Reasons *Not* To Become Catholic

In the process of sorting through "piles" of papers, articles, and downloads of "Dr. Phil" episodes on my iMac, I re-read some columns I wrote for National Catholic Register back when I was young and didn't know better. Now that I'm a bit older and still don't know better, I thought I'd post a few over the next few weeks. (And, if you're lucky, I might post that impossible-to-find series about my secret double life as a virtuoso bassist for the heavy metal cover band, Beelzebub Can't Dance.)

---

Reasons Not To Become Catholic | Carl E. Olson

  “The difficulty of explaining why I am a Catholic,” wrote G.K. Chesterton,  “is that there are 10,000 reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.”  A related difficulty, especially for the convert, is that some onlookers would rather analyze why they think you became Catholic rather than the reasons you offer for your decision.

Upon entering the Church in 1997, my wife and I—both of us former Evangelical Protestants—found we were the objects of the sort of misguided psychoanalysis by Fundamentalist friends and family members that would amaze even the most devout Freudian. Subsequently, we met other converts from Protestantism who also contended with the same sort of “we know your motives better than you do” attitude.

Some of the “reasons” given:

“Have you been brainwashed?”  A sly piece of rhetorical questioning, similar to asking the unsuspecting husband, “Have you stopped beating your wife?” If you try to seriously argue against the accusation, you only reinforce the impression that you are indeed brainwashed. What could be more natural than for those brainwashed to insist they are not, in fact, brainwashed? Laughing at the notion is interpreted as an unwillingness to take seriously the dire straits you are in. Yet forced mirth is the response (for better or worse) that I chose. When told by a relative that I had been “fooled by those people,” I admitted that they must have done a good job because I didn’t even know who they were.

“You’re becoming Catholic to get attention.” An underhanded way of saying, “You’re being rebellious and immature.”  Yes, there is plenty of attention paid to the Fundamentalist turned Catholic, nearly all of it negative. Friends and family members begin sending boxes of anti-Catholic literature and tapes and you are informed, with intense piety, that prayers are being offered on your behalf. Some friends cut off all contact immediately. In a couple of instances, while trying to explain my decision, I was told that I was using “man’s wisdom.” Irritated and increasingly testy (perhaps even uncharitable), I was then reprimanded for being ‘too emotional” about the issue.

“You want a Church that will tell you what to think.” This is a puzzling assertion: if you argue against it, does it mean the Church has told you to act as though you really can think for yourself? Actually, many Fundamentalists find that it is reassuring to view Catholics as thoughtless drones mumbling prayers to Mary and drinking like fish every Friday and Saturday night. Ironically, the Catholic has far more freedom to think for himself than do those Christians who must adhere to every word that comes forth from the mouth of Pastor Bob at the local “Open Bible Faith Center.” Just one dissenting word uttered there about hymns, head coverings, or eternal security and you could be shown the door.

“You didn’t read the Bible enough.” On the contrary, the Bible led me to the Catholic Faith. But try telling that to your Fundamentalist or Evangelical friends. The best response will be nervous laughter; more usual is an angry retort about the Catholic Church “hating” and “destroying” the Bible. Attempts to discuss this point rationally are usually doomed to a quick and fiery end.

“You’ve read too much C.S. Lewis!”  An actual comment made to me by a Fundamentalist pastor upon perusing my library. Although Lewis is an intellectual mentor to many Evangelicals, some Fundamentalists view the English apologist with disdain. This accusation has a ring of authenticity: there is little in Lewis’s writing that will keep truth seekers from traveling to and into the Catholic Church.

As specious as these explanations are, it is incorrect to label them as cop outs or disingenuous wisecracks. They are uttered with sincere and solemn conviction. They highlight the chasm that still divides Catholics from many Christians  and point to the need for improved catechesis and savvy, charitable apologetics. So while the first 9,999 reasons might be psychoanalyzed away, perhaps the final one will find a home in the puzzled heart of the onlooker.

[This column originally appeared in The National Catholic Register in September or October, 2003.]

Note: For those interested in the real reasons why my wife and I entered the Catholic Church in 1997, see my article, "Turn About: Joining the 'Unsaved'" (This Rock, 1998), my first published article as a Catholic.

Conversion Stories from Ignatius Press:

• Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism | Scott and Kimberly Hahn
• Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic | David Currie
• Catholic Church and Conversion | G.K. Chesterton
• Crossing the Tiber: Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historical Church | Stephen K. Ray
• Classic Catholic Converts | Fr. Charles Connor
• Lead Kindly Light | Thomas Howard
• No Price Too High: A Pentecostal Pastor Becomes Catholic | Alex Jones
• Welcome Home! Fallen Away Catholics Who Came Back | Victor R. Claveau, Editor
• Why I Became Catholic | Joseph Pope

---

Related Ignatius Insight Excerpts, Interviews, and Articles:

• From Protestantism to Catholicism: Six Journeys to Rome
• The Source of Certitude | Epilogue to Faith and Certitude | Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• Liturgy, Catechesis, and Conversion | Barbara Morgan
• "My Name Is Alex Jones" | Steve Ray | Foreword to No Price Too High: A Pentecostal Preacher Becomes a Catholic by Alex Jones
• Objections, Obstacles, Acceptance | Interview with J. Budziszewski
• Paganism and the Conversion of C.S. Lewis | Clotilde Morhan
• Thomas Howard and the Kindly Light
• Evangelization 101: A Short Guide to Sharing the Gospel | Carl E. Olson
• Discovering the New Faithful | An interview with Colleen Carroll Campbell
• Evangelizing With Love, Beauty and Reason | An Interview with Joseph Pearce

Comments

[Anono Chapino]

"there is little in Lewis’s writing that will keep truth seekers from traveling to and into the Catholic Church."

What's this little?

[Mark Brumley]

As a convert, I have for some twenty years or so been giving a talk called, "Why Be Catholic (When You Can Be Anything Else)?". There are different ways to present the subject. But the common elements are that Catholicism presents the true, the good, and the beautiful, when it comes to God, to Christ, and to the Church of Christ. It seems to me that all reasons to be a Catholic--if they're good reasons--are included in those. There are also plenty of bad reasons to be a Catholic. And there are some reasons that are not bad in themselves but which become bad in the absence of more fundamental, good reasons.

[Carl E. Olson]

What's this little?

Well, it's little in the sense that he so spot on with almost everything else; it is his lack of a substantial, coherent ecclesiology, something that Christopher Derrick, Thomas Howard, Joseph Pearce, and others have pointed out. Here is what I wrote about it in an article a few years ago:

Even those Catholics who express great admiration for Lewis point out that one of the weaknesses of Lewis’s theological and apologetic writings is a weak, or hazy, view of the Church. In an otherwise glowing analysis of C.S. Lewis recently published in First Things magazine ("Mere Apologetics", June/July 2005), Avery Cardinal Dulles, author of A History of Apologetics, wrote: "As Lewis’ greatest weakness, I would single out his lack of appreciation for the Church and the sacraments. … His ‘mere Christianity’ is a set of beliefs and a moral code, but scarcely a society. In joining the [Anglican] Church he made a genuine and honest profession of faith–but he did not experience it as entry into a true community of faith. He found it possible to write extensively about Christianity while saying almost nothing about the People of God, the structure of authority, and the sacraments."

Howard is even more blunt, saying that Lewis "avoided, like the black pestilence, the whole topic of The Church":

He hated ecclesiology. It divided Christians, he said (certainly accurately). He wanted to be known as a "mere Christian," so he simply fled all talk of The Church as such. He would not participate in anything that remotely resembled a discussion of matters ecclesiological. He was firm in his non- (or anti-?) Catholicism.

Read the entire article.

[Laura]

Sounds familiar! My husband and I became Catholic five years ago. Many of our friends and family kept their comments to themselves, which in itself was telling, though we heard some of the same comments as in your article. Some generously said that they were praying that we would know clearly what God was leading us to do, which sounds nice until you realize that they thought they knew what that was -- to stay put. One elderly friend who is very dear to us told us sincerely that she felt the same way she felt when her son "had to" get married! When we said we were sure that God was leading us to the Catholic Church, she asked if we were sure that it wasn't Satan misleading us!

We hope and pray for opportunities to be a bridge between the two faiths, to promote understanding on both sides.

[Fr. Thomas Doyle]

Thanks for the insight into your conversion, Mr. Olsen. I do have a question for you. In your article for This Rock, you wrote, "This remark paralleled Chesterton, who wrote about the "deaths" of the Church and her continual "resurrection," coming back stronger than ever, contrary to all human logic." Could you tell me where Chesterton made this statement? Many thanks.

[Todd Newbold]

As a Catholic, the question I like to ask is "Why cant I pray the way I want to?". The usual answer is we love you so so so much you need to pray like me. And the icing is "What about the Lords Prayer?" oh but thats a Catholic prayer. It doesnt make sense.

[Anil Wang]

The simple answer to the question, why one becomes Catholic: "Because I love God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Nothing more, nothing less.".

I'd answer the other questions thusly:

Q: “You’ve read too much C.S. Lewis!”
A: "I'm afraid I haven't, since I'm not Anglican"

Q: “You didn’t read the Bible enough.”
A: "Which is why I go to mass even in the middle of the week, and read the Divine Office every day. I read and hear more scripture every day than I ever did as a Protestant as part of Catholic piety."

Q: “Have you been brainwashed?”
A: "I've been washed clean by the waters of baptism and the blood of Christ through the grace of God."

Q: “You want a Church that will tell you what to think.”
A: "When I was Protestant, God was my co-pilot. Now God is my pilot. I live in submission to Christ."

[Carl E. Olson]

Hi, Father Doyle: I was referring to to Chapter VI of Part II of The Everlasting Man, titled, "The Five Deaths of the Faith."

[Fr. Thomas Doyle]

Thank you, Mr. Olson.

[Donna]

The soon-to-be-Blessed Newman wrote a book called "The Present Position of Catholics in England " in which he takes the anti-Catholicism of his time apart. It was written about 150 years ago but is still both pointed and funny.