting to justify their actions by appealing to the ‘morality defense’.
The latest victim is Paul Ryan who is attempting to justify his budget in the face of opposition from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Alas, Ryan attempted the ‘appeal to authority’ dodge by invoking St Thomas Aquinas, not expecting anyone to actually fact check him. Well, Charlie has Aquinas on his desk, and Ryan gets eviscerated.
This is why the Church was so adamantly opposed to people translating the Bible and other religious texts into the local languages – people would read them and understand what they actually said. This would generate embarrassing questions when the Church strayed from the text. The people were just supposed to do what they were told, not ask questions.
Charlie has discovered his inner theologian, a situation that all organized religions really dislike.
