The Cary Grant syndrome
Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 9:11 pm
I stumbled across this while looking up the pink mafia that JayP mentioned today in the other thread. I thought that this “syndrome” might be found in places beyond just the Catholic church.
Cary Grant was five times married and four times divorce. When asked why, he said his ex-wives thought they married Cary Grant. They were in for a rude surprise.
They married the image, not the man. They wed Cary Grant, but woke up to Archie Leach.
Catholics, especially converts to Rome, reflect this mentality. They don't convert to the church of Rome; rather, rather, they convert to an idea. They don't convert to the Roman Catholic church; rather, they convert to Roman Catholic theology.
They begin and end with an idea. And they stay inside their idea. That's why Catholicism is appealing to philosophically-minded types like Bryan Cross, Philip Blosser, and Michael Liccione.
By the same token, that's why they're impervious to factual disconfirmation. Philosophy is all about ideas. Abstract ideas. They superimpose their idea on the institution.
It makes no difference how great the mismatch between the ideal and the real, for the idea always matches the ideal, and it's the idea of Catholicism that's etched on their spectacles. They don't go to church; they go to their concept of church. They attend their mental construct.
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2015/03/ ... e.html?m=1