Co-worker Hates Religion but loves Christianity

[Mystophilus]

Whomever wrote this is trapped in his own ideas and enslaved to himself.

“Whoever”, not “Whomever”. Sorry, but it irks me.

“Who” is a subject form, for the entity which operates the verb “wrote”; it works like “He” in “He wrote”. The “ever” is just an intensifying suffix, and so we can ignore it for this purpose.

“Whom” is an object form, for an entity which the verb operates upon, like “him” in “I kicked him”. Note the consistency of the -m ending.

The easiest way to test this is thus to isolate that clause (the first three words in your sentence) and see whether you could substitute “he” (“he wrote this”, fine; “I called he”, not fine) or “him” (“him wrote this”, not in Standard English; “I called him”, fine) for the “who” form: “he”=>“who”, “him”=>“whom”.

These days, however, you can just use “who” there, because so many people have forgotten how to use “whom” that it is dying out.

/rant

 

[wmscott]

“Whoever”, not “Whomever”. Sorry, but it irks me.

“Who” is a subject form, for the entity which operates the verb “wrote”; it works like “He” in “He wrote”. The “ever” is just an intensifying suffix, and so we can ignore it for this purpose.

“Whom” is an object form, for an entity which the verb operates upon, like “him” in “I kicked him”. Note the consistency of the -m ending.

The easiest way to test this is thus to isolate that clause (the first three words in your sentence) and see whether you could substitute “he” (“he wrote this”, fine; “I called he”, not fine) or “him” (“him wrote this”, not in Standard English; “I called him”, fine) for the “who” form: “he”=>“who”, “him”=>“whom”.

These days, however, you can just use “who” there, because so many people have forgotten how to use “whom” that it is dying out.

/rant

Thanks for this; I will be taking an English class this summer. It might come in handy

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Isn’t that like loving wine but hating grapes?

There’s a great quote from R.A. Lafferty, a (very orthodox) Roman Catholic science fiction and fantasy author, who has recently received a lot more critical attention after his death and some of his books and short stories are now being republished.

It’s worth quoting in full, from his 1972 novella “And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire”. It’s told in the plural voice of a number of tempter demons (possibly Legion):

"We owe so much to one phrase that we can hardly express it. Without it, we'd have had to invent a phrase, we'd have put a modicum of meaning into it (overestimating the intelligence of people as we have done so many times), and we'd have failed and failed and failed again. One smiles to recall that phrase that our fathers accidentally stumbled on and which later came back to us a hundredfold like bread cast upon the water. "I am all for relevant religion that is free and alive and where the action is, but institutional religion turns me off." Incredible? Yes. A hog, if he could speak, wouldn't make so silly a statement: a blind mole wouldn't. And yet this statement was spoken many millions of times by young human persons of all ages. How lucky that it had been contrived, how mind boggling that it was accepted. It gives us victory without battle and success beyond our dreams. 

 "It was like saying 'I love animals, all animals, every part of them: it is only their flesh and their bones that I object to; it is only their living substance that turns me off." For it is essential that religion (that old abomination) if it is to be religion at all (the total psychic experience) must be institutionalized and articulated in organization and service and liturgy and art. That is what religion is. And everything of a structured world, housing and furniture and art and production and transportation and organization and communication and continuity and mutuality is the institutional part of religion. That is what culture is. There can no more be noninstitutional religion that there can be a bodiless body."

 

[Mystophilus]

Thanks for this; I will be taking an English class this summer. It might come in handy

 

[wmscott]

There’s a great quote from R.A. Lafferty, a (very orthodox) Roman Catholic science fiction and fantasy author, who has recently received a lot more critical attention after his death and some of his books and short stories are now being republished.

It’s worth quoting in full, from his 1972 novella “And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire”. It’s told in the plural voice of a number of tempter demons (possibly Legion):

"We owe so much to one phrase that we can hardly express it. Without it, we'd have had to invent a phrase, we'd have put a modicum of meaning into it (overestimating the intelligence of people as we have done so many times), and we'd have failed and failed and failed again. One smiles to recall that phrase that our fathers accidentally stumbled on and which later came back to us a hundredfold like bread cast upon the water. "I am all for relevant religion that is free and alive and where the action is, but institutional religion turns me off." Incredible? Yes. A hog, if he could speak, wouldn't make so silly a statement: a blind mole wouldn't. And yet this statement was spoken many millions of times by young human persons of all ages. How lucky that it had been contrived, how mind boggling that it was accepted. It gives us victory without battle and success beyond our dreams. 

 "It was like saying 'I love animals, all animals, every part of them: it is only their flesh and their bones that I object to; it is only their living substance that turns me off." For it is essential that religion (that old abomination) if it is to be religion at all (the total psychic experience) must be institutionalized and articulated in organization and service and liturgy and art. That is what religion is. And everything of a structured world, housing and furniture and art and production and transportation and organization and communication and continuity and mutuality is the institutional part of religion. That is what culture is. There can no more be noninstitutional religion that there can be a bodiless body."

Thanks I am a SiFi fan so I may pick up one of his books.

 

[agentlank]

Thank you for all the suggestions and insight. I decided to send him an email with a short description of why I’m becoming Catholic’ which included real presence dialogue and “upon this rock I will build my church” discussion.

I also asked him if he thought the holy spirit was infallible. If he agrees to this then how can all these denominations and interpretations pop up under the guise of “being moved by the Holy Spirit” if they constantly contradict one another.

I expressed that I didn’t think God would send a savior in order for there to be so much Christian division. What has led me to the Church is my desire for the truth which is absolute.

I’ll let you all know when he responds, it was sent in an email so it may be a few days.

Oh the “article” he was referring to was the Catechism online. I guess he thinks that is hard to understand, perhaps I’ll send him the YOUCAT next time.
Also I sent him the rapping video about hating religion and then a priests rebuttal. The link can be seen below. I told him that he reminded me of that video.

ncregister.com/blog/matthew-warner/why-i-love-religion-and-jesus-the-catholic-rebuttal