The comments people make on blogs are interesting for the most part, and occasionally hilarious. Rarely there will be one that is better than the post itself. This one is not of the latter, but I just found it interesting, and want to quote it here. It's a comment left by one 'AlwaysCatholic' at this post of Creative Minority Report. It is concerning Obama's speech at Notre Dame:
Yesterday I performed an experiment. I read the text of the speech after it had been delivered because I was at Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 2 to 4 pm.
I, like yourself, Matthew, didn't want to hear or see something I can see or hear everyday on the mainstream media if I didn't have a life. but I do.
I asked a Catholic I know that believes himself to be faithful, attends Mass on Sundays and Holydays, loves Benedict etc. etc.professes a Pro-Life belief, to watch and listen to THE SPEECH.
We then agreed to meet afterward to discuss it.
This faithful Catholic was so happy to hear that Obama seems to be softening towards his stance on abortion, open to listening to others and mentioned several other key phrases that convinced this person that well, maybe he (Obama) isn't that bad.
I chose to stay cool, logical (like yourself Matthew) and to the point.
I asked this person to read the text of the speech that he had watched and listened.
The result: The person looked at me with a confused look and said, "I don't understand. Are your sure this is the actual text of the speech?" I, however, was not confused. I was'nt even surprised.
I was once again witnessing a phenomenon some people say is akin to NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming, I think that's correct). NLP is used by motivational speakers, "life" coaches, moneymaking gurus and the like. It seems to be a subtle form of "persuasion" that has great results for these people because it helps drive their dvd sales through the roof.
Now I didn't say this was a scientific experiment, just sort of an observational one.
The language, tone and body language that Obama uses is the same as these "self-help" characters. Everything is couched in flowery, romantic language that mesmerizes the listener into a feel-good stupor. The listener feels at this point that ANYTHING is possible because of what they are hearing.
The person that had watched and listened to the speech was acting and responding in that manner until he read the speech.When he read the text he became disturbed by the same phrases he had just thought were wonderful.
What disturbed him most was that he had been drawn into this "intellectual ponzi" scheme as he described it when he came to.
I smiled, thanked him for being part of experiment and told him, "by the way, do not feel bad". "There's probably hundreds of priests including Fr. Jenkins and the usual suspects, that have been swayed to Obama's side and they are much more educated and proud to be in deliberate defiance of Rome".
He said, "Yeah, but that doesn't help me when I stand before Christ at the end of my life. Mea culpa".
As I said goodbye, I assured him that I would keep him and Fr. Jenkins et al. in my prayers.
As I thought back on this interaction, I realized that being a Catholic in our world is not easy, unless of course, you believe the true Messiah and not the deceivers that cross our path.
No comments:
Post a Comment