Posted on 08/05/2010 12:36:10 PM PDT by NYer
Is there a growing trend of Evangelicals converting to Catholicism? Many think so, including this recent article:
[There is a large] community of young believers whose frustration with the lack of authority, structure, and intellectualism in many evangelical churches is leading them in great numbers to the Roman Catholic Church. This trend of “Crossing the Tiber” (a phrase that also served as the title of Stephen K. Ray’s 1997 book on the phenomenon), has been growing steadily for decades, but with the help of a solid foundation of literature, exemplar converts from previous generations, burgeoning traditional and new media outlets, and the coming of age of Millennial evangelicals, it is seeing its pace quicken dramatically. [source]
The article gives the example of many such notable Evangelical converts from our generation, such as Scott Hahn, Marcus Grodi, Thomas Howard, Francis Beckwith and others. (It also mentions Patrick Madrid, but he is actually not a convert, from what I understand.)
The common threads that seem to be drawing many of these Evangelicals into the Catholic Church are its history, the Liturgy and its tradition of intellectualism.
So is this trend significant? Or is it dwarfed by what seems to be many more Catholics who seem to lose their faith or become complacent with it?
According to a 2009 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, four people leave the Catholic Church for every one person that joins it. Keep in mind that this stat doesn’t count those born into Catholicism as “joining” it. However, it’s still a sad statistic. But we shouldn’t be misled by it.
There are also studies that show Catholicism has a higher rate of retention than all other religious groups. In other words, when people convert to Catholicism, they don’t do so because they didn’t like where they were and just wanted to try something new. Their conversion is deliberate and intentional and they generally stick with it. On the other hand, when people leave the Church, they generally drift around a bit from one denomination to another. This says a lot. The Catholic convert is actually experiencing real, lasting conversion. Those leaving the Church seem to be lost and searching souls that most likely had no idea what they were leaving in the first place.
I’ve long noticed, as have many others, a kind of trend as well. It’s not so much from “Evangelicals” converting to Catholicism necessarily. It’s that of intellectuals converting to Catholicism. And that’s not to say these intellectuals were strictly intellectual. But I mean it to say that they took their reasons for believing very seriously. We only have to look back a few generations to find Chesterton, Merton, Newman, etc. as part of the same trend.
In my own experience, I’ve seen that more people who convert to Catholicism do so on account of their reason. Whereas those that leave the Church do so based on some emotion or negative experience associated with the Church.
When I ask an evangelical why they left the Church. The answer is almost always an emotion. Something made them feel a certain way. Or they just didn’t like the way something was done in Catholicism. Or it didn’t suit their lifestyle. Or some other experience made them feel nice.
There is a long list of protestant (and other) leaders and scholars who have converted to Catholicism. The list for those going the other direction is devastatingly short.
This is why I think we are seeing, and will continue to see even more, protestant thinkers converting to Catholicism. Protestantism is running its course. All the protest is getting tired. And they are running out of places to find answers that don’t lead them deep into Church history, back to the ancient liturgy, and into the intellectual tradition that ultimately leads to one place: Rome.
Protestantism has drifted far enough away from orthodox Christianity that it can now look back at the trees and recognize the forest. And if you’re not entirely in the Catholic Church, that just might be the next best place to be…
“There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place; and I tried to trace such a journey in a story I once wrote. It is, however, a relief to turn from that topic to another story that I never wrote. Like every book I never wrote, it is by far the best book I have ever written. It is only too probable that I shall never write it, so I will use it symbolically here; for it was a symbol of the same truth. I conceived it as a romance of those vast valleys with sloping sides, like those along which the ancient White Horses of Wessex are scrawled along the flanks of the hills. It concerned some boy whose farm or cottage stood on such a slope, and who went on his travels to find something, such as the effigy and grave of some giant; and when he was far enough from home he looked back and saw that his own farm and kitchen-garden, shining flat on the hill-side like the colours and quarterings of a shield, were but parts of some such gigantic figure, on which he had always lived, but which was too large and too close to be seen. That, I think, is a true picture of the progress of any really independent intelligence today; and that is the point of this book.
The point of this book, in other words, is that the next best thing to being really inside Christendom is to be really outside it. ” - G. K. Chesterton (Everlasting Man)
Well considering my parents and I have never tried to burn each other at the stake there must be. It took me years to convince them that I didn't believe Mary was my personal lord and saviour though.
At the same time yes, I believe that the Catholic Church is the "true Church". If I didn't I certainly wouldn't hang around with these loons, Ann Rice wasn't entirely wrong when she body-slammed us the other day by calling us a "quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group". I can't remember who said it, or exactly how it was said but whoever said "Protestants are better than their religion and Catholics are worse than theirs" nailed it. It was probably Fulton Sheen.
As a partial aside, I think the real thing about converts is how they talk about what they left behind. I'm the only convert I know who has something less than stellar to say about the Protestantism in which he was raised, the rest of them just gush with how much they appreciate their Protestant roots. It kind of annoys me but I think that's something wrong with me, not something wrong with them.
Now look at the other side, the people who leave Catholicism for some kind of Protestantism. I'll try not to characterise it and just let them make my point for me.
On the other hand, political common ground should be forged among those who accept traditional Christian morality and are loyal to the American people. Protestants certainly deserve most of the credit for founding this country.
You’d think the Bible had never warned of apostasy.
But it’s hardly something to celebrate.
And what do you propose that the priest do? Live at the home 24/7 to make sure that the man doesn't beat his family?
A father that harms his children is in serious sin and would be denied communion until he repents if the mother informs the priest.
Do you think that a man like this doesn't already know that? Or that he cares?
If the father is not controllable by the priest and there is grave necessity, separation and civil divorce is permitted.
Before or after he hospitalizes or kills someone?
Oh please lady. Stop misrepresenting the Church. If your relationship was abusive, you could have had a marriage annulement. It’s not only ridiculous but downright offensive that you would even say the Church would rather you stay in an abusive situation with your chldren being beaten.
Total dishonesty & a balatant misrepresentation of the Church.
Go back and read some posts upthread.
And yet they're all counted as part of that one billion strong.
I think I know which church you are referring to. I had a friend who I took to Mass on the condition that I went to his church as well. (He has subsequently left that church for Catholicism). Anyway, their first order of business BEFORE even a prayer was uttered was to send the ushers around with the collection plate so that they could “wait on you for your gifts unto the Lord”. The pastor then spent about ten minutes giving a dissertation about your “biblical obligation” to put at least 10% of your weekly pay into their collection plate. It became a family operation with the head pastor being succeeded by his two sons & grandsons. It was interesting.
The Bible says it is better for a man to hang a millstone around his neck than to harm a child.
Thanks metmom, my ex would no more obey a priest than he obeyed his commanding officer to pay his court ordered child support. (he rejoined the military after our divorce)
No I did not know he was abusive before we married. Before the boys came along he had never showed that side of himself.
I only need my Savior, not any church.
I would like to share my point if you don't mind. I was raised as a Roman Catholic from birth. I received baptism as an infant, First Holy Communion, Catechism, Confirmation and many years in a Catholic school. I left not because of any of the suspected reasons of offense, or sinful living, etc., but because my heart was yearning to know what the real truth was. Something was missing and I asked God, "If there is any such thing as truth, I want to know it.". It was a simple prayer of a heart that was earnestly seeking him. If he had revealed that truth to me where I was, I would have stayed there. There was NO ulterior motive, only a genuine search for THE TRUTH.
He did reveal it to me and it was in a non-Catholic church, but it was from the Bible itself not some teacher or preacher explaining it. I learned for the first time that I could be saved through Christ's death for me and that he would never cast me out or lose me. No one could pluck me from his hand. John 10:27-30 to be exact. The Holy Spirit opened my eyes and I recognized that it was truth. I had never heard before that there was a personal one-on-one relationship I could have with my Savior. I had never had the assurance of my salvation because I had been taught that you were only as good as your last confession. How I prayed as a child that if I was going to die it would be after I went to confession on Saturday, hopefully after Mass on Sunday, and before I got into it with my brothers or sisters. It was always based on how good I was and never that the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross was FOR ME and that it was by grace through faith not by my own works.
I have no animosity towards Catholics, my own Mother is still Catholic, she lives with my husband and me, and I take her to Mass every Sunday. I respect her personal faith but I will and can never go back to the Catholic Church. I know that it would mean giving up the assurance of my salvation and going back into the bondage of never being good enough and never knowing for sure I was saved - it's too late for that - I know what the truth is now.
People who blame the victim are despicable.
You’re accusing her of something which you have no knowledge of.
The only thing that sounds nasty is you.
And Catholics wonder why people leave the Catholic church.
By the way, your cute little hello kitty rosary is from a pagan website that was created to mock the Church (paganspace.net). It has nothing to do with any faithful Catholic. Our rosary features a crucifix & is very Christ-centered. We focus on the mysteries while reciting the rosary. Nice try, but no score for you. As I said in my last post to you, you really ought to try getting a clue before shooting off your uninformed yap.
I dont understand how this writer can say Gingrich was "leading the impeachment charge". Newt was not on the House committee investigating the impeachment. Whenever he was asked about it he always says "ask Henry Hyde." BTW I wonder how that hopey/changey thing is working out for Mr. Buckley.
Catholicism, Protestantism, Evangelicalism, Anglicanism...
People who leave ANY Christian “ism” for ANY reason other than to cultivate deeper fellowship with the LORD, Jesus Christ are fools. People who join ANY “ism” except for the same reason, doubly so.
In an echo of the Divine injunction to “Be still, and know that I AM God,” the great philosopher and Christian, Blaise Pascal observed, “I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”
It is high time we quit disputing between our “isms” and start pursuing Him. During the last 50 years of this argument, active participation in some recognized Christian church has declined from about 60% in post-WWII America, to just 4% in the present day.
Ya think maybe we’ve had our eye on the wrong ball?
Ya think maybe disputing over different “isms” in the face of losing the entire culture just MIGHT rank right up there with arguing about how to arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic??
People who passionately embrace their beloved “ism” crucify one another daily. Meanwhile the culture is diving head first into eternal, flaming Hell. Souls are being eternally lost; hundreds every hour, and yet many Christians believe they have the luxury of time to engage in spiteful, intramural exchanges across the table of sacrament; over the very Body and Blood of Christ himself?
_____
O, Dear God in Heaven! What wretched souls we are! What banal priorities we embrace! How little we treasure what You treasure. How lightly we regard what You hold most dear. Sovereign LORD, strip us of our foolish and stupid arguments. If need be, O God, strip the entire world from our grasp, and leave us bereft of all save Christ. For, in all sobriety I firmly and emphatically affirm that I would rather have nothing at all than not have You.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
GOOD POINTS.
Do you agree with me that the Catholic Church teaches that God loved you enough to take on human nature, and then die a horrible humiliating death, to get you into heaven?
Do you agree with me that the Catholic Church teaches that the justified man or woman is not merely a pardoned criminal, but an adopted son or daughter of God, part of his family and his household?
Do you agree with me that the Catholic Church teaches that God loved you enough that, after dying that humiliating death, and making you his daughter by adoption, he gave himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity to you as food for the journey?
If you don't agree with me that Catholicism teaches those things, then you left something you never understood.
If do agree with me that Catholicism teaches those things, then what further "assurance of salvation" could anyone possibly want?
And that absolves you of adultery, how?
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