Letter to a former student

[Names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.]

Dear Ned,

As I hope you know, I’m a big fan. You were a great Philosophy student, and it was always a pleasure to have you in my classes. You combine a sunny disposition with a keen mind and a deadly work ethic. My colleagues and I agree that you are one of the best students we’ve had the pleasure of teaching. So let me start by saying that I will happily, enthusiastically write you a recommendation for just about any job you might apply for. You’ve got my number and email, so ask me any time. I count you as not just a former student, but also as a friend.

I see that you’ve just announced on social media your intention to convert to Roman Catholicism. This comes as a shock, but not as a total shock. Our mutual friend Hal informed me some months ago that you’d switched from unitarian to trinitarian. That was more of a shock. I decided not to say anything, as this was during your last semester and your last class with me, and I didn’t want you to fear that I’d be aggravated and prejudiced in my grading. (I wouldn’t be, of course, but I didn’t want you to fear that.) Naturally, you aced the class. Since then I have put off contacting you, partly because I was busy, and partly because… well, if you’d wanted my input, you could have easily asked over the course of the previous year. I had known that you had been fellowship in a trinitarian church, and I was glad about that, because I’m glad when my Christian students find nourishing fellowship with other believers, unitarian or not. Hal had told me that your motivations for switching from unitarian to trinitarian didn’t seem to have to do with any substantial re-evaluation of the biblical and historical evidence, but seemed to be subjective – you “felt” it was right, and that God was leading you that way. Your roommate and close friend was a Roman Catholic, and your church was trinitarian and Protestant, and I am sure that these gave you powerful motives to want to fit in with the Christian people in your life (exclusive of Hal and me). We all want to fit in.

I’m not offended that you made the switch, Ned. I’m mildly discouraged. If you could switch that easily, and on such subjective grounds, I have to think that you were mainly unitarian because you knew me, because of my influence as your professor, not because you really grasped the biblical case for unitarian theology. I suppose I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t teach you better, although as you know I avoid polemicizing in class, or even just aggressively pushing my views. When the lecture was on, say Origen, it was really on Origen, and not just about me reacting to him.

I would just say that if you think I know anything at all about the subject of Trinity theories, before you fully close your mind, please work through my book What is the Trinity? and this podcast. (Email me – I’ll send you a free copy of the book.) If you read those and are like “Ho, hum, all of that doesn’t seem terribly relevant or convincing” – then I don’t have a lot more to say. I will just, as they say, “agree to disagree,” and be your friend on that basis.

Now about becoming Roman Catholic. The major that would’ve tended to insulate you against that mistake is not Philosophy, but History. Catholic tradition, more than any Christian tradition, embraces Philosophy, and so their writers usually know how to put together a valid argument. But soundness – that’s a lot harder!

As you know, I’m not an ignorant anti-Catholic, but rather someone who has deeply looked into the history and into countless Catholic primary sources, and who on many issues is sympathetic to their teachings and practices. I see a lot to like there. Yet, I still have never been tempted to sign up.

You need to know that the Catholic tradition is a master of changing its mind, and then telling you solemnly that this is what they’ve always taught. I get the impression from your social media post that you’ve been reading or listening to some Catholic apologetics material. Beware! Be sure to check such advertising materials against what real historians say. We can see things like the cult of the saints, the cult of Mary, the papacy, and the doctrine of transubstantiation appearing at and evolving through various centuries. (I won’t even get in to the Trinity and Incarnation here.) The Catholic church’s history of claims about the fate of all non-Catholics, their record of religious persecution, their ridiculous teachings on human sexuality (see this book for many primary source quotations), their antisemitism – these things are just sitting there for you to see, if you care to look. I encourage you to look before you leap. The apologists won’t tell you these things, because (thank God!) Catholic tradition has taken hard turns on all of these issues in about the last 200 years or so, improving their views so that now Protestants are “separated brethren,” religious freedom is now a good thing, marital sex needn’t be only for procreation and doesn’t always involve sin (as a famous Pope stupidly said, and many repeated), and antisemitism is bad, ghettos and all.

Apostolic succession, by the way, is an old propaganda claim, as is the claim that Peter was Pope of Rome. This is just what (even Roman Catholic!) historians are now saying.

Roman Catholicism is in some ways like the McDonalds of Christianity. It seems like it is everywhere, and it is a dominant brand in part because it does usually establish a baseline of quality, based on its liturgy and its practices. You know what you’re getting, it’s pretty good, and the prices are low. And for many, it has immense prestige – it’s a brand more like Rolls Royce or Apple. But it has a lot a problems too, as life-long Catholics will gladly tell you. It also sort of has a precooked answer for everything. Intellectual elements within it have a sort of quasi-legal aspect, and they are adept at making (sometimes dodgy) distinctions. It’s like a one-stop-shop for easy answers.

But the price you pay is commitment to a whole load of what to other Christians look like aggressive, speculative, or absurd claims, such as that you literally eat Jesus’s body and drink his blood when you take communion there. You are supposed to, really, let them do the thinking for you. As a famous Saint says, “we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it…” Of course in the present day in the West, this is widely ignored. American Catholics disagree with official teachings about all kinds of things. Of course, you should submit your will and mind to them completely if they are all that they have traditionally claimed. But are they? To me, their claims are astoundingly bold, and the facts of history are hard to get around here.

In any case, I suspect that this comprehensiveness is a large part of the attraction to you; you find theological debates wearying, and you just want to connect with God and with other people. This is understandable, for sure. Ned, I hold that Catholics are (if they believe what they’re supposed to believe) Christians, as the Catholic church teaches the basics of the gospel – roughly what is preached in Acts 2 or in the so-called Apostles’ Creed. I’m not going to call you an apostate or a non-Christian if you persist in this conversion. I’ll still call you a brother, but I would not be a friend if I did not at this point remind you of two things you well learned as a Philosophy student.

First, people can have powerful non-rational motives to believe things or to make choices. Are you fully aware of yours in this case? There is, of course, nothing wrong with having such motives – we all do – so long as they don’t short-circuit our trying to get at the truth and trying to avoid falsehoods. You’re feeling a big sense of relief, you say – but is this because you’re really settling into God’s True Church, or because you’re just settling for a big, complete load of initially plausible answers, and settling into a certain welcoming community?

Second, as the Book says,

In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines. (Proverbs 18:17, NIV)

You’ve observed this, I am sure, and felt it, many times in Philosophy classes. You say you’ve done a lot of research, and I’m supposing this must be to a large extent Catholic apologetic materials. Have you also read this book?  Roman but Not Catholic: What Remains at Stake 500 Years after the Reformation

It is non-polemical, deeply informed, and available in Kindle. I humbly suggest that you at least “hear out” the other side. The “other side,” after all, should not be the views of uninformed, even bigoted Protestants, e.g. people who think Catholic views have nothing to do with the Bible. If you’re going to really settle your mind and heart about these things, you ought not avoid an intelligent rebuttal. Run towards the other side, and find their strongest arguments. Learn those arguments. And then, change your mind decisively and with confidence, if and only if you can see clearly that those vaunted arguments really are not all that strong, whereas the first bunch of arguments you heard remain largely intact. If you do all of that, you’ll make me proud as your former teacher, whether you convert or not. By all means, pray. But pray and think critically too. You can be sure that both are God’s will.

If you felt like marrying a nice girl you’d met, you ought, yes, to pray about whether to pop the question. But also, look into to her past. Talk to people who’ve known her longer. See if you can independently confirm or disconfirm what she’s telling you about herself. God will not do this sort of investigation for you; he expects you to act wisely, using the intelligence and diligence he’s given you. If you hear a rumor that this girl is not who she says she is, you need to not only ask her best friend, but as it were a “hostile” witness, if you can find one. She’s a pretty girl, to be sure, seemingly with a nice personality. She even has plausible answers to all your questions. But you’re about to make a really, really big commitment. It’s a commitment that’ll affect both you and all of your future family.

You can find a hostile witness here, Ned. I urge you to hear them out. Other girls will come along. And this one will still be available if you hold off putting a ring on her finger for another month or two.

God bless, Ned – and do stay in touch. In fact, please send me your new mailing address. I will certainly look you up next time I’m in Western New York. I am sure that whichever choice you make, God will have wonderful things in store for your life.

Dale

Oct 2018 update: I’m pleased to report that Ned has reconsidered; he realized it was more the style of Catholic worship that appealed to him, than the distinctive claims of the Church. And on reflection, he just couldn’t sign on to all of those. I think the “current” sexual abuse scandal, and his not being impressed with the current Pope also played a role. He’s still, as of now, trinitarian, but will be looking for Christian fellowship elsewhere. I don’t know that this post at all swayed him, but I’m glad that other considerations did.