He Was an Evangelical Christian Until He Read Aquinas

Rob Evans has taught millions of Christians that “Life without Jesus is like a doughnut: There’s a hole in the middle of your heart.”

Evans, 53, was hugely popular as an Evangelical Christian performer, selling more than 6 million CDs and DVDs, and appearing at more than 2,500 church concerts and conferences. His Donut Repair Club has been a mainstay of EWTN’s programming for the past 10 years.

Evans, his wife of 33 years, Shelley, and one of his children — daughter Tonya, 14 — were received into the Catholic Church this past Easter.

Evans spoke with Register correspondent Tom Wehner about what he called his “discovery” of the Catholic faith.

I grew up in the Presbyterian church. And when my parents divorced when I was 6, the church in Paoli (Pa.) told [my mother] that divorce might be the best thing for her in this situation because she found “true love” with another man and that she had her whole life ahead of her. The church did not fight for the unity of our family. … So we stopped going to church.

When I was at Rutgers, I read everything. I read Nietzsche, I read Sartre, Plato. … I was reading about Western civilization, but nobody was talking about Jesus. I saw an ad in The Daily Targum (campus newspaper) advertising a study on the philosophy of Christ one evening. And I went to a room that held a thousand people, and I was the only one there. … I was thirsting for something. I was considering Christ, but I wasn’t seeing him.

When I was 19 and Shelley was 17, we were “born again” in a charismatic Pentecostal group. It made inroads into the local high school; that’s how Shelley came in. My mother was going through her third divorce, and a woman at the local swimming club, her best friend, told her all about Jesus; she was from Latvia, and she pronounced it “Cheesus.” My mom had hope in her heart that Jesus would heal her marriage. My mother visited her friend’s pastor — Dennis Corrigan, who was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary.

I went to talk to Dennis … and he ended up leading me to Jesus Christ. I said to him, “Nietzsche, Sartre, Plato — what about all these philosophies?” He said, “They’re dead. Jesus Christ is alive.”

I said, “What about Adam and Eve? What about the Bible? Do you really believe these things?” Right in the middle of this conversation, his wife comes up with a plate of cookies and coffee and their two little preschoolers come up to get a big kiss goodnight, and there was joy and peace and order and beauty in that home. I wanted that. They brought Christ to me philosophically and biblically in their lives.

Dennis was the one who baptized me. Their next door neighbor was a teenage girl who brought her friend — whom I fell in love with — to church. It was love at first sight. So Shelley Tait came in, and we were engaged four months later and were married that very year.

What happened to cause your church to splinter, and how did you maintain your faith throughout this ordeal?

The church split over discipleship. By this time, 1978, I had 12 men working for me; I had been married for five years. I had three kids and another one on the way. All of my friends, my whole company, moved to Florida from Philadelphia. My company was devastated.

After two more splits, we ended up being in a church of about five or 10 people, and it once had been thousands. What I thought was my forever family was gone, gone and gone again. We kept our focus on Jesus in heaven — the celestial church. Obviously, there was no earthly church that had any true unity.

Because Shelley and I are both children of divorce, when the church fell apart it brought terrific stress to our marriage. We know of a number of couples that then divorced after this meltdown.

During this period of time, we kept telling our children about Jesus and I kept singing them daddy’s songs. So the emotion, the joy and the assurance that the Holy Spirit gave us was what I sang about. God continued to hold us together and kept blessing us with children. We had five in seven years.

In the middle of that crucible, I maintained a habit of tucking the kids in every night with a Bible story and then I would go to my office and write a song.

So I wrote dozens and dozens and dozens of songs from tucking my kids in, and then my wife observed that my children were singing daddy’s songs, so she surprised me with $1,250 that she had saved for us to go on a second honeymoon.

She said, “I think you should make a recording with these songs so we can bless some other people.” So we prayed about it, and I did. And I went into my friend’s recording studio and recorded daddy’s songs. And one of those songs was, “Life without Jesus is like a doughnut; there’s a hole in the middle of your heart.”

My brother-in-law took a picture of me peeking through a doughnut for my first cover, and it was called “Musical Donuts.”

I didn’t convert to Catholicism, I discovered Catholicism. The word “converted” I wear reluctantly only because it communicates, and it’s an accepted part of Catholic culture.

When I used to drive by a Catholic church, I would pray a blessing on that church: “Lord, save those poor Catholics. Pour your Spirit out on that church. Amen.” Little did I know that I was praying for myself.

In 1991, we moved to Nashville to be closer to Integrity Music, which was based in Mobile, Ala. We went to a Baptist church, but that underwent a split. And then in 2001 we moved back home to Ocean County, N.J., and joined a church there.

We were home. But within six months, we were kicked out over a theological dispute over alcohol.

As I went through the last meltdown, I said to my wife, “You know, the Catholic Church has a unity.” And we started going to Mass in our local parish that we would drive by every day — St. Francis of Assisi. This was in February of 2005. And we would kneel down in the quiet and, you know what? Catholics read the Bible every Mass. And when I saw the way they revered the Host, I was really touched. … And all of the priests — Father Steve, Father Kevin, Father Tom and Father John — revered Christ in the Eucharist, I could see it. I could feel it, too.

Back when I was in my 20s, I read How Then Shall We Live by Francis Schaeffer. He lays the blame for the fires of the Reformation at the feet of Thomas Aquinas. I had also been taught that to include Mary in the equation any more than two weeks around Christmas was idolatrous.

Right around February and March of 2005 as we were starting to “nibble” at Mass, I went to a Border’s bookstore in the Hamilton mall near Atlantic City. And I love photography.

Well, right next to P for Photography is R for Religion. I saw a book of sermonettes by Thomas Aquinas from Sophia Press. I pulled it out, popped it open to his teaching on “Hail Mary, full of grace.” And he asked the question, “How full of grace would the mother of Jesus Christ be?” This is the only time an angel has accorded a human being this kind of honor. I found it such a poignant, thoughtful question, beautifully stated and in no way idolatrous.

It was completely, profoundly Christ-centered. And it made me consider Mary as the singularly most Christ-centered person who has ever lived. Not just in her head and in her heart, but literally, in her womb.

I just grabbed the book, I bought it, and went out and read it to my wife in the car, and we both looked at each other … We had just gone to Mass a couple times … and now this was Aquinas, the guy who was to blame for the Reformation … I find out that he’s not an idolater. This guy is truly a Church father. And what he had to say about Mary, well, I devoured it.

We sat there in the parking lot of Border’s and I read it to Shelley, and in unison we said to each other, “We’re Catholic.”

At the same time we were considering these things, my daughter Sarah and her husband, Pete Johnson, did convert to Catholicism.

Were there other realizations that opened your mind and heart to Catholicism and the sacraments?

As the Donut Man, I was looking for an authoritative way to teach the children. I color-coded all of my videos for children who couldn’t read. I have the “yellow video,” the “green video,” the “red video” — matching the coveralls that I wore in the videos. And then I went to Mass and I saw the different colors that were keyed to the liturgical calendar, which gives you historicity.

I was never taught my baptism was symbolic. If my baptism circumcised my heart, crucified, buried and resurrected me with Christ in the waters of baptism, that ain’t symbolic. That’s sacramental.

My approach to communion was never symbolic. It was always sacramental. My approach to my wife was sacramental. And I knew that confession isn’t just to God. Through the Promise Keepers movement, with covenant groups in the evangelical realm, they were called accountability groups. Hello! That’s confessing, that’s invoking Jesus’ initiative with Peter: “I give you the keys. What you bind on earth is bound in heaven, what you loose on earth is forgiven in heaven.” … That’s sacramental.

The Catholic Church maintains this pattern in the Eucharist that Christ himself comes to us in the bread and the cup. Why would Protestants break that pattern and accept a communion that, at best, is a sweet meditation and a reverencing of Jesus Christ. … The Catholic Church has a fuller view of Communion. It’s not a question of right and wrong. It’s a question of good vs. miraculous.

My kids tell me, “Dad you were a great Protestant evangelist and you’re going to be a great Catholic evangelist.” Well, we’re going to find out. I’m not going to bite the hand that fed me for 33 years. So I’m still going to reach out to my separated brothers and sisters. I am focusing on a new kid’s album right now with “The Eucharist Song,” “Holy Water on My Face,” and “All for the Love of Mary.”

Anyone take a good look at his "new" website.
Check out these songs!

'"Celebrating the Celebration: The Donut Man Sings About the Sacraments"

Songs to Sing-Along With the Liturgical Calendar

(Requires Real Audio - click here to download)

Mary, Mother of God: Gentle Mary, Humble Mary

Presentation of Christ: Jesus Was A Child

Lent: This is My Command

Holy Week: Jesus Showed Us God's Love

Easter: Run, Peter Run

Pentecost: They Had to Wait

All Saints: Tell Me John

St. Paul: My Name is Paul

Christmas: The Best Present of All

Christmas: Happy Birthday, Jesus

Songs That Elaborate Upon the Sacraments

Baptism: When I Take A Bath

Baptism: God is Three in One

Eucharist: This Is My Body

Communion / (Sharing): One Basket

Confirmation: A New Creation! (II Cor. 5:17)

Confirmation: Making the Choice: The Two Houses

Holy Orders: The Centurion

Holy Vows: Love Each Other

Confession: If We Confess

Confession/Obedience: O-B-E-Y

Confession: God Knows About Everything

Prayer for the Sick / Annointing: Jesus Heals the Paralytic (Hole in My Roof)

Healing our Soul / Lifting our Burden: HiYa, HiYa"

--I am convinced that as more Evangelicals understand the Christ-centeredness of Mary, more and more Evangelicals will join the Catholic Church.

But the evangelicals want Christ, not Mary as the only center of 'veneration'. I only pray to God, I will never kneel before a statue of my good friend Steve to ask him to pray for me. If Steve is considered more than just a good friend, indeed, giving him some stake in my salvation, that is false, and that is putting him at some level equal to Christ. Indeed ALL men, except Christ alone are fallen, as was Mary.

Luke, when writing all the truth that he could find in his Gospel to Theophilus did not mention that Mary's pain at the foot of the Cross was somehow redemptive. Nor did he mention that she was born immaculately. Nor did he make much mention of this special status that she is now held by the RCC, and perhaps held that way since way early in the church. Yes, she is known to be blessed beyond all other women for being the mother of Jesus, but nothing else. Read the first chapter of Luke especially, and then the rest.

Luke 1: 3it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; 4so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.

Now according to the RCC this infallible Gospel must be truth. If that is what it is, then according to what Luke himself wrote this Gospel is all that Luke could find about the life and teachings of Christ, and it should be all that one needs for salvation. Does this Gospel teach all that the RCC stands for? The Protestants say not.

And that is why the RCC is considered heretical by the Protestants, and no matter how you make Mary the selling point, at least this Reformed believer will never think to fall to the RCC's heresy.

Yes, there are some that cross the Tiber, as they say. But many in the past fell for the various heresies. Does this mean those old moldy heresies are right? No. Just means people really do not change, and those that are not strong in the Scripture fall for such. When dust gathers on the Word, heresy gathers on the Church.

Aquinas is da bomb, and that's all there is to it.

If you liked Aquinas, then you will love his Eastern counterpart, St. Ephrem the Syrian.

Saint Ephrem the Syrian Library

THE PRAYER OF SAINT EPHREM THE SYRIAN

O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency,
lust of power, and idle talk;

But grant rather
the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love
to thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King,
grant me to see my own transgressions,
and not to judge my brother;
for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.

Amen.

It appears to me that you are misreading the post you were responding to. The honor that Catholics give to Mary is centered on Christ, it is just one of the many ways that we honor Christ. There is no way that you can read the post you exerpted and take away that Mary is the center of Catholic veneration. Christ is, so you are in agreement with Catholics. Your beef is with the way is which the honor for Christ is exemplified by Catholics respect for His mother. I know that you have heard this all before, so I will not get into it with you again. I do know that if we seek Christ with all our hearts and honor Him as we know best, He will not abandon us. Rather, He will draw us closer to Him.

Now according to the RCC this infallible Gospel must be truth. If that is what it is, then according to what Luke himself wrote this Gospel is all that Luke could find about the life and teachings of Christ,

That is a very unsafe assumption, especially given John 20:30; 21:25.

and it should be all that one needs for salvation.

Another "Protestant" and unscriptural assumption imposed upon Scripture.

It all comes down to these basic working assumptions that lie behind and beneath the Scripture itself.

-A8

http://how2fish.blogspot.com/2006/09/donut-man-should-make-us-think.html

Howard Fisher said...
Tiber,

1) Thanks for the list of names. I already hinted at in my original post that they mean nothing. Should I reproduce a list of names in reverse? Would that prove anything?

2) "You can ask me how I have peace with God if you want."

The one thing I asked for, you didn't provide. You simply do not have peace with God. Although I am sure you think so. It is however, not a biblical peace. Without the Imputation of Christ's righteousness, Paul plainly teaches you have no peace.

3) "I suspect he thought about this a bit before converting..."

I am sure he did. I have found men convert for all kinds of reasons. Then they often respond to Protestant doctrines like Sola Scriptura as being unbiblical. Yet their desription of those doctrines are never correct. So they leave not knowing with accuracy what they are rejecting.

4) Anonymous wants to be obedient. Yet I must ask. Is this interpretation of John 6 his private interpretation? Rome has never taught John 6 to say what he says it says.

Perhaps I need to start another sacrament. I will get a door with a doorknob and a dead bolt. Then I will get a priest to bless the door so that it actually becomes the Door of Christ. Then I will walk through it. Since Jesus claims to be a door, wouldn't that work too?

John 6 is one of my favorite passages. It strikes me that you will interpret that portion of that passage in such a fashion and also ignore the exegesis provided by Reformed Protestants.

What in essence you have done is accept the final authority of Rome's dogmatics as the governing interpretive lense. You simply are not allowed the text of god's Word to speak. In other words, you must by definition force Rome's teachings into Scripture.

5) I must ask you both if you were truly Protestants. Did you believe in penal substitutionary atonement? Do you still do so? If so, you are in rebellion against Rome's teaching.

Perhaps my original question should be asked. Who is the Blessed man of Romans 4? Do you have peace with God? On what basis do you claim to have this peace?

But the evangelicals want Christ, not Mary as the only center of 'veneration'

If you're only venerating Christ, you aren't giving him the worship of latria to which he is entitled as God incarnate.

??? You also believe that Luke's Gospel is truth, do you not? So do you believe that the Gospel of Luke is "all that one needs for salvation"? "Luke alone"?

Luke didn't say it contained all truth, or all truth concerning Mary, or all truth needed for salvation. He said he diligently gathered it together that Theophilus might know the exact truth concerning that which he had been taught. That's all.

But many in the past fell for the various heresies.

We call them "Protestants".

Does this mean those old moldy heresies are right? No. Just means people really do not change, and those that are not strong in the Scripture fall for such.

There are plenty of people who are fine Scripture scholars in the Catholic church, and some of them are ex-Protestants. The Protestant conceit that nobody who knows Scripture can be a Catholic is just that: a conceit.

Now it is true that nobody who accepts one of the various Protestant theological systems as truth can be a Catholic, but to equate any Protestant theological system with "knowledge of Scripture" per se is precisely to beg the question.

Then they often respond to Protestant doctrines like Sola Scriptura as being unbiblical. Yet their desription of those doctrines are never correct.

Sola scriptura must be as elusive as mercury, given that there are plenty of very fine Catholics who are former conservative Protestants of various kinds, some of whom are former Protestant clergymen with legitimate seminary training ... and you want us to believe that none of these folks ever really understood what sola scriptura was, though they professed it and preached it for years?

---Now according to the RCC this infallible Gospel must be truth. If that is what it is, then according to what Luke himself wrote this Gospel is all that Luke could find about the life and teachings of Christ,
--That is a very unsafe assumption, especially given John 20:30; 21:25.

I was not looking at John. I was saying that Luke himself says that he painstakingly researched his Gospel and put everything in it he could find credible so that he could show Theophilus the exact truth. Anything outside that exact truth would be what?

Indeed John mentions that much was not revealed in his Gospel. What is it? A mystery. But would we presume that whatever it is Luke would be aware of it, as he would most likely have a few of the original Apostles to use as reference?

And if Mary is to be used as a go-between for us to God, why is it not mentioned anywhere in the Gospels or Epistles?

--Another "Protestant" and unscriptural assumption imposed upon Scripture.
--It all comes down to these basic working assumptions that lie behind and beneath the Scripture itself.

So the scripture does not describe all that is required for salvation? Is this where the RCC gnosticism comes in, you must have the knowledge that only the Magisterium can provide? Ware the Scriptures! It can lead the unenlightened into heresy, for you must have the proper gnosis to fully understand! I say Ware the church that demands the scriptures be guarded against! For many other cults lurk out there that make the same claim, and the Mormons do not need the company...

--There are plenty of people who are fine Scripture scholars in the Catholic church, and some of them are ex-Protestants. The Protestant conceit that nobody who knows Scripture can be a Catholic is just that: a conceit.

Conceit? I want you to answer the question of Luke 1. If you cannot, please speak not to me of conceit. I do not claim to have the only true church, the only true interpretation of scripture, the infallible leader and teacher for all Christianity; that is the RCC that does that.

The same RCC that allows the enemy to continue to kill our unborn, much as Herod and Pharoah did. Has the Pope excommunicated the pro-abortion Catholics yet? I keep hearing that it is coming, but I fear the Pope knows that they will just run to some liberal protestant heresy rather than listen to his authority. And this is the true church of Jesus? I shudder at the claim!

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