John Michael Talbot
With John Michael Talbot (known as JMT), we’ve held our fire. A former country-rock star, he went from “riches to rags” as a monastic hermit. He has a good heart.
In his Brothers and Sisters of Charity newsletter, October 2003, hailing from the Little Portion Hermitage in Berryville, Arkansas, he had an article titled “Factions Within the Church.” We held our fire — but we’ll get to that later. In The Brothers and Sisters of Charity newsletter of July 2006, there is an article by Mark Shepler called “Holy or Judgmental.” We can no longer hold our fire. Shepler says: “Judgmentalism is a sin that is highly repulsive to God…. Judgmentalism is fueled by our own misguided pride and precludes forgiveness….” So who is being judgmental? It’s Shepler! He’s judging “misguided pride” and the inability to “forgive.”
Shepler says we must “tolerate…those who [sic] God puts on our path during the day,” but Shepler won’t tolerate those with “misguided pride.” He says we must extend “unilateral forgiveness to others,” but he won’t extend “unilateral forgiveness” to those who are unable to forgive. He’s just going in circles.
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Perhaps we would have better luck if we asked for a voucher that covered the secular portion of a parochial-school education.
The idea attempts to describe the signs of the Church in its wounded state, a state with difficulties that could be far better dealt with if no schisms had occurred.