But are Catholics "by birth"—or any believers raised in a religious tradition—indeed less-convincing witnesses, or less motivated, than are converts? Do they have a greater responsibility to live up to the tenets of the faith since they have known Christ from their earliest years? And are they a bigger disappointment to the Mother Church—and the world—when they come up short?...
....Yet conversion is a double-edged sword. The zeal of newfound faith can be little more than a superficial emotionalism that makes for great theater—especially in today's reality-television culture—but does not endure. Or zeal can tip into fanaticism, as we have seen all too often, undermining a faith (and its public image) by overreaching....
....Whether converts do that better than "cradle Catholics"—or whether, as is often the case, that is a distinction without a difference—both categories of believers are bound by the same vocation. Both are as responsible for the success or failure of the church's witness.
"Having read [Francis Beckwith]’s book, I am appalled at the blatant misrepresentation of both the Reformed teaching as well the teaching of Roman Catholicism. His lack of knowledge on historical issues is forgivable, given his ignorance, but to misrepresent and caricature the Reformed faith and to misrepresent the salvation teachings of Rome is simply irresponsible and dishonest..."There are many, many "former-Protestant-turns-Catholic" conversion stories posted on FR that bear these same marks. The majority focus on converts with a poor command of their former faith, who swam the Tiber in their early to mid twenties. Some bear witness to converts already being swayed by "every wind of doctrine" before they converted. Most of these conversion stories fall into a common theme - "fringe member (or non-member) starts out illiterate and ignorant of his/her own confession, then gains publicity and fame on EWTN by making a loud, trumpeted conversion to Catholicism."
-- from the internet article Why Scripture and the Facts of History Compel Me, a Former Roman Catholic, to Remain a Committed Evangelical Protestant
Take, for example, the story of James Akin. A convert in his mid-twenties, he was actually a whole lot of things before he became Catholic in his mid-twenties, but one Catholic FReeper hawked James as being a "former Presbyterian".
Another favorite is the story of Rodney Beason, supposedly a former Calvinist, and re-solicited as "a powerful conversion story". A first year college student, he claimed to have "a library full of Calvin, Luther, Warfield, Hodge, Murray, Owen, Machen, etc" and to have "helped plant a local Orthodox Presbyterian Church". A little digging on Google, however, and his conversion story was called into question. In the end, Rodney Beason himself signed up to FR just to provide all with the rest of his "powerful conversion story". Having abandoned the Catholic Church within two years of his 2002 conversion, he wishes Catholics would stop (re)publishing his story.
And then there's the tale of Rob Evans. I know what you're thinking - "who is Rob Evans?" Evans' previous claim to fame was a direct-to-VHS children's series titled The Donut Repair Club, marketed to children in Evangelical households in the early 1990s. When he wasn't entertaining children, Rob was a Presbyterian Pentecostal Baptist multiple-church-splitting spiritual wanderer, who was kicked out of at least one congregation before his conversion to Catholicism. His conversion nicely coincided with EWTN acquiring broadcasting rights to his out-of-production Donut Repair Club.
Finally, there's Fr. Erik J. Richtsteig, billed as a "former Mormon" The problem is, Fr. Richtsteig stopped being Mormon by the time he was just eight years old, meaning he had never held office, never been on a mission, never been through a Temple ceremony. His "Mormon" experience was limited to Sunday attendance (without his mother) "sporadically".
I wonder how many of these Catholic converts actually attended churches that proclaimed the whole council of God? A question I would ask is how many Catholic converts previously went to churches with strong systematic confessions of faith, like the Westminster Confession, and how often were they taught the confession, like in a Sunday School class, and how well did their minister cover all the doctrines in the confession of faith? I would expect some rather weak answers.
-- from the thread Systematic Theology and Catholic Converts
I'm tempted to reply tartly that nobody converts to the Catholic Faith from a church that has "the whole council [sic, the correct word is "counsel"] of God," since the Catholic Church is absolutely the only religious body that meets that qualification.
Do you doubt me? Tell me, which Protestant body has the whole counsel of God? The Calvinists don't think the Lutherans or Arminians do, or they wouldn't be Calvinists. The Arminians don't think the Calvinists or Lutherans do. Who's right? How do you know? Who gets to judge who has the "whole counsel of God"?
Have you read Beckwith's book? I have. I didn't see any misrepresentations of Catholic doctrine big enough to catch my eye. As for misrepresentations of Protestant doctrine, since it's all over the place anyway, who is to say what is or isn't a misrepresentation? I believe Beckwith was completely honest about what he believed as a Protestant.
My only criticism of his book is that he spent a bit too much time defending Francis Beckwith against the charge that he had violated the ETS charter. (Since ETS had, and perhaps still has, Orthodox members, and the Orthodox reject sola scriptura, I'd say Beckwith's case on that is open and shut and doesn't require much defense.)
William Webster, BTW, is in no position to criticize anyone else for misrepresenting Catholic doctrine. In fact, he's an expert at it.
Most of these conversion stories fall into a common theme - "fringe member (or non-member) starts out illiterate and ignorant of his/her own confession, then gains publicity and fame on EWTN by making a loud, trumpeted conversion to Catholicism."
Do you realize how ridiculous this sounds? Being interviewed on a Catholic cable station confers "publicity and fame"? Are you serious? I know lots of converts, even a couple who were on EWTN. I know nobody who converted in order to get on television.
I notice you don't mention Scott Hahn at all, who graduated from Gordon-Conwell, was a minister in an independent Presbyterian church, and was a professor in a Protestant seminary. He gave John Gerstner a weekend to talk him out of "Poping". Gerstner failed; in fact, Hahn could see where exactly Gerstner was misrepresenting Trent. Was Hahn "illiterate and ignorant of his own confession"?
What about Jeff Cavins, who was a Pentecostal pastor in Ohio? What about Kris Franklin, who was an evangelical missionary in Central America?
Speaking of which, do you realize how many of those who convert away from Catholicism really are "illiterate and ignorant of their own confession"? Quite a few. And that's something for which Catholics, the clergy especially, ought to be extremely sorry.
I think nearly every Catholic-turned-Protestant conversion story is based on the same line. I particularly like the "half of our church is made up of former Catholics". I'm sure all those "Catholics" were fully informed and aware of what the Church teaches and why.
Lots of people here, not sure how many are "fringe" but my guess is they know their former faith better than you. But than, it seems many non-catholic Freepers have the power to know the true convictions of anothers heart.