Light On Dark Water

Jordan Peterson’s Wife Becomes Catholic

See this article in the Catholic Herald.

I don't, obviously, try to follow the news here. I didn't even write about the October 7th invasion/massacre in Israel, or anything that's followed it, but I have certainly given it a lot of my attention. But this seems significant in a way not very far distant from some of the things I do write about, e.g. posts in the "Catholic Stuff" category, to warrant mention.

Peterson is an interesting guy. Interesting and smart. I haven't read any of his books but I've seen him in interviews and talks and he has, as you probably know, a great many very sensible things to say, and apparently a strong and healthy respect for the religious traditions of Western civilization. That's enough to make him unusual for someone who has as much popular appeal as he does. I don't think anyone would be surprised if he followed his wife into the Church. 

Maclin Horton
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6 responses to “Jordan Peterson’s Wife Becomes Catholic”

  1. Rob G

    I think that JP has been slowly inching his way towards Christianity for a while, perhaps unwittingly, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he follows his wife. He still seems to have some intellectual hurdles to clear, but these things take time. One positive thing is that he does have a number of strongly Christian thinkers/writers in his circle.

    Reply
  2. Mac

    “…slowly inching his way…” I’ve gotten that impression, too, though I haven’t followed him closely at all.

    Reply
  3. Janet

    I read 12 Rules for Life years ago because my book club chose it one night when I wasn’t there. I really did not want to read it, but was pretty impressed with a lot of what he said. For a while, I watched several videos of interviews with him, but had not really paid much attention to him recently. A week or two ago, a friend sent me a link to a video about Peterson’s wife and her miraculous healing about 10 years ago. I don’t know if you have seen any of this, but she had a form of cancer that no one had ever survived. A friend visited her in the hospital and taught her how to pray the rosary, and she began praying very faithfully, and was miraculously healed. That would certainly make me consider the Catholic Church.
    AMDG

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  4. Mac

    Some of that is mentioned in the article I linked to. I didn’t realize how grave the cancer was or how much of a miracle her recovery was. What can one say…?…?
    “pretty impressed with a lot of what he said” describes my reaction, too.

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  5. Janet

    The thing that really impresses me is that in the interviews I have watched, he always deals honestly with the person he is talking to. He doesn’t loose his temper when someone insults him or is obviously baiting him. He justs tells them what he thinks, and calmly corrects them if they are taking something he said out of context. When the other person is talking, he is listening and considering what they are saying, not just waiting for his chance to talk.
    AMDG

    Reply
  6. Mac

    Right, I noticed all those, too. There was one interview with a hostile journalist that was really impressive. Neo-neocon, who had training as a psychotherapist, did a post about it in which she noticed various little things he did and said that are part of a therapist’s technique.
    I’m sure it would help if one were being interviewed by a journalist to think of him/her as having mental problems. 🙂
    I saw a video clip the other day, just a very short one, of a tv journalist challenging some Catholic figure, maybe a bishop, in public about the Church’s “exclusion” of homosexuals (factually wrong of course). It was clear that the journalist was utterly incapable of understanding it as anything but completely arbitrary and irrational thing, like forbidding anyone with red hair from entering the building or something. Let alone the sin-sinner distinction.

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