The relatively short goodbye/transition

“No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." - Matthew 6:24


This is one of these verses I think we blow out of proportion sometimes, yet I'll do the same right now. I don't think Jesus meant blogging, but I have decided that three blogs is too much to try to maintain on a daily basis.

I'm the head-honcho at catholicguyshow.com. My wife Allicia and I also write about our married lives at thecatholiclovebirds.blogspot.com. And this is my little blog here where I write about my life.

I can't keep doing three blogs and give them the proper attention they deserve. I felt kind of sad/motivated when the Catholic New Media Award nominees were announced, and none of the blogs I help maintain got nominated. I think I am an outstanding writer, and there's no reason why I shouldn't be listed with the other Catholic blogs.

I need to axe one of the blogs. And I've decided that this little blog will be the one to get the axe. Everything I write here I can write on thecatholiclovebirds.blogspot.com (I know, we're getting a custom URL soon). So this blog will remain open, but don't look for new posts here anytime soon. The custom url dustinfaber.com is already linking to the new blog.

But no tears! The things I wrote about here will be unblemished, they'll just be at a new location!

Hope to see you on the other side soon!

Overrated Catholic celebrities

I'm not sure if this blog post will be something that you read and think 'he's right!' or 'what a cranky jerk.'

But my thought is this: Are the highly-acclaimed Catholic "personalities" that we trump up really that great, or are we grasping at straws hoping to find someone amazing?

A note before I continue, I am in no way advocating myself as one of the esteemed Catholic voices in the blogosphere, as I've still got a ways to go when it comes to honing my skills in writing. And I'm not going to drop any names, lest I look like a petty guy with a grudge against speaker X.

Just recently, one of the Catholic radio programs had a notable Catholic author appearing on the show, and the show was gushing about how amazing the person was. And the show isn't alone: thousands of other Catholics have read this person's book.

And I tried to be one of them. A woman I knew some time ago gave me a copy of the book to read, said it was life-changing. I couldn't get through the first 20 pages. And each time I hear this person on the radio, I am bored out of my cranium.

I felt the same way about John Corapi (not comparing current Catholic speaker to this fraud). Everyone loved him, thought he was the greatest Catholic speaker in the world. And for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what the appeal was.

I feel that when I look at Catholic media, half the time I see quality take a backseat to spirituality. While spirituality is important, I don't think quality and skill should be sacrificed just because it's Catholic or Christian, and people thinking that just because something is faithful, it doesn't need that extra polish. The stuff we create should be great in both areas.

This made me think today. Am I alone in feeling this way? Am I just a grumpy, hard-to-please person who won't give anyone a chance? Or do we set low standards in Catholic media, so that anyone who comes along with a fancy book and great web site is immediately an "influential voice" in Catholic media?

I'm not saying that everyone has to be exactly like Lino Rulli or Mark Hart when it comes to entertaining Catholic personalities. I just wonder if we in the Catholic world jump the gun a little too early when it comes to making someone "famous"