Posted on 08/05/2010 12:36:10 PM PDT by NYer
Is there a growing trend of Evangelicals converting to Catholicism? Many think so, including this recent article:
[There is a large] community of young believers whose frustration with the lack of authority, structure, and intellectualism in many evangelical churches is leading them in great numbers to the Roman Catholic Church. This trend of “Crossing the Tiber” (a phrase that also served as the title of Stephen K. Ray’s 1997 book on the phenomenon), has been growing steadily for decades, but with the help of a solid foundation of literature, exemplar converts from previous generations, burgeoning traditional and new media outlets, and the coming of age of Millennial evangelicals, it is seeing its pace quicken dramatically. [source]
The article gives the example of many such notable Evangelical converts from our generation, such as Scott Hahn, Marcus Grodi, Thomas Howard, Francis Beckwith and others. (It also mentions Patrick Madrid, but he is actually not a convert, from what I understand.)
The common threads that seem to be drawing many of these Evangelicals into the Catholic Church are its history, the Liturgy and its tradition of intellectualism.
So is this trend significant? Or is it dwarfed by what seems to be many more Catholics who seem to lose their faith or become complacent with it?
According to a 2009 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, four people leave the Catholic Church for every one person that joins it. Keep in mind that this stat doesn’t count those born into Catholicism as “joining” it. However, it’s still a sad statistic. But we shouldn’t be misled by it.
There are also studies that show Catholicism has a higher rate of retention than all other religious groups. In other words, when people convert to Catholicism, they don’t do so because they didn’t like where they were and just wanted to try something new. Their conversion is deliberate and intentional and they generally stick with it. On the other hand, when people leave the Church, they generally drift around a bit from one denomination to another. This says a lot. The Catholic convert is actually experiencing real, lasting conversion. Those leaving the Church seem to be lost and searching souls that most likely had no idea what they were leaving in the first place.
I’ve long noticed, as have many others, a kind of trend as well. It’s not so much from “Evangelicals” converting to Catholicism necessarily. It’s that of intellectuals converting to Catholicism. And that’s not to say these intellectuals were strictly intellectual. But I mean it to say that they took their reasons for believing very seriously. We only have to look back a few generations to find Chesterton, Merton, Newman, etc. as part of the same trend.
In my own experience, I’ve seen that more people who convert to Catholicism do so on account of their reason. Whereas those that leave the Church do so based on some emotion or negative experience associated with the Church.
When I ask an evangelical why they left the Church. The answer is almost always an emotion. Something made them feel a certain way. Or they just didn’t like the way something was done in Catholicism. Or it didn’t suit their lifestyle. Or some other experience made them feel nice.
There is a long list of protestant (and other) leaders and scholars who have converted to Catholicism. The list for those going the other direction is devastatingly short.
This is why I think we are seeing, and will continue to see even more, protestant thinkers converting to Catholicism. Protestantism is running its course. All the protest is getting tired. And they are running out of places to find answers that don’t lead them deep into Church history, back to the ancient liturgy, and into the intellectual tradition that ultimately leads to one place: Rome.
Protestantism has drifted far enough away from orthodox Christianity that it can now look back at the trees and recognize the forest. And if you’re not entirely in the Catholic Church, that just might be the next best place to be…
“There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place; and I tried to trace such a journey in a story I once wrote. It is, however, a relief to turn from that topic to another story that I never wrote. Like every book I never wrote, it is by far the best book I have ever written. It is only too probable that I shall never write it, so I will use it symbolically here; for it was a symbol of the same truth. I conceived it as a romance of those vast valleys with sloping sides, like those along which the ancient White Horses of Wessex are scrawled along the flanks of the hills. It concerned some boy whose farm or cottage stood on such a slope, and who went on his travels to find something, such as the effigy and grave of some giant; and when he was far enough from home he looked back and saw that his own farm and kitchen-garden, shining flat on the hill-side like the colours and quarterings of a shield, were but parts of some such gigantic figure, on which he had always lived, but which was too large and too close to be seen. That, I think, is a true picture of the progress of any really independent intelligence today; and that is the point of this book.
The point of this book, in other words, is that the next best thing to being really inside Christendom is to be really outside it. ” - G. K. Chesterton (Everlasting Man)
There's no such thing as "Trinity" in scripture either...was that made of whole cloth, too?
You see, this is the problem with you Bible-Thumpers...you criticize the organic growth of Church doctrine, and act like every situation can be shoved into a scriptural box, even when it can't, then just ignore the Bible when people you can't do without fail to live up to the scriptural anecdotes you've made into doctrines.
Find me a "Bible" Church without at least one divorced man on the deacon board!
I suggest you read more about what an annulement really is. It’s a tad bit more than a “wink and a nod”. You seem to have a knack for representing half-truths and myths about the Catholic Church. If that offends you & you’d like to run to the moderator to have me banned, so be it but it’s the truth.
You are right about God not being mocked & people finding that out someday. That we can agree on. I think we will differ, however, in who those people are.
Observing that a poster is insensitive to a primary issue while attending to a secondary issue is “analysis,” not “mind reading.”
Could you suggest a better phrase for pointing out that incongruity than the colloquial use of “seeing” in such cases?
If you don't want to get "spanked," quit picking up "rocks."
You are being unfair, but even if your generalization was correct, it does not justify turning away from God. The Catholic Church was established by Christ as the sole means of salvation. The niceness of other sinners who answer the call should be a secondary concern.
Blood-bought believers have direct access to the Throne of Grace.
Thanks, you answered my question.
Were I to leave evangelicalism for Catholicism it would not be for intellectual reasons. It would be because of their unity combined with their apostolic heritage. Those are the strongest selling points of the RCC, imho. The intellectual rigor of academic reformed theologians is 2nd to none and that of academic evangelicalism is not far behind
Whether Catholic, reformed or evangelical none of those reasons are based on emotion
“And some, like Scott Hahn were fraudulently hyped...”Presbyterian minister” my eye! He went to seminary, and was an elder in tiny tiny house church—and while teaching at a Christian school (where he had fraudulently sworn that he believed their statement of faith—when at the time he did not) “
Echoes of Charles Finney. Unfortunately still touted by some on FR as an Evangelical Protestant Christian.
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/articles/finney.htm
As a recently baptized Catholic who agrees with you on your interpretation of canon law, I would hope to see our faith represented with a heavy dose of love.
The love that I felt at Sacred Heart in Tampa is what initially attracted me to the church after a great deal of church shopping.
Just as the church teaches that both the body and spirit are good and of God... our arguments can be pursued with both intellect and mercy.
The better that our priests and parishioners combine and understanding of the faith, with clear standards AND mercy they better off the church and our society will be.
Thank you for the heads up on next weeks roman catholic "talking points".
I would like to know what it is like to live in an alternate universe, so tell me...
I would like to know what it is like to live in an alternate universe, so tell me...
I would like to know what it is like to live in an alternate universe, so tell me...
You'd better pick up the Red Phone and tell Jesus; he's out there saving souls left and right based on nothing more than their belief in Who He is, and their faith in the sufficiency of His sacrifice on their behalf.
A nullity of marriage is not a Catholic form of divorce.
It is a declaration that there was never a sacramental marriage based on facts that are very private and intimate to the couple.
The process is intense and painful for those involved.
Though it has been abused, what in the world isn’t?, it not divorce.
Most Catholics who divorce civilly do not go through the annulment process because it delves into many intimate details of one’s marriage before a decision is made.
The Rosary is the New Testament in prayer.
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