I’m not anti-traditional nor anti-Christian. I make tired old jokes, sure.
But there’s been a segment of (mostly) American Catholics, not part of the church itself but outside of it, that HAVE been working on stuff for some time now.
I used to think it was evangelicals or fundies but no, they’re not organized in sneaky enough of a way. But the Catholics know how to quietly organize in focus groups, think tanks, raise money quietly, work “with the system” in what seem to be legitimate ways and most importantly, play the very long game.
and they have and do, riding along with the evangelicals in politics but never fully joining hands.
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For me it was an intellectual pursuit.
I needed to explore my boundaries.
So for my progressive/liberal/leftist side, I was immersed in Unitarian Universalist for a bit, dipping my toes in Baha’i, Quaker, even Osho (that last was was after Orthodoxy and only for maybe a year).
but for depth and intellectual it was ALMOST Roman Catholic but ended up being Orthodox at the very last moment, just before I was going to take the plunge into Catholic church.
The Philokalia being translated to English in a new translation book by book was such a treat for me and between that any anything by the church fathers I could get my hands on was gold.
The only reason I was studying Russian for four years was I wanted to join the seminary in Jordanville NY I think it was.
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