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Favorite conservative thinkers?

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
I'm really feeling some sorrow to read about the struggle you are going through. :(

You seem to be truly in no man's land.

I just think it is truly heroic that you want to leave those vices behind and return to the Church and the Eucharist, despite the inner conflicts that such a decision causes.

We are all sinners. We are all just disordered, and full of flaws, shame, guilt, and defects.

I can guarantee that Jesus is more offended with the self-righteous hypocrites, than the humble repentant sinners.

When the Pharisee was praying next to the sinful tax collector, the Pharisee was thanking God that he prays and fasts, and thanking God that he is not like the sinful man next to him.

The sinful tax collector was full of shame and just beat his chest and repeated "Lord have mercy on me a sinner"...

Jesus said it was the sinful tax collector that left justified, not the self-righteous religious person.

If you run into a priest that judges you or despises you, that is a reflection of him not you.

That is his flaw, his weakness, his bias, his fear, and certainly not a reflection of a Christlike attitude.

It appears to me, that you're doing better than I am, and a lot of Christians for that matter.

Regarding the Eucharist, I had a Jesuit tell me that, if you are truly sorry for your sins, please receive the Eucharist, even if you haven't been to confession.

He said, to tell sinners not to receive the Eucharist, is like telling a sick person not to take their medicine.

the catechism says a person in a state mortal sin, has no charity in their heart, and has completely turned their back on God.

At least from what you say, I see a person who has charity in their heart, has the desire to change, and has true Contrition for sin.

If I am correct about that, then according to the catechism, your soul is not in a state of mortal sin.

I will be praying for you, because I believe your charity towards people who are disordered and sick, has greater potential, than most Catholics, because you have experienced so much, and you think more deeply about so many of the issues that afflict so many people, in our dying culture.

You have greater potential to understand where the lepers of society are coming from, and what it's like to be deeply afflicted, haunted, and tortured mentally, sexually, and emotionally.

Jesus is very close to people like you. He said, "blessed are they who are full of sorrow (who mourn)"..." the Lord is close to the Brokenhearted and those whose Spirits are crushed"... he came for the Sinners not the righteous.

You could be a great minister to the gay, lesbian, and transgender community. I'm very moved by things you have to say and see a lot of promise and potential in you. So does God! :)

Keep your chin up! I actually have a lot of faith in you :heart:... do you see me saying such things to other members of the Forum?

Yes I've benefited from other people's corrections and criticism, and given them due props, but no other member on this forum has influenced me as much as you have.

some people might label you a freak or a weirdo.

So what! That's who Jesus came for.

I really think the church needs you, and I would hate to see the church lose you.

Your wounds can be a source of healing for others.

I'm not capable of telling you how great it is to be schooled and inspired by a transgender LGBT member who has a good heart, rational thought, open mind, good intentions, good ideas, faith, and sound morals.

I used to judge such people. And you totally proved me wrong on this thread and so many other times.

Things just aren't black and white, and I had some inner convictions that you put in check, as only you seem to be able to do.

Hence, I have a lot of confidence in you, and wish you would stop beating yourself up and caring about what others think.

God is love and more accepting of you and understanding than I am.

It isn't comfortable giving such flattery, but you truly are a hero to me, fighting the battle you are up against.

So, I hold you in my heart and pray that God will fully enlighten you and heal you!

I see enormous potential!

God bless you! :)
Wow. That was very touching. Thank you so much. I will try to take your words to heart. I might save that post to my phone just for me to look at when I'm feeling down on myself and despairing over my situation. I'm really trying to do better and I feel spiritually at home lately. A switch seems to have flipped in me and I'm trying to hold onto it. Yes, please pray for me and I will pray for you. I do care about you, dear friend. God loves you so much, too, and you are obviously doing better and doing your best.

:hugehug:
 

Spiderman

Veteran Member
Wow. That was very touching. Thank you so much. I will try to take your words to heart. I might save that post to my phone just for me to look at when I'm feeling down on myself and despairing over my situation. I'm really trying to do better and I feel spiritually at home lately. A switch seems to have flipped in me and I'm trying to hold onto it. Yes, please pray for me and I will pray for you. I do care about you, dear friend. God loves you so much, too, and you are obviously doing better and doing your best.

:hugehug:
Yes that would be awesome if you save that post to your phone because I had really strong feelings and convictions when I posted that. So I'm delighted to hear that it brought you some relief. :)

I Can only imagine the battle a transgender LGBT person goes through trying to return to the Catholic Faith.

It is a battle I would not wish on my worst enemy! I can't even imagine! So, you are truly a hero to me for being willing to even consider taking on such a fight!

My hope and prayers are that you can be a minister to the LGBT community.

Saint Francis of Assisi hugged a leper and spent time in leper colonies.

I could totally see you as the perfect candidate to hug, accept, cherish, and help those who are treated as lepers in our society, the most wounded, the most broken, the most despised.

You have been through it.

Wounded healer is a term created by psychologist Carl Jung. The idea states that an analyst is compelled to treat patients because the analyst himself is "wounded". The idea may have Greek mythology origins. Research has shown that 73.9% of counselors and psychotherapists have experienced one or more wounding experiences leading to their career choice.[1]

As an example, of the "wounded healerphenomenon" between an analyst and his/her analyzed:

  • The analyst is consciously aware of his own personal wounds. These wounds may be activated in certain situations especially if the analyzed wounds are similar to his own.[2]
  • The analyzed wounds affect the wounds of the analyst. The analyst either consciously or unconsciously passes this awareness back to his analyzed, causing an unconscious relationship to take place between analyst and analyzed.[3]
Wounded healer - Wikipedia

I could totally see you as a wounded healer, able to reach the people that others are not able to reach, because you share their woundedness and brokenness.

Our current Pope says that the church is to be a hospital for the wounded. We are not supposed to judge and condemn

Pope Francis would be very proud of you!
pope-francis-thumbs-up-150-wide.jpg

God is love. Jesus came to save, not to condemn. Jesus said to " judge not, lest you be judged, condemn not lest you be condemned!"

The voices in your head that bring guilt or shame, or the opinions of other biased people, is not the voice of the Holy Spirit.
 

David1967

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I will say that my present rethinking of things was kicked into high gear with the pilloring of Kanye West and Candace Owens for daring to have a different opinion that is currently going on. And I don't even like Kanye. But I've seen him and her called the most vulgar racist terms, accused of self-hatred, denied his status as a black men, suspected of having a mental breakdown and accused of being a race traitor by black people. (White people can just get away with calling him a "collaborator", as one of my white friends did on Facebook but even another white person PC policed her over it, lol, so maybe that is not even allowed). I've seen his wife, Kim Kardashian, referred to as being of "colonizer descent" ("colonizer" seems to be a new racist buzzword for whites that non-white activists are using now). It is totally insane and only proving him right. I have to take his side on this.

I was already getting sick of it because I go to this transgender support group and there's a lot of infighting over the stifling PC culture of trans activism. Many of us don't agree with how it is going and if we say anything about it, someone gets "offended" and complains. A group of us complain about it to each other.

So it's been building for me for awhile.

My thoughts exactly on Kanye. Not a fan of his music and other than the media attention that he and his wife get IDK anything about him. But now the pounding he is taking for having an opinion that the majority of others in his profession have is just wrong. A lot of unnecessarily hateful people showing their true colors.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
Yes that would be awesome if you save that post to your phone because I had really strong feelings and convictions when I posted that. So I'm delighted to hear that it brought you some relief. :)

I Can only imagine the battle a transgender LGBT person goes through trying to return to the Catholic Faith.

It is a battle I would not wish on my worst enemy! I can't even imagine! So, you are truly a hero to me for being willing to even consider taking on such a fight!

My hope and prayers are that you can be a minister to the LGBT community.

Saint Francis of Assisi hugged a leper and spent time in leper colonies.

I could totally see you as the perfect candidate to hug, accept, cherish, and help those who are treated as lepers in our society, the most wounded, the most broken, the most despised.

You have been through it.

Wounded healer is a term created by psychologist Carl Jung. The idea states that an analyst is compelled to treat patients because the analyst himself is "wounded". The idea may have Greek mythology origins. Research has shown that 73.9% of counselors and psychotherapists have experienced one or more wounding experiences leading to their career choice.[1]

As an example, of the "wounded healerphenomenon" between an analyst and his/her analyzed:

  • The analyst is consciously aware of his own personal wounds. These wounds may be activated in certain situations especially if the analyzed wounds are similar to his own.[2]
  • The analyzed wounds affect the wounds of the analyst. The analyst either consciously or unconsciously passes this awareness back to his analyzed, causing an unconscious relationship to take place between analyst and analyzed.[3]
Wounded healer - Wikipedia

I could totally see you as a wounded healer, able to reach the people that others are not able to reach, because you share their woundedness and brokenness.

Our current Pope says that the church is to be a hospital for the wounded. We are not supposed to judge and condemn

Pope Francis would be very proud of you!
View attachment 21504
God is love. Jesus came to save, not to condemn. Jesus said to " judge not, lest you be judged, condemn not lest you be condemned!"

The voices in your head that bring guilt or shame, or the opinions of other biased people, is not the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Aww, you make me want to cry. Careful or you'll give me a big head. :p I know God is speaking through you and it's something I need to hear. I was spiritually dead for many months, stuck in a nihilistic worldview that I had rationalized myself into and trying to force myself to follow religions that weren't for me. But now I feel alive and it's a glorious feeling. Praise God! :)

I will think over what you said about the Eucharist. I was always told that it was big no-no take Communion while in a state of moral sin, without going to confession. It is like throwing the Lord into a garbage can. But you gave me a new perspective and I do miss it so...I will pray about it. :)
 

Spiderman

Veteran Member
Aww, you make me want to cry. Careful or you'll give me a big head. :p I know God is speaking through you and it's something I need to hear. I was spiritually dead for many months, stuck in a nihilistic worldview that I had rationalized myself into and trying to force myself to follow religions that weren't for me. But now I feel alive and it's a glorious feeling. Praise God! :)

I will think over what you said about the Eucharist. I was always told that it was big no-no take Communion while in a state of moral sin, without going to confession. It is like throwing the Lord into a garbage can. But you gave me a new perspective and I do miss it so...I will pray about it. :)
Indeed, if there was ever a time I felt like God was speaking through me, a message that somebody needed to hear online, it was today, on this thread! :)

I'm truly glad that, despite all of the stupid offensive things I've posted, I today managed to post something worthwhile that helped someone else who is struggling, and that really means a lot.

Isn't it ironic that the guy you were thinking about putting on ignore, had a message you really needed to hear? ;)

I pray more for you than any other person I've met online.

I'm even going to share things you've taught me with family and mental health professionals.

I kind of wish I knew your first name so I knew who I was praying for, but God knows who I'm talking about when I lift up Saint Frankenstein :p

You've revolutionized my views regarding the transgender and LGBT community.

If you weren't transgender, and you didn't have the struggles you have, you would not have been able to reach me the way you did.

So, your struggles and wounds have created a greater source of inspiration to me, and I'm sure there are others who can benefit in the same way.

It's like this, early on in my conversion I was taught things that led me to believe that the LGBT and transgender folks had Demons and were total moral relativists.

In you, I have seen proof that this is not true. I see an example of somebody whose heart is in the right place, someone who sees eye-to-eye with me and the Church on morality, and now even faith, at least in most areas.

Transgender people and the LGBT community are not the moral relativist monsters that some scared people portray them as.

You see the errors of the left and sympathize with conservative views. You are not biased, and you are open minded and willing to look at the other side.

It just speaks volumes to me to see that. :glomp:

To me, it tells me you are not in mortal sin, and that the Holy Spirit does indeed live within you, and speak through you.

I've never felt like I've had something more important to say to somebody online, then what I've shared today on this thread.

I can't thank you enough!:hugehug:
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
Indeed, if there was ever a time I felt like God was speaking through me, a message that somebody needed to hear online, it was today, on this thread! :)

I'm truly glad that, despite all of the stupid offensive things I've posted, I today managed to post something worthwhile that helped someone else who is struggling, and that really means a lot.

Isn't it ironic that the guy you were thinking about putting on ignore, had a message you really needed to hear? ;)

I pray more for you than any other person I've met online.

I'm even going to share things you've taught me with family and mental health professionals.

I kind of wish I knew your first name so I knew who I was praying for, but God knows who I'm talking about when I lift up Saint Frankenstein :p

You've revolutionized my views regarding the transgender and LGBT community.

If you weren't transgender, and you didn't have the struggles you have, you would not have been able to reach me the way you did.

So, your struggles and wounds have created a greater source of inspiration to me, and I'm sure there are others who can benefit in the same way.

It's like this, early on in my conversion I was taught things that led me to believe that the LGBT and transgender folks had Demons and were total moral relativists.

In you, I have seen proof that this is not true. I see an example of somebody whose heart is in the right place, someone who sees eye-to-eye with me and the Church on morality, and now even faith, at least in most areas.

Transgender people and the LGBT community are not the moral relativist monsters that some scared people portray them as.

You see the errors of the left and sympathize with conservative views. You are not biased, and you are open minded and willing to look at the other side.

It just speaks volumes to me to see that. :glomp:

To me, it tells me you are not in mortal sin, and that the Holy Spirit does indeed live within you, and speak through you.

I've never felt like I've had something more important to say to somebody online, then what I've shared today on this thread.

I can't thank you enough!:hugehug:
My name is Frank. Well, Francis but everyone calls me Frank. St. Francis is my namesake, hence my nickname and avatar. (I chose a really Catholic name for myself.) :)

I'm glad I can show you some of the diversity in the LGBT community. A lot of anger at religion that comes from it is due to how we're treated by religious people, many times. However, many of us do remain Christian. I'm friends with multiple transgender Christians. Interestingly, one of my friends was a Trappist monk for almost 20 years! Fancy that!

:hugehug:
 

Spiderman

Veteran Member
My name is Frank. Well, Francis but everyone calls me Frank. St. Francis is my namesake, hence my nickname and avatar. (I chose a really Catholic name for myself.) :)

I'm glad I can show you some of the diversity in the LGBT community. A lot of anger at religion that comes from it is due to how we're treated by religious people, many times. However, many of us do remain Christian. I'm friends with multiple transgender Christians. Interestingly, one of my friends was a Trappist monk for almost 20 years! Fancy that!

:hugehug:
Francis is my confirmation name and my favorite Saint. I was a postulant at a Franciscan community. It was my dream to be a Franciscan Friar.

This just keeps getting better! I really needed to see you bloom, Frank! It means the world to me! ((hugs)) We will meet in paradise. You are in his wounded hands. He's not gonna let go of you, Saint Francis! :)
th
 

Loviatar

Red Tory/SpongeBob Conservative
- Edmund Burke. I like his emphasis on caution in social change, as well as his evolutionary view of where traditions and rights arise from. Basically, "these norms developed for a reason; sometimes they have to be changed, but be cautious when changing them." Michael Oakeshott later said essentially the same thing, with less snark and more eloquence, so I like him too.

- Henry Clay. A brilliant figure whose policies really set the groundwork for America's development, and the development of so many other countries who followed its example. He also had a critique of populist demagoguery that I think really resonates today, looking in hindsight at what Jackson left in his wake: a genocide and an economy in depression. Realizing that isn't a historically atypical example of the phenomenon at all is sobering.

- G.K. Chesterton. Good analysis of how market monopolies and state encroachment both feed off each-other, centralizing society and usurping community life. This enables power dynamics that hurt the bargaining position of the average person, and that usurp both local government and the traditional central role of the church in community life. Thereby weakening both civic and broader virtues.

- Friedrich Hayek. I'm not at all a libertarian economically, but then again he wouldn't be considered one today either with his support for public health insurance. I do think he had the most prescient warning about how state power in one area tends to grow state power in another though, which feeds in with a Burkean sense of caution.

- Albert Jay Nock. A solid writer who really combined proto-Hayekian warnings about state overreach with Henry Clay-type criticism of populism, complete with some social criticism on the dangers a high-education/high-mobility industrial society faces in general. Far too radical for me ultimately, he was a proto-Hoppean ancap type who longed for something that resembles feudalism, but he was never boring and always insightful.

- Leo Strauss. I like his work on civil society, the need for shared social norms and active citizen engagement in social institutions (churches, rotaries, etc.) to combat the trend of liberalism towards nihilism and atomization.

- Allan Bloom. A great cultural critic, who really lays out the unfolding of what the former predicted. Another example of not entirely market-worshiping conservatism, he saw "sex sells" as playing a huge role in cultural decline.

- Samuel Huntington. A welcome dose of realism on foreign policy, against both "democratize the world" trends that ignore deeply-ingrained cultural trends and self-isolating naivete that also ignores culture.

- Phillip Blond. The most prominent thinker advocating Red Toryism today, inveighing against both state encroachment and market monopolies a la Chesterton. Someone who also views much of modern conservatism, especially in the US, as another form of populist radicalism that will only increase social divides and centralize power further, especially as mixed with market-fundamentalist policies that are traditionally the province of Smithian liberalism rather than traditionalist conservatism. I'm not as strict a traditionalist as Blond, I see anti-LGBT views as needlessly hurtful for example and have no issue with broadening the traditional definition of the community to remove wrongful treatment of historically marginalized groups. That seems like exactly the kind of problem that should be cautiously reformed, like Catholic emancipation in Burke's day which Burke himself supported. But in general, Blond's critique of liberalism and modern conservatism seems sound.
 
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Nicholas

Bodhicitta
Another American Sage was Irving Babbitt, misunderstood by many, but his value is slowly being seen.

The Humanism of Irving Babbitt Revisited - The Imaginative Conservative

"Babbitt’s idea of humanism is not intended to deny the claims of religion in its own sphere. What he disputes is the necessity for deriving the norms of justice from revelation. Humanism and religion are mutually supportive and yet separate orders of life."

Part of his evidence is Buddhism, which is based on Buddha's own profound insights into his mind. No God or gods revealed anything to him. Babbitt even translated the Dhammapada teachings of Buddha.
 
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Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I'd probably go with history's John Locke.

He seemed to have that brilliance that seems long lost now where he could actually bridge the gap amongst conservatism and liberalism in a way that's equitable and beneficial for everybody.

What's amazing about the man is he is regarded as being the among fathers of conservatism and even some liberals say he's actually the father of liberalism even.

Either way he's very appealing from a conservative standpoint.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I'd probably go with history's John Locke.

He seemed to have that brilliance that seems long lost now where he could actually bridge the gap amongst conservatism and liberalism in a way that's equitable and beneficial for everybody.

What's amazing about the man is he is regarded as being the among fathers of conservatism and even some liberals say he's actually the father of liberalism even.

Either way he's very appealing from a conservative standpoint.
He's listed among 16 of the greatest conservative thinkers....

https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/a...thinkers&year=2013&month=11&date=18&id=537274


Snippet from link..

"Liberals believe Locke is the Father of Liberalism because he laid the foundation for liberal epistemology (how we know what we know). Conservatives believe he is the Father of Conservatism because he founded a natural law political philosophy, which assumes that one has an innate nature and values".
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
I wanted to add Blaire White to my list, who is a conservative trans woman on YouTube I've become a fan of recently. I don't agree with her takes on everything, but I agree with her on most things. She shares the same feelings as I on the problems in the activist wing in the trans community.
 

Bob Jones

Prove It!
The best factual hard hitting commentator I have ever listen to is Pat Condell (Youtube). The Iconoclast (Youtube) is also hard hitting. I read Mr. Murray´s book. I found it informative,but if you are savvy about today's political world nothing in the book is a surprise.
 

Nicholas

Bodhicitta
Never popular with many of his day, yet I think Irving Babbitt was a bright soul.

"Babbitt, [was] a professor of
comparative literature at Harvard and founder
of the school of American philosophy he called
humanism. Kirk spends considerable time on
Babbitt, treating several of his ideas, the first
of which is the distinction Babbitt and his
fellow humanists made between humanism
and humanitarianism.

The humanist concerns
himself with the higher part of man’s nature
and the disciplines that can nurture man’s
spirit, such as philosophy and art, which truly
distinguish man from beast.

The humanitarian,
by contrast, advocates the solution of all man’s
troubles by physical remedies and Utilitarian
methods and pursues a social egalitarianism
hostile to “those spiritual essences in man which
make possible truly human life.”

In sum, the
humanist believes there is such a thing as the
life of the spirit and that such a belief is crucial
to civilization.
The humanitarian denies both
claims and therefore also denies that man stands
in any need of moral improvement or checks
upon his fallen nature.
Babbitt and his allies in
this chapter, Kirk tells us, agreed that “the saving
of civilization is contingent upon the revival of
something like the doctrine of original sin.”

From the 2012 condensation of Kirk's Conservative Mind
 
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