From Operation Rescue to Operation Convert [Randall Terry now Catholic]

National Catholic registar ^ | 5/17/06 | TIM DRAKE

[Full Court]

font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4" color="#990000">From Operation Rescue to Operation Convert

May 21-27, 2006

by TIM DRAKE

Also in the Register:

Randal Terry, CatholicRandall Terry has become Catholic.
Between 1987 and 1994, Randall Terry led Operation Rescue, the country’s largest peaceful civil disobedience movement. He now serves as president of the Society for Truth and Justice, and is running for a Florida Senate seat. One of the leading evangelical pro-life leaders in the country, Terry quietly entered the Catholic Church on Holy Thursday with his wife Andrea and three sons. Register senior writer Tim Drake spoke with Terry about his conversion at his home in Florida.

 Where are you from originally?
I grew up in upstate New York, in West Henrietta. We grew up in the country.

 Tell me about your family.
I was conceived out of wedlock in 1958. Within three months my parents were married, and I was born six months later. I’ve always had an affinity with babies born out of wedlock who are in danger of perishing. Had Roe v. Wade been the law of the land in 1958, I might not have been here, although I’m certain that my mother would have chosen life.
I have one brother who is four years younger. My parents were both career school teachers.

 What was your faith background?
I was baptized in the United Church of Christ in New York, but grew up in a nominal Christian home. We were barely Christmas and Easter Christians. From the time I was a little boy until I was 17, I was anything but devout. At times, I was a verifiable agnostic.

 How did you come to know Christ?
As a teenager, I had lived a life immersed in the rock ’n’ roll culture, away from the paths of God, but I had a real yearning in my heart to know ultimate truth and ultimate reality. That set my heart seeking after God in prayer and reading Scriptures and talking to people who were devout in their faith. On Sept. 6, 1976, I made an evangelical commitment to Christ as a 17-year-old.
In conjunction with my teenage rebellion, I was seeking to know if God existed, if heaven and hell and demons and angels existed. My prayer, journey, discussions and reading brought me to the point where I asked Christ to come into my life and be my Lord and savior. That brought an immediate change in my lifestyle, my speech, my relationships and my church attendance. I went from rarely going to church to going three times a week. I began to evangelize all of my former rock ’n’ roll buddies, many of whom became devout Christians. Some of them went into ministry as missionaries and pastors. Once I was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God and that he suffered and died for us, I was thrilled with the Good News and wanted to tell everyone that I knew — family, friends and foes.
It defined my life from that moment on. Two years later I enrolled in a Bible College in New York.

 How did you first get started in pro-life work?
While at a prayer meeting in the fall of 1983, a woman came into the meeting weeping. She said she had just seen a special on Christian television on abortion. She said, “We’ve got to pray that God ends this killing.”
Whenever I thought about abortion, I got a sick feeling in my stomach, yet my evangelical sociology did not allow me to be in the political and social battles of the day. I had very little historical and theological framework from which one could launch and sustain a socio-political movement.
I would think about abortion and pray, “Oh, God, please do something,” but wouldn’t know what to do.
Eventually, on May 1, 1984, I took a position in front of a Binghamton, N.Y., abortion business. I had no literature. I just stood there committed to talking to women who were entering, to beg for the life of their babies. From that grew Project Life — a crisis pregnancy center, and Operation Rescue.

 What led to the founding of Operation Rescue?
I met John Ryan, who was doing sit-ins in St. Louis, and my heart was stirred to participate in direct action. While sitting in jail in 1986, I had another epiphany about how to recruit masses of people. We recruited tens of thousands of people. Between 1987 and 1994, 75,000 arrests were made. That is 10 times the size of the arrests made during the years of protest for civil rights.

 How many times were you arrested?
More than 40 times, always for peaceful protest, like praying in front of an abortion business.

 When did you first take an interest in the Catholic Church?
It was during my work in Operation Rescue that I first became interested in the Roman Catholic Church. My training and experience were in evangelical Christianity with an evangelical framework theologically, but the Roman Catholic communion had a much better sociology and better stability, coupled with a phenomenal theology of suffering.
I would look at my evangelical friends, who would come and go from the pro-life movement. They would proclaim undying devotion for pro-life activism and then later disappear. Then I would look at my Roman Catholic friends who would never swerve. That had a tremendous magnetism for me.
I also found myself defending Catholics against ignorance and bigotry, and defending evangelicals against ignorance and bigotry.
What took me so long was that I was a cultural Protestant, trained in Protestant theology. I had to look at the parts of my training that were inaccurate or deficient. For the past six years, I have been in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. My conversion began with my friendships with clergy in this Church. They told me that the farther you go in Reformation theology, the more you end up in Catholicism and liturgy.

 Which theological hurdles were the most difficult for you to jump?
They boiled down to papal infallibility, Marian dogma, and purgatory. For years I have craved to be in the Catholic Church, but couldn’t figure a way to get around these hurdles. They became resolved this Lent.
On Ash Wednesday, I started a 40-day fast. I have been in conversation with a priest, Father John Mikalajunas, in Binghamton for over 20 years. To my amazement, during Lent, I sensed that it was the plan of the Holy Spirit to bring us into the Catholic Church. After some further conversations with Father Mikalajunas as well as with other evangelicals who had come into the Church, those theological issues evaporated. Once I realized the Truth, I had to go in. I couldn’t wait.

 I understand that you are awaiting word on the annulment of your first marriage. Can you tell me why you chose to be received into the Church (without being able to receive the Eucharist), before the resolution of your annulment?
This has been a journey for 18 years. I knew when I came in that I would have to deal with my annulment. I couldn’t bear not being in Rome any longer. So, I decided I would rather come in and wait to receive the Eucharist, rather than not be in the Church. I felt that I needed to come in, and that it was something I needed to do during Lent. Thus far it has been wonderful — I’m glad I didn’t wait.

 Tell me how your reception into the Church came about.
In my conversations with Father Mikalajunas, he would tell me that I belonged in Rome, and I would jokingly tell him that he would make a great Baptist preacher. I knew I was being pulled into Rome. At the beginning of Lent, he told me something that made a lightbulb go on. He said that he would receive me into the Church. He knew what I knew — he knew that I knew the dogmas of the Church. He was offering to receive us in the event that I could say, “Yes, I believe.”
I thought, “Oh my goodness,” and felt like the Holy Spirit was showing us a plan for our lives. Father Mikalajunas concurred.
Over Holy Thursday we were received and confirmed at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Binghamton. Father Mikalajunas brought in two witnesses.
When I was confirmed, I had this overwhelming sense that I had just walked into a cathedral that was packed with people — namely, the heroes and martyrs and saints who had gone before us. I felt they were rejoicing and calling us on in our journey. I felt as if I was with these people.
There was a tremendous sense of joy realizing that it was the end of my ongoing struggles.

 What was your greatest fear?
That I would wake up and say there was no change in me. That has not been the case. Being in the Church has brought a wonderful sense of belonging. I am part of 2,000 years of Christian history that is glorious, that has warts, and heroes and villains, but that is nonetheless the Church founded by Jesus upon Peter.

 How do you expect your evangelical colleagues will react to news of your conversion?
My journey is so personal, and yet so public. An important part of my journey is that as a pro-life leader I have had the honor of leading tens of thousands of evangelicals and Catholics in pro-life activism. I pray that I am able to continue that leadership in both communities. We have a unity of purpose. We unite around the Apostles’ Creed and our common love of life and justice.
My mission as a man is to unite as many in the Christian community as possible to stand for the Christian ethic of life and justice as defined by our historical and common Christian faith.

 Do you anticipate that your conversion could hurt you in your Senate race in a predominantly Protestant state?
I hope it won’t. I believe that the unity of purpose that has helped me as an evangelical to work with Catholics will help me as a Catholic to work with evangelicals. My wife says that I am bilingual — I can speak both languages. What I would bring to the table as a state senator is standing up for the underdog for justice and freedom. Whether you’re Baptist or Episcopalian or Catholic, you can appreciate that.
We see that kind of working together in the example of a Presbyterian president [Ronald Reagan] working with a Polish priest [Pope John Paul II] to free Poland from communism. I am convinced that the two can work together in our common missions. If we don’t work together, we cannot win.

 

[Campion]

Tyndale was found guilty of heresy by an Anglican Church court

I'm still quibbling. :-) It was a Catholic court, in Belgium. But you're right, he was convicted of teaching Lutheranism, not of translating the Bible into English.

[floriduh voter]

bttt. He's a talented musician who sings, plays the piano and writes music too.

I haven't converted but I'm so glad that I discovered EWTN network and now my mom is watching it too. Who's my news anchor now? Well, it's not Shep Smith or Brian Williams. It's Raymond Arroyo on The World Over.

[Campion]

when the wife doesn't want her marriage to be annulled

Strictly speaking, "what somebody wants" isn't supposed to matter in a marriage case. If one party to the marriage asks for the marriage to be examined to determine whether it's valid, then the examination has to be done. "What I want to happen" is irrelevant to the question of whether valid consent was given in the first place.

[Full Court]

Then Paul sinned by asking other people to pray for him.

Really? Why?

He didn't pray to them and bypass Jesus Christ.

He ASKED them to pray to Jesus on his behalf.

[Campion]

He ASKED them to pray to Jesus on his behalf.

Yes, the correct term for that is "intercession" or "intercessory prayer".

According to you, Jesus is the only intercessor. Therefore, Paul sinned by asking people other than the "only intercessor" to pray for him.

Incidentally, Scripture never says that Jesus is the only intercessor. It says "one is the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus". The word translated "one" is heis ("one, unique, primary") not monos ("exactly one").

[fortheDeclaration]

What's this all about? Boy, I'm glad I'm a Baptist and spiritually inoculated against this threat.

Amen, but as a fellow Baptist we have our problems.

See what is going on in the Southern Baptist Convention!

What a mess that is!

[Campion]

He didn't pray to them and bypass Jesus Christ.

Oh, BTW, no Catholic prays to a saint in hopes of bypassing Christ. We ask the saints to pray to Jesus and through Jesus to the Father, for us.

[Pyro7480]

Bizarre. Sick. Cloud-cuckoo sick.
"Whatsoever you do to the least of these, that you do unto me ..." -- Matthew 25

That is clear example of what hatred does to one's recollection of Scripture.

[fortheDeclaration]

"If God spare my life, ere many years pass, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost."

A great quote by Tyndale, great-grandfather of the King James Bible, the Bible hated by Rome and Ecumenical's.

The truth divides.

[Pyro7480]

A great quote by Tyndale, great-grandfather of the King James Bible, the Bible hated by Rome and Ecumenical's.

God didn't dictate the Bible in its King James edition.

[Campion]

the King James Bible, the Bible hated by Rome

Now, now, the KJV is not perfect, but it's quite a bit better than many modern versions ... especially in the original 1611 version, with all 73 books. :-)

[Mrs. Don-o]

Well, hmm (furrowed brow) right: I thought he'd been convicted by an Anglican court first (Cuthbert Tunstall?), and then by a Catholic court in what is now Belgium. (Take off 5 points for that.)

You're entirely correct that Tyndale supported in effect the Catholic position against Henry VIII's divorce; that incurred the king's wrath and set in motion the "politics" of his betrayal and eventual execution.

The cruelty of that period is hair-raising. I recently read Ackroyd's bio of Thomas More: I have to think he repented his part in the blood-spilling, before his own was spilt.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Sheila Rauch Kennedy actually petitioned for the divorce. Years and years later a Catholic marriage tribunal found that there was a sacramental defect at the outset. I don't understand why Sheila wouldn't agree with that. Joseph K. was a heartless adulterer from the gitgo.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"He didn't pray to them and bypass Jesus Christ. He ASKED them to pray to Jesus on his behalf.

Yeah! Yes! Bueno! Bingo. You got it. That's what it's all about.

Who d'heck ever prayed to "bypass Jesus"???

[SuziQ]

Yeah, and when the wife doesn't want her marriage to be annulled, she just gets rough shod over by the RCC so the high profile Kennedy can go and marry someone else.

If the Sacrament is INVALID, it's invalid for BOTH participants. I never understood why she was so upset about it anyway. She was divorced, which is OK in her Church, and since she wasn't Catholic, the annulment had no effect on her ability to marry again. I guess she was just mad at Joseph Kennedy, and probably rightly so, but the annulment wasn't affecting her or their kids, if they had any, legally, so what was her argument against it? It always seemed to me as just a way to bash the Kennedys and sell her book.

As for him re-marrying, he is free to do so, if his first marriage is annuled. One can only hope that he mended his unfaithful ways. That's between him and his Confessor, and if his second marriage is working out, it just may be. Thank God for repentance.

[Full Court]

That's what it's all about.

I would ask a friend to pray for me, but I wouldn't ask a dead one.

[fortheDeclaration]

the King James Bible, the Bible hated by Rome Now, now, the KJV is not perfect, but it's quite a bit better than many modern versions ... especially in the original 1611 version, with all 73 books. :-)

Now, now, you know the Apocrypha books were never considered Canonical by the King James translators and were placed in the middle of the Bible, not intermixed in the Old Testament (as Canonical) like they are in a RCC bible.

Erasmus's Greek Text(Textus Receptus) was placed on the forbidden reading list by Rome as soon as it was published.

[fortheDeclaration]

A great quote by Tyndale, great-grandfather of the King James Bible, the Bible hated by Rome and Ecumenical's. God didn't dictate the Bible in its King James edition.

No, but God made sure that the spirit filled translators got it right.(Ps.12:6-7)

God didn't 'dictate' the originals either (2Pet.1:21)

[Mrs. Don-o]

You think people in heaven are dead?

[Wonder Warthog]

"I think I'll just stick the The Infallible Word Of God if that's OK with you."

Sacred tradition IS "The Infallible Word of God". If you really believe the Bible, you have no choice. The Bible is very clear about that.

Why is it so difficult for you folks to believe that the Holy Spirit worked to keep error out of the Bible as it was being compiled by the Catholic Church, and yet that same Holy Spirit would be unable to prevent error in the teaching of matters of faith and morals when it is transmitted by (originally) non-written means. MOST of the teaching of the Apostles was NOT written down until after their lifetimes, by those who had been THEIR disciples.