Interview: the Vocation of the Catholic Apologist

I was raised in a nominal Methodist home in Detroit, Michigan. After not going to church at all for about ten years, originally because my family had stopped going, I repented in 1977 at age 18, due to a growing meaninglessness in my life, a bout of clinical depression that has never returned, and the influence of my older brother Gerry, who had become a committed evangelical Protestant in 1971, during the youthful “Jesus Movement” of that time. I was also particularly influenced by Christian movies; especially Jesus of Nazareth, that came out right at the time I committed myself to Jesus as a disciple. Even then, I was fairly nominal again for three more years, and — amazingly enough, as I think back — didn’t even go to church on Sunday; only Bible studies. I was obviously not a big fan of liturgy back then.

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The next big change came in August 1980, when I started attending a small “Jesus Movement” church with mostly young people, called Shalom Ministry. God moved powerfully in my life and I received a life-changing filling of the Holy Spirit. This in turn led me to become involved in street witnessing or evangelism, to become pro-life, to read the Bible in its entirety, and to reject the sexual revolution, meaning for me, abstaining from sex before marriage. My thinking, even as a professed Christian, had been extremely socially liberal, having majored in ultra-secularized sociology in college, with a minor in psychology. “We are what we eat”: as the saying goes.

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In 1981 in the midst of this personal revival and spiritual awakening, I noticed, at my pastor’s house, Josh McDowell’s book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. When I read that, I was so overtaken by it (it’s historical apologetics), that it quickly made me realize that I was called to do apologetics in some capacity. It caused me, among other things, to become very excited about the Christian faith, due to its emphasis on the place of reason in faith. I had read several C. S. Lewis books in the previous four years, but for some reason they didn’t “light a fire” under me like this book did. Everyone is different and God has a way to reach each one of us. The street witnessing I was doing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor also raised the awareness of a call within me.

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I was just about to graduate from college (where InterVarsity Fellowship also influenced me a lot) and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, except for this. But I didn’t know how I would make a living doing it. I was very averse to overtly raising money for missions (always have been) and that didn’t exactly make it easy. Apologetics in the beginning stages for those who devote their lives to it, often reminds me of up-and-coming musicians or artists: they know they want to do that, but it’s very difficult to make a living by it. Even Mozart and Schubert died in poverty, after all. I first got involved in a (volunteer) outreach to the cults, specializing in Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I also studied the Trinity, Deity of Christ, healing in the Bible, and Jewish conceptions of the Messiah in great depth. That work is still posted on my blog.

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I married my wife Judy in October 1984, when I had a job as a lab technician with an auto-related company (very “Detroit”). But this was quite unfulfilling to me and by May 1985, I felt led to begin an outreach to college kids, and I did that full-time for a few years and then part-time. But that was before the Internet and not much came about as a result of it. I was burned out by October 1989, threw in the towel, and had no idea about what I would do with my life, having seemingly failed at the very thing I was convinced that God had called me to do. But somehow I kept my faith and avoided becoming cynical, and worked odd jobs for a year and a half and then got a full-time job doing deliveries in June 1991, which was pleasant enough.

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Meanwhile, I had become convinced of Catholicism in October 1990. I’ve told that story many times on my blog, on the radio, and in the 1994 bestseller, Surprised by Truth, edited by Patrick Madrid. As a result, I started writing defenses of my newfound belief, from the Bible, in order to share with my Protestant friends. These “treatises” eventually were compiled into my first book, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism, which was finished in 1996 but took seven more years to be “officially” published, after I had — out of desperation — self-published it.

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Meanwhile, I had been published in Catholic magazines starting in January 1993 and began my website in February 1997, and it made a fairly big splash in what was then a lot smaller pond than it is now. All of that work wasn’t part of my day job and I yearned to do it full-time. In December 2001, two weeks after our fourth child and first daughter was born, the delivery company I was working for folded. I had some name recognition by then, due to my website and several articles published in several magazines, and so decided to step out in faith again and attempt to do full-time Catholic apologetics work, which I had felt called to by God eleven years earlier, as the obvious continuation of my general apologetics call way back in 1981. Generous supporters, some published books, and a few additional part-time jobs (God providing through all) made it possible for me to succeed at that and so I have been a full-time apologist these past 23+ years. Social Security payments started at a very good time, too!

I’ve always been a self-employed or “freelance” apologist but not in the sense of ever being isolated from the Body of Christ and my Catholic brothers and sisters. My mentor was Servant of God Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, a leading catechist who is now being considered for possible eventual sainthood. He received me into the Church, sacramentalized our marriage, baptized two of our children, and wrote the Foreword of my first book. Scott Hahn wrote the Foreword of another book, More Biblical Evidence for Catholicism. Through the years, I have worked with many others, including book editors, and various groups:

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1. Catholic Answers, which has published two of my books. I was on their radio show twice and have several articles published in their magazine.

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2. The Coming Home Network, an organization founded by Marcus Grodi; designed to aid and assist Catholic converts, or potential converts (especially Protestant pastors), and producer of the TV show, The Journey Home. I have had several articles published in its periodical, The Coming Home Journal, and was a staff member as a forum moderator for three years, from 2007-2010.

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3. Sophia Institute Press: a major and influential Catholic publisher, published six of my books. And I’ve worked with several other publishers as well, including TAN Books, Our Sunday Visitor, and even a Protestant one (for my book, The Quotable Wesley).

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4. Seton Magazine: the premier Internet Catholic homeschooling magazine. I contributed weekly apologetics columns, from March 2014 to August 2015 (41 articles).

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5. The Michigan Catholic: the official publication of the archdiocese of Detroit (since discontinued).  I was commissioned to write apologetics articles twice a month (for each issue), from May 2014 until August 2018 (109 total articles).

8. My latest project and what I overwhelmingly emphasize at this point in my apostolate, is on YouTube, with former pastor Kenny Burchard, who also works for the Coming Home Network. We have two channels, called Catholic Bible Highlights and Lux Veritatis (the latter specializes in documentaries). It’s the “big thing” now and what “everyone” is doing, and so, with some coaxing from Kenny, who approached me with the idea and the vision, I decided to come on board.

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And there are more collaborations than that; but these are my major joint ventures. I’m communicating with lots of people all the time (largely on Facebook). I love the networking and the mutual encouragement. I’m formally independent (a “sole proprietor” on tax forms), but dependent on others personally and professionally all the time. And this is what every Christian must do, because the Church is a functioning community.

I’ve done public talks only on rare occasions. But many people don’t seem to be aware that I have done 29 radio or webcast interviews through the years. I did a show about Jehovah’s Witnesses on the biggest Protestant station in Detroit (WMUZ) in 1989 when I was still a Protestant. I have audio transcripts of 19 of these interviews available for free on my blog. Besides that, it has been all writing, in books and articles, and published articles (freelance work). But since October 2024 I have made YouTube videos with my partner Kenny Burchard, who co-hosts, produces, promotes, and handles the business end. This will be my primary emphasis going forward. The opportunity offered itself, and as always, I walk through every open door, as long as it is consistent with my principles and goals as an apologist.

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It’s really fun and has rejuvenated my excitement for my work, because it’s getting a lot more attention now than it has for years. And that’s what the apologist and evangelist always seeks: more and more people to persuade by God’s grace; to present the gospel and the fullness of the Catholic faith and an intellectually respectable faith to. If the choice is writing an article that maybe a hundred people will read, or doing a video that 10, 20, 50 thousand, even in some cases 100,000 people will view, the choice is really easy.

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I’m still primarily a writer, and always will be, but now I have expanded that into live filmed discussions (usually related to something I wrote) and narration of documentaries, also based on my past writings. It’s an example of “becoming all things to all men” as St. Paul writes; a goal that I have always sought to implement in my work. This is what people want now, and so I am pursuing it, in order to reach them. I also get the blessing of it helping me pay my bills, in a way that has often not been the case with my work.

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Take it slow, learn a ton before you launch out into teaching others, find a respected, reputable, credentialed  mentor and apprentice any way you can. Pray about it, seek the advice of priests and other teachers and family members, etc., if you are considering doing this full-time. It’s not easy. I haven’t even mentioned all the suffering I have had to endure, but that’s all part of it. Today many people might “make it” with relative ease on YouTube if they have the gift of gab and something of substance to offer, but that’s often without paying any dues and learning through many years (instant “stardom”). Several of these folks are obviously underqualified, unaccountable, and unmonitored, yet they have gained a large audience that they are now responsible for teaching.

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They ought to tremble under such a responsibility, since the Bible states, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness. For we all make many mistakes, . . . (Jas 3:1-2). The devil will pick off many of them, if it isn’t what they are supposed to be doing. But others keep going and amass many viewers. One such person, who teaches terrible and spiritually bankrupt and dangerous things, has 1.3 million subscribers. He’s accountable to each and every one for all the errors he is feeding them. It could be a very uncomfortable judgment day for him if he doesn’t repent and stop making “filthy lucre” his idol.

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I’d like to emphasize 1 Corinthians 7:17: “let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him”. That could be anything at all. All honest, moral work is honorable and necessary for society. My calling was apologetics. Usually, one’s calling will be what they want to do and what they have the motivation and ability to do. So, for example, one of my sons, Matthew, is a whiz at construction and carpentry work, and this was obvious early on, because he was out in the garage making or fixing things: hands-on work. We all ought to follow that which we were meant to do, using the talents and gifts that God gave us. Paul in the above passage, appears to apply this to everyone; we all have a call, and it applies to every occupation. St. Paul also adds, “Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men” (Col 3:23).

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I absolutely love my work, and it doesn’t even seem to be work to me. I get as much pleasure from it as I do from any purely recreational things (and I have many of those that I do). But it’s also beyond mere pleasure: it’s a deep fulfillment and joy that only comes when we are right “smack dab” in the middle of what God wants us to do with our lives. Nothing can match that. Along these lines, Paul also writes, “None of us lives to himself, . . .If we live, we live to the Lord, . . .” (Rom 14:7-8). But it always goes back to  “let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him.”

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And in fact, this is my secret within my work: for the most part, I’m writing or talking about the things that most interest me at any given time. That way, it continues to be fresh and exciting to both myself and my readers or hearers, and has led me to be known as one of the hardest-working apologists. God ultimately provides the motivation, ability, and finances. All glory to God always for His gifts and callings!