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.

 

[Dr. Eckleburg]

If the specific and perfect atonement of Jesus Christ was ordained by God from before the foundation of the world to accomplish exactly what He wanted accomplished, then everything in creation likewise follows His ordaining will because everything revolves around and results from God's plan of redemption through the death and resurrection of His Son.

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." -- Ephesians 1:4-11

[Dajjal]

Catholicus bumpus ad summum

[phatus maximus]

I'd prefer you just tell me, I'm not a big reader...

[phatus maximus]

Wow...That's quite shocking to me. To say it's not "divorce" because it never happened because of one's state of mind 20 years ago just baffles me...just my opinion, not bashing, I just can't get my mind around a concept like that. Nevertheless, if that's the way it is in the RCC, then that's the way it is...

Gods Blessings to you...everyone stay married if you are married, ok? ;-)

[Wonder Warthog]

"I'd prefer you just tell me, I'm not a big reader...

That's why I recommend Keating. You don't have to be "a big reader" to understand the points presented.

Keating has probably the best explanation of Catholic thinking in a succinct way that I have seen. To pick just one subject---Purgatory. Purgatory is nowhere DIRECTLY mentioned in the scriptures, BUT , there are a number of scriptural references that can be easily understood in light of the Church's "Traditional understanding" of the doctrine. Now, unless you are a Saint, passage through Purgatory is important in your journey to Heaven--although it might not meet your criterion as "necessary for Salvation", because if you make it into Purgatory, you know you are "heaven-bound".

[Full Court]

Why would you need purgatory if Jesus Christ saves to the uttermost?

Hebrews 7:25

www.justbible.com

[phatus maximus]

Fair enough...i'll try to check it out..

[sitetest]

Dear phatus maximus,

Why is that shocking or difficult?

Marriage, to be sacramentally (or even legally) valid, makes certain requirements. For a marriage to be legally valid, both parties must be free to marry. If a man marries a woman, and it's discovered 20 years later that he never actually completed the divorce from his first wife, is he legally married to the second woman? I know that the law says he is not. I've actually known a case or two like this. Legally, there was no marriage. These cases required the attentions of lawyers to repair the fact that individuals were not legally married because of this impediment.

For a sacramental marriage in the Catholic Church, there are certain requirements, including at least implicit acceptance of Catholic teachings regarding marriage. If a man secretly, knowingly, obstinately rejects those teachings even while he is participating in the marriage ceremony, is he sacramentally married? In the same way, sacramentally, there is no marriage.


sitetest

[Pelayo]

If the specific and perfect atonement of Jesus Christ was ordained by God from before the foundation of the world...

But if we include the perception of linear time as a foundation of the created world how can there be a "before." I argue that we only use the word as a convention to indicate that the "Logos" is with God eternally outside the context of time. However if we suppose that "before" in this instance has a meaning similar to the statement, 'My mother and Father were married before I was born,' we are subjecting God's Eternal Unchanging nature to a linear reality in which there is a change of state. So that "before" we have God who has not created anything, and subsequently a God who has created something. We have God before “God the creator,” and God after “God the creator.” This is illogical unless God is not Eternal and Unchanging.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Why would you need purgatory if Jesus Christ saves to the uttermost? Hebrews 7:25 www.justbible.com"

Because God is just as well as merciful. Read the recommended book "Catholicism vs. Fundamentalism" by Keating for a complete explanation that is based on the WHOLE Bible, and not one verse taken out of context.

[HarleyD]

then you are doomed to eternal disappointment with any organized religion that involves mere humans.

What do you think the "D" in Harley"D" stands for? ;O)

[HarleyD]

Personally, I'd be a bit more worried about the eternal desitinies of those who judge and gossip about divorced couples.

I'm not so sure about the eternal destiinies as much as that it's not our business to judge others. We ALL fall short.

[SuziQ]

We ALL fall short.

Ain't THAT the truth. Repentance and forgiveness are wonderful things.

[Frumanchu]

You have answered my questions with a question. There are no Christians who are not believers.

Gotta disagree with you on this one. Covenantally speaking, all those who profess faith in Christ (and thereby identify themselves with Him covenantally) are Christian. But the are not all Christian who call themselves Christian. Nevertheless, they enjoy to an extent the temporal benefits of identification with the convenant community, just as those unbelievers in the nation of Israel still enjoyed God's protection and providence.

However, as with any Biblical covenant, those who enter into that covenant and fail to keep it in faith are ultimately subject to the curses of that covenant. Thus, as Peter says, it is better never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn from it.

[Frumanchu]

dude...don't make me fire up Photoshop again. I've got too much work to do! :D

[needlenose_neely]

Lately I think the one word that best sums up Calvinism is "assurance."

I get plenty of assurance without trusting the TULIP. :-)

It's all in the Bible.

Yes, TULIP is in the Bible.

I guess you don't have any codified means of keeping God's Truth in the fore of the mind and heart, huh.

Do you ever recite the Apostles Creed?

Do you ever sing hymns or spiritual songs?

TULIP, is no different from those, as they are all ways of codifying.

[Full Court]

Do you ever recite the Apostles Creed?

Never. I stick to Scripture.

[Alex Murphy]

Never. I stick to Scripture.

Are there any of the historic creeds or confessions that you would hold to, or just consider to be accurate?

[Full Court]

I never follow creeds. Just the Bible.

How about you?

[xzins]

I cannot imagine a Christian who is not a believer in Christ.

That automatically makes them a non-Christian.