I’m New In Town

“Brandenburg Katharinenkirche – Hochaltar 5a Predella Katharina Bekehrung“-Wolfgang Sauber – CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International 

Hello! I’m Scott Beauchamp, and I’m not a Catholic. At least not technically. Not yet. I’ve recently formally put myself on the path to entering the Church, but I suppose that informally I’ve been heading in this direction for a while. There was no road to Damascus moment for me, no sudden reckoning or instantaneous confrontation. It was more like a gradual accumulation of momentum leading to a wonderful inevitability.

And so here I am.

When I was first approached to create this blog my initial reaction was fear. I mean, have you read the company I’m among here? Penetrating experts, each of them as comfortable in their knowledge and brilliance as people casually loafing in their ancestral home. What would some n00b like me have to contribute? What if I make a mistake? What if I get something “wrong”? I know that online religious dialogue can sometimes be…um…less than irenic.

But all those reasons to not blog are really just reasons TO blog inverted and made to resonant at a fearful frequency. I AM still an outsider of sorts, not having yet crossed through the threshold (there’s your titular line), and as such I occupy a quasi-liminal space that –who knows – people might find value in. And as far as making mistakes, who doesn’t? I hope that I’m humble enough to explore my mistakes and inaccuracies, to learn and grow from them and to be strong enough to scrutinize my weaknesses. For your benefit as much as my own.

A word of warning: this blog won’t be a straightforward account of a journey from point A to point B. It’ll meander, move in stops and starts, and tell a story at a slant. Of course I’ll mention my own life from time to time, but I’ll also talk about the stuff I’m reading. I’ll pose general questions. I’ll try to analyze things that interest me through a “Catholic lens”, things such as autonomous weapons systems, empire, community, technology’s homogenizing influence on identity, poetry, music, Just Peace, and radical geography. Because learning to incorporate those things into my nascent “Catholic perspective” is actually at the very center of my conversion story.

Thanks so much for letting me share it with you.