LOTR – FREWITTS OF THE DEEVIL!

chick

…Who knew?

 The atheistic leaning Edith Stein read the Autobiography of St. Teresa of Jesus in one night. By morning, she was Catholic. A few years later she entered a convent and died a cruel death for our Holy Faith. She is only one among many such conversions from reading the works of saints like St. Teresa of Jesus. Among all the millions of avid Tolkien readers, is there anyone who came to the truths of our faith through his books? Not that I have heard. What does this mean? It seems clear to me that these books, these myths of Middle Earth, are not channels of grace! They do not effectively transmit high-level truths that convert soul

UPDATE: The gauntlet is thrown down.

 

Comments

  1. “Only after a priest friend worked on me for some time…”

    Whew!

    If I had had any questions about Harry Potter, Jack Chick being agin’ em would have settled it for me.

    I’ve heard or read that about Edith Stein and St. Theresa many times, and I find it very depressing because it took me 6 months to read the autobiography–and I’m usually a fast reader.

    AMDG

  2. Matthew Lickona says

    Does this mean I have to give up my dream of casting the African-American Lord of the Rings?

  3. tl;dr 😛
    So I’ll take it they think Joseph Pearce is an agent of the Enemy then?

    • Ha!

      No, did you read the conference? With Pearce it’s more a matter of “men with good will looking in the wrong places” I think is how he says it.

      Most excruciating is how the priest takes aesthetic judgments as somehow latent moral and theological judgments.

      Carpenter: “I just don’t like making free-standing altars. They don’t fit in with my style.”

      Father Clenchjaw: “You, sir, are a liar and a son of the Father of Lies!”

      JOB

      • I’m not even gonna bother reading it lest my head explode. And for the record, Tolkien was a *major* influence on my faith, because he was the first person that ever caused me to fall in love with goodness and beauty.

        Also, as far as we’re talking about aesthetics and judgment, I have to admit that a part of me secretly judges people based on whether they liked LOTR. Or to be more precise, if you are a wonderful, friendly, intelligent, all around good person who dislikes the LOTR, I may be your friend, but I’ll never fully trust you. On the flipside, you might be a hardened murderer, but if you loved the LOTR, I’ll hold out hope for you yet.

      • I’m with Bernardo on this one.

  4. And he mentions Lewis. I personally do not know anyone that has become Catholic because of LotR, but I know LOTS of people who are Catholic because of Lewis.

    And why don’t we get to know the priest’s name? He doesn’t show himself on the YouTube either.

    AMDG

  5. Perhaps when Dylan dies he will be ushered into the same chamber of hell preserved for Tolkien and his orcs:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqvvOD4bdRs

    [By the way, I don’t know how a living Catholic could remain sane without the Korrektiv Kollektiv. I’m going to the Catholic Marketing Network this summer in Chicago. With your permission, I will promote Korrektiv as “the new EWTN.” Maybe that’ll turn more heads this way, and thus save not only some souls, but some sanity].

    • But if you do that before coming out to the farm first and breaking bread with me and mine, I will force you to eat every banana in every Kwik Trip between here and Milwaukee!

      JOB

    • Matthew Lickona says

      I think Dylan is going to get his own special room for that Chrysler ad. Extended cut here. Our Sunday Visitor tried to promote us once. They called us “A magnificent hodgepodge.” Their circulation has never recovered.

      • That explains the precipitous departure of Mr. Norton from the paper too, then.

        (Hee hee!)

        JOB

      • I don’t know, I can see Lickona turning “Life on the Rock” into a sort of Catholic “Late Show,” and doing so quite “successfully.” By success I mean it would be the best thing that ever happened to EWTN but their ratings would plummet nevertheless because they wouldn’t know that a prophet had arisen in their midst.

        As for the bananas . . . thankfully this old Ape has two little apelings who can help him digest all them naners. [in seriousness; so long as we can break some bananas too].

        • Matthew Lickona says

          The thing I like best about this idea is the notion of Angelico as Andy Richter, except one who is constantly firing barbs at my little ego balloons. All the cool kids would know that he was the real star, the real reason to watch. I’ve already written a sketch in which we investigate gomorring, Gomorrah’s little-known answer to Sodom’s sodomy, complete with outraged freethinker sputtering that it is simply barbaric that in 21st century America, we are still observing some Bronze Age religious ban on what four or more people do in the privacy of their own abattoir, if they have consent from all the living parties involved, if there is the proximate presence of an OSHA-approved eyewash station and defribrillator, and of course, if the manure spreader has been thoroughly sterilized.

          • “I’ve already written a sketch in which we investigate gomorring, Gomorrah’s little-known answer to Sodom’s sodomy.”

            And THAT’S why I read this blog. I laughed so much that I cried.

          • Call me old fashioned, but I’ve always heard the but plugs were mandatory for gomorring. I know! I know! The youngsters these days…!

          • Maybe ask Roger Ailes for the 4am slot at Fox. Pitch it like a “catholic hour” from the old days but make sure to mention the segment “today in porn.” Greg, (formerly Bill) & Andy’s Red Eye was the only reason to watch Fox I’d had for a good 5 years now. While I’ve only rarely tuned in at 3am (eastern) for that pleasure, I’ve heard it gets excellent ratings and a loyal dvr following. Seriously, Gomorring sounds like a segment Greg would have done.

          • and lotion. don’t forget the lotion.

      • notrelatedtoted says

        Yeah, wtf was THAT?

        The end times grow ever nearer.

      • Uh oh… does my linking to the Korrektiv in my most recent blog post spell ruin for our little venture as well??
        It’s a price I’m prepared to pay.
        (While this may seem to be shameless self-promotion, I really have to thank Quin and Matt for being so hip and with it where {good} new music is concerned. Otherwise my music library would be more than a few songs shorter and this blog post would never have happened.)

        • Oh, not a bit. And I think that whole album is a pretty serious shout. Thanks for the kind word; Quin is waaaay ahead of me, as are you.

      • Terry, Timmy, Bobby, Zimmy, R.J., and/or Ray says

        Have you seen dignity?

        I’m asking for a friend.

  6. I can’t even begin to figure out where to put this comment so I’ll just stick it here.

    After reading the original post–y’all remember the original post, right?–I meant to say that I would like to ask that priest, “Was not your heart burning within you when you read about lembas?”

    AMDG

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