Anti-Catholic Website

  • Thread starter Thread starter wbeckham78
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

wbeckham78

Guest
I’m not sure that this is right forum, so if someone can correct and point me to the right place, I’d be grateful.

A friend I’ve known since high school has expressed an interest in the Catholic faith. I’ve offered to answer he questions and sent her Mr. Keating’s book “Catholicism and Fundamentalism.” In response, she sent a link to this anti-Catholic Website.

I told her I don’t respond to anti-Catholic blogs or websites. Years ago I used to debate James White over on NNTP, but it was counter productive and a frustrating waste of time. But, what do you do when they’re getting their information from a source like this?

I know that’s pretty open ended. I’m going to force myself to actually read the site (but I won’'t like it!) and maybe I’ll have specific questions to ask?
 
I think the most appropriate means of handling this is to simply get your friend to identify any items that might be considered bothersome within that site. It seems unfair to expect you to refute an entire website…what will come next, a request that you explain the entire Internet…?
 
wbeckham78 said:
I’m not sure that this is right forum, so if someone can correct and point me to the right place, I’d be grateful.

A friend I’ve known since high school has expressed an interest in the Catholic faith. I’ve offered to answer he questions and sent her Mr. Keating’s book “Catholicism and Fundamentalism.” In response, she sent a link to this anti-Catholic Website.

I told her I don’t respond to anti-Catholic blogs or websites. Years ago I used to debate James White over on NNTP, but it was counter productive and a frustrating waste of time. But, what do you do when they’re getting their information from a source like this?

I know that’s pretty open ended. I’m going to force myself to actually read the site (but I won’'t like it!) and maybe I’ll have specific questions to ask?
Click to expand...
You could invite her onto here?!
 
Frankly, I would explain to your friend that Bennett’s background as a fallen-away Catholic priest, coupled with his extremist positions, could reveal an incredibly rich soil in which bitterness may have grown. While Bennett articulates some rather standard positions as have been formulated by many Reformed people—I believe Bennett is a Calvinist, no?—his particular twist on them is so utterly polemical, and so completely biased, that I simply would not encourage him to be taken as a serious source, even for Protestants. His points can be made without the sort of spin he insists on putting on them; and, since you mentioned him, I would say the same applies to folks like James White.

I would recommend you steer your friend to the work of the folks at Called to Communion (LINK). Therein, she will find a lot of the points that Bennett makes addressed and, above all, discussed with charity. Called to Communion has an incredibly robust capacity for discussion with alternative positions, and they accomplish this without the need for extreme polemics.

Now, if you’re already familiar with that particular website, and if you don’t think it would help, I could only encourage you to ask your friend to focus on one point at a time. What is the biggest, most obviously stupid and ridiculous thing that Rome does that gives her a great deal of trouble? Can she find a way that Bennett articulates objections to it? Will she be open for an analysis of his view?
 
There’s a lot of that kind of stuff out there and that guy now makes his living bashing on the Catholic faith and misleading people about it. It’s a crying shame that people believe him instead of actually talking to faithful Catholics, but you have to remember that most regular n-Cs don’t know any better. If you want fast responses on some fairly typical a-C propaganda, feel free to send them to my blog which is linked in my sig line below where they see me dismantle one of the most active a-C’s stuff again and again as well as several articles where I explain and defend Catholic beliefs.

I’ll keep your friend in my prayers.:crossrc:
 
The other week I was looking up how Baptists see the Eucharist…I came upon a Baptist forum…a Catholic had written on the forum asking if they could comment on a post…wow…did the anti -Catholics come out in force and tell this person in no uncertain terms they didn’t want no Catholics on their forum…and what they thought of Catholics…I can’t believe there is still so much anti-Catholic feeling out there…how sad they are so bound by their sin…one of them even wrote in bold what he thought of “Mary”…very disturbing…I don’t remember the forum site and don’t wish to
 
Back in the 90s I was given a copy of the 1st edition of Bennett’s “Far From Rome, Near To God” by a Protestant who had doubts about the stories in it. I did a lot of research and found that a number of the stories ranged from completely made up to misrepresentations of the truth (to put it kindly). At least 2 of the priests had returned to the Church and ministry.

When I wrote to Bennett about the problems, his wife wrote me a very nasty letter with strange accusations. I never heard from Bennett himself.

Later I was given a copy of the revised edition and saw that some of the worst offenders had been removed. But still, many of the stories cannot be verified as there isn’t enough information given to look up the former priests.

Long story short - Bennett plays fast and loose with the truth. :banghead:
 
Wow Bonnie, thanks for that. Fact checking is always the bane of such propaganda. I’ll wager that Bennett never mentions the revisions in subsequent editions, does he? (Have you considered blogging what you found and the letter from Mrs. Bennett as documentation in the interest of truth?)

It’s the same with every a-C effort that cites scripture. In most cases the scriptures cited are torn out of context in such a way that one wonders how so many Sola Scriptura believers do not notice or refute it.:ehh:

One of the most important points we have to remember is that salvation and, in fact, our most holy faith is not founded on a mere few verses pulled from context, but from the entire context of the Bible and especially from the New Testament. One need only read the New Testament all the way through to conclude that many of the n-Cs, and particularly the a-Cs offer a Different Gospel from what one comes away with in context…and that authentic New Testament Gospel is very distinctly Catholic.
 
Church_Militant said:
(Have you considered blogging what you found and the letter from Mrs. Bennett as documentation in the interest of truth?)
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, the letter got lost - apparently in our last move. After finding out about the revised edition, I got a bit discouraged; Bennett removed the stories that were the easiest to refute! I was able to fact check only the priests who were ordained (or claimed to be) in the US & Canada. Priests who were ordained in other countries would have to be able to access that country’s version of Kennedy’s Official Directories & be able to read the language.
 
Ah, well then I suppose that is the will of God. Even so…it’s true that there are those guys out there who tend to use anything they can (almost) find to bash the Catholic faith. :yawn: Generally it’s the same ole same ole…

I think Archbishop Fulton Sheen says it best here.
 
Peebo said:
The other week I was looking up how Baptists see the Eucharist…I came upon a Baptist forum…a Catholic had written on the forum asking if they could comment on a post…wow…did the anti -Catholics come out in force and tell this person in no uncertain terms they didn’t want no Catholics on their forum…and what they thought of Catholics…I can’t believe there is still so much anti-Catholic feeling out there…how sad they are so bound by their sin…one of them even wrote in bold what he thought of “Mary”…very disturbing…I don’t remember the forum site and don’t wish to
Click to expand...
Go on to any Catholic YouTube video and the creepy “whore of Babylon” apocalypse people will be out in full force to tell us all that we’re going to hell unless we “come out of her” :rolleyes:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top