Janet Smith Speaks on Christoper West

More TOB "experts" are openly critiquing Christopher West following his interview on Nightline last year. The backlash has been strong enough, with dissension coming from heavy hitters like Alice von Hildebrand, and some others. However, Archbishop Chaput, Janet Smith, Cardinal Rigali and others have come to West's defense.

Recently, Dawn Eden of blogger and book fame, has decided she will also throw in her two cents and has written a fairly extensive paper on the faults of Christopher West. Catholic News Agency has now openly published it, as if she doesn't have enough networking resources.

My humble and lowly two cents: fraternal correction need not be a public flogging. Christopher West is a man who has been a faithful disciple of the Holy Spirit. Over zealousness is not a crime, and it is unlikely that his discourses have led people to sin. His talks have changed the lives of everyone I know who has come in contact with them. NO EXCEPTIONS. Yeah, my circle may be small, but they are faithful. This teaching has changed more hearts and opened up Catholic sexuality like no other teaching. We attribute it all to Venerable John Paul II, and his messenger, Christopher West.

Janet Smith says:

I have known Christopher West for over a decade. As I remember, at our first meeting, when he was still a graduate student, he approached me to chastise me a bit for failing to respond to some criticisms one of his professors had made of me!


It is a bit ironic that over a decade later, I find myself occupied with responding to criticisms made of him. It was some years later that I met him again as he had become a speaker on the "circuit". I saw immediately that he was a powerful speaker in love with the truth and with his audience. His love for both is truly touching. At first he made me somewhat uncomfortable with his language but over time I have become very comfortable with him.

Engaging Dawn Eden’s Thesis1

Janet Smith weighs in on Christopher West's Nightline Interview

Smith says:

I want to add my voice to those who are enthusiastic about the West/Theology of the Body phenomenon. I think it is important to keep in mind, as Akin does, who West’s audience is. It is largely the sexually wounded and confused who have been shaped by our promiscuous and licentious culture. People need to think long and hard about the appropriate pedagogy for that group. Yet, as West himself knows, his approach is not for everyone. An analogy that pushes the envelope may be "offensive" to one person and may be just the hook that draws another person
in. West has adopted a style that appeals to a large segment of that population—and even to some who are “pure and innocent.”

Read the rest--

Finally! someone who can get off their high horse and articulate this reasonably!