re: #217 HappyWarrior

Didn’t know that about Calvin and Knox. Even though, I’m no longer religious, I can definitely say the Catholic tradition has played a role perhaps indirectly in shaping me for who I am. You’ve talked about Coach Lombardi before, he practiced a similar kind of Catholicism that my Dad’s parents did- a love and tolerance for all regardless of their differences and a deep desire to see helping humanity as the primary goal rather than saving souls.

Similar case here. Lapsed Catholic as I am, I grew up in a relatively liberal diocese (especially considering it was in West Virginia, of all forsaken places), and by that measure, my world view was plenty informed in a way that I just can’t grok the fatalistic and selfish position that modern American Calvinism works off of. I took the Beatitudes, “Love Thy Neighbor”, the Good Samaritan, and “What you did for the least of these” to heart too much to accept that.