The Christian Vanguard

Those that would have me leave the Roman Catholic Church have linked me several articles from James White, of Alpha and Omega Ministries. I am concerned for him. He seems to be very anti-philosophy. Or rather, he doesn't like it when Theology takes a backseat to Philosophy. Why this is so, I'm not sure. He might say because it's not Biblical, but there are problems.

Changing your mind, I’ve come to learn by accident, can be a dangerous thing. I converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, and I’ve learned a lot about people in the process. The most shocking discovery is how cruel and tribal people can be. I lost almost all my Protestant friends when I told them I thought we were wrong. Not that I was wrong, or they were wrong, but we were wrong. Many haven’t talked to me since. This is sad. But I am starting to see that this is also the case in my beloved apologetics community.

Converts tend to observe things that natives usually don't or take for granted. For example, an all-American boy may realize some of the formal subtleties in the Spanish language that a native Spanish speaker may have subconsciously forgotten. Or an immigrant can appreciate the virtues the USA better than what an American born citizen may have gotten accustomed to. I think the same can be said about religion. In this case, as I have come from Protestantism to Catholicism, I do want to point out some things about sex that I realize now as a Catholic is totally false about Protestantism, though at the time I didn't realize it.

Well, this Sunday, February 9th at 9am, I will be receive my first communion and my confirmation, and then it'll have been official, I'll be a Catholic for real. It was almost a year ago I made the decision public, and a lot has happened since then. So let me just round up some final thoughts here, and that'll be that for this long confession of faith.

I participated in a debate two nights ago. It was on the infallibility of the pope. The podcast isn't up yet, but here is my opening speech. When the podcast is up, I'll give my thoughts on the entire thing.

There is never not an opportunity every Christmas time to clear up some misconceptions about Christianity. There is lots of talk about the star, how many magi appeared to the baby Jesus, the exact date of Jesus birth, the viability of miraculous events like a virgin birth, etc. The worst come from Christians. They should know better, and some don’t, but the ignorant never pass up a moment to declare their ignorance. Maybe this is one of them. Hopefully not.  One particular theme I’ve noticed this year is this: it is hypocritical for Christians (or any American) to go Black Friday shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I’ve noticed this on Facebook, and they are accompanied by images. I don’t like this. Images appeal to emotion, and emotion can distort clear thinking. Maybe blind men see things more clearly then. As Ravi Zacharias has said about this generation, we listen with our eyes and think with our feelings. So, is this in fact hypocritical? 

I’ve received multiple lists of requests for more of my slogan takedowns. Some of them I haven’t heard before, so I honestly can’t say anything about them. But I did find some gems. Here they are.