Aunt Martha: Well, dear, for a gallon of elderberry wine, I take one teaspoon full of arsenic, then add half a teaspoon full of strychnine, and then just a pinch of cyanide."
Mortimer Brewster: "Hmm. Should have quite a kick."
As you undoubtedly know there are many independent "Protestant Churches" which ordain by their own rules but are not recognized by any other body. It seems this may be the case with Scott Hahn.
". . . We reported that the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) had no record of his ordination or any record of Trinity Presbyterian Church, the church where he had been a pastor. Mr. Hahn acknowledged these facts but offered an explanation.
"Trinity Presbyterian was an independent church with an average attendance of 30 when two of its elders laid hands on him in a private ceremony in 1982. He served as their Associate Pastor for about two years. The church remained independent until its closing in 1986. Mr. Hahn told me the reason for his private ceremony was because he did not feel he was very qualified to serve as an elder at age 26, but needed the ordination to take the pastor's exemption from Social Security. . ."
Scott Hahn - Ordained Presbyterian Minister?
The following is a critical view of Scott Hahn.
. . . He was a postmillennialist who had been heavily influenced by the Reconstructionist movement. In fact, he was the (unordained) pastor of a Reconstructionist church in Fairfax, Virginia.
. . . Hahn attended the theologically liberal but economically conservative Grove City College, a college affiliated with the mainline Presbyterian church, where he concentrated in theology, philosophy, and economics, and continued his activity in Young Life. While in college, Hahn “discovered that the covenant was really the key for unlocking the whole Bible” (17). Beware the man who thinks he has discovered some sort of “key” for understanding the Bible, whether it is the idea of covenant, a scheme of dispensations (instituted by covenants), or a five-point covenantal model.
. . . Although Hahn does not mention it in the book, his tuition at Gordon-Conwell was paid by a Calvinist Christian businessman who wanted to support a student who understood both free market economics and Christian theology, for the purpose of being able to teach economics to clergymen and Christian theology to economists. Hahn was highly recommended to the businessman by the Chairman of the Economics Department at Grove City. What Hahn learned at Grove City was Thomism, and his interest in economics - which he says he studied only to mollify his “practical” father, not because he was genuinely interested in the subject - has disappeared. Hahn’s obsession is to convert Christians to Catholicism, not to educate clergymen about principles of economics or economists about Christian theology. He owes one Christian businessman many thousand dollars and his former economics professor an apology.
. . . Hahn was also invited to teach at Dominion Theological Institute (which later merged with Chesapeake Theological Seminary).
. . . Hahn was also teaching his seminary students - contrary to what the seminary itself believed, contrary to what he was being paid to teach, and without informing the leadership of the seminary - that justification by faith alone was false. The fact that he was denying the Christian doctrine of justification while being paid to teach it does not seem to bother him. Oddly, Hahn opens his book with this story designed to illustrate his lifelong honesty:
“I recall the last time I ever attended our family’s church. The minister was preaching all about his doubts regarding the Virgin Birth of Jesus and his bodily Resurrection. I just stood up in the middle of his sermon and walked out. I remember thinking, I’m not sure what I believe, but at least I’m honest enough not to stand up and attack the things I’m supposed to teach”
(1). But that is exactly what Hahn did when he taught seminary classes, and that is exactly what he did when he accepted money for seminary tuition under false pretenses. After Hahn attacked sola fide in his seminary classes in Virginia, one of the students challenged him to defend sola scriptura. He could not (51-52).
After seven years in “Protestant” educational institutions, and now a Presbyterian minister, Hahn, who by all accounts was an excellent student, could not defend the major principles of the Protestant Reformation.
Scott Hahn - True Protestant? It seems Mary Ann Collins was every bit as much "Nun" as Scott Hahn was an "Ordained" Minister.
"Trinity Presbyterian was an independent church with an average attendance of 30 when two of its elders laid hands on him in a private ceremony in 1982. He served as their Associate Pastor for about two years. The church remained independent until its closing in 1986. Mr. Hahn told me the reason for his private ceremony was because he did not feel he was very qualified to serve as an elder at age 26, but needed the ordination to take the pastor's exemption from Social Security. . ."
Thanks for the excellent link and this account of Scott Hahn's peculiar road to Rome. There's no such thing as an "independent" Presbyterian church. And if it is true that Hahn once called himself a Reconstructionist, it was only to destroy the movement.
There are few people I've come across as dupicitous as Scott Hahn. He is right where he belongs (and some might say he's always been there.)
You’re insinuating this fake nun story is fair game since you or others cannot verify Scott Hahn.
That’s very odd.
John Robbins sums it up, "Hahn's defection is one of several similar defections. They are occurring, not because Rome is the true church, but because of the apostasy of `Protestantism.'"Exactly!
Light, breezy, sincere, winsome and sprinkled with arsenic might best describe this emotional autobiography, Rome Sweet Home, co-authored by Scott and Kimberly Hahn.
lol.
Aunt Martha: Well, dear, for a gallon of elderberry wine, I take one teaspoon full of arsenic, then add half a teaspoon full of strychnine, and then just a pinch of cyanide."
Mortimer Brewster: "Hmm. Should have quite a kick."
As an example,I will quote from your own post:
"After seven years in "Protestant" educational institutions,and now a Presbyterian minister,Hahn,who by all accounts was an excellent student,could not defend the major principles of the Protestant Reformation."
Naturally. The alternative is unthinkable.
What's interesting to me is the behavior of the respective groups of converts. In general, those who swim the Tiber are seldom bitter nor do they embark on vitriolic crusades against their former denominations. I believe that's because their conversions are due to an acceptance of the Catholic credo and not due to a revolt against the beliefs of their previous churches. It's a positive progression in their lives, not a negation of another belief.
Those traveling in the other direction, on the other hand, seem to do so in protest, with anger and with a sense of having been victimized. This in turn leads to the sort of anti-Catholic screeds we see published on FR. It's not so much a "turning to" as a "turning away from" as far as I can see.
The Catholic Church is very good for you ladies and gentlemen, though you won't admit it. I truly believe that without it, there would be a serious void in your respective lives for you would have nothing to "protest" and rail against. It helps to fill up your existence. Indeed, opposition to what's happening in Rome, rather than enthusiasm for your respective professions appears to be your prime driving force..
I read the article which you excerpted your post from. The author takes quotes out of context and makes assumptions based on what he thinks Scott Hahn believed not what Scott Hahn stated whe believed. He also decides without evidence that Scott Hahn has personality
disorders
“What sorts of people write autobiographies when they are healthy and well at 35? Generally there are three sorts: egotists, egomaniacs, and megalomaniacs.”
“One remark his wife makes in this book suggests that Hahn’s desire to be noticed is great: ‘Scott suffered tremendous loneliness. He was misunderstood and rejected by many Protestant friends who didn’t want to talk to him....’ “
“During his first years in Gordon-Conwell Seminary, 1979-81, Hahn suffered from a confused mental state: /At this point I would describe my study as a detective story. I was searching Scripture to discover clues as to the whereabouts of real Christianity’”
The above quotes are insulting in the extreme and I would protest if the story was a critique of a Catholic converting to Protestantism.
Rather than believing Scott Hahn’s reasons given in his books for his conversion the author assumes he knows the real reasons:
“The first of the reasons for Hahn’s conversion to Romanism is liberalism and Arminianism.”
The author nevers says just why this would lead to converting to RCC rather than a more liberal Protestant or even Unitarian denomination. Also his association in highschool with what the author terms an Arminian Evangelstic group Young Life can hardly be pointed to as a reason for converting to RC decades later. I once sang in a Methodist youth choir- I guess that makes me a future Protestant. Oh wait my inlaws are Protestant. I guess I am not Catholic after all.
The author is also very dismissive of Scott Hahn’s religious and spiritual experiences before he even considered converting. The author is also a mind reader and determined that if one has interests outside of theology one obviously is not really interested in theology
“While in high school, Hahn also became enamored of Luther and Calvin, apparently because they appealed to his need for heroes: ‘I decided the figures in Christian history who most appealed to me...were the great protestant reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin’ (5). But the theologies of Luther and Calvin seemed to play relatively small parts in Hahn’s thinking; he was fascinated by other things. A guitarist, Hahn liked modern music:”
The author gives as Hahn’s second reason for converting his study of St.Thomas Aquinas. Now maybe I am too naive but I think many Protestant pastors are well aware and have studied Aquinas. They did not find him the force for conversion. Perhaps Hahn had a different edition of his works? As to the RC philosophy of evidentalism I am not familiar with that so shall not comment.
“
The author does not give any rational defense of Protestantism rather he makes personal attacks against Scott Hahn for converting. He claims to know the reasons despite that they are contrary to the ones given by Hahn himself. He is scornful of any spiritual experiences related by Hahn insinuating they must have been invalid because of Hahn’s future conversion.
There are fortunately Protestant apologists who can make a good ( even though I disagree with them) argument for Sola Scriptura without resorting to the personal attacks of this author.