A Baptist Knocking At My Door, Part 2

I was intrigued by the whole account with Matthew on July 21 that I decided to email him on July 22. Below is what I wrote to him:

Hello Matthew,

I am the guy who was reading on my porch that you spoke to yesterday in Steubenville. As I promised, I would email you to have the discussion you wanted to have with me yesterday. I am sorry if I came off as impatient and uncharitable yesterday, but I am taking a 3 week course on the Nature of Love. It's a graduate theology/philosophy course at the Franciscan University of Steubenville - www.franciscan.edu Check out the school when you get the chance. This class is an amazing course in the discussion of love. I am reading some amazing texts and the content is as equally impressive. As Christian men, we really need to fully understand the importance of love and how we are to love others, especially, our beloved wives.

Now I might not be able to answer your questions for another two weeks, but I would like to know what questions you were seeking yesterday on my porch. I have to give you and the other two kids some credit. It takes courage to go out door-to-door and preach the gospel to the world. The genesis of missionary work begin in the Catholic Church, but I have to admit it's something we don't do enough here in this country as much (I mean door-to-door). There are great Catholic missions in the world today, especially in Nigeria, where so many vocations to the priesthood are originating. If you want to have this dialogue with me, that is fine.

I look forward to hearing from you.

In Him,

Tom
P.S. The book I was reading yesterday - A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken is fantastic. Read it - it's well worth it!

Six days later on July 28, Matthew wrote back to me. He thanked me for being a man of my word by emailing him like I said I would. He told me again, like he did on my porch, that his "catholic" friends really had no idea what the Church taught. He told me that the bible answers so many of the questions of life in a simple way. His claims were those I had heard many times before - Mary is elevated above Jesus robbing him of his glory, the traditions of the church are false (this is humorous since 2 Thessalonians 2:15 speaks of the traditions taught by the apostles), no one man could have infallible thoughts, the Pope is the Anti-Christ, the teaching of purgatory was invented because of money purposes and the worship of idolatry when speaking of the saints. He also claimed that the Church makes "Christianity a religion and not a relationship with God." Not sure where he is going with this one.

Matthew thinks that it is fate that he and the two others came to my door that day. He thinks that it is his mission to pull me out of the deception of the Catholic Church, which he also claims is a product of Satan. In his own words -

"Tom, I think God sent us to your doorstep that day for a reason, could it possibly be to let you see that many Catholics will be deceived on the day they stand before Christ because they are not putting all of their trust in Christ on the cross. They are putting their hope in Religion, hoping they will be "Good Enough" to enter heaven. It will be a sad day when they see that they are among the "many" Jesus refers to in Matthew 7:21-23."

When I first read his email, honestly, I laughed a bit. I then forwarded it on to two of my professors for them to read it. Dr. John Bergsma responded and said that I had a live one on the line. He also said that it will be good experience for me to talk to him and answer his questions.

In my response, I told him that I thought his email was harsh and uncharitable. I told him that he clearly attacked Catholicism and I never once attacked his faith tradition. I went on and said to him numerous times that whoever gave him this information about the Catholic Church has gravely mislead him. The Church is not some evil organization looking to take over the world. I lovingly, yet forcibly, told him that I would never leave the Catholic Church and that I believe the Church is the one true church established by Christ 2000 years ago. I told Matthew that I would not hold any of his claims against him and that I was looking forward to explaining what Catholics believe and why we believe it. I told him that he is in my prayers and that I would write again soon.

That day I went to Holy Mass and offered up my mass intention for him. Please pray for Matthew's conversion!!

A Baptist Knocking At My Door - To be continued...