Martin Sheen and other dinosaurs of Catholic liberalism

[Michie]

Eager not to miss any detail about the flaming ball of crazy that is Charlie Sheen, I recently spent a little time reading about his father, actor and TV-world president emeritus Martin Sheen. In some circles, you may know, Martin is recognized as one of Hollywood's stalwart Catholics, having famously chosen his stage name after Fulton Sheen and palled around with Dorothy Day, and perhaps more extraordinarily, going to Mass every week and speaking unapologetically and unironically about his faith.

Sheen is also a left-coast activist of the first water, lending himself over the years to the full menu of liberal causes—environmentalism, worker and immigrant rights, anti-nukes—and vocally supporting liberal politicians. He campaigned for Howard Dean, for God's sake.

On the other hand, Sheen adheres to a pro-life stance of the seamless-garment variety, supporting left-wing pro-life groups and, if the stories are to be believed, intervening to rescue from abortion the products of his sons' youthful indiscretions.

Sheen credits his Catholic formation for his liberal social views. It occurs to me that in this he is a product of his time. Like others of his generation—I think of the pugnaciously liberal "Kennedy Catholics" native to my New England home—for Sheen being Catholic meant (even before factoring in the impact of liberalizing trends in theology, liturgy, biblical criticism, and psychology that so colored the Vatican II era) being on the left. It was the left that supported Catholic immigrants and working poor, the unions they joined, and the programs and policies that helped them get a leg up. It was the left that pursued civil rights efforts consonant with Catholic social teaching. It was the left (albeit not exclusively) that advocated a tough and active response to godless Communism.

Yes, maybe it was La-La Land and not the Church that influenced Martin Sheen's decision to stand against Canadian sealing, but by and large you can see how his religion and his politics have sprung from a common stump.

But are there more Sheens to come?

By that I mean: are the Catholics being formed in our day likely to identify with political liberalism; more, to identify their faith with it?

Continued- http://www.insidecatholic.com/myblog/martin-sheen-and-other-dinosaurs-of-catholic-liberalism.html

 

[SolomonVII]

Well if Charlie Sheen is the indicatoin of what to expect of the next generation of Catholic liberals, then the answer would have to be dinosaur.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

It was the left that supported Catholic immigrants and working poor, the unions they joined, and the programs and policies that helped them get a leg up. It was the left that pursued civil rights efforts consonant with Catholic social teaching. It was the left (albeit not exclusively) that advocated a tough and active response to godless Communism.

[Sarcasm on] How horrible of them to support such ideas.


Jim

 

[SolomonVII]

Did you read the article?

for example,

....can't help but sense a substantial re-alignment of faith and politics: a future trend in which the past affinity between Catholicism and left-wing politics is being replaced by an equally strong affinity—a presumption of affinity—between Catholicism and the political right.

Here are some reasons, most of which I imagine are obvious enough:

• The left's increasing preference for secularism and moral liberalism (abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, etc) over traditional religion and moral conservatism.
• Conversely, what has become the nearly unilateral (if still hardly perfect) representation of social-conservative and traditional-religious interests by the political right.
• The diminishment of organized labor as a binding force. The American manufacturing sector itself is greatly diminished overall, of course, and the sons and grandsons of factory workers are lawyers and I.T. specialists now.
• The influence of Evangelical Protestantism, whose predominantly Southern adherents have just completed their own migration from Left to Right.
• The success, or final bankruptcy, of liberal ideas and activism. There's a growing sense that the civil rights movement has largely accomplished its aims, for example. And children (American children, anyway) don't work 14-hour days at the old mill anymore. Meanwhile there seems to be a burgeoning public epiphany—hard economic times have helped, as they're learning in Wisconsin—about the excesses or negative outcomes of Big Labor, the welfare state, environmentalism, political correctness, radical feminism, and other ideological components of the liberal coalition.
• The ongoing work of conservative and libertarian think tanks, researchers, theologians, politicians, and bloggers to harmonize Catholicism with conservative ideas: the free market, national security, self-determination, smaller government. Moreover, their efforts to present these ideas as of one cloth with those that Catholicism and conservatism already clearly share: subsidiarity, respect for tradition, family, and moral codes, a belief in personal responsibility and accountability.
• Finally, and probably the hardest to quantify or defend, what I call a revolutionary sensibility among younger (under, ahem, 45 or so) orthodox Catholics. This can be observed, for example, in families that homeschool (or start their own independent schools) rather than send their kids to the local parish or Catholic high school. It's a sense of disdain, or at least suspicion, towards the creaking machinery of the institutional Church. These same Catholics who got tired of being poorly served by a generation of fuzzy-headed or indifferent bishops, priests, and lay collaborators—in catechesis, in liturgy, in ministry, in pastoral guidance, in higher education, in youth formation—and so turned instead to EWTN, Catholic Answers, Franciscan University, and the Couple to Couple League to "get fed," may also instinctively be rejecting the residual political liberalism that persists in many chanceries and Catholic colleges

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Did you read the article?

for example,

Yeah I did and the list is according to today's liberalism, which is different than Martin Sheen's liberal version of Catholicism, which BTW, is in line with the USCCB.


Jim

 

[SolomonVII]

Yeah I did and the list is according to today's liberalism, which is different than Martin Sheen's liberal version of Catholicism, which BTW, is in line with the USCCB.


Jim

The main article didn't seenm to be putting Martin Sheen down at all. except for the baby seal thingie.

 

[Sphinx777]

Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez (born August 3, 1940), better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American television and film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979), and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.

In film he has won the Best Actor award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival for his performance as Kit Carruthers in Badlands. His portrayal of Capt. Willard in Apocalypse Now earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Having worked with film directors such as Richard Attenborough, Francis Coppola, Terrence Malick, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone, he has had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 1989. In television he has won both a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild awards for playing the lead role of President Bartlet in The West Wing, and an Emmy for guest acting in the sitcom Murphy Brown.

Born and raised in the United States to immigrant parents, an Irish mother and Spanish father, he adopted the stage name Martin Sheen to gain work in acting. He is the father of actors Emilio Estevez, Ramón Estevez, Carlos Irwin Estevez (Charlie Sheen), and Renée Estevez. His younger brother Joe Estevez is also an actor.

Although primarily known as an actor, he has also directed one film, Cadence (1990), appearing alongside sons Charlie and Ramon. He has also narrated, produced and directed in documentary television, earning two Daytime Emmy awards in the 1980s. In addition to film and televison, Sheen has also become notable for his activism in liberal politics.



Martin Sheen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Rebekka]

The main article didn't seenm to be putting Martin Sheen down at all. except for the baby seal thingie.

All of that, including his animal rights activism, sounds good to me. See, it's possible to be left-wing and catholic.