Posted on 07/15/2024 5:19:53 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Here’s a short interview I did with J.D. about his spiritual life, and the road to Catholicism:
Why Catholicism? Why now?
I became persuaded over time that Catholicism was true. I was raised Christian, but never had a super-strong attachment to any denomination, and was never baptized. When I became more interested in faith, I started out with a clean slate, and looked at the church that appealed most to me intellectually.
But it’s too easy to intellectualize this. When I looked at the people who meant the most to me, they were Catholic. My uncle by marriage is a Catholic. Rene Girard is someone I only know by reading him, and he was Catholic. I’ve been reading and studying about it for three years, or even longer. It was time.
It probably would have happened sooner if the sex abuse crisis, or the newest version of it, hadn’t made a lot of headlines. It forced me to process the church as a divine and a human institution, and what it would mean for my two year old son. But I never really questioned over the past few years that I would become Catholic.
You chose St. Augustine as your patron saint. Why?
A couple of reasons. One, I was pretty moved by the Confessions. I’ve probably read it in bits and pieces twice over the past 15 or so years. There’s a chapter from The City of God that’s incredibly relevant now that I’m thinking about policy. There’s just a way that Augustine is an incredibly powerful advocate for the things that the Church believes...
(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...
Hope it sticks. But for people who aspire to power, everything might just be the equivalent of adopting a black child.
I hope he has faith in Christ. Having a patron saint doesn’t do a bit of good.
Point is he is thoughtful and not atheistic, and cares about truth and what is right. There are individuals aplenty who may be more spiritually “ahead” in their walk, but not necessarily make great political leaders…
Case and point: Mike Pence?
It’s one thing to intellectually know God: it’s another to have faith in Him.
One often precedes the other, and then supports the other as a foundation. When your emotions and circumstances waver, and your faith is threatened, the intellectual foundations can be crucial as the Holy Spirit reminds you, it’s not about what you feel. It’s about what you know.
Jesus says we must love God with all our heart, strength, AND mind.
If you read the rest of the article, he talks about how alienating it was growing up around Evangelicals who were anti-intellectual. I am from a different demographic, but can relate immensely.
what the heck are you talking about
on second thought don’t answer that question...please!
He sounds like a ‘compassionate conservative’ - yuck. I can only hope his alignment with Catholic social teaching doesn’t extend to open borders.
It’s not compassionate to have unrestricted borders and let drugs and crime go rampant. He wants a wall.
One goes from being unsaved to saved....it's that instantaneous. It's the transformation.
*****
"One thing I’ve had trouble relating to about some corners of Christianity is this idea that transformation is easy, and it happens whenever you say a prayer. That’s not consistent with how I’ve seen people struggle, and improve, and change."
The change from unsaved to saved is instantaneous. I'm reading a works based plan of salvation which is consistent with Roman Catholic theology.
*****
"I know a lot of people are very critical of how a majority of self-described Christians have approached Trump. To me, fundamentally the issue that most Christians confront is, which of these two political parties is the least offensive to my faith? When that’s the question, the answer is almost always going to be unsatisfactory. I am definitely critical of the way some Evangelicals have reacted to the president. But I also know that most of them aren’t doing it because they are sycophants. They’re doing it because they don’t think they have a better option."
I'm not sure who he's been hanging around, but Evangelicals have been very supportive of Trump....more so than Roman Catholics have.
Pew reports 83% of Evangelicals supported Trump in 2020 and in 2022 86% voted for GOP.
White Roman Catholics were at 57% and 62% respectively.
Hispanics Roman Catholics overwhelmingly supported the dims in the polling data.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/07/12/voting-patterns-in-the-2022-elections/
The real attraction should be humility, piety, and Scriptural faith.
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. (1 Corinthians 3:18)
David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. (Mark 12:37)
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. (Psalms 34:18)
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. (Isaiah 57:15)
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)
When I looked at the people who meant the most to me, they were Catholic. My uncle by marriage is a Catholic. Rene Girard is someone I only know by reading him, and he was Catholic.
In Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Girard discusses for the first time Christianity and the Bible. The Gospels ostensibly present themselves as a typical mythical account, with a victim-God lynched by a unanimous crowd, an event that is then commemorated by Christians through ritual sacrifice
The mythical account is usually built on the lie of the guilt of the victim in as much as it is an account of the event seen from the viewpoint of the anonymous lynchers.
One of the main sources of criticism of Girard's work comes from intellectuals who claim that his comparison of Judeo-Christian texts vis-à-vis other religions leaves something to be desired.[59] There are also those who find the interpretation of the Christ event—as a purely human event, having nothing to do with redemption from sin—an unconvincing one, given what the Gospels themselves say.[42] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Girard#Judeo-Christian_scriptures
May God grant him “repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:25)
I hope that some Republicans, those who believe ( wrongly IMHO) that Catholics are not even Christians, still come out and vote for Trump now that Vance is his VP choice. Too many Republicans need 100% agreement with a candidate or else they refuse to vote. Not voting is essentially a vote for a Democrat.
If you want to know what someone is talking about, look up that person’s posting history.
It can be enlightening.
So ... unlike some other prominent Catholic politicians, he really believes it, what with being a convert?
The question is will Roman Catholics support Trump? RC voting at the presidential level has not been the best.
Vance became a Catholic in 2019. The Church teaches no abortion for any reason and the Church is against the abortion pill, which accounts for about 60% of all abortions. Vance’s view on abortion was the Catholic Church position,and that
includes no abortion pill.Trump now supports the abortion pill and Vance does also. In other words his principles are for sale. Trump and Vance have the exact same position on the abortion pill as any liberal Democrat.
Yet, the RC vote has supported the dem candidate in multiple presidential elections.
What a shame he did not go one step further into orthodox Lutheranism. Luther was an Augustinian monk who got Augustine's message clearly. Luther's purpose was NOT to start a different denomination, but rather through developing a catechism. His objective was for the lately more literate Christendom of post-Gutenberg Europe to study the Word and thus return the Cathlic church to its purer apostolic beginnings, which over time had become laden with blind alleys and diversions, in much the same way that our Constitution has become buried under the Deep State, which is now obscuring the Constitution. Instead of reforming, the RCC Establishment threw him out, much as the GOP-e has joined the resisting RINOs and opposition party to push aside Consititutional conservatives.
Politics is certainly not on the same level as Church; but it is an expression of how God's values are reflected in culture. The Founders' vision freedom and self-government was honed in the Reformation, with the by-word, "neither Popes nor Kings." It would be important for Vance, or any public leader, at least to understand the Reformation and why it still matters.
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