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<\/a>Posted by Webster\u00a0<\/i>I went to a Christmas party last night and spent the first hour talking about religion with a professed atheist and a cradle Catholic who has fallen away from the Church. How do you get such a three-way conversation started at a Christmas party that\u2019s not especially religious? Easy. You drop a stink-bomb in front of the atheist by asking the cradle Catholic if he has read your blog.<\/p>\n
Cradle Catholic: You have a blog?!<\/i>
Webster (nodding): Roger.
Cradle Catholic: What\u2019s it called?
Webster: Why I Am Catholic.
Atheist (look of incredulity): You what?
Webster: Yeah, that\u2019s my blog.
Atheist (did I say look of incredulity?): You\u2019re kidding, right?
Webster: I\u2019m serious as death.
Atheist: When did you <\/i>become a Catholic? <\/p>\n
You would have thought I had made a loud, socially inappropriate noise.<\/p>\n
But good things can come of such awkward moments. And as the conversation wound its way out of the thicket of embarrassment onto the open road of discourse, the Atheist clearly outlined three arguments against the Catholic Church: (1) It is ruled with an iron fist by a powerful bureaucracy. (2) It has been plagued by scandal. (3) It is nothing more than an answer to man\u2019s unconscious needs\u2014the old Marxian \u201copiate of the people\u201d thing.<\/p>\n
Whereupon, I had my glittering moment. I said, \u201cThere\u2019s need<\/i> and there\u2019s truth<\/i>. Truth is truth, regardless of what man\u2019s needs may be. If there is a diamond in the middle of the road, it doesn\u2019t matter what anyone is doing in the road. The jewelers can be corrupt. The diamond merchants can be guilty of horrible abuses. And people can lust after the diamond or they can ignore it altogether. It\u2019s still a diamond.\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew I was making some sense because eventually the cradle Catholic came awake and moved slowly but sincerely to my defense. CC, an artist, took note of the passion with which I was speaking. CC said that whatever you thought of my argument, you had to admire my passion.<\/p>\n
A bit further on, the Atheist as much as said, \u201cWell, you can\u2019t convert me.\u201d Whereupon I threw my arms around CC and said to the Atheist, \u201cI\u2019m not concerned with you. I\u2019m working on him.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n
As he went out the door, the cradle Catholic reminded me that I once had promised to take him to a Benedictine abbey to hear the monks sing. I smiled and said, \u201cMy bad. We\u2019ll do it soon, brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
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