A Call for Apologetics

People like to give me books to read. It is a persistent challenge to prove that as a pastor I neither sit around reading all day, nor do I spend hours every week chasing down the “finer spiritual dimples” of a golf ball. That being said, my friends tend to provide me with books that I either want to read or that I really must read and I find myself reading 10-15 books simultaneously at any given time.

I recently found an interesting juxtaposition of books on my shelf.

Ken Ham’s recent release, Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do to Stop It* is a clarion call for the Christian church to wake up and begin to actually teach her children the Bible or risk losing them to the faith all together. Citing a recent research project that Answers in Genesis (www.answersingenesis.com) commissioned, Ham provides all the harrowing statistics necessary to frighten a concerned Christian parent to action. One of the study’s more disturbing conclusions involved statistical proof that it was actually harmful for a child to attend weekly Bible study (Sunday School) since the Bible is most often presented as stories to the children and never connected to “real life” or “real science” or really anything real. I have long agreed with this contention and believe that we have not, and in many cases are not, educating our children for reality in the church. When “reality” does set in between the ages of 15-29 the Christian individual chooses to leave the church and often even his or her faith. Sometimes never to return.

Karl Keating’s 1988 publication, Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on “Romanism” by “Bible Christians”** is a clarion call for Catholics to wake up and begin to actually learn what the church teaches and to understand why church doctrine is important. I am one of those few who think the schism in the church is a thing to be mourned. I wish there were some way for the “protestant” and “catholic” wings of Christianity to be reconciled for the sake of Christ and his kingdom. I have been to mass enough times to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented at every service. Even though I am prohibited from taking the Eucharist since I was never confirmed (christened, yes, but we know that’s not enough) I deeply appreciate the cross remaining central to the Catholic gathering of worship.

Keating’s clearly states that those who are, by choice, outside the Catholic faith, are in serious need of [mental] help, especially if they are converted from Catholicism into “fundamentalism.” The book is designed to help the reader distinguish between real fundamentalism and its less offensive, but still apostate cousin, “evangelicalism.” Once the differentiation is made the work attempts to help the reader to combat common objections to the Catholic faith as it is currently practiced.

As I read Keating’s book, I became more and more convinced of the prudence of staying out from under the Catholic umbrella. Keating did a great job highlighting the Biblical concerns I would have in becoming Catholic. If there were a draw toward to Rome it was obliterated completely by Keating’s unabashed defense of Marian beliefs in chapter 22. I literally cringed as I read.
Oddly enough, both works call Christians back to their Bibles and back to the discipline of apologetics (a reasoned defense of a belief system). I think this challenge is to be applauded. People of faith have for far too long based their relationship with God upon tradition, received doctrine, popular personalities and programming that addresses felt needs. Both works call Christians to be intelligent people, aware of history and other disciplines of the mind which have been wrongfully expunged from the church.

Perhaps someone will actually listen and the world will be changed, again, by the truth of God’s work, word and presence.

O how blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scoffer. Instead his delight is in the law of the Lord and in God’s law he immerses himself day and night. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water which bears fruit in every season. His leaf will never whither, for whatever he does will prosper. (Psalm 1.1-3, my translation)