Triggered Much? & Have a Little Dignity, Atlantic!

Two posts from One Mad Mom on the Atlantic's recent article 'How Extremist Gun Culture Co-Opted the Rosary' that I posted about here, yesterday.

Triggered Much?

Update: The Atlantic has literally tried to change this headline 2 times since the original posting. Nice catch, Michael Thomas! Maybe if they just change it 5 more times they’ll be taken seriously instead of being taken as the drama queens they are.  https://twitter.com/MichaelTG09/status/1559293715616862209

I’m super busy but this one was so incredibly over-the-top I just couldn’t pass it up. I’m sure all of you carrying your assault rosaries will also get a good chuckle. Watch where you point those things, OK?

IDEAS

This is the section in the Atlantic which this screed was found. I think “ABSURDITIES” would have been far more succinct.

How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol
By Daniel Panneton

Yes, you read this right. You extremist! You believe the faith. The horrors! What’s next, you recite some sort of creed or something because, of course, you belong to a right-wing cult? It’s hard to believe someone would actually attach their name to this.

The AR-15 is a sacred object among Christian nationalists. Now “radical-traditional” Catholics are bringing a sacrament of their own to the movement.

What in the @#$%?! Apparently, Danny Boy has just stumbled onto this bunch of beads thingy. It’s called a sacramental, and yes, many saints and our own pope have called it a spiritual weapon. And, no, nobody kneels down to or prays on the AR-15. 

Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or “rad trad”) Catholics. On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.

Uh, what?! First of all, faithful Catholics, not just rad trads, should be praying the Rosary daily. Maybe Mr. Panneton doesn’t know any faithful Catholics? Can anyone tell me why he has a problem with praying against evil? I mean, those that are evil are the only people who would fear that, right? Oh… It’s all becoming a bit clearer now, isn’t it? “Dangerously literal?” How does this work? I pray the Rosary and a puppy dies? Is anyone else wondering why the Atlantic would post such drivel?

Their social-media pages are saturated with images of rosaries draped over firearms, warriors in prayer, Deus Vult (“God wills it”) crusader memes, and exhortations for men to rise up and become Church Militants. Influencers on platforms such as Instagram share posts referencing “everyday carry” and “gat check” (gat is slang for “firearm”) that include soldiers’ “battle beads,” handguns, and assault rifles. One artist posts illustrations of his favorite Catholic saints, clergy, and influencers toting AR-15-style rifles labeled sanctum rosarium alongside violently homophobic screeds that are celebrated by social-media accounts with thousands of followers.

A link to all these fascist Rosary prayers would be nice. Just a few. Crusaders are kind of part of our history. They usually didn’t carry AR-15’s from what I remember, but they did carry the weapon of the day. So does he have a problem with swords now? And, homophobic slurs? Any examples or are we supposed to just take his word for it?

The theologian and historian Massimo Faggioli has described a network of conservative Catholic bloggers and commentary organizations as a “Catholic cyber-militia” that actively campaigns against LGBTQ acceptance in the Church. These rad-trad rosary-as-weapon memes represent a social-media diffusion of such messaging, and they work to integrate ultraconservative Catholicism with other aspects of online far-right culture. The phenomenon might be tempting to dismiss as mere trolling or merchandising, and ironical provocations based on traditionalist Catholic symbols do exist, but the far right’s constellations of violent, racist, and homophobic online milieus are well documented for providing a pathway to radicalization and real-world terrorist attacks.”

I know Massimo has a little trouble understanding this and apparently so does Dan, but you might say we actively campaign for the teachings of the Church. The ridiculous attempt to classify this as ultraconservative, right-wing extremist, Nazi Catholic is, well, just that. Ridiculous. We are faithful Catholics and, last time I checked, Catholics are free to own guns. Dan and Massimo might want to look into Saint Gabriel Possenti (or really just into anything Catholic). We all enjoy crusader memes just because of these two knuckleheads with whom we often have to do battle. (Take a breath guys, I don’t mean that literally.)

The rosary—in these hands—is anything but holy.

The Rosary is always holy but, my, how judgmental you are! Your holier than thou ego is showing.

But for millions of believers, the beads, which provide an aide-mémoire for a sequence of devotional prayers, are a widely recognized symbol of Catholicism and a source of strength. And many take genuine sustenance from Catholic theology’s concept of the Church Militant and the tradition of regarding the rosary as a weapon against Satan. As Pope Francis said in a 2020 address, “There is no path to holiness … without spiritual combat,” and Francis is only one of many Church officials who have endorsed the idea of the rosary as an armament in that fight.

In mainstream Catholicism, the rosary-as-weapon is not an intrinsically harmful interpretation of the sacramental, and this symbolism has a long history. In the 1930s and ’40s, the ultramontane Catholic student publication Jeunesse Étudiante Catholique regularly used the concept to rally the faithful. But the modern radical-traditionalist Catholic movement—which generally rejects the Second Vatican Council’s reforms—is far outside the majority opinion in the Roman Catholic Church in America. Many prominent American Catholic bishops advocate for gun control, and after the Uvalde school shooting, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, lamented the way some Americans “sacralize death’s instruments.”

Not even a trad here… First you say that Pope Francis says it, but then you say it’s out of the mainstream. Get a clue. IT IS A SPIRITUAL WEAPON. And most devout Catholics consider it so. Are you going to try to paint Fr. Calloway as a “rad-trad.” Please. https://catholicexchange.com/rosary-spiritual-sword-mary/ Is calling the Rosary the Spiritual Sword of Mary triggering to you boys?

Militia culture, a fetishism of Western civilization, and masculinist anxieties have become mainstays of the far right in the U.S.—and rad-trad Catholics have now taken up residence in this company. Their social-media accounts commonly promote accelerationist and survivalist content, along with combat-medical and tactical training, as well as memes depicting balaclava-clad gunmen that draw on the “terrorwave” or “warcore” aesthetic that is popular in far-right circles.”

Oh my gosh. Just stop with your incredible drama. I consider the Rosary to be a powerful spiritual weapon and I’m a mom. Deal. Oh, and I also appreciate gun ownership to protect my family. I guess I’ll be signing up for my combat-medical class soon. I realize that exaggerating opinion writing plays to your base, but your base includes only low info Catholics, if they are Catholics at all. Your cute little GIF on your article can’t even get the number of beads right. When was the last time you saw a rosary, Dan?

Like such networks, radical-traditional Catholics sustain their own cottage industry of goods and services that reinforces the radicalization. Rosaries are common among the merchandise on offer—some made of cartridge casings, and complete with gun-metal-finish crucifixes. One Catholic online store, which describes itself as “dedicated to offering battle-ready products and manuals to ‘stand firm against the tactics of the devil’” (a New Testament reference), sells replicas of the rosaries issued to American soldiers during the First World War as “combat rosaries.” Discerning consumers can also buy a “concealed carry” permit for their combat rosary and a sacramental storage box resembling an ammunition can. In 2016, the pontifical Swiss Guard accepted a donation of combat rosaries; during a ceremony at the Vatican, their commander described the gift as “the most powerful weapon that exists on the market.

Are we talking “Rugged Rosaries” or “Roman Catholic Gear”? If so, we have a few around here. I recommend them both. For boys, they’re just that, rugged. Do you know how many rosaries my husband went through over the years? Many. He actually has the combat rosary complete with Pardon Cross and everything. First one he hasn’t demolished in years. You really need to ask yourself why this is so scary to them? If a dude wants to remind himself with an even more visual of it being a spiritual weapon, what is your beef?

The militarism also glorifies a warrior mentality and notions of manliness and male strength.

Sigh. A guy afraid of manliness and male strength is, well, just pathetic.

This conflation of the masculine and the military is rooted in wider anxieties about Catholic manhood—the idea that it is in crisis has some currency among senior Church figures and lay organizations. In 2015, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix issued an apostolic exhortation calling for a renewal of traditional conceptions of Catholic masculinity titled “Into the Breach,” which led the Knights of Columbus, an influential fraternal order, to produce a video series promoting Olmsted’s ideas. But among radical-traditional Catholic men, such concerns take an extremist turn, rooted in fantasies of violently defending one’s family and church from marauders.

Wait, now Bishop Olmstead is a rad-trad? You’re a joke and your lack of understanding that men should be protectors – physically and spiritually – is why so many women complain to me about some of the men today. I can’t blame them.

The rosary-as-weapon also gives rad-trad Catholic men both a distinctive signifier within Christian nationalism and a sort of membership pass to the movement. As the sociologists Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry note in Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, Catholics used to be regarded as enemies by Christian nationalists, and anti-Catholic nativism runs deep in American history. Today, Catholics are a growing contingent of Christian nationalism.

Please, let’s just start naming names instead of just painting any man who takes the Faith quite seriously as a rad-trad or nationalist.

Helping unite these former rivals is a quasi-theological doctrine of what Perry and another sociologist, Philip S. Gorski, have called “righteous violence” against political enemies regarded as demonic or satanic, be they secularists, progressives, or Jews. The hostility toward liberalism and secularism inherent in traditionalist Catholicism is also pronounced within Christian nationalist circles. No longer stigmatized by evangelical nationalists, Catholic imagery now blends freely with staple alt-right memes that romanticize ancient Rome or idealize the traditional patriarchal family.

I LOVE the traditional patriarchal family. Are we supposed to hate that now? Just tell me now, are you a male feminist? You are, aren’t you?

Some doctrinal differences and divisions remain. Many radical-traditional Catholic men maintain the hard-line position that other forms of Christianity are heretical, and hold that Catholics alone adhere to the one true Church.

Uhhhhh…. Again, not a trad here, much less a rad-trad, but that statement is totally true for all faithful Catholics, so you might want to ask yourself what you are missing.

Christian nationalism’s nativism and its predilection for “Great Replacement” theory alienate some radical-traditional Catholics who are not white or who were not born in the United States, and deep veins of anti-Catholicism persist among far-right Protestants.

This is just getting out there.

Yet the convergence within Christian nationalism is cemented in common causes such as hostility toward abortion-rights advocates.

He’s kitchen sinking it here. How many liberal issues can he throw into one piece?! Abortion is evil. Do you believe that, Danny Boy? If not, why would anyone consider you an expert on anything Catholic? You’re just peddling your liberal wares.

The pro-choice protests that followed the leaked early draft of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, led to a profusion of social-media posts on the far right fantasizing about killing activists, and such forums responded to Pride month this year with extremist homophobic and transphobic “groomer” discourse. Rad-trad networks are also involved in organizing rosary-branded events that involve weapons training.

Killing anyone is bad. Let’s just get that out of the way. Now, please tell me who firebombed churches and pro-life pregnancy centers? Was it the mean ol’ rad-trad who hides under your bed with their AR-15? We faithful Catholics tend not to burn down churches.

Catholics are taught to love and forgive their enemies, that to do otherwise is a sin. But the extremist understanding of spiritual warfare overrides that command. To do battle with Satan—whose influence in the world is, according to Catholic demonology, real and menacing—is to deploy violence for deliverance and redemption.

Again, it would be nice if you provided just one little link of the Catholics who are deploying physical violence in spiritual combat. It is SPIRITUAL combat after all. Let’s just be honest, you probably don’t even believe in hell or Satan because both are kind of mean and that just can’t be real.

The “battle beads” culture of spiritual warfare permits radical-traditional Catholics literally to demonize their political opponents and regard the use of armed force against them as sanctified. The sacramental rosary isn’t just a spiritual weapon but one that comes with physical ammunition.

OK, in short, if you refer to the Rosary as a spiritual weapon and you are not Pope Francis, you are a radical right-wing Catholic extremist extolling violence. Have I got that right? Delusional.

Daniel Panneton is a writer based in Toronto, Canada.

Oh, Canada. This might explain the problem with him.

Have a Little Dignity, Atlantic!

The beyond stupid Atlantic piece that that I dealt with here https://onemadmom.foedus.co/triggered-much/, did not do them any favors. It was so stupid that they’ve tried two additional headlines and switched up their graphics to see if they could make it less offensive and/or rally their base. If they were smart, they’d just take it down because, well, we have the Rosary as our weapon (just going for full trigger here.)

One astute Twitter person noted the switcheroos throughout the day. I would have never noticed because I rarely bother to look at the Atlantic, so thanks for saving me the trouble, Michael! (Look, Daniel! Some of us include links.) https://twitter.com/MichaelTG09/status/1559293715616862209

Editors at The Atlantic have gotten a huge backlash and it was well justified. We’ve been totally laughing at them for over a day now and, because they’re dumb, we’ll probably get to continue the comedy break. You just don’t get to use extreme rhetoric to paint the bulk of Catholics as extremists for believing our Rosary is a spiritual weapon. You know who else believed that? Many saints, popes (even Pope Francis), and a heck of a lot of our priests. It’s not out of mainstream Catholicism in the least.  You might want to at least commission people who can Google the proper Catholic terminology just a little bit better.  Or, better yet, maybe stick to faithful Catholics to cover Catholicism for you? Seems logical but, then again, you are you.

Have a little dignity, Atlantic. Pull the article, put out an apology, and put Danny Boy on the fiction section. It’s really all he’s suited for, and it would do far less damage to himself and you.