There you have it, folks! I can laugh at myself (in fact, my wife and four kids assure that that is a rather common occurrence), and I'm a huge fan of satire and spoof, so I rather enjoy this, from the "Catholic UNapologist," Patrick Vandapool (be sure to see the entire paper: I only posted my portion above).
In fact (to pursue the "gunfighter" analogy a bit), the most active anti-Catholic Protestants online (whom we all know and admire) seem to have regarded me as some kind of "gunfighter" or "Billy the Kid" figure for years, and seek to gun me down as soon as I dare set foot in any of their Know-Nothing saloons. Normal conversation is quite beside the point. It's "Kill DA!" That's the object. Hence, it's virtually all insults and mockery as a result (including visuals). They have mastered their Master Luther's propagandistic and smear tactics well.
But this present example is good, legitimate satire, based on a real event, not on lies and genuine contempt, as anti-Catholic mockery invariably is (see an example from Eric Svendsen, associating me with Holocaust denial). James White had his talented caricaturist friend do one of Patrick Madrid being stoned (really funny stuff!), and two of me (dated 4-22-04 and 1-13-05), incorporating various lies and double standards. And we must give honorable mention to Frank Turk's merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, etc.: I was dying to wear one of these shirts to Steubenville for a conference . . . didn't get a chance to yet, but I assuredly would!):
To be effective and funny, satire has to have facts and truth as its basis, not distortions and falsehoods. James White knows this, because in his first caricature of me, he includes the line, "when truth takes a dive, so do the laughs." Satire in the Bible is always based on an underlying serious truth (such as Jesus' excoriations of the Pharisees, or Elijah mocking the false prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel). Yet White shamelessly lied in the same caricature and the second one. Prejudice mixed with ignorance brings this about. The artist was very talented; it is the content that falls short.
Patrick Vandapool, on the other hand, knows how to do satire. I have enjoyed his humor-with-a-message for some time now, and made a post about it on my Facebook page several months ago. I give his site my very highest recommendation. I hope my readers will visit it regularly.
Oh (almost forgot); this present satire is based on the discussion I had with Devin Rose and other "young guns" (of which Patrick is one) that I documented in a post entitled, "'Young Guns' in Catholic Online Apologetics: How Different Are They from the 'Old Guard'? / Apologetics is Always a Difficult Spiritual Battle". I made my case; discussing some merely minor quibbles I had with the article by Devin Rose. Apparently I argued too vigorously (as is my wont) -- and was only partially successful --, thus opening myself up as fodder for the late-night "Catholic apologist comedian" circuit.
The volume of my writing has always been the target of humor for friends and foes alike. It was mentioned in the article by Rose that the "young gun" apologists were "systematic." So I said that I had over 2600 posts on my blog, and over 50 separate web pages (categories). I wasn't trying to brag (after all, volume alone proves nothing whatever as to substance); I was just making the point that I am quite "systematic" myself (in other words, that this was nothing particularly "new"). So Patrick took that and ran with it, humor-wise. All of that is fine and fair game. I had some fun, myself, with the same theme of how much I write, in a take-off of the Beatles' Paperback Writer, written in 2004, including the lines:
Here's a thousand pages, give or take a few,
I’ll be writing more in an hour or two.
I can make them longer if you like the style,
I can crank 'em out and I want to be a blogosphere writer,
Blogosphere writer.
If you really hate it we can have a fight*,
I could write a million pages overnight.
If you must reject it, you can leave my blog
Cuz you need a break and don't want to be a blogosphere reader,
Blogosphere reader.* tongue-in-cheek reference to my love of challenging, feisty (particularly socratic) dialogue / debate.
I have immensely enjoyed this diversion (perfect for a Friday afternoon). If we start taking ourselves too seriously, we're in big trouble. We Christians have always laughed at ourselves, because we know full well that human beings are fallen creatures, full of foibles and follies and faults. And that is often very funny (alliteration semi-unintentional).
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