{"id":12051,"date":"2017-05-23T14:47:48","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T18:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?p=12051"},"modified":"2017-05-23T14:47:48","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T18:47:48","slug":"trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump Doesn’t Know that Israel is in the Middle East?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Trump\"<\/p>\n

Street art: photograph taken by Matt Brown (1-25-16)<\/span> [Flickr<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a> license]<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

This is the latest in the liberal media\u2019s ongoing ultra-hostile narrative: deliberately intended to destroy President Trump\u2019s presidency. For example (one of many such articles): \u201cTrump Humiliates Himself By Not Knowing That Israel Is In The Middle East\u201d<\/a> (Jason Easley, PoliticusUSA<\/em>, 5-22-17). This article quotes the President: speaking to Israelis in Israel: \u201cOur Secretary of State has done a great job. We just got back from the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, and we were treated incredibly well.\u201d Easley\u00a0continues:<\/p>\n

\nThe President is apparently so out of it that he didn\u2019t know that was still in the Middle East, or even worse, he doesn\u2019t know that Israel is in the Middle East. Since this is Donald Trump that is being discussed either option is realistically possible. . . .\u00a0It is impossible for the world to take Donald Trump seriously when he doesn\u2019t even know where he\u2019s at.\u00a0Every single day, Donald J. Trump finds new ways to humiliate the people of the United States of America.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s examine these claims a bit (break them down). I interpret it as a\u00a0simple slip of the tongue (which, of course, the liberal news media thinks is newsworthy). Liberals and Never Trumpers and other folks who don\u2019t care much for the President\u00a0\u00a0immediately assume that this proves that Trump doesn\u2019t know that\u00a0Israel is in the Middle East, whereas I give him the benefit of the doubt and hold\u00a0that it is implausible (and downright silly) to assert such profound ignorance based on something like this.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the army of Trump critics out there do: always assume the worst. I know the routine well, because as an apologist, this sort of thing is done to me<\/em>\u00a0all the time, by anti-Catholic Protestants, reactionary Catholics, politically liberal Catholics, angry atheists, etc. They read my words and somehow get out of them thoughts that never crossed my mind or that I never held. And this is what is done with Trump. It flows not from logic but from existing strong personal hostility. And that makes people become very illogical and uncharitable.<\/p>\n

What Trump did is like me traveling to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and saying after I came back (I live in metro Detroit), \u201cI just got back from Michigan.\u201d It\u2019s silly and funny, but also obviously a slip of the tongue and not immediately indicative of any lack of knowledge. But by liberal \/ Never Trumper\u00a0reasoning, it would be concluded that I didn\u2019t know that Allen Park (suburb of Detroit and my current residence) is in Michigan, too.<\/p>\n

There are plausibility structures to all knowledge and hypotheses. In this case, Trump critics\u00a0are saying that Trump actually doesn\u2019t know that Israel is in the Middle East. I find that astronomically implausible, and not worthy to be entertained as a live opinion, for a second. If the choice is between that<\/em>\u00a0and my opinion that it was a simple human error \/ slip of the tongue, then I immediately choose the latter.<\/p>\n

And this would be true regardless of party affiliation, etc. If President Obama had done this, I would have said\u00a0exactly<\/em>\u00a0the same thing; although, when Obama said \u201ccorpseman\u201d for \u201ccorpsman\u201d several times in one speech<\/a> (i.e., a hard p), it seemed most likely that he actually didn\u2019t know<\/em> how it was pronounced, because he did it repeatedly, for one thing. So, say that Trump has said this five times in his discourse with the Israelis, rather than once: then<\/em> the plausibility of his not knowing such an elementary thing would rise considerably<\/em>. But of course, the media would have never covered such a silly thing if Obama had done it. No one would have ever known<\/em> about it.<\/p>\n

Once in a while, conservatives turn the table and point out Obama gaffes<\/a> that the liberal media overwhelmingly ignores.\u00a0In April 2009, President Obama mused, \u201cI don\u2019t know what the term is in Austrian\u201d for \u201cwheeling and dealing.\u201d \u00a0 There is no such thing as an Austrian language. Austrians speak German. Obama said this to an Austrian reporter<\/a> (oops!) at a news conference regarding NATO<\/a>, in Strasbourg, France. Europeans thus would have thought he was truly ignorant, to say such a stupid thing. Was it a slip of the tongue? Yes, quite possibly! The difference is that it is not then taken and made out to be compelling proof that Obama is an abject idiot, imbecile, and ignoramus. Same sort of thing; completely different treatment.<\/p>\n

Obama said about a tornado in Kansas, that 10,000 people died. In reality, it was twelve. He said his daughter Malia was 13, when at the time she was actually 12. In a\u00a02008 interview with George Stephanopoulos, Obama referred to his \u201cMuslim faith\u201d and Stephanopoulos (being a good liberal lapdog) had to jump in and correct him:\u00a0\u201dyour Christian faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have the spectacle of \u00a0the liberal media and anti-Trump establishment and Never-Trump forces majoring on this silliness, whereas Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has stated<\/a>: \u201c\u201cFor the first time in my lifetime, I see a real hope for change.\u201d Had Obama or Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton brought about such a sea-change, it would be praised 24-7 for two weeks by the liberal media.<\/p>\n

When President Obama went to Saudi Arabia, he wasn\u2019t greeted by the king right off the plane. But supposedly anti-Muslim, anti-Arab President Trump was<\/em>, with a red carpet.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some real (and highly relevant<\/em>) \u201cdata\u201d. Trump critics\u00a0should be ecstatic at such prospects for actual peace and the defeat of ISIS. Instead, they\u00a0want to claim and devote articles to this tripe that Trump doesn\u2019t know Israel is in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Of course<\/em> Trump says silly things, like all of us do. How would anyone reading this (but especially Trump critics)\u00a0like to have every word of yours dissected, parsed, cynically interpreted to fit into some narrative? He said a silly thing here. The difference is that the critics\u00a0make what I believe to be a fantastically implausible and hyper-insulting claim based on the silly thing said, that I think was a simple slip of the tongue. I don\u2019t conclude as they\u00a0do because it is implausible<\/em>, and I don\u2019t believe things I believe to be utterly implausible. And I don\u2019t conclude that people are imbeciles and ignoramuses unless there is compelling<\/em> reason to do so.<\/p>\n

President Trump is not stupid<\/em>. He managed to become President when no one<\/em>\u00a0thought he could do so. Do his relentless critics\u00a0think that\u2019s easy<\/em> (ask 16 other Republican primary candidates about it)? Do they think a profoundly dumb and stupid man can manage to do that<\/em>? If Hillary was so blasted brilliant and intelligent (as Democrat talking-points would have it), how in the world did she lose<\/em> to this supposed troglodyte? What sense<\/em> does that make? None!<\/p>\n

Trump hyper-critics can interpret all this stuff they bring up daily (at a 93% or so rate on the major liberal newscasts, according to a recent Harvard study<\/a>), according to the \u201cnarrative\u201d all they like. I don\u2019t buy it. The same basic fallacy is simply applied over and over again. It has an appearance of strength, but strength is only as good as the weakest link in the chain, or weakest rope strand.<\/p>\n

In this present case, there isn\u2019t a link at all, or the slightest rope strand. It\u2019s simply absurd and ludicrous. If this<\/em> kind of nonsense doesn\u2019t expose the pure silliness and non-substantial and irrational nature of much of the literally rabid, fanatical, obsessive Trump criticism, nothing<\/em> will.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Street art: photograph taken by Matt Brown (1-25-16) [Flickr \/ CC BY 2.0 license] *** This is the latest in the liberal media\u2019s ongoing ultra-hostile narrative: deliberately intended to destroy President Trump\u2019s presidency. For example (one of many such articles): \u201cTrump Humiliates Himself By Not Knowing That Israel Is In The Middle East\u201d (Jason Easley, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":12052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[2769,2896,2895,1826,2424,2699,3417,4008,4007,4005,4006],"class_list":["post-12051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-ethical-moral-issues","tag-american-politics","tag-catholics-trump","tag-catholics-and-presidential-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-polemics","tag-president-trump","tag-trump-the-liberal-media","tag-trump-is-an-idiot","tag-trumps-ignorance","tag-trumps-stupidity"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Doesn't Know that Israel is in the Middle East?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trump's critics think that he doesn't know Israel is in the Middle East. I give him the benefit of the doubt & say that the charge is utterly implausible.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Doesn't Know that Israel is in the Middle East?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trump's critics think that he doesn't know Israel is in the Middle East. I give him the benefit of the doubt & say that the charge is utterly implausible.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-23T18:47:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2017\/05\/Trump.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Armstrong\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Armstrong\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html\",\"name\":\"Trump Doesn't Know that Israel is in the Middle East?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-23T18:47:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-23T18:47:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\"},\"description\":\"Trump's critics think that he doesn't know Israel is in the Middle East. I give him the benefit of the doubt & say that the charge is utterly implausible.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trump Doesn’t Know that Israel is in the Middle East?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/\",\"name\":\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism\",\"description\":\"Catholic biblical apologetics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\",\"name\":\"Dave Armstrong\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Armstrong\"},\"description\":\"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since 1981, and Catholicism in particular since 1991 (full-time since December 2001). Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trump Doesn't Know that Israel is in the Middle East?","description":"Trump's critics think that he doesn't know Israel is in the Middle East. I give him the benefit of the doubt & say that the charge is utterly implausible.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trump Doesn't Know that Israel is in the Middle East?","og_description":"Trump's critics think that he doesn't know Israel is in the Middle East. I give him the benefit of the doubt & say that the charge is utterly implausible.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html","og_site_name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","article_published_time":"2017-05-23T18:47:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2017\/05\/Trump.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dave Armstrong","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Armstrong","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html","name":"Trump Doesn't Know that Israel is in the Middle East?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-05-23T18:47:48+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-23T18:47:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e"},"description":"Trump's critics think that he doesn't know Israel is in the Middle East. I give him the benefit of the doubt & say that the charge is utterly implausible.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2017\/05\/trump-doesnt-know-israel-middle-east.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trump Doesn’t Know that Israel is in the Middle East?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/","name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","description":"Catholic biblical apologetics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e","name":"Dave Armstrong","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dave Armstrong"},"description":"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since 1981, and Catholicism in particular since 1991 (full-time since December 2001). Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","sameAs":["https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}