Breaking Bad

James White and Turretinfan have taken on Jason Stellman in a two-part audio series that I’d highly recommend.

Jason Stellman (right side of image) of course is all over the place at the Called to Communion site these days – he’s the equivalent of a Roman Catholic Convert anti-hero. And the good guys, James White and Turretinfan take on this Jason Stellman interview in a two-part (and more-to-follow) series of their own:

Part 1 (approx. 30 minutes).

Part 2 (approx. 90 minutes).

About the image: My wife and I have been watching through the “Breaking Bad” series. To “break bad” evidently is to turn and start being evil instead of good. The anti-hero of that series is a man named Walter White (left side of image), and the main character is someone who certainly becomes evil over the course of time.

When I had the CTC site up on my monitor this morning, Beth noticed the resemblance immediately. [And how do we know that Stellman isn’t purposely trying to look like this character?]

Breaking Bad is about a chemistry teacher who, on finding that he has lung cancer, seizes upon the side job of “cooking” crystal methamphetamine – known as “meth”. So the connections seem obvious to me. Stellman, in his own way, has been “breaking bad”, in his case selling something called “cath”.

On the word “catholic”, as it was used in the early church, meant that the church was “universal”, that is, encompassing those who professed faith in Christ throughout the world. Rome, of course, has twisted that meaning with its oxymoronic usage, making the “provincial” “Roman” to be the sum and center of “the church that Christ founded”, when really, it is, well, quite provincial. Calling the Roman church “catholic” is as much a misnomer as saying “crystal methamphetamine makes you feel good”.

Interestingly, the crystal methamphetamine wiki site notes that long term usage of “crystal meth” “develop a long-lasting psychosis resembling schizophrenia after stopping methamphetamine. The condition persists for longer than 6 months and is often treatment resistant”. It will be interesting to see where these guys are in a few years. Andrew Preslar is already on record saying that “Catholicism is like a marriage, in which romance does not reduce to sentimentalism, nor prescind from difficulty and pain, but rather flows from the realities of a life shared together, come what may”.

To be sure, there will be difficulties.

At any rate, if you’re interested in following the Jason Stellman saga from a safe distance, James White and Turretinfan provide an excellent analysis of the things Stellman is saying, and it seems as if more is to follow.