mercygate:
But what must it be LIKE to BE one of these people?
It isn’t too hard for me to remember. I ordered all of Jack Chick’s tracts several times (that is one of the things you can order). I sometimes ordered “This Was Your Life” (not anti-Catholic) in quantities of 1,000 (10 cents each). And I read them, but didn’t fully appreciate the anti-Catholic ones (they struck me as bigoted). Still, they did a lot of damage because I read them and was made aware of much controversy, half-truths, etc. And I unfortunately was influenced to not trust the Roman Catholic Church.
What is it like? Ignorant. That’s all. We just didn’t know any better.
Regarding the question at hand (C. S. Lewis). When I first “got saved” (evangelical experience) it wasn’t very long before I discovered C. S. Lewis. For almost two years (1974-1976), I read everything I could find – at least 12" thick of books (including “Mere Christianity”). While I was a college student, I did not read John Henry Newman books (like my Catholic friends were reading). But I did read a lot of C. S. Lewis.
For the last seven years, I’ve been going to a predominantly-Black Baptist Church. When I met with my local Catholic Priest for the first time earlier this year I was somewhat surprised to see some C. S. Lewis books on his bookshelf. I am now in RCIA and the rite of acceptance is this Sunday.
Questions: How many Protestants do you know who read John Henry Newman? How many Protestants read Benedict Groeschel? Those authors’ books are certainly not water-cooler topics among Protestants.
Fortunately, some of us Protestants are old enough to remember Fulton Sheen and perhaps we heard him years ago (or still catch him on EWTN).
I was fortunate enough to read C. S. Lewis. And reading those books probably helped me to be more prepared to become Roman Catholic.
One of my best friends would often remind me “God is in control.” And we know that God is merciful. I suppose that God has some people in certain places so they can guide others. Perhaps C. S. Lewis was such a man. Since he was not Catholic, he was and is still widely read by many Protestants. And I suppose that much of what he wrote must be fairly good because I haven’t unlearned much that reading C. S. Lewis taught me. And otherwise, why would there also be so many Catholics (like my Catholic Priest) who read C. S. Lewis? If C. S. Lewis had converted to Catholicism late in his life, many (including me) probably would not have read what he wrote.
So perhaps there is a dispensation of grace towards those few individuals that God placed as off-the-straight-and-narrow-path course-correcting road signs to the way.
I suggest that C. S. Lewis probably did go to heaven (after purgatory).
Note to Scott_Lafrance, jrabs and others: please remember that there are some of us here who are fairly new to the Catholic faith. I am in RCIA. I now understand your humor. But when I first joined in July, I would not have easily understood. And reading some things did confuse me at times back then.
In fact, I spent much of June and July trying to discover for myself if I could decide if Jack Chick’s assertion that Catholics are idol worshippers was true or false (Holy Eucharist, etc).
For example, these last few posts that
sweetchuck posted, I’m not sure if he means what he says or not. I think I just won’t pay them any attention.
…:whacky: …:yawn: …
