Thank you, Mark Shea.

I've been reading the Boarshead Tavern since Catholic blogger David Lawrence Alexander was asked to join as a Catholic contributor. I was initially attracted to its ecumenical orientation, but as I've been reading it - and particularly after Alexander was excommunicated because his Catholic contributions were just a tad too ecumenical - I've continued to read Boarshead Tavern and have had my teeth set on edge by the sneering condescension that the contributors dedicate to things Catholic.

There was this recent post, for example, responding to a Christianity Today article that is critical of the evangelical emphasis the conversion experience:

Hmmmm. Revivalistic experience…..or…..works. Any other choices? (Hint: Faith in Jesus as mediator.)

You know, it’s this kind of thing that makes me want to bang my head against a wall. Is it just me or is this answer thoroughly Roman Catholic? LUTHERANS!!!!!! WOULD YOU PLEASE HELP US OUT HERE? You seem to be the only ones left who understand this and we hardly know what you believe.

Because, obviously, the touchpoint for truth is how far things diverge from Catholic doctrine. After all, as the Alexander tenure at BHT demonstrated, how can anyone identify Protestant truth without having Catholic doctrine - or a misunderstanding of Catholic doctrine - to react against.

Then there was this post:

On the “Solemnity of Mary”: ***sigh*** This is the sort of thing that really sets me back. You have no idea how hard I am working on the right attitude toward Roman Catholicism, but here you have the addition of ANOTHER Marian feast right in the middle of Christmas, AS IF WE NEEDED ANOTHER ONE.

Jeepers! Imagine that! A day commemorating the mother of God!

During a season commemorating the birth of the Incarnate Word of God!

As if births had anything to do with mothers!

Horrors!

Naturally, Mark Shea is all over this in his typically Chestertonian way:

It's the words "right in the middle of Christmas" that crack me up the most. Mary, intruding on the Christmas story like that! What could the Mother of God possibly have to do with the birth of God the Son? And yes, fine, there is that bit of Scripture about "from now all generations will call me blessed" but do we *have* to muck up the celebration of Christ's birth by calling her blessed, you know, again?

This is a fairly classic example of what I'm talking about when I say that there is something unnatural, not about normal Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin, but about Protestant terror of it. If somebody were to hoist a glass to my mother during my birthday party, I would not respond by pointing out that this party is about ME and people had bloody well better keep the focus on giving me all the glory I am due. I would stand and offer the toast myself. It's called "honoring your mother" and is highly spoken of in Scripture. The Evangelical fear (there's no other word for it) about giving Mary "too much" honor is exactly like the teetotaler's terror of drinking "too much" wine in communion. "Too much" always tends to mean "any".

Read the whole thing for a balanced view of the biblical idea that honoring mothers - even the Mother of God - is a good thing.

Update: Reformed Catholicism continues to lurch back to the 16th Century.

It's really sad. When I discovered RC last year, I thought that it was doing something interesting by trying to recapture the thread of historical memory for Protestantism. Now, the historical memory it is trying to rekindle is 16th Century reformational polemics and it is has managed to drive off its most ecumenically irenic bloggers.