book and purchase information<\/a>]<\/p>\n***<\/p>\n
The following are a collection of short posts originally posted on my blog years ago (in one case before I had a blog), or on Facebook (since 2011). Each italicized (and green<\/span>-colored) title is a different post, and the original date is included. Words of others will be in blue<\/span>.<\/p>\n*****<\/p>\n
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Prayer for Catholic Writers and Teachers<\/em> (5-5-93)<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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St. Francis de Sales, valiant defender of the faith, we beseech your intercession on behalf of our writing and teaching. May it always be faithful to sacred tradition, charitable, and efficacious in bringing souls closer to Christ and His Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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St. Gregory the Great, noble and courageous successor of St. Peter, please obtain for us the graces necessary to adequately proclaim and defend God\u2019s revealed truth.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Glorious Lord Jesus, keep us ever mindful of Your constant presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament, ever humble, and zealous in pursuing the work for which You have empowered and called us.<\/div>\n
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I<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Certainly Waited (To Do Apologetics After My Conversion to Catholicism)<\/em> (9-18-07)<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n
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A Lutheran who is given to ranting and raving, and who has a curious obsession with apologists of other Christian traditions, wrote recently on his blog:<\/div>\n
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One thing that just slays me about both Catholicism and Orthodoxy is how if you\u2019ve got a high enough profile in some Protestant church body when you convert, you\u2019re suddenly an expert on your new religion. . . . I\u2019m not saying a convert can\u2019t ever publicly defend his new religion. I\u2019m just saying you really should make them go through an initial cooling off period or something before proclaiming them to be professional apologists, sending them on the lecture circuit, or ordaining them (seriously, ordination?).<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Since this person has often (always irrationally and without grounds and scarcely any charity) blasted me as a prime example of a supposedly unsavory, illegitimate, embarrassing apologist and Catholic convert, I thought the fair-minded folks on his blog (and non-Catholics reading this on mine) might possibly be curious about how long I waited after I converted, to do public apologetics:<\/div>\n
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Conversion: October 1990<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Received into the Church: 8 February 1991<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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1) First published article (and first time any Catholic apologetics I wrote was public): Jan\/Feb 1993 (in
The Catholic Answer<\/em>)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
[2 years + 4 mos. after my conversion]<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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2) First time having my writing included in a book: Sep. 1994 (
Surprised by Truth<\/em>)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
[3 yrs + 11 mos. after conversion]<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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3) First time communicating Catholic apologetics on the Internet: March 1996<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[5 yrs + 5 mos. after conversion]<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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4) First time having my own website: February 1997<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[6 yrs + 4 mos. after conversion]<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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5) First time talking on the radio about my conversion \/ apologetics: 8 September 1997<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[just under seven years after conversion]<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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6) First time having my book (
A Biblical Defense of Catholicism<\/em>) published (self-published): October 2001<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
[11 yrs after conversion]<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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7) First time doing full-time \u201cprofessional\u201d Catholic apologetics: December 2001<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[11 yrs + 2 mos. after conversion]<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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8) First time having my book published by a \u201creal\u201d Catholic publisher [Sophia Institute Press]: June 2003<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[12 yrs + 8 mos. after conversion]<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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9) First time on the lecture circuit: never.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[I have given a few talks to small audiences here and there, though, and one Q & A session on You Tube]<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[almost 17 years after conversion and counting]<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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10) First time on EWTN television: never (have turned down offers to be on
The Journey Home<\/em> about five or six times now)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
[almost 17 years after conversion and counting]<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n
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On a Confident Catholic Faith and Apologetics<\/em> (1-30-14)<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n
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It just so happens that when I set out to defend Catholicism, I find that it invariably has the stronger case; not just because I want it to, but objectively considered. So my faith and confidence that the Catholic Church (our Mother) is what she claims to be, become stronger all the time.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But of course, the outsider (in direct proportion to how unsure of things they are themselves) puts that in a box as sophistry and special pleading or \u201cself-justification\u201d.<\/div>\n
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That\u2019s fine. I\u2019ll keep communicating my message and sharing the pearl of great price that I was blessed to have found in 1990 unless and until I find something better (and that has never remotely occurred these past 23 years).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Two Good Questions About the Purpose of Apologetics, from an Agnostic<\/em> (12-5-18)<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Q: Two questions Dave.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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(1) Are you aware of anyone who has been brought from unbelief to Christian faith purely by the path of apologetic reasoning, without ever having had a personal revelation?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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(2) Do you think that the message of most modern-day apologetics is to strengthen the believer\u2019s faith in the face of secular opposition, or is it actually to help convert the unbeliever?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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A: Thanks for the questions. They are good ones.<\/div>\n
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1) There have been lots of atheist converts to Christianity. Many times it is because of apologetics, because the purely rational \/ intellectual plane (we would say, hyper-rational, to get technical) is usually how they approach things. It\u2019s not from \u201cunbelief\u201d (usually) but even my own work has helped multiple hundreds to become Catholics or return to Catholicism.<\/div>\n
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2) Most conversions are of the former type (and that has the most successful effect). It usually takes something other than apologetics, or much more than only apologetics to convert souls. Ultimately, it is God\u2019s grace, as Christians believe. The evangelist is only a vessel for God\u2019s message and His grace and power to transform lives.<\/div>\n
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When I am replying to atheists (usually to refute their false claims and bad, fallacious, non-factual arguments about the Bible and\/or Christian beliefs), I am both trying to strengthen Christians who have to be confronted with these arguments, and also trying to persuade the skeptic that \u2014 given enough refutations \u2014 they are drastically wrong, even up to and including being wrong about the existence of God and the truth of Christianity.<\/div>\n
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Idealism and Pragmatism (and $$$) in Apologetics<\/em> (1-3-19)<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Well, I have hit upon a series of posts that
absolutely no one<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, or atheist \u2013, cares about: my \u201cReply to Calvin\u201d series. This proves at least two things:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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1) I will write about anything, as long as I think it\u2019s important and should be written about, regardless of the \u201cpopularity\u201d of the post. I think John Calvin ought to be answered because his arguments (real and imagined) and potshots against the Church have been sitting there for almost 500 years, and they are not even that difficult to refute. So many Protestants think he\u2019s unanswerable. What a joke!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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No one cares, but I write about it
anyway<\/em>, because I think the topics are good to address. It\u2019s idealism and anti-pragmatism to the 1000th power. Not that I always<\/em>\u00a0do this (of course), but sometimes<\/em> I do.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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2) It puts an end to the idiotic charge (and it has come up many times) that I am motivated only by filthy lucre, and the supposedly lucrative opportunity at Patheos (host of my blog) to enter the Fortune 500 by means of the hundredth-of-a-cent per page view policy (I exaggerate a little, but not much). No one\u2019s reading these. I do \u2019em anyway, because they
ought<\/em> to be done by someone. Take it from me: no one\u2019s getting rich over there, and some who are getting the most hits have completely separate adequate means of income.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In the final analysis I do my apologetics because:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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1) I was called by God (in 1981) to be an apologist \/ evangelist.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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2) The Bible says it is a good thing to defend the faith (1 Pet 3:15; Jude 3).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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3) I have a concern and love for souls.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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4). . . of the power of writing and education, to positively help people.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Notice how $$$ is
not<\/em> on that list? God continues to provide our monetary needs, as He has done these last 17 years of full-time ministry. That\u2019s all I need. We get to do plenty of things we love as well (like a trip to Alaska in 2017). We\u2019re doing fine. God does<\/em> <\/strong>provide, through people who read my articles and buy my books and those who generously donate to help maintain this work: thank you all<\/strong><\/em>! He\u2019s true to His word.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n
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Can We \u201cConvert\u201d Others? \/ Why Argue and Wrangle with People About the Faith?<\/em> (11-12-19)<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n
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No one can convert another\u2026 no one.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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In the ultimate sense, that\u2019s correct. Only God can do that, by His grace. But He usually uses people as His instruments to achieve those ends, as Scripture teaches:<\/div>\n
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Romans 11:14<\/strong> (RSV) in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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1 Corinthians 1:21<\/strong> For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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1 Corinthians 7:16<\/strong> Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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1 Corinthians 9:22<\/strong> To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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1 Timothy 4:16<\/strong> Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; hold to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Jude 22-23<\/strong> And convince some, who doubt; [23] save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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2 Timothy 2:23-26<\/strong> Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. [24] And the Lord\u2019s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, an apt teacher, forbearing, [25] correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, [26] and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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