Why Calvinist Apologists are No Fun at Parties

While the rest of Christendom was opening presents, eating too much chocolate, singing and generally making merry, TurretinFan was toiling over this, his latest punch at the false religion of Rome. Note the date and time the first link was posted.

Even funnier are the comments, in which barely concealed whoops of triumph are emitted by somebody or other because *three whole hours* have passed since the time of the second posting and no Catholic has *dared* to reply!!! Obviously those secret ninja apologist skilz from the government have totally paid off! It couldn’t be that nobody in their right mind is going to take time off from a nice vacation to answer the one gazillionth attempt to prop up sola scriptura against the common sense of Sacred Tradition on some obscure blog.

This is why, though other people still insist on calling me an “apologist” (a designation is resignedly accept as inevitable) I don’t call myself one and I don’t enjoy the weird testosterone-marinated subculture of apologetics all that much. Replying to professional anti-Catholics like TurretinFan or James White is like the world’s longest game of whack-a-mole. Aside from a tiny fanbase of fellow TRVLY REFORMED types who are there to cheer for their champion as he sallies forth to do battle with the Great Whore, nobody cares about this stuff, nobody is impressed with “Look! I Quoted Thomas in the Original Latin!” It touches nobody’s life and serves only to expand the egos of the Cult of White and His Acolytes to Hindenburg proportions. (And it tempts not a few young single Catholic males with a chip on their shoulder to answer in kind.) Enough!

Apologetics has its place. But it is not the Faith. Sane apologists (like the good people at Catholic Answers) know this. People who eat and breathe this sort of polemical game of Gotcha–I’m not so sure. What I am sure of is how blindingly dull it is to me. I write what I write because I like sharing with other people the things that I have found liberating and fascinating and beautiful–the gifts of God. It is tempting, God forgive me, to enter into stupid quarrels about such things in a spirit of pride and conquest, rather than love. Apologists who put apologetics first and proclamation of the Good Newss last are, in my experience, endangering both their souls and the souls of others, because they are usually looking for a fight, not to proclaim the good news. I say, “Farewell to all that.”