Big Mac and Junk Food Christianity
It’s official – Big Mac – Cardinal Robert McElroy – has been crowned the Chief Priest of Junk Food Christianity. His recent article for America magazine titled “Radical Inclusion for L.G.B.T. People, Women and Others in the Catholic Church” cemented his position.
The Catholic Wise Guy was surprised that an American cardinal would pen such bureaucratic, junky, schismatic nonsense. The Synod on Synodality (SOS) is at the center of Big Mac’s argument and checks all the right bureaucratic boxes. It spouts intellectual-sounding nonsense and conceals – not very well – it’s darker purpose of undermining church teaching. A Department of Defense (DOD) bureaucrat for 34 years, the Wise Guy knows a bureaucratic, money-wasting scheme when he sees one.
The Wise Guy admits he’s been eating junk food for years, especially the Big Mac meal with a Big Mac, fries, and Diet Coke. However, as a committed Catholic I have never been a fan of Junk Food Christianity, which the Big Mac California Cardinal is marketing. Junk Food is as healthy for the spiritual life of Christians as Junk Food is for their physical life. Junk Food Christianity is Christianity leavened by the spirit of age. St. Paul warns us about being “conformed to this world. Here’s a quotation from Romans 12:2
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Big Mac’s thinking does not rest on Scripture or the Catechism. He does not cite a single verse of Scripture in his essay or any paragraph of the Catechism.
The Catholic Wise Guy cannot resist a comment on our pope. He’s been infallibly wrong in selecting American cardinals. Cardinal McElroy is the latest case in point.
Big Mac deserves credit for highlighting the wonderful image Pope Francis offered of “the church as a field hospital for the wounded,” adding “that we are all wounded and equally in need of healing.” Now Big Mac is spot on right here. The Church is a field hospital for the wounded. We are all wounded by our own sins and the sins of others. And throughout its history the Church has developed tried and true methods for treating the wounded, all based on the love, mercy, and saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Unlike Big Mac, the Wise Guy believes the modern Church has consistently opened its doors to all the wounded for treatment. But there’s one little problem that Big Mac refuses to address or even acknowledge – some of the “wounded” refuse to admit they’re wounded or, even if they admit that, they refuse the Church’s treatments and medications for healing. Part of the Church’s problem is how to minister to these “deniers” and “refusers.”
The Church is struggling and losing members in the West. Big Mac’s solution is to abandon the Gospel and market Junk Food with the Synod on Synodality as an evangelization tool. To the Wise Guy, the SOS appears to be a few leftwing bishops chatting among themselves and soliciting input from the unfaithful and maybe a few faithful, representing less than 1 percent of the church’s members. The results have no scientific validity; from what the Wise Guy can tell, no effort has been made to perform a statistically valid study.
McElroy probably considers the schismatic German Synod on Synodality (SOS) a shining success story. Apparently, this well-educated but unwise cardinal does not realize that an inclusive church full of unrepentant LGBT members will necessarily exclude faithful Catholics. The Cardinal references the recent Vatican document “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent.” Based on many experiments among our Protestant brethren along the same lines, his proposals would not make the tent larger and probably make it smaller. But whether larger or smaller the tent would cover a different group of people.
The Synod on Synodality (SOS) is an SOS to faithful Catholics– our Church is in distress and Big Mac and other leaders are steering the Barque of Peter into an iceberg.
The Wise Guy closes with a reflection on Cardinal McElroy’s statement, “It is a demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the L.G.B.T. communities.” Now Big Mac probably thinks the Wise Guy has a “demonic animus” towards the LGBT community. I assure you that is not true. I have friends and relatives in that community and do not feel any animus towards them. I care for them as I care for everyone, but I am concerned about them and their future in this life and the next. Few are happy or spiritually serene. Some try to practice the Faith, others do not.
Live and let live.
Yes, I say live and let live with our LGBT friends. But they do not always accept this. I get my dander up when they pressures me to accept gay marriage as a Christian sacrament or insist that trans behavior is normal. And I become unhappy, even combative, when they threaten me with legal and social penalties if I do not support their agenda. Acceptance and affirmation of the LGBT lifestyle may be the Junk Food Christian solution, but it is not the Christian solution.
The Wise Guy offers no special Wisdom other than prayer.
May the Lord help us! And fill our leaders with Wisdom!