I have a story to tell. Unlike most stories we tell I don’t think this one has a moral takeaway or objective life lesson to teach. Actually, I’m sure it does, but I haven’t found it yet—and that’s the awesome part about journeying, some things we experience don’t click right away. Sometimes, actually, mostly all the time, the longview is absolutely stunning. Even if you can’t see the forest for the trees when you’re in the thick of it. This is... Read more
I’ve been following the Pope for some time now, beginning around the election of Pope Benedict XVI. This is around the same time a certain Catholic priest started podcasting from the Vatican—a podcast I would later discover, a podcast that would soften my heart and open my eyes to the world of Catholicism. I can remember, at the election of Pope Benedict, watching and rewatching Habemus Papam video on YouTube. Even as a Protestant with, then, only a passing interest... Read more
Ask my wife, I’m not always altogether emotionally stable. It’s no secret. Sometimes I get a little bit intense, and sometimes I get a little bit depressed, and sometimes I struggle. I can honest about that, I’m a human being. Recently, one of these struggles became an complete existential crisis. It wasn’t the first time I was stopped in my tracks or the first time I’d harboured serious doubts about this faith journey that I’m on. Likely, it won’t be the... Read more
I’m gonna say a swear. I have to warn you. That’s the cordial thing to do. It isn’t going to be a big swear, in fact, if you’re Dutch it isn’t even a swear at all. Still, I want you to be able to brace yourself or, in the worst case scenario, avert your eyes entirely. OK? Here goes. The notion that Catholics are less devout that Protestants is bat-shit crazy. There, I said it. I’ve run up against this prejudice though all... Read more
The truth is a trap. I’ve recently devoured G.K. Chesterton’s The Catholic Church and Conversion. I wrote, recently, that even though I’m well on my way towards becoming Catholic his treatise on conversion seriously reframed and expanded my own understanding of my journey. It’s important, I think, to understand the narrative that you’re in—it’s brilliant when it’s so poignantly put, and that’s what Chesterton does. Chesterton writes about the process of conversion being a three-step journey. In the first step, a... Read more
I never, for even a second, want to diminish my spiritual journey as a Protestant. It’s been, as they say, fifteen good years. I appreciate every minute of it. It was all a learning experience and I’ve learned a lot. And of course there’s value in where I was—in where I’ve been—the only difference is that I’m finding more value, at least for myself, in where I’m going. That’s, of course, why I’m going there. It’s difficult to move away from... Read more
As I’ve been making my way towards the Catholic Church I’ve thought a lot about Christian unity. As a Protestant, I always struggled with the cascading number of Christian denominations. I always wrestled with church splits, spin-offs, and church plants. Truthfully, it hasn’t been front-of-mind but it’s lingered back there, creeping up once in a while in uncomfortable conversation. Why are these so many Protestant denominations? How can there be so many presentations of the truth? How can there be so... Read more
There are times when I approach this monstrous topic, and this tiny blog, when I come here to write, and I wonder what in the world I’m doing. This is a journey of fits and starts (and fits again). This blog is much the same. In the spirit of being cordial I’ve tried, sometimes desperately, to explain what I’m thinking and why I’m thinking it. At times I’ve been uncharitable, that’s in my nature (unfortunately!), but I’ve tried my level best... Read more
I’m reading N.T. Wright’s Scripture and the Authority of God because, up until a few moments ago, I was a devout Protestant in search of the “correct” way to interpret the Bible. Amazingly, and much to my surprise, I’ve found a solution that resonates deeply, for me, in a most unlikely place: The Catholic Church. Still, I’ve read a lot, recently, on the Catholic response to the authority and interpretation of Scripture and I’m doing my level best to understand the Protestant... Read more
As a Protestant fully on his way to a Catholic conversion one of chief sources of answers to questions commonly asked—and a major catalyst for my conversion—has been reading the conversion stories of fellow Protestants. Us Protestants, as we begin to explore Catholicism, wind up asking a lot of the same questions, running into a lot of the same problems, and finding ourselves up to our necks in the same sort of difficult situations. Conversion stories are a comfort and... Read more
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