Breaking News! VOTE for Cardinal Dolan!

Is Cardinal Dolan an influential person in America?

You bet.

Time Magazine has an online vote going to determine if he should be included in the running for the 100 most influential people in America list.

Of course he should.

Duh.

GO VOTE FOR HIM. 

H/T to Padre Z

Protestant Development of Doctrine

15th Century Mass

Stop It!

Luther: "Wait a minute, I didn't think that..."

Let's Kick It Up A Notch!

Azusa Street Revival (Notice "Apostolic Faith"...we must be getting closer)

True Worship: Thank you Reformation (Look, Protestants are "United"!)

"Did...did...did...did I do that?"

Top 2 Videos of the Week

Two great videos for your spiritual edification.

AND

Click Here to Watch His Story

“Deep down inside, don't we all long for a fulfilling relationship, completeness, escape from the mediocrity of our daily lives, to reach out towards an Absolute Being?”

The search for meaning, for the Absolute, led Father Joseph-Marie Verlinde, known as Jacques at the time, to take the plunge into the "Great Whole". Initiated in ascetic oriental practices such as yoga and transcendental meditation, he explored the Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions in India. This led him on to esoteric and occult practices and, in this film, he speaks about this and about his own experiences, contrasting them with the truth of the One he crossed the world to find: Jesus Christ.

A priest of Belgian origin, with Doctorates in philosophy and theology, he is now prior of the Monastic Community of the Family of Saint Joseph, in France. Drawing on his past experience, Father Joseph-Marie Verlinde answers some of the basic questions faced by society today. With great respect, he warns and enlightens those who, in their search for "meaning", embark upon the ways of the East... and engage in esoteric and occult practices. -source H/T to my wife!

Traditions of Men: NOT HONORING MARY

He answered them, "And why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.' But you say, 'If any one tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.' So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. 

-Matthew 15:3-6

God commands that we honor our mother. -Exodus 20:12

Jesus gave us His Mother as our Mother at the Cross.  -John 19:27

This is also understood implicitly since Christ is our brother. -Hebrews 2:17

Therefore, we must honor our Mother. 

The Blessed Virgin prophesied that all generations would called her "Blessed". -Luke 1:48

Yet...

Some say that to honor the Blessed Virgin takes away from God. They say (something like), "What Mary would have gained from you or I is (ought to be) given to God, therefore, you need not honor your Mother." 

So, for the sake of their tradition, they make void the word of God.

Just say "No!" to traditions of men.
Honor Your Mother.

Of Strawmen and Struggles

Recently, a friend of mine called me on the carpet. Well, not exactly carpet but more like the barn floor. If you have ever been in a barn, you know what I'm talking about.

Yup, straw. Well, strawmen to be exact.

This friend informed me that a recent post I made (of which now only exists in some internet cache form) suffered from the strawman fallacy. Let me just skip to the point: I don't like playing with straw. Sure, it burns quickly, but in the end it's a quick fire with little real effects. All show, no dough. That's not what I'm about.

Specifically, I realized that I quite often say things like:

"Such and such assumes"

when I mean:

"A consequence of such and such is"

Big difference. It is one thing to say that because a person holds to "X", they must assume "Y"; quite another thing to say that because someone holds "X", the consequence is "Y". (say that to yourself ten times in row until it either (a) makes sense or (b) gives you a headache)

I'll blame him for my penchant for
arguing by implication

I also have a tendency to make arguments by implication. I sometimes ask my reader to think about what I'm saying and fill in the gaps, and some arguments really deserve better than that because the gaps can appear question begging. Since I'm in pile-on mode, I'll also enter as evidence that sometimes I use what someone else says to launch into my own conversation, not really engaging their argument directly as much as engaging the argument that I want to engage (partly due to some technology induced ADD). If you are careful, you can do that as long as you differentiate between your argument and the reference you are using. If you are not careful, you've just made the strawman fallacy. For the times when I have been guilty (e.g., my last un-published post):

Mea Culpa. Mea. Culpa. Mea Maxima Culpa.

Full stop. Part II Begins...

Since today is the one year anniversary of this blog, I want to share with you a struggle I have. I like to read academic stuff, even write academic stuff, but this blog is not for academic people. In fact, I make it my mission to go read the academic stuff and then write blog posts for stay-at-home moms and workings folks -- you know, like normal people.

There are blogs out there that are converting the seminarians and former protestant pastors. I'm sure they might find my blog interesting, but that is not the point. It would be accidental to the nature of this blog that an academic reads it and goes, "I shall footnote that in my next peer reviewed essay!" Instead, I started this blog to communicate with my family and friends. A lot of people have joined that journey, but my object has never changed.

So, here's my struggle:

How do I write blog-length posts to address important issues while simultaneously not losing the average reader? (note: if you are not the average reader and are right now thinking "Brent, you aren't talking about me", then, yes, I'm not talking about you)

When Academia and Normal Folks Mingle

I don't want to write a ten, twenty or thirty page paper for every blog post. Not because I don't like writing ten, twenty or thirty page papers, but because normal folks don't read ten, twenty or thirty page papers. Sure, maybe in a better and different society they would, but we don't live in that one. We live in this one. And speaking of this one, meaning this guy who is now typing on his MacBook this here blog post, I got to be frank.

I'm a straight shooter. I tried academia, and to be honest, I didn't like it. I don't like disagreeing with someone in 20 pages, when at the end of the day I could have just said, "I don't agree with you" and pointed them to 20-30 books that disagree with them too. "Go thou and readest and findest why I shallest disagreest with thou". It was all too high-brow for me, and I'm the son of a blue-collar man. At times, it felt like we were all sitting around staring at a tree that was in the way, and I wanted to say:

"Just cut the dang thing down!"

"But, Brent, we should be careful lest we mow down the wrong tree!"

"Well then, we'll just have to cut down two trees."

There has been some descent deforestation that has been done over this last year. In fact, over the last year, I've been encouraged that some good can be done online. Here's just some of what I've run into (comments left for me at various places):

"I too come from a Pentecostal background, attended a Pentecostal Bible College for a few years. Being apart of the Pentecostal Church became exhausting to me and I nearly walked away from my faith in Christ... I ended up attending an Evangelical church, where I am attending today. That said, after years of study, years of experience, years of seeking to understand Catholic spirituality and wanting to understand my Grandmother's faith truth began being revealed to me... it took years of searching and researching and then one day a few months ago I came to full resolve the teaching of Marry and the Eucharist and suddenly it was like the breaking of damn of a great big river washing over me... All the prophetic and apostolic teaching points to the Catholic church yet a great many can't and don't want to see it but I saw it and now I have to take these steps of obedience and I'm sure the more I do the greater peace I sense in my life. I'm thankful I came across a convert story from the Pentecostal tradition."

"Thank you for your blog! I really enjoy reading it. I am a 19-year-old spiritual seeker. After a long period of thinking, reading, and exploring, I really desire to become a Christian and enter the church.  My trouble is this: at first, I was overwhelmed by the number of Christian denominations all claiming to be "the one and only TRUE Church that CHRIST founded". After reading and praying for months, I did not feel that Protestantism was what Christ intended for His followers."

"Hi. I was raised Assembly of God and have found your blog to be extremely helpful in my consideration of converting to Catholicism. I have read your entries on confession which have helped answer some of my questions on the topic...Thank you for putting your story out there. It helps to get information from someone who comes from a similar background."

"Thank you very much for going out of your way to support me...And the whole of the Christian world with your beautiful, articulate, factual and humble blog. Please keep it up!

"A man phoned the Coming Home Network office today. He is a Pentecostal minister. He'd been listening to Pentecostal hymns on Youtube and clicked on a link that took him to the Journey Home program where you were the guest. Aaron listened to the program and then called the office."

From Twitter:

"@2bcatholic saw you on EWTN, inspired me to try out RCIA. Also, love the blog. Thanks!"

This is why I do what I do. Pray for me that I can do a better job. I don't like blogging or being online, but I honestly can see the good that God can use from it. So, I'm here to stay if the Lord wills it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALMOST NOT CATHOLIC! 

Consider subscribing to Almost Not Catholic. Click here to make it happen.

Where did this guy go?

Gratuitous baby pic of Me

Where has the author for the blog Almost Not Catholic gone? Have you added him to your reader or feedburner and wondered why you made that mistake? It's five more days until the blog's 1 year birthday, and you would think he would write more. Come on already!

I know that I haven't been blogging much. Partly, it is due to the fact that I shaved off my beard.

the good ol' days: avec beard

With my beard, I have much inspiration. Without my beard...not so much. Okay, also there is this Lent thing whereby I tell myself to stay away from the blog. So, maybe I will have more to write soon enough. I will say that I currently have 3 posts almost ready to publish. (see how the "almost" thing works) I also hope to do some more reflections on Catholic theology. I like those. Sometime I get tired of saying:

"Dear friend in Christ. I, John. Q. Catholic, do not worship statues, Mary, or ____________. I worship God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Please leave your message after the tone"

But, but but...

"Dear friend in Christ. I, John Q. Catholic, do not worship..."

But, but, but...

You see how this goes. Taxing. Tiresome. Redundant. Obvious.

So, for the benefit of this blogger and anyone who is still reading, what is something God has been teaching you this Lent? Please share and bless all of us with a very important aspect of apologetics: personal testimony.

I'm Not Here, I'm...

...HERE!

Talking about parenting, Catholicism, and reformation.

By the way, you should really consider adding Ignitum Today to your blogroll. Solid stuff. Here's a little bit of the piece:

It is one thing for the world to be against you. If I turn on the television for more than five minutes, I’m bombarded with the fact that the world is dead-set on my children becoming delinquent, amoral, slaves of the state. Consequently, my wife and I both realize that in today’s culture a heavy dose of vigilanteism is required to raise saints. Game on. Well, mostly game on. To use an analogy, at times it feels like we are on the game-show American Gladiator, and just I feel like saying:

“Hey, you! Yeah you, dude with the awesome mullet. Lay off with the massive cue tip thingy. Seriously, stop whacking me in the head. This is ridiculous. Go get a normal job or something.”

READ THE REST HERE.

Confession: A Reflection

"The time of penance has come, the time to atone for our sins and seek our salvation"

 -from Mid-morning prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours

How can we "atone for our sins"? It is a good question, and one that when we dwell upon we soon realize is a futile exploit if but for Christ. Christ is our atoning sacrifice (1 John 2:2), truly he is. Yet, we must ask ourselves, is he? Is he my sacrifice? I don't mean to imply that there is another, for there is no Other, but have I encountered the Other as My Other?

Because today is the day of salvation! (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Am I seeking the atoning work of Christ in my life everyday? Is today my day of salvation, or am I satisfied with a distant memory of Christ? Don't I know that I am just as incapable of living yesterday as I am living 5 years ago? His mercies our new every morning.

Thus, we must ask ourselves, "do I seek my salvation"?

What in my life says, "I am seeking"?

Christ will meet you. Seek and ye shall find.

Knock and the door will be opened.

GO. TO. CONFESSION.

May God richly bless you this season of Lent.

Conversion Tip Redux - Dear Lagniappe

Happy Almost Birthday to my blog!
(16 days to go)

And in the spirit of birthdays, I thought I would comment a little more on my last post. In the combox, my friend Lagniappe wrote:

"Discern(ing) - what doth it meaneth?  The post pronounces the random (chance) of flipping open a phone book and, voila!!!, this is God's direction (I get your point just a bit of hyperbole on my part) (#1).  Now, the quote:
"He is also capable of helping you discern the claims of the Catholic Church.  Ask Him to help you make the decision. Beg him to "show you the truth". You are not testing God, you are asking God for help."  Discerning requires more than a mental ascent to whatever, or a mystical epiphany, or a divine revelation of truth.  Mi Amigo, the very word, discern (as a verb), requires an examination or a judgment.  Thus, more than blind luck is required. Are you positing that one truly seeking the Roman Catholic way will find it apart from the obvious search of and through actual materials (#2)?  Will the sheer magnitude of a seeker's resolve to find this truth apart from serious inquiry result in a magic moment (#3)?

1. The phone book analogy was meant to draw out the magnitude of the task of finding a Protestant Church amongst the thousands of competing options in comparison to the magnitude of discerning the Catholic claim of being the Church Jesus personally founded. You see, many times people make the Catholic Church the "impossible find", so buried in history and Latin theology that the unlearned will never have a chance. "Sorry simple charlie," they say. Catholicism is only for the man of letters. The yeoman -- you're just out of luck.

But that isn't the case. I find something extraordinary in the Catholic Church. I find EVERYONE here. Supreme Court Justices -- who know how to blow holes in every kind of argument, farmworkers, learned theologians, and third grade educated grandmothers, all dipping their hand in the water font, genuflecting and silently kneeling in reflection after they receive the Body and Blood of our Lord.

2. No. But, I would be careful to imply that prayer is some kind of "blind luck". The intellectual duty of "loving God with your mind" certainly entails looking through actual materials. As a sage once said in another post:

"Pray more than you read blogs"

I'm the first critic of blogs. They can become like McDonald's hamburgers -- easy to eat but with little nutritive value. I did not convert to Catholicism through online blogs. I converted through the careful reading of tens of thousands of pages of books. However, not everyone will have the luxury of reading tens of thousands of pages of books. I happen to have at the time (a) a job that gave me the financial resources to buy those books, (b) time in the evening to read non-stop and (c) eventually the resources to not work for 7 months and do nothing but read (and debate non-Catholics and Catholics). So, far from "blind luck", as one who understood both the implications of becoming Catholic and the absolute necessity of examining various arguments against Catholicism, I agree that I had no "short-cut" option. However...

3. I believe in prayer. The Lord said we should, "Ask, seek and knock."Christ also said:

"But of whom of you that is a father shall a son ask bread, and the father shall give him a stone? or also a fish, and instead of a fish shall give him a serpent?" - Luke 11:11

I understand that neither of these versus have Roman Catholicism, per se, in their cross-hairs. But, what both establish is a principle. It is a principle I learned as a Pentecostal. The principle is this: we do not need to be afraid of asking God for help and believing he will give it to us. He will not give us a serpent if we ask for a fish. He will not give us a harlot church if we ask Him for his. Does this mean that we can abdicate our duty to study, discern or judge? Of course not. Though the journey I described in #2 would have been futile had it not included hours on my knees begging God:

"Please don't lead me to Catholicism! If this is not of you, throw me off the path! Please, Lord, anything but the Catholic Church!"

Anyone interested in Catholicism, please pray this prayer.

Now, you may immediately object to where my journey terminated, you might even say I was duped, deceived, etc. That's your prerogative. However, notice that my advice leads me open to the very real possibility that God won't lead someone reading this blog to the Catholic Church. So be it. I would rather someone prayerfully discern Catholicism, then lose spiritual oxygenation on their journey.

Peace to you on yours

Conversion Tip #158127

18 Days Until the 1-Year Anniversary
of Almost Not Catholic

Therefore, in the spirit of unrestrained and unmetered sagacity, I so offer this conversion tip #158127:

Pray more than you read blogs.

Even Catholic blogs. Because believe it or not, just like (you may have thought) God can lead you to a random Protestant church in the phone book, He is also capable of helping you discern the claims of the Catholic Church. 

Ask Him to help you make the decision. Beg him to "show you the truth". You are not testing God, you are asking God for help. 

Do it.

Pray.

and... 

Consider celebrating the one year anniversary of Almost Not Catholic by subscribing via feed burner. It's easy -- pain free even. Click here to make it happen.

Peace to you on your journey.

19 Days to 366

One of the downsides
of being online: fake cake

That's right.

In 19 days, my blog will be 1 year old.

I know. You noticed I had some posts in 2009. Ignore those. The blog started last year, last Lent. The 2009 posts were some random ramblings that amounted to next to nothing.

So, for the next 19 days, I'm going to try to post some things I've learned about the blogosphere, Catholic apologetics, online communication etc.

First lesson in my 19 day random sage-fest:

Stay offline if you can. 

If you don't have a mission for being online, life is lived much better in the real world. Conversations ALWAYS are better in person. Cake always tastes better off-line.

Yet having a charitable conversation online, or attempting thereof, can be an opportunity to develop virtue. In person, sometimes we hide. Online, our dark-side can come out. We are not afraid because maybe we hide behind a gravatar or screen name that allows us to "exercise our demons". Maybe we lose our inhibitions because that guy who might punch us in the face for being a jerk is nowhere to be found.

This is dangerous.

Yet as much danger as it portends, it can also be an occasion to allow the Holy Spirit to work in you. That's where I am right now. Not that I'm a jerk online, but rather I am learning to gain balance. I'll admit that this year has been a struggle. For all of my life, I stood against blogging. I felt that it was narcissistic, exhibitionistic, and could lead to digital voyeurism. I still feel this way, in part, but I've come to realize that with a real mission, real good can be accomplished.

Though, it takes a mission. And with any mission, priorities must be set. You cannot be everything to everyone. A genuine mission requires an identifiable target (mine is the tag-line in my header), and an identifiable target means you aren't shooting your blog-bullets all over the place. Get a private journal for that.

In other words, don't just add to the noise. It's loud enough, already.

With your online activity, do something that adds to someone else and only consume the digital media that adds to your growth as a person. Don't be afraid to stop reading my blog, "un-follow" someone or even unplug all together. I won't be offended. If God is leading you there, go.

Either way, just go wherever God is leading you.

Is it the Catholic Church?

Peace to you on your journey

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The Bible...It's Easy As 1, 2, 3!

On various Reformed blogs, I have read in one form or another an argument that goes like this:

• The Bible is perspicuous (easy to understand), therefore
• If you practice the rules of good reading comprehension you can glean from it right doctrine
• The reason people don't get right doctrine is many times a defect of reading comprehension, thus
• Through discursive dialog one person should be able to convince another what the right interpretation of Scripture is. However,
• If that person disagrees, they do so at their own peril because the Bible is sufficiently clear so as to be understood by anyone willing to attend his or her intellect to its meaning

Did you catch that? Denominations that disagree with basic Reformed tenets (denominations like the Disciples of Christ, Pentecostals, etc.) suffer from a deficiency in reading comprehension. (You credo-baptist Zwinglians, hold your breath) Here's my problem. This view of Scripture turns the Bible, inevitably, into a math book, God the Great Mathematician, and us, apparently, in dire need of prime number remediation. 

Among other problems*, one glaring problem is that this reduces the Sacred Scriptures to merely fined tuned intellectual jargon. However, if God were wanting to accomplish that end, poetry, metaphor, parables, and so forth are hardly the best methods for so doing. Now, in no way do I think that Sacred Scripture is not marvelously composed -- I just think the Reformed requirements for it make it almost completely meaningless. Scripture is far more than finely tuned intellectual jargon. Not to mention that the Reformed view makes every person meaningless.

Okay, since I brought it up...

...in another place, I have said that sola scriptura robs us of our unique dignity. This particular take on sola scriptura raises the ante. It creates, of necessity, a caste system of the intelligentsia. M.Div., pass go, select possible leadership position of a Christian sect. Simpleton, like St. Therese of Lisieux, go directly to the jail of the theological flash cards.

Repeat:

"No works, just faith, no works, just faith"

Catholic Theologian

St. Therese: "But, didn't Jesus say, "Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven?"

Poor Therese. She just needed to go over her flash cards more. Repeat after me:

"No works, just faith, no works, just faith"

All right, now every denomination in the world let out a big, "Wait a minute!"

That felt good didn't it? (especially you Arminians out there)

Full Stop.

This particular Reformed argument is reckless, wrong-headed, and another word that starts with "w" that I can't think of right now. Seriously, the 490-plus year math problem has never been solved. A new theorist is born every day, and a new "school of math" founded every month. It appears that there is no dawn in the horizon, no hope that the engineers will come back with an answer. The edifice, or rather theory, is collapsing.

Peter's barque is still here.

Be. Catholic.

Protestant Mathema...I mean Theologian

*I could see the Reformed having something on the Evangelicals and Pentecostals back when both contemporary forms were kind of resistant to formal education. However, both communities now have scholars, peer reviewed journals, etc. You would expect that by now, given the Reformed thesis, that each community would have discovered the magical Reformed doctrines buried away in Scripture, like a new geometry student proving CPCTC for the first time.

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