"A Humble Servant's Catholic Blog"

The caption read, “This is why we don't listen to the Gaithers” and the link led to a long article by David Cloud on why the Gaithers are not model Christians ("disobedient to the Word of God"). Cloud dives into several topics, but most of it can be boiled down to addressing false ecumenism (compromising truth for the sake of a false sense of unity) and a trend in this “judge not” mindset, where people are confusing the right judgment of actions with the wrong judgment of a person's soul. Whether the Gaithers are actually guilty of these, I didn't really see. It would be nice to hear both sides before making a judgment, and I'm simply not familiar with the Gaithers. However, on those two important topics, I do agree with David Cloud's overall position. This notion that we can all come together in different faiths with different views about what Truth is, and have “unity”, is false. We cannot compromise Truth for the sake of unity, because in doing...

I recently had a discussion with a “Bible Christian”, who goes by “Ed G.”, who leans on the side of conspiracy theories about the Catholic Church, believes the Church to be a one-way ticket to hell, and also believes spurious claims made by “ex-Catholics”.   I have “ex-Catholics” in parenthesis because Baptism leaves an indelible mark, so there’s really no such thing as an “ex-Catholic”.   They are merely non-practicing Catholics, and sometimes commit calumny in their false witness against the Church.   Ed brought up the testimony of two “ex-Catholics” who have made some serious accusations against the Church; one was a Priest and the other a Bishop.   You can look both of them up, and you will find that each left the Church over one matter or another and flatly rejected any authority within the Church.   Ed believes that because they were Priests in the Church, their testimony is therefore reliable.   I disagree, and our conversation will explain why....

In the late 19th century, Ellen Gould White put together the splintered thoughts resulting from a couple of failed predictions of Christ’s second coming by William Miller. What started as an insistence by Joseph Bates that Christians should worship on the Jewish Sabbath (1846-1849) became White’s anti-Catholic beast (pun intended) which we know as Seventh Day Adventism. The SDAs took Bate’s charge that the Catholic Church changed worship from Saturday to Sunday, and came up with several other reasons why the Catholic Church must certainly be the “beast” of Revelation, or the “great harlot” riding the beast. I’ll address some of those here; but first, just a hair more background is in order. Ellen Gould White is regarded as a prophetess by Seventh Day Adventists (who publish under the guise of “Inspiration Books”, “Amazing Truth Publications”, “Review & Herald Publishing Association”, and “Pilgrims’ Press”; and who often identify as “Seventh Day Apostle” or simply “Adventist”,...

Have you ever noticed that some folks tend to identify themselves by what they are *against*, instead of what they are for? I do it. You probably do it. People you know probably do it. Christians often (in my experience) get accused of this every time we speak out against sin. We'll be referred to as "anti-[insert some pet sin masked as a right or a good here]" when the reality is that we are actually "pro-[insert the virtue which contradicts the corresponding sin here]". A classic example: "anti-choice [to abort an unborn child]" is actually a fallacious name given to Christians who are pro-life. "Anti-contraception" would likewise correspond to a Christian being pro-natural law. Now, when a Christian is contending for the faith in a secular world, our arguments are often going to appear to be defined by what we are *against*. However, a good litmus test can reveal that we are actually arguing *for* something, and working to disco...

There are a number of Catholics who have come across fans of Mike Gendron who seem to "know" all about the Catholic Church, and are bold in seeking out Catholics to correct them of “false” beliefs. It’s easy to understand why well-meaning Christians would want to bring their Catholic brethren (if they consider Catholics brethren at all) to the truth of the Gospel. We are ALL called to bring the Gospel to everyone in whatever ways we can. But both Catholics AND other Christians need to understand what Catholics actually believe before taking on such a venture. Otherwise, you get nowhere and even run the risk of bearing false witness, especially if you are relying on folks like Gendron to be your source for information. Here’s what I mean. Below are several examples from Gendron’s latest newsletter (June 2014) where he misrepresents Catholics, the Church, the Pope, etc., in order to make the Church look sinister or evil...even un-Christian. You’ll notice from the link th...

(I wrote this in letter format so you can see exactly how Mike Gendron will see it.  My responses are in blue.)   Mr. Gendron, in regards to your latest newsletter, I am genuinely interested in hearing your explanation of why you chose to only report tiny bits of fact and then mix it with generous amounts of speculation, unsupported assertion, and logical fallacies. For example, the very first claim is that Pope Francis suppreses the Truth of God's Word. But doesn't this beg the question (even if not in the formal sense)... who is interpreting the Truth of God's Word, and under what Authority . Doesn't one need to establish that he or she has some authority to interpret God's Word before accusing someone else of suppressing It? Secondly, please cite, in its full context from an actual Catholic source, ANY Catholic Doctrine which the Pope has opposed or contradicted...and provide the full context of the alleged contradiction/opposition. I believe yo...