The Trail Home

Commenter Deeny pointed me to the blog The Trail Home. It is written from a former Baptist minister who converted to Catholicism.

It's very interesting to read, given his perspective. For example, one entry written by his wife contains this passage:

I had difficulty with the meanness towards all those who were not Baptist. WE HAVE TO SEPARATE from anyone, including friends and family who did not believe like us. WOMEN HAD TO KNOW THEIR PLACE and, I know mine as a successful business woman and wife/mother....totally out of line for them. I also had a mind and could think.....I could read, analyze, look at original text and language, read ancient history and Jewish text, and I could not make their theology work....premilllienal, memorial meal, baptism as a ritual that really didn't mean anything, a de-emphasis on doing good because it is all about faith (someday I'll talk about what that means)

.....AND, THE HATRED FOR CATHOLICS. At the heart of everything was the hatred of Catholics. They were all that was wrong and evil in the world. The whore of Babylon, the anti-Christ, etc. Our job was to convert people from the Catholic church because all of them were going to hell.

The most recent entry is on the doctrine "once saved, always saved."

The ‘doctrine’ of ‘once saved, always saved’ (OSAS), otherwise known as ‘eternal security’ was a teaching I found hard to abandon when I crossed the Tiber. It is an enticing philosophy that attracts people into a web that is hard to get out of. Behind the doctrine, of course is the teaching that you and I can ‘know for sure’ that our destiny is Heaven. Or as fundamentalist preachers love to put it: ‘you’re as sure for Heaven as Jesus Himself!’ Catholics shrink from such statements as they smack of the sin of presumption.

But this doctrine has a dark side. If I can ‘be sure’ who is going to Heaven (those who repeated a sinners prayer), than I can also be sure who is going to Hell (those who have not). This ‘knowledge’ of who is destined for Hell not only plays into the ‘Lie’ (using Malcolm’s language), it also plays into a destructive psychological pattern. . .

When some of the writings of Mother Teresa was made public, it revealed she had gone through (as St. John of the Cross did) a ‘dark night of the soul’.
Fundamentalists had a gleeful feeding frenzy. I remember one fundamentalist almost giddy with excitement: “See! This proves it! Mother Teresa is in Hell!!”. It is extremely important to fundamentalists that Mother Teresa be in Hell. If Mother Teresa is not burning in Hell, that would make their belief/doctrine false; hence she must be burning in Hell. . .

Catholics are told (many times with glee) that it is ‘certain’ they are going to Hell.
It reflects a lack of compassion, hope, and love. It feeds into a person’s unforgiveness and bitterness toward another. In dehumanizing them with the curse of “They’re going to Hell,” it relieves them of any responsibility.

Baptists are difficult to generalize about, because there are many different varieties, and a lot depends on the individual congregation. My intention in pointing you to his blog isn't really to read what he wrote about Baptists, but his former perspective on Catholicism. It's a pretty recent blog, so I was able to read through the archives pretty quickly, and there's lot of good writing there, if you're looking for something to keep you busy online during the slow blogging season.

Forthcoming Book

Last March, I posted a list of prominent conversions to Catholicism in the year 2007. One was Francis Beckwith, who had been President of the Evangelical Theological Society. He had to resign.

Anyway, Dr. Beckwith has a book about his conversion to be released in November. You can read about it on his webpage. He also has links to various news articles which covered his conversion.

From an interview in Christianity Today:

The issue of justification was key for me. The Catholic Church frames the Christian life as one in which you must exercise virtue—not because virtue saves you, but because that's the way God's grace gets manifested. As an evangelical, even when I talked about sanctification and wanted to practice it, it seemed as if I didn't have a good enough incentive to do so. Now there's a kind of theological framework, and it doesn't say my salvation depends on me, but it says my virtue counts for something. It's important to allow the grace of God to be exercised through your actions. The evangelical emphasis on the moral life forms my Catholic practice with an added incentive. That was liberating to me.

Dr. Beckwith is not a bitter ex-Evangelical. In an interview in Catholic World Report he says:

I do not believe I ceased to be an Evangelical when I returned to the Church. What I ceased to be was a Protestant. For I believe, as Pope Benedict has preached, that the Church itself needs to nurture within it an evangelical spirit. There are, as we know, too many Catholics whose faith needs to be renewed and emboldened.

There is much that I learned as a Protestant Evangelical that has left an indelible mark on me and formed the person I am today. For that reason, it accompanies me back to the Church.

I'm sure there will be another round of articles when the book is released, and I look forward to reading it.

Catholic Evangelization

As Tracy has written, many Catholics feel hesitant to evangelize. Our relationship with the Lord is very personal, as as such, it feels intrusive to discuss that relationship with others.

However, Catholics are very much called to evangelize. Does our evangelization look the same as that of a born again Christian, handing out tracts and reading through a Sinner's Prayer with a total stranger? Possibly, but probably not in most cases.

The Catholic Catechism #905 states: "Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, "that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life." For lay people, "this evangelization . . . acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world."

As Tracy wrote, as Catholic lay people, our primary evangelization takes place in the ordinary circumstances of the world.

In the Doctrinal Note on some Aspects of Evangelization which I referenced in the previous post, there is an elaboration on this idea.

" . . .evangelization is aimed at all of humanity. In any case, to evangelize does not mean simply to teach a doctrine, but to proclaim Jesus Christ by one’s words and actions, that is, to make oneself an instrument of his presence and action in the world."

We see here that words and actions are again mentioned as an important means of evangelization.

"Today, however, with ever-increasing frequency, questions are being raised about the legitimacy of presenting to others – so that they might in turn accept it – that which is held to be true for oneself. Often this is seen as an infringement of other people’s freedom."

However, we need to be wary of holding back from presenting the Gospel, because we feel it would be intrusive to others. How many times have we, as Catholics, held our tongue when speaking to an aquaintence because it was easier than saying something? We probably reasoned that our good example should be enough, and it isn't necessary to actually say something to them. Think of the many times that abortion or contraception come up in casual conversation. Are there times that we could make a comment that might get people thinking about the truth of these subjects?

Does this mean that we need to bluntly tell people that they are sinning, or act in some other offensive way?

"Evangelization also involves a sincere dialogue that seeks to understand the reasons and feelings of others. Indeed, the heart of another person can only be approached in freedom, in love and in dialogue, in such a manner that the word which is spoken is not simply offered, but also truly witnessed in the hearts of those to whom it is addressed. This requires taking into account the hopes, sufferings and concrete situations of those with whom one is in dialogue. Precisely in this way, people of good will open their hearts more freely and share their spiritual and religious experiences in all sincerity. This experience of sharing, a characteristic of true friendship, is a valuable occasion for witnessing and for Christian proclamation."

No, evangelization is a delicate art. In the same way that we shouldn't be afraid to speak up, so we also should be sensitive. We need to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and seek openings that might truly bear fruit. If we offend someone, they might close that door forever, but sometimes a gentle word at the right moment can be a powerful witness.

Answering Kay

the differences between God's Word and Catholicism are quite many, only those born and raised in the Catholic Church are not aware of the differences (The Truth) because they are so blinded by the way they were raised and the things they were taught from little up.



When I was in my late 20s, my only sister left the Catholic Church and she started challenging me on what the church taught and why. It was pretty much like the stuff that goes on over on Candy's blog. I didn't know any of the answers to her questions, but even as fallen away and lukewarm as I was at the time, I reasoned that the Catholic church had to have an answer for the things they taught and I was determined to find out their side of it before I made a decision about whether it was true enough.

So do you have the picture? Cradle Catholic, questioning Catholicism, ready to reject it depending on the answers I found. I don't think anyone could accuse me of being blinded. If anything I was giving a bit more deference to the other side!

And I know Candy and friends don't want to hear it, but it was studying the scriptures that lead me right back to the Catholic faith, on fire and ready and anxious to learn more! Mine is not a unique story. Many Catholics have "re-verted" back to their Catholic faith after really studying all that she teaches.

But here's something that Candy will also never admit. May protestants and other non-Catholic Christians come to the Catholic church after studying the scriptures. Here's an entire web site full of them.

The other dirty little secret she doesn't want you to know is that many of them were trained Protestant ministers who had been trained in scriptures at Protestant colleges and universities. No one could argue that they were "blinded" by anything and yet they found the teachings of the church to be so compelling and verifiable by what they found in scriptures, that they converted.

So think whatever you please Kay, it's not backed up by anything, especially reality.