Fellow Catholic convert and blogger Russ Rentler has released a new CD, Way to Emmaus, which I have now listened to several times and can happily recommend.

I would describe Russ’ music as acoustic-folk; it’s pleasant and relaxing to listen to, a cross between Rich Mullins and John Denver. Here’s Russ in his own words about this CD:

I have recently finished a CD that attempts to highlight the beauty of the Catholic faith with some apologetics thrown in as well. My eyes were opened to Jesus in the “breaking of the Bread” while I was living in the little town of Emmaus, PA. Hence the title track of the CD is called Way to Emmaus. All the proceeds from the sales of the CD go to our Haiti Medical Mission.

My favorite songs on the album are: Room of Tears, a beautiful song about the election of Pope Benedict, the two instrumentals Holy God (hammer dulcimer) and Sing of Mary (Autoharp and mandolins), and Jewel of the Caribbean, a song for our Haitian brothers and sisters.

Get some good Catholic music and help out a mission to Haiti as well!

Last Thursday I gave a talk at my parish covering arguments for the Catholic Church from faith and reason. The topic was the sacrament of Holy Orders, the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, and how they are both critical to the Catholic Church.

I cover the fundamentals of these doctrines as well as why Protestants reject them (and why the Orthodox accept them), and what the implications of this rejection are for Protestantism.

You can read my lecture notes, check out additional links to resources, and listen to the podcast on my main site.

You can also subscribe to all the podcasts via iTunes or subscribe with Google reader or another feed service.

You can listen to the podcast here as well:

Direct link to this mp3

She’ll reverse one of her teachings* on faith or morals.

Many Protestants want to disprove the Catholic Church, so they seek out contradictions in history of the (allegedly) infallible Magisterium of the Church. Books have been written about certain (alleged) contradictions, but unless one is already disposed against Catholicism, these “finds” are not very convincing, especially given the Catholic responses to them.

Papal infallibility never looked so good

No, the way to know will be watching for the Catholic Church to follow all Protestant Communities in reversing teachings on contraception, sterilization, abortion**, euthanasia, same-sex marriage and ordination (or even as some have on the Trinity itself and on justification).

If God is not protecting the Catholic Church from error, then she, like Protestant churches, cannot stand against the cultural tide for much longer. And if she reverses one of these teachings, you will know she is not protected from error.

In the meantime, since “you may be waiting awhile” before this event occurs, join the Catholic Church on the strong evidence that God is protecting her teachings found in the fact that she has not reversed any of these de fide doctrines while Protestantism has caved on every one of them.

* for those who care about technical details, I refer specifically to de fide credenda or de fide tenenda doctrines (i.e. “big ones” like abortion, the Trinity, etc.)

** I was surprised while researching my book that even the Southern Baptist Convention (my old Protestant denomination) had reversed its teaching on abortion for some time.

That’s the word that little Adele said with gusto several times today, as she gleefully squashed carpenter ants with her feet.  “Gross!  Yuck!”

Why did she say these words?  Because she heard me say them several times as I squashed ants under my feet.  Our floors were a veritable graveyard for carpenter ants–thankfully, we have tile.  These ants all came out of our front door, where they have been happily nesting for a few months until they were discovered by Devin and evicted today by a kind exterminator named Mark.  Mark used diatomaceous earth for his work of exterminating, at Devin’s request, because that form of extermination will not introduce poisonous gases, etc into our home.

The only negative factor in the whole process is that the diatomaceous earth kills the ants slowly, such that we have mortally wounded ants wandering across our floors.  Let me say it again.  Gross!

It’s premature to call it the beginning of the Protestant Reformation’s end, but this story is a good read nonetheless:

One former Episcopalian present confessed to having to choke back tears as the first plainsong strains of “Humbly I Adore Thee,” the Anglican version of a hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas, floated down from the organ in the balcony. A convert to Catholicism, she could not believe she was sitting in a Catholic Church, hearing the words of her Anglican girlhood—and as part of an authorized, Roman Catholic liturgy.

But Father Bergman not only predicts a mass movement toward Rome. He believes Anglican Use may mark the beginning of the end of the Reformation. There will be “a flourishing of this throughout the world,” he says. “Wherever there are Anglicans, there will be people who want to enter Holy Mother Church.” As he told a rapt audience at St. Mary’s, “If we look at histories, heresies run themselves out after about 500 years. I believe we are seeing the last gasp of the Reformation in the mainline Protestant groups.”

via The Beginning of the Reformation’s End? – WSJ.com.

This book has just been added to my wish-list:

Ignatius of Antioch. Polycarp of Smyrna. There’s a certain rolling sense of thunder about them. They are to be reckoned with. They demand bold type. Their icons are august and awesome. Bearded and serious they are…the are the Dumbledores, the Gandalfs, the wizened wise wizards of the gallery of saints. They are the patristical patriarchs.

Standing on My Head: Two Fathers.

James White is a Reformed Baptist Protestant apologist whom I have interacted with in a relatively brief exchange some time back.

More recently, I threw down the gauntlet and openly challenged him to prove the converts at Called to Communion (CtC) wrong on their arguments about the canon. Alas, he has not shown up (nor has his colleague, TurretinFan). I don’t blame them. I never found a refutation for CtC’s arguments, nor did any of the converts at Called to Communion, and they’re a well-read bunch who, like me, had no love for or desire to join–of all things–the Catholic Church. Nonetheless, the challenge remains.

Mr. White’s written a lot of books, and I bought one of them: Scripture Alone. So far I’ve read the introduction and first two chapters. Already I can see the errors being made, but don’t take my word for it, take another Protestant author’s:

White explains his understanding of sola Scriptura and says that the Scriptures are the highest authority; we cannot “pick and choose” what we want to believe but must believe “the Scriptures.”

Fair enough, but another Protestant, Keith Mathison, the author of The Shape of Sola Scriptura, wrote an article where he stated that:

All appeals to Scripture are appeals to interpretations of Scripture. The only real question is: whose interpretation? People with differing interpretations of Scripture cannot set a Bible on a table and ask it to resolve their differences. In order for the Scripture to function as an authority, it must be read and interpreted by someone.

Interestingly, both Mathison and White warn against that “someone” being the individual and instead say that “the church” (whatever that might be) must be “somehow” involved in the interpretation. Unfortunately (for them), the Called to Communion guys demonstrated that sola Scriptura reduces to solo Scriptura (i.e. the individual interpreter) with regard to final interpretive authority, a conclusion that would make both White and Mathison very uneasy, since they view solo Scriptura dimly. (Mathison himself actually interacted with the post for a while but I don’t think was ever able to rebut it (or substantially respond to it).)

White tries this argument in his book:

[T]he Bible…teaches us that Christ has established His church and organized it in such as way as to provide His people with godly men entrusted with the duty to teach and preach and shepherd and guide.

But what, exactly, is this (lowercase ‘c’) “church” which he speaks of?

And who, exactly, are these “godly men” whom he has set over His people?

Mr. White tells us that he is an elder at a Reformed Baptist church, so I guess he counts himself as one of those godly men chosen to lead us. How do we recognize these godly men? Do they exist in, say, other Protestant denominations? Will those men teach us the truth?

I don’t think that White would tell me to trust other Protestant leaders though, since White has plenty of disagreements with fellow (non-Baptist) Protestants over whether infants should be baptized. Only the radical wing of the Reformation rejected infant baptism; the other wings all accepted it as being in complete harmony with the Scriptures.

Why the fundamental disagreement if the Scriptures are clear on all of these important matters of the Faith? Because the Scriptures aren’t clear on them. Both White and his fellow Protestant interlocutors (e.g. Presbyterians) are faithful Christians earnestly seeking the Spirit’s guidance in understanding divine truth by reading the Scriptures, yet they come to different conclusions on an important matter.

So knowing which men are these godly authorities whom God has chosen to lead us seems a tough dilemma to solve. Mr. White effectively says “trust me to tell you what the Scriptures (clearly) say,” but that’s what Luther and Calvin did as well (both of whom also believed in infant baptism, which White rejects as unbiblical).

I guess I’ll keep reading. This is Lent, and penance needs doing.

Yesterday, Edmund received some of the best medical care in the world.  Literally.  Dell Children’s Hospital is one of the best in the nation, and what’s best in our nation is best in the world.  We are so very blessed.

Edmund's strapped in!

What struck me most yesterday, as Edmund and I spent time at St. David’s North, then in the ambulance, then at Dell Children’s, was a sense of wonder that we were receiving such care.  Every nurse and doctor was attentive and cheerful and so compassionate toward our littlest son.  They went out of their way to cheer us up and anticipate our needs.  Here we were, a middle-class mother and her baby, and we were attended to as if we really mattered.

Why is that?  A pragmatist would say that we were given such care because we were paying customers; healthcare is a business, the cynic might say, and the hospital staff was just practicing good customer service.  Doubt it.  Because, customer service does not constitute the sort of care we received, attention given with energy and concern.  Really, ultimately, we were given such care because the hospital system is a Christian invention and Christian virtue still permeates much of it.

Ours is a fractured, post-Christian culture.  Alistair MacIntyre does a great job examining this reality in his “After Virtue”, where he highlights the way we use Christian words (“freedom”, “dignity”, “equality”) but out of context because we no longer have a Christian culture in which to ground them.  He does a much better job than I explaining how that all works itself out. The same is true of our healthcare system.  While it may have become bloated and inefficient, it is still a remnant of the Christian culture from which it grew, a culture in which every person had dignity, regardless of their age or skin color, and was treated as the imago Dei that they were.

Non-Christian cultures did not develop hospital systems.  India, for example, has imported the idea of a hospital system, but only in a few cities and not very successfully.  Because, if I am a Hindu and I see someone dying on the side of the road, I think to myself, “That person must deserve such a death.  They probably offended Vishnu in a past life and are now making reparation for their offense.  I dare not interfere with their karma, in case I might upset my own karma and be punished in a future life.”  There is no sense of the brotherhood of men, that we are responsible for each other and must care for the poor among us.  That is a Christian idea.

So, thanks be to God for our hospital system and for the goodness of all who served us.  We were deeply blessed yesterday.

I almost said “and Jesus getting drunk” in the title but that might sound too offensive.

I was praying the Rosary this morning holding Edmund and came to the decade about the Assumption of Mary. The thought passed through my mind: “I believe this is true because I accept the authority of the Catholic Church.”

Fair enough. But it is not recorded in the Scriptures, which got me thinking about the fact that several stories and events in Jesus’ life only show up in one gospel.

Too Much Wine?

Prodigal son, woman caught in adultery*, Jesus turns water into wine, boy Jesus leaves family and sneaks back to Jerusalem for three days, etc.

Assume temporarily that two of those stories, say, the water into wine one and the boy Jesus leaves his family account, were not recorded in that lone gospel, but were only known through the Catholic Church’s sacred Tradition.

How would Protestants respond?

Here is my guess: “What?! You’re telling me that Jesus turned 180 gallons of water into wine? That doesn’t fit with the fact that the Bible condemns drunkenness. That is way too much wine for even a thousand guests to drink without many getting drunk and sinning.”

And, “What! Jesus disobeys his parents by abandoning them and sneaking back into the Temple for three days? They search frantically for him and finally find him and he smarts off to them? No, Jesus obeyed his parents and honored them, as the commandments dictate. It would not be honoring one’s parents to do such a thing, causing them great anxiety and pain.”

Assumed into Heaven?

Of course, these events are recorded in one of the four gospels, so instead, because we have all accepted the authority of someone** that these books are inspired, our bias is to defend them and find the way that they can harmonize with the rest of the Bible. We “know” that there cannot be a contradiction since all inspired books are inerrant, so we give them the benefit of the doubt.

I would guess there are hundreds of events in Christ’s life which everyone would love to know and read about, other stories like the prodigal son which can literally bring us to tears. God decided that they would not be included in the Scriptures. Because they are unimportant and worthless? No, but because he didn’t intend the Bible to be the end-all be-all of our Christian Faith. He entrusted the deposit of the Faith to the Church, the same Church in which the Scriptures were written and discerned to be inspired, the same Church which also held fast to those traditions taught by the Apostles by word of mouth and by letter.

* Interestingly, the account of the woman caught in adultery is not included in many ancient manuscripts–my Protestant NIV Bible put a big disclaimer around it.

** Catholics accept the authority of the Catholic Church. Protestants accept a selective combination of the authority of the Catholic Church in the first 700 years of her existence and of the Protestant Reformers (different Reformers depending upon which branch of Protestantism one comes from).

We had to take Edmund to the hospital early this morning. It turns out he has RSV. Providentially, through many people’s prayers, he is back at home this evening (it was a long, full day).

Katie will probably make a longer post on the events, but I would just like to say again how grateful I am for 1) the good healthcare in Austin, especially for children (Dell Children’s hospital), and 2) my good job which provides health insurance. I have no clue what should be done to reform health care, and I agree that more people need more affordable access to it, so I am not making any statement concerning one plan or idea or another, just expressing gratitude.

We’re all going to go to sleep now. God is good.