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Today I got an Unsubscribe request for my chapel bulletin e-mail list. The man (we'll call him "Bob") even gave a reason:

"I have no intention of ever attending a resistance function."

Now he has been on my list for a long time, and up till now Bob just ignored my e-mails. He's sick of getting them; he probably wants to clean up his inbox and reduce his junk e-mails going into the new year 2019. Think no more, right?

Not so fast.

I thought about it for a couple minutes, and realized just how messed up Bob's thinking is, and for several reasons:

1. Bob doesn't even know what he's permanently rejecting. Bob never even checked out the chapel. It's not as though it's schismatic to attend one "unapproved" chapel but perfectly great to attend another "unapproved" chapel every Sunday. Irregular status is irregular status. It doesn't matter how big the organization behind the chapel is, their bank account balance, # of parishioners, etc.

2. Bob has as much faith in the SSPX as he does in God or His Church. Bob has eliminated the very possibility of EVER leaving the SSPX and finding another Traditional/independent chapel where he can attend the Tridentine Mass and receive the Catholic Faith untainted by Modernism and other errors. It's SSPX or bust, baby! Does anyone else see anything wrong with this mode of thinking?

3. Bob believes that the official Catholic Church (founded on Peter and Christ's promise) can fall to a state where "bugging out" is necessary -- but not the SSPX! What if the SSPX continues down its current path for 2, 5, 10 more years and eventually starts saying some Novus Ordo Masses on occasion? You know, if the local Bishop is there, maybe just once a year like the FSSP, and of course done in the most reverent manner, no Communion in the hand, with Gregorian chant, no handshake of peace, using the first Canon, etc. You're never going to leave the SSPX under any circuмstances, eh? So, Bob, you think you can see the future with the clarity of a prophet such that you can confidently declare that I am wrong?

4. On the contrary, I (and those supporting the Resistance) am more likely to be right about the future of the SSPX. Related to #3, I would throw that back in Bob's face: I am the one who is right, and you are the one who is wrong about the SSPX, based on all available evidence and reality. But yet Bob foolishly boards up and seals off the emergency exit. That's real smart. (NOT!)

Or maybe Bob is busy and someone is sending him too much email.

Bob is typical of the thousands who scrupulosity believe in blind obedience, whether it be following the directions of the priests of SSPX or those of Opus Dei.