{"id":29431,"date":"2019-02-12T13:06:14","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T17:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?p=29431"},"modified":"2020-08-24T14:14:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T18:14:14","slug":"catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

A lot<\/em> more people than just Pope Francis are implicated in lack of action to stop these scandals, and I dare say that that includes the four previous popes as well (saints or no).<\/p>\n

I think a good case can be made now that the traditionalist (not reactionary<\/a>) complaint that too little was and is being done about heterodoxy and dissenters<\/a> (and abusers, as it were) in the Church was correct, and that we should have cleaned house long ago.<\/p>\n

I know why it wasn\u2019t done. I\u2019ve written about it (way back in 2002<\/a>). It was fear of schism, which was very real after Humanae Vitae<\/em> <\/a>in 1968. But in retrospect, in my opinion I think that was the wrong (though quite well-meaning) approach.<\/p>\n

Servant of God Fr. John A. Hardon (my mentor) was an adviser to Pope St. Paul VI, and he said that Paul VI felt like he had a crown of thorns on his head: so much did he suffer from the dissent.<\/p>\n

Of course he did. But the question (hindsight is 20-20) is what to do<\/em><\/strong> about it. I say that the Church didn\u2019t do enough, and that\u2019s a large reason why we\u2019re in the mess we\u2019re in. Most of the abuses in question occurred long before Francis was pope: even before St. John Paul II was pope.<\/p>\n

The liberals have been wreaking havoc, and the Church didn\u2019t sufficiently crack down on them. That\u2019s my present opinion, based on hindsight:\u00a0\u201cwe tried x<\/em>; now it is evident that x<\/em> has failed, if we look at the fruit.\u201d The problem wasn\u2019t Vatican II. The problem was allowing the liberals who distorted Vatican II to run wild. But of course I could be wrong.<\/p>\n

I think another major factor is also the human tendency to be men-pleasers, which has often afflicted our bishops, per the classic 1995 article by James Hitchcock: \u201cConservative Bishops, Liberal Results.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Personally, I\u2019ve never had nothing but pure, utter disdain for the views<\/em> of Catholic dissidents and liberals and modernists and so-called \u201cprogressives\u201d.\u00a0That\u2019s been made abundantly clear in my writings<\/a>. I think they are fundamentally dishonest and oftentimes deliberately devious and deceptive, and with nefarious intentions. I refer mainly to the big shots, not necessarily every individual: many of whom are simply ignorant.<\/p>\n

How specifically to deal<\/em> with dissenters and heterodoxy, however, is a separate issue, where equally good Catholics can and do disagree.\u00a0I suspect now that the Church has been far too lenient, and that this was a huge prudential misjudgment and grave mistake, in retrospect. \u201cHindsight is 20-20.\u201d But we must learn from our well-meaning mistakes.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I wrote a Facebook post on 9-3-18, entitled,\u00a0\u201cSpotlight<\/em>\u00a0and Goodbye, Good Men<\/em>: Getting to the Roots of the Sexual Scandals.\u201d Here it is (I won\u2019t bother to indent it):<\/p>\n

I watched Spotlight<\/em>\u00a0last night: about the Boston Globe<\/em> expose of the sex scandal in Boston, and cover-up by Cardinal Law in 2002. It was well-done and a fair treatment. I had thought it likely wouldn\u2019t be fair, which is why I didn\u2019t watch it till last night.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m reading Goodbye, Good Men:\u00a0How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2002), by Michael S. Rose. It attempts to provide reasons for why these scandals have occurred (theologically liberal \/ heterodox control of seminaries, leading to a contemptible rejection of many good candidates for the priesthood).<\/p>\n

The book was written before the Boston Globe<\/em> bombshell articles came out. Rose wrote on pp. x-xi:<\/p>\n

Although I did not set out to write a book about clerical sex abuse, what I discovered provides at least part of the answer to the burning question: How could this have happened? . . .<\/p>\n

[A]s one recently ordained priest confided in me after reading the prepublication manuscript, the revelations herein have long been known within the inner circles of the Catholic Church \u2014 among bishops and priests especially. . . .<\/p>\n

In short, many have hijacked the priesthood in order to change the Catholic Church from within.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the first chapter he demonstrates with much documentation how seminaries and dioceses that uphold Church teaching in its entirety have thriving vocations, whereas those that don\u2019t, have terrible vocations.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how true Catholic belief and orthodoxy eventually overcome dissent in the long run. But of course, incredible damage can occur in the meantime, as we are now seeing.<\/p>\n

I feel so bad for faithful priests, who are in the great majority. They need our support and prayers more than ever. It looks like the lions\u2019s share of blame rests on the bishops.<\/p>\n

What else is new? There have been many periods of history where they messed up big-time and were wrong to a massive extent, such as the Arian crisis: much written-about by Cardinal Newman, who contended that the laity basically saved the Church. History repeats itself again!\u00a0There are certainly a lot of bad apples.<\/p>\n

I believe that Rose gives a true report in his book. I think it offers as plausible a reason for our crisis as any other.\u00a0He casts light on a phenomenon that can hardly be doubted. Whether he has gone to extremes or not, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s a flaw of human nature to do so, and so it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he did go overboard in some ways or become paranoid or overly conspiratorial.\u00a0But the fundamental problem remains and must be dealt with: or if it has finally been controlled now<\/em>, it is still true that for a long time it was tragically ignored and allowed to grow and cause incalculable damage to the Church and souls.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

See also further discussion from others in the original Facebook thread<\/a>.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

(originally 9-3-18 and 1-26-19 on Facebook)<\/p>\n

Photo credit:\u00a0<\/strong>Anton Fredrikson \/ Keski-Suomen museo (27 January 1918). Taulum\u00e4ki old church burning in Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4, Finland<\/span> [public domain \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a>]<\/p>\n

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

A lot more people than just Pope Francis are implicated in lack of action to stop these scandals, and I dare say that that includes the four previous popes as well (saints or no). I think a good case can be made now that the traditionalist (not reactionary) complaint that too little was and is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":29434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,132],"tags":[6234,6237,898,3322,235,3324,899,602,3326,6231,571,3323,1766,4676,141,1691],"class_list":["post-29431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inquisition-crusades-scandals","category-liberal-modernist-theology","tag-abuse-of-minors","tag-abuse-of-young-men","tag-cafeteria-catholics","tag-catholic-hypocrisies","tag-catholic-scandals","tag-catholic-sex-scandals","tag-dissenters","tag-heterodox","tag-liberal-catholics","tag-mccarrick","tag-modernism","tag-pedophiles","tag-rape","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-sinners-in-the-church","tag-sodomy"],"yoast_head":"\nCatholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Was the traditionalist (not reactionary) complaint that too little was & is being done about heterodoxy & dissenters (& abusers) in the Church, correct? I think so.\" \/>\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\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Was the traditionalist (not reactionary) complaint that too little was & is being done about heterodoxy & dissenters (& abusers) in the Church, correct? I think so.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.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=\"2019-02-12T17:06:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-24T18:14:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2019\/02\/ChurchBurning.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"563\" \/>\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=\"5 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\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html\",\"name\":\"Catholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-12T17:06:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-24T18:14:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\"},\"description\":\"Was the traditionalist (not reactionary) complaint that too little was & is being done about heterodoxy & dissenters (& abusers) in the Church, correct? I think so.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Catholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes\"}]},{\"@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":"Catholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes","description":"Was the traditionalist (not reactionary) complaint that too little was & is being done about heterodoxy & dissenters (& abusers) in the Church, correct? I think so.","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\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Catholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes","og_description":"Was the traditionalist (not reactionary) complaint that too little was & is being done about heterodoxy & dissenters (& abusers) in the Church, correct? I think so.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html","og_site_name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","article_published_time":"2019-02-12T17:06:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-24T18:14:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":563,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2019\/02\/ChurchBurning.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dave Armstrong","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Armstrong","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html","name":"Catholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-02-12T17:06:14+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-24T18:14:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e"},"description":"Was the traditionalist (not reactionary) complaint that too little was & is being done about heterodoxy & dissenters (& abusers) in the Church, correct? I think so.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2019\/02\/catholic-sex-heterodoxy-scandals-long-term-causes.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Catholic Sex & Heterodoxy Scandals: Long-Term Causes"}]},{"@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\/29431","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=29431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}