• The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism

  • By: John Zmirak
  • Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
  • Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (194 ratings)

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The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism  By  cover art

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism

By: John Zmirak
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
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Publisher's summary

A brand-new installment in the beloved Politically Incorrect Guides!

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism is an honest look at the Catholic Church, including history and present controversies, from the author of the Bad Catholic's Guides.

Back by popular demand, the best-selling Politically Incorrect Guides provide an unvarnished, unapologetic overview of controversial topics every American should understand. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism refutes misrepresentations and misconceptions about the Catholic Church and separates rumor from truth when it comes to Catholic traditions, faith, and controversial leaders.

©2016 John Zmirak (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism

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uncomfortably true

When a faithful Catholic hears about figures within the Catholic Church advocating open borders, the seamless garment Doctrine, liberation theology, and a number of other positions that previously they understood to be categorically antithetical to the Catholic church, it is understandable that faithful Catholics might be confused.

Be confused no more.

In entertaining fashion, the author delineates Catholic Doctrine as opposed to what people often think Catholic Doctrine is.

The reader does a generally good job trying to maintain an appropriate level of emotion and intensity at different points, but there are a number of times that words are mispronounced, although those are few.

The chapter breaks and tracks operations are not in alignment with one another. this is maybe one of two minor criticisms of the book that I think are very valid. I believe there are 79 total tracks, and there are certainly not 79 chapters. Where is this does make it more convenient 2 get back into a book at a point closer to where you may have left off, that is usually accomplished in the audible app by itself. I don't know why there are 79 different sections in this book.

the authors list of topics that are dealt with is very broad but generally focuses on areas which are popularly misconstrued vs those positions which are authentically Catholic.

some of the topics dealt with r pacifism, the death penalty, immigration, Liberation theology, socialism, Vatican 2, and a number of others.

a person might think, when looking at the cover, that the book will have no criticism of the right. That is not true. There is adequate criticism provided of a number of right-wing actors that do not support positions which are doctrinally Catholic. There is more than adequate criticism of those such as Murray Rothbard.

The true fulcrum on which the author balances criticism is Catholic Doctrine. Whether from the right or from the left, none of those but claim Catholic alignment but cannot align themselves with the position of the Catholic Church are spared criticism.

in general, the book is excellent. Certainly, there could be some improvements, but not without undermining the breadth or depth of the coverage of the material.

the book manages the trick of being fairly long, but at the end, the reader is surprised and a little bit disappointed that there isn't just one more chapter.

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16 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Convincingly flawed on Some Topics

The author doesn't pull any punches. Unfortunately, his punches sometimes aim at strawman man arguments. I really wanted to like this book and some chapters of this book ARE very good.

The author criticizes the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Papal Encyclicals, the Movie Ordo.

It's not upsetting that the author criticizes St. John Paul II the Great, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis on issues such as immigration, the death penalty, the welfare state, etc. Well, it is; however, the problem is that the author sometimes uses extreme examples to try to prove his point. Readers, listeners, with background on these issues, will be annoyed at the weakness of his arguments on SOME issues.

A Conservative Catholic.

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12 people found this helpful

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Spot on

This book is both spot on regarding true Catholic fundamentals and will make you both angry and laugh out loud at certain points.

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Part explanation, part rant

The author goes way out of bounds in exploring what he calls Catholicism, reviewing the changing contraception polices of the People's Republic of China, for example, a topic totally irrelevant to Catholic doctrine. This book should be a blog with comments where we can call him on his factual errors, obvious character assassinations, and questionable theology.

As for the performance, I would expect it to be a matter of course for a narrator to go through a book in advance to spot words he/she doesn't know how to pronounce, and get the pronunciations before reading. Then Mr. Lawlor would know, for example, that Augustine is pronounced "Uh-gus'-tin" -- it rhymes with Rustin -- and not "Og'-us-teen."

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8 people found this helpful

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Profound and witty

I greatly enjoyed the book. The author uses great wit and extensive knowledge to bring great clarity to the topic. I highly recommend this book.

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Good for a laugh

Man, oh, man, (and I do mean m-a-n) does this guy hate feminism! And women. And the American Democratic Party. And anything about abortion. And, well, all tenets other than his own. Whew! There is a misogynistic tirade in nearly every alternating chapter, spewn whilst defending Catholicism. The other chapters are spent just defending Catholicism in one way or another, sometimes defensibly, usually to great comic effect.

I spent every chapter blowing holes in his arguments using rationales he previously offered—which is great fun while walking briskly. There are too many logical fallacies to enumerate here; the short version is that you must be a "faithful" Catholic (by his exact reckoning) and swallow his erroneous rationales, or you are wrong. If you fail to agree with him, you should just leave the church. Hint: just leave the RCC if you are female, the misogny is toxic.

Several places in the book he mentions that Catholics are losing 40% of their born-to-Catholic-parents' demographics. Reading this stream of blind woman-hatred is exactly why, although he fails to mention that women leave the RCC in bigger numbers than men. His chapter on Mary Daly especially expresses Catholicism's misogyny as well as his own.

Yet, I laughed at his centuries-old nonsense and the vehemence with which he delivered his beliefs about how the world should be. The fallacies were *that* obvious and gaping.

Who says that feminists do not have a sense of humor? Once past the chilling effect on women's lives this fellow wants for all women—Catholic or otherwise—the book is really laugh-out-loud humorous, full of ridiculous exaggerations, self-contradictions and inept conclusions.

Read it for a risible look at a couple of thousand of years' of woman-hating defended by a near-raving man that one might picture waving a tattered bible and yelling religious dogma on a crowded city street corner. Worth the chuckle if that is what you are up for in a book.

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Politicly Correct Defense of Popes

This book tells you how to defend your Catholic friends and graven images and silly things as well.

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Awful.

The author starts with an absolute falsehood, and it goes downhill from there. He says that any pope who says anything that contradicts anything any previous pope has said “discredits himself and his office” and becomes a “shadow pope, a ghost pope.”
That is complete BS. Papal infallibility is limited to ex cathedra pronouncements, and there have only been two of those: concerning the Immaculate Conception and the Annunciation.
Catholics are required to educate their consciences in light of the Church’s teachings, then, according to Thomas Aquinas, to follow their consciences.
This guy is way off base.
I guess I should have been warned by the title.
I’m going to see if I can get a refund.

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4 people found this helpful

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Excellent!!!

Love being Catholic and would like to know what is happening to the mass? This is the book for you. I learned so much. Thank you Aubible for recording such a wonderful book.

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Very perceptive about current dystopia

A very valuable read for every Catholic and Protestant. The author well describes today's cultural confusion and the evil devices of today's thought leaders in the church and outside.

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