September 18, 2004
Spiritual Espionage
In this week's Blogworthies, Lane Core links to a short piece in Envoy Magazine describing an ambush movie designed to suck in Catholics far enough to rattle their faith based on an erroneous formulation of their Church's view of Mary. As it happens, the false assertion that Catholics worship Mary is something about which I warned my class this week; as it also happens, I've been thinking about some Protestants' approach to evangelizing Catholics.
About a month ago, I received an email from the hopeful editor of a prospective Christian periodical in a region other than my own. His intention was merely to make contact, with a view toward having me write for him if his project came together. Of course, I suggested that I would be interested, but something in his note led me to mention that I'm Roman Catholic. This part of his reply, although he stated that all would be fine if we focused on matters about which we agree, provoked my eyebrows to lower:
I have a couple of christian friends that are catholic, their reason for staying was to reach other catholics.
It's possible that I'm reading too much into his decision to qualify his Catholic friends as Christian, but the idea of their "staying" within the Church makes me wonder how deliberately deceptive they are. Unless the editor mischaracterized his friends' objective, it would seem that they are infiltrating the very Church itself — their church itself — so as to lead people away from the religion that they had thought themselves to be bolstering by befriending the lurking Protestant cell.
Excuse the obvious turn of phrase, but is nothing sacred? I've made it a pillar of my belief system that Truth can be conveyed — must be conveyed — honestly. If you must deceive to convince, then you aren't pointing the way to Truth. Somehow I must have missed the passage in the Bible in which Jesus commands the apostles to convert others through deceit and espionage.
But the various anecdotes do raise questions. Periodically, one comes across a Catholic for whom the hierarchy can do nothing right — for whom, in fact, the hierarchy's support counts against a certain political or theological position. Some clearly long for a lost era of the Church, pre-Vatican II. Others may be undercover Protestants. Perhaps the countersign to discern which is which is to invoke the name of the Blessed Mother in yet another manifestation of our secret ways, our surreptitious signs and symbols.
Posted by Justin Katz at September 18, 2004 7:02 PMReligion
This reminds me of something that happened to me 3 and a half years ago. I was in the process of buying a new car, sitting in the sales room, a captive audience of the sales person processing my paperwork. I happen to wear a cross most every day of my life, and it is normally visible as I choose to wear it outside of my shirt collar. So while I'm waiting, this sales person decides to make casual conversation. Good technique for a sales person normally. Well, on this occasion, he decided to ask me which church I attended. I'm not ashamed of my faith really, and I've quite often held my own in conver(t)sations with fundamentalists that try to point out all that is wrong with my faith, so I didn't see any reason not to tell him. I told him which parish I belong to and when he asked after that I told him that it was a relatively small parish. It turns out this guy was a member of the local non-denominational mega-church. Well, my parish would be considered tiny by those standards... 400 member parish compared to a 10,000+ member behemoth housed in college campus type setting. What he said after that nearly goaded me into an pompous statement of piety, but I resisted. He mentioned that he was Catholic and at least half of the members attending the mega-church were too. I kept smiling as best I could and politely as I could told him that I preferred a more homey setting which exists in my parish. I know most everybody in the congregation and it feels like a real family. Somehow, I don't think anybody who was an undercover Protestant would fit in, especially from one of the mega-churches. But I still occasionally hear an older member or two bemoan the Vatican II changes.
When that happens I want to qoute my daughter's sentiments from High School foreign language class - Latin is a dead language... it killed all the Romans and now it's killing me!
Would it be too impious to say something like, I'll take the English communion wafer please?
Thanks for the notice.
Posted by: ELC at September 19, 2004 9:56 PMInteresting stuff. As a born and bred southern baptist PK, i suppose i was raised an evangelical fundamentalist without really being aware of it. Of course, being a PK, i rejected it all for so many years, but came full circle when i realized that there was no god but God -- and while i didnt know Him, He sure knew me. Long story...
But since my reconversion, safely ensconced in a working class SBC church, i've dug deeper and deeper and find myself much more "catholic" in my beliefs than i ever imagined possible. I still have trouble with some of it -- the pope, being human, is a slob the same as Billy Graham on his worst day, or a saint the same as Jimmy Swaggart on his best. But with a little water here and a little bit there, i think 98% of "fundamentalist protestants" believe 98% of what 98% of "catholics" believe, and the odd 4% isn't likely to send any of us to hell.
I'm sure someone will tell me i'm a heretic for that statement, and i'm eager to listen and learn how. :)
Posted by: Marty at September 20, 2004 12:02 AMMarty,
I don't consider you a heretic, but I think the 98% may be a bit steep. I would put it more about 78%. Still, I have nothing against Baptists per se. I just have to wonder at the tactics of the church near my previous residence that would invite all the Catholic teens to a Free Pizza Party, then try really hard to tell them they need to be saved from the Catholic belief.
Some folks never see outside the lines they have drawn around themselves.
I have two Baptist sisters, one Episcopalian, and I am Presbyterian. We concentrate on what we can share, not where we differ.
I thank God I have parents who taught us that the important thing was a living loving relationship with Jesus. While the rest is important it is not a deal breaker.
Posted by: jene' at September 22, 2004 4:42 AMFrom my study of the differences between Prostestant fundamentalism & doctronaire Catholicism, most PF's believe that the only saved Catholics are the ones who explicitly reject Catholic doctrine and believe in "Christ only" as the means to salvation (through being "born again"). This is why these Catholics that Justin is referring to are staying inside the Catholic Church -- to "save" fellow Catholics.
Posted by: Jon Rowe at September 22, 2004 5:59 PM