I got as far as Conte’s spin on Akin’s description of grace, in the context of total depravity. Akin wrote, “because of the fall of Adam, man cannot do anything out of supernatural love unless God gives him special grace to do so.”
Conte takes this statement and spins it thusly, “[Akin] seems to suggest the contrary, that nothing good can be done without grace.” That, unfortunately, is not at all what Akin wrote. The key word here is supernatural. The Catechism, at 2011, states, “[t]he charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men.”
Akin, therefore, is correct: supernatural acts of charity can only be performed through Christ and His grace. When Conte substantially alters Akin’s claim by ignoring this appeal to ‘supernatural’ acts of charity, and uses this spin to attempt to discredit Akin, he demonstrates at the very least a misunderstanding of Akin’s argument.
I don’t always agree with every word out of Akin’s mouth, either. But, I think Conte is making mountains out of molehills, here…
