[NYer]

The following information was posted to the Insight Scoop blog and prompted this post.

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Friday, February 29, 2008

Journeying from home to be on "The Journey Home"

I leave early tomorrow morning for Alabama, home of something called the Crimson Tide and of EWTN. I'll get to visit a bit with our good friends Tony and Amanda Clark, who live in Tuscaloosa, and then on Monday evening (March 3rd) I'll guest on EWTN's "The Journey Home" with Marcus Grodi. The show is live and airs at 8:00 p.m. EST/5:00 Pacific. I have been on the show before, back in June 2002 (listen to it as an .ra file). I'm not sure yet what the exact focus will be this time, but certainly some aspect of my Fundamentalist upbringing, and my journey through Evangelicalism to the Catholic Church. I hope to blog a bit while I'm on the road, but things might be a bit quiet here for a couple of days.

[NYer]

I familiarized myself with books explaining the evils of "Romanism" and the falsehoods of the Catholic Church. During my first year of college these readings were helpful in leading my roommate away from Catholicism and into a "Bible-believing" church. It was satisfying to hear him telling his parents over the phone how he had come to "know Jesus" and no longer wanted to be Catholic.

This is one of the ways in which your congregation has grown. As I noted on a previous thread, many Catholics are poorly catechized in their faith. I teach Religious Education to the youth at our parish. The poorly formed parents drop their children off expecting me and the few volunteers to educate their children in the faith they themselves don't understand. With time, the children develop a greater interest in sports or other activities and convince their parents that they no longer need to attend classes. The parents, inconvenienced by the extra time needed to bring their children to religious education, welcome the opportunity to be relieved of this additional task. It's truly sad.

Later in life, however, be it at college or in the office, these (now grown children) meet up with an Evangelical who asks "Have you been saved?" Despite those years of education, they don't know how to respond. As convert Steve Wood notes:

I was a Protestant for twenty years before I became a Catholic. Working as a youth leader, campus and prison evangelist, and church pastor, I led many people — including friends and relatives — out of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, it was surprisingly easy. My formula for getting Catholics to leave the Church usually consisted of three steps.

How I led Catholics Out of the Church

[diamond6]

This line was soooooooooo good....

“”That’s true,” I said, “but if I have to choose between fallible Church Fathers and fallible Reformers, I choose the Fathers.”

[Grunthor]

“I am working out my salvation”

How do you “work on” your salvation? Salvation is what Christ died for, you can neither deserve it nor do enough good works to earn it. You claim it through proclaiming Jesus as your Lord and Savior and then following His teachings, period.

[the invisib1e hand]

I was glad to hear him say this since it assured me he had a good understanding of what the Eucharist was.

Well, he is a priest. It's his job to know.

[TASMANIANRED]

I think Catholics that come to the church by the stony path have a deeper faith than cradle Catholics.

It is far easier to abuse a gift than something you have struggled to earn.

[Salvation]

Carl Olson is an excellent speaker. Heard him in little old Salem, OR!

[trisham]

But foremost in my mind was the sixth chapter of John. I read and re-read it, the words haunting me: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves" (John 6:53)

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Excellent article, NYer. As always, thank you for posting it.

[sneakers]

"I never left it," I replied. "I fulfilled it."

Amen.

Thank you for posting this, NYer.