Swimming the Tiber: A Response

“Port William repaid watching. I was always on the lookout for what would be revealed. Sometimes nothing would be, but sometimes I beheld astonishing sights.” - Wendell Berry

- See more at: http://mereorthodoxy.com/church-membership-theological-disagreement/

A Response to "On Church Membership and Theological Difference" at the blog, Mere Orthodoxy:

           Making a home out of any place or tradition is something that takes a very long time, patience and endurance, especially in light of negative aspects of that “home.” I know, because I am a convert to the Catholic Church of about tens years now. I was one of those college students, coming from an Evangelical Protestant background, studying and finding myself suddenly in the Catholic world without a sense of direction or place. I was studying to become an Evangelical (Conservative Baptist) Pastor, and ended up a lay Catholic, wandering around trying to figure out what “home” meant now for me; for my previous home had been destroyed by others and turned to rubble, though I loved it greatly. So, I do understand Berry’s line dearly, very dearly.

            I must, though, comment on the thoughts concerning converts to Catholicism and their alleged “methodological modernism.” I cannot disagree more with the observation of methodology. Despite that there may be those out there that convert for superficial reasons, the majority of converts that I know, including myself, only did so after much deliberation, silent internal torture, much bewilderedness, and intense supplication.

            I became a Catholic, after being staunchly anti-Catholic, living in densely-populated Catholic New England. After being intimately involved in my home Evangelical church and family, I decided to leave it. I decided to leave all that I loved behind. It was extremely painful. It was even more painful to lose that family and that home, when that family and that home decided that I was going down the Evil Way.

            Why, then, did I do it? Why did I leave behind the Protestant world, which I loved (and still do, as a first lover)? Why did I abandon the only Christian life I understood and knew how to live, and to live well? Obedience.

            Meador makes a wonderful observation that to try to see the good in one’s home, to find the holy, the grace, the love in one’s home despite scandal, despite sin, despite foolishness is a glorious duty. I believe this is a Christian thing to do. To humbly resign oneself to the authority of another, to which God has put over us, is precisely a New Testament thought. It is also a Catholic thing to do.

            Most converts to Catholicism that I am aware of did so on grounds that were a matter of simple obedience, humbling oneself like a child. This was despite their feelings, their affections, their individualistic thoughts, and even their tendency to remain in “the comfort of their own home.”

            Most of those converts I know studied hard to find out what their predecessors of Protestantism believed before they could gather the courage to make the “Crossing.” Some of them even tried to prove the Catholic faith wrong, with ammunition from the Reformers themselves. In their battle, they found out that the Catholic Church wasn’t Goliath; it was a bunch of sheep in perceived wolves clothing. (Forgive the reverse analogy).

            For one to say that Christian truth-seekers should deeply know, though, the Reformers and their writings and thoughts, even if they are highly valuable, distorts the idea of what Truth is. We do not need to window-shop (or “church-shop”) all the great theological sources in order to recognize the Christ within us, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. And when we hear the Gospel, we must obey it, as the Scriptures put it plainly. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children, and we should not hinder them. I mean we should not leave seeking of truth, and especially finding truth, only up to those who have theological degrees and scholarly background. He has chosen the things of this world to confound the wise.

            On the other hand, many great thinkers and scholars have gone on to become Catholic, despite being seriously well established and rooted in Reformation Theology. So, we know it works both ways. Some perfect examples of the scholarly would be Richard Henry Neuhaus, the founder of First Things, A. David Anders, PhD, a Protestant historian, Dr. Scott Hahn, a former Gordon-Conwell seminarian and Presbyterian pastor, and last but not least, Cardinal John Henry Newman, 19^th century Anglican priest and convert to Catholicism, author of “An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine” and Pro Vita Sua. All of these men, many other Protestant pastors, female scholars, and people of faith have become Catholic despite all of their consequential suffering and sorrow, as well as their previous dislike, distaste, and even disgust at the Catholic faith and its “religion.” Just as God said to Abram, “Leave your country and your relatives to go to a land I will show you,” and again, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life,” so we must humbly obey, when necessary. (Acts 7:3, Matt. 19:29)

            For myself, as I am sure is true for many other converts, I still am here trying to understand my new home. I am still “becoming Catholic,” even after ten years. I did not choose this home out of methodological modernism, but by fidelity to Truth, to Christ, and to his authority. “Your will be done. My Father … not what I want, but what you want.” I couldn’t have found more joy, more peace or more beauty than this, in my new home, to which God has brought me as through fire. So, you see, that we haven’t left our previous homes for lack of love, nor lack of knowledge, but out of the ancient methodologies of the Church, the body of Christ.