Purify Your Bride

I remember listening to Steve Wood and he says he was a protestant pastor for 12 years. His opening line with Catholics during that time was they should leave the Catholic church because it taught salvation by works. He said this to many Catholics and got many different reactions. The one reaction he never got was the simple reply that the Catholic church does not teach that. It has never taught that. It has condemned that as heresy in the strongest possible terms. So his question, after becoming Catholic, was why he never got that information from any Catholic he talked to. Some of them he knew to be pretty intelligent because they joined his church and learned protestant theology very quickly.

This book seems like it is targeting this kind of problem. It is giving people one quick read where they can know the basic answers to 99% of what they will encounter. Still there is a disconnect. Most people who know about Dave Armstrong and consider reading his books are not in that target audience. Most are more knowledgeable and looking for more meaty and more lengthy treatments of these subjects. Dave’s two most popular books, the Catholic Verses and A Biblical Defense of Catholicism are like that. So most of the reviewers end up critiquing it for being exactly what it was intended to be. That is for being a book not for them.

So the book will help the people it was intended for if they read it. There are a lot of intelligent, cradle Catholics who are faithful. Many of them love to explain and defend their point of view when it comes to anything other than religion. Then they change the subject when somebody asks them about their Catholicism. Why? They are afraid to look stupid. This book can prevent them from looking stupid. It will enable them to make a few good counterpoints to a person who has attacked the church in some way. That is usually all you can do anyway. If they want to get deeper you can do that research when you need it.

So why don’t those people seek out books like this one and learn their faith? One reason is the Catholic culture has developed where they are not expected to. Most people don’t know very much. Homilies, Catholic schools, and sacramental preparation don’t teach them much. This has become acceptable. There are some bishops and priests saying it needs to change, certainly Pope Benedict is saying it. Still there is a long way to go before Catholics will feel they are duty bound to pick up a book like The One Minute Apologist and read it.

The other major reason is fear. I know that was keeping me from digging into the Catholic faith when I was protestant. I didn’t want to find anything embarrassing that would make me stop being associated with the church. I was not Catholic but my wife was. We were going to both churches. We got along well with our priest. I volunteered at with the parish’s Life Teen program. I was enjoying that arrangement. I had an idea that if I asked to many questions and looked under too many rocks I would find out some things I didn’t want to know. So I didn’t want to rock the boat.

I think a lot of Catholics are in the same boat. They accept what the church teaches but they really don’t believe there are good answers to all the questions that are brought up. So they ignore the questions and soldier on. Still the doubt remains. We are rational beings and unanswered questions gnaw away at us. Maybe one day they run into a protestant group that exploits that doubt and pulls them away from the church. Maybe that never happens. Still they are missing so much of the richness of the Catholic faith. They are leaving themselves unable to witness to their faith because they cannot answer questions and explain the reasoning. Often they are even unable to explain it to their children so they can be lost as well. Lastly they are unable to tell true Catholic teaching from false teaching even within the church.