Killing the sophistry of "devout" Catholic politicians and their allies.

America

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society. - John Adams

Dismantling Deception

Excerpt from Politicizing the Eucharist

 - from the pen of the theological titan the Rev. Dr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM Cap.

To refuse to give Holy Communion to dissident Catholic politicians, however, is not to politicize the Eucharist. The politicizing of the Eucharist occurs in the act of the Catholic politician presenting himself or herself to receive Communion even though he or she is well aware that to do so is contrary to what the Church teaches. Those who are objectively in the state of mortal sin, or who dissent from or promote contrary positions to the Church’s fundamental dogmatic or moral teaching are forbidden to receive the body and blood of Jesus, for they have made themselves unworthy to do so.

Thus, such Catholic politicians, in presenting themselves, are using – and so abusing – the Eucharist for seemingly political purposes – to present themselves as “devout” Catholics. Therein lies a threefold irony.

First, those who are unquestionably devout Catholics do not need to identify themselves as such – it is evident to all that they are. Everyone knows that they believe and uphold, and even promote, all that the Church teaches. When they sin against God’s commandments as taught by the Church, they go to Confession, resolve to amend their lives, and so obtain sacramental absolution. Such Catholics are devout without needing to trumpet it.

Second, when a dissident politician declares that he or she is a devout Catholic, one immediately perceives that something is awry. Catholic politicians emphasize their devotedness – and their supporters echo the declaration – because there is something about their behavior that is suspect.

Appearances notwithstanding, it is claimed, there’s no problem here. While they may affirm and promote abortion, same-sex relationships, etc., they are, NONETHELESS, “devout” Catholics. How do they manifest their devotedness? They go to Communion! Ironically, such Catholic politicians do the very thing that no truly devout Catholic would ever do. The very “devout” action they perform, that of receiving Holy Communion, is an enacted declaration that they lack authentic Catholic devotion.

The third irony is that no one is fooled by this charade, except maybe the self-deluded politician.  Faithful Catholics know that there is an irreconcilable disconnect between what is being held by such Catholic politicians and their receiving Communion. And they see that it’s the dissenting Catholic politician who is politicizing the Eucharist.

• https://www.thecatholicthing.org/
• https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/04/14/aquila-denver-eucharist-politicians-teaching-240396

The Pathos of Sophism
- from Black Label Logic

Emotion and the psychology of an audience are critical elements for the enlightened sophist. These can be used in effective ways to shroud your rhetorical maneuvers from the audiences perception. Unfortunately large groups of our species have internal workings where their emotion will override their capacity for reason, by use of simple trigger words, or vocal performance.

Gauging the psychology and internal state of an audience takes practice, once you master it, you will be able to adapt your level of sophistry to best suit both the tastes of the audience but also to avoid being revealed. Many logicians including me, have found ourselves outmatched, by an opponent engaging in faulty reasoning, pointless audience pandering and below average factual knowledge, simply because of misjudging the audience.

Presenting a string of mathematical reasoning to an audience who would rather have dental surgery than think of basic arithmetic, or engaging in a lengthy build-up of a logically coherent and factually correct death-blow, found ourselves hitting the shadow.

A sad truth, but reason and logic are not the “default state” of a human being. If it was, we would not have needed to invent the scientific method, or logic itself, to eliminate human bias and human flaws. You will get further by appealing to emotions in short-punchy, easy to remember and repeat statements that make people feel good about themselves on some level, than by writing reasoning as beautiful and coherent as the Critique of Pure Reason.