Does anyone else read James White's blogs/e-letters?

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I must say, it was only since I’ve gotten into the Catholic Answers website I learned about James White. He appears to be the focus of so many Catholic apologists so I have taken to reading his aomin.org posts. As an aside, I imagine it might be painful for cradle Catholics who went through good Catholic schools to read his writings, what with his egregious grammar (“He has gone after Hahn, Keating, and any number of others, and in fact, some of the most spectacular fireworks I’ve ever seen have been between he and his former co-horts like Art Sippo.”). Anyway, I was curious if anyone else reads the aomin.org website?
 
Yes I do. I read a lot of Protestant and anti-Catholic sites just to review the material. It strengthens my faith when I don’t find a single article or site that accurately attacks the Church’s position. I am only a Jr. apologist at best, but I see the same straw men over and over again. I have yet to find a single article or web site that accurately addresses the heart and soul of the Marian doctrines, the Papacy and the Communion of Saints. They either don’t know the actual Church position or are hiding from it.
 
Indeed, I enjoy a challenge to my faith as it only strengthens my faith when I find their challenges lacking…
 
Only once in a while it gets tiring sometimes. I am in discussions with a missionary who keeps insisting the Catholic Church is bad. Yet it doesn’t seem to faze him when I give reasonable explanations for the faith or the misconceptions he has.

He has just given me this video to watch called Messages from Heaven.

Here is a link about it.
davidmacd.com/catholic/mary_messages_from_heaven_video_movie_documentary.htm

I have only watched about 15 minutes of it so far, but as far as I have seen this review pretty much sums it up. Right now they are trying to tie angels and extra-terrestrials together somehow.

At least I have made a deal with him in that I will honestly watch or read one book\video for every one he gives me. I just gave him Marcus Grodi’s Journey Home(featuring Marcus as guest). We will see if the Holy Spirit opens his heart.

Scylla
 
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scylla:
Only once in a while it gets tiring sometimes. I am in discussions with a missionary who keeps insisting the Catholic Church is bad. Yet it doesn’t seem to faze him when I give reasonable explanations for the faith or the misconceptions he has.

He has just given me this video to watch called Messages from Heaven.

Here is a link about it.
davidmacd.com/catholic/mary_messages_from_heaven_video_movie_documentary.htm

I have only watched about 15 minutes of it so far, but as far as I have seen this review pretty much sums it up. Right now they are trying to tie angels and extra-terrestrials together somehow.

At least I have made a deal with him in that I will honestly watch or read one book\video for every one he gives me. I just gave him Marcus Grodi’s Journey Home(featuring Marcus as guest). We will see if the Holy Spirit opens his heart.

Scylla
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I actually watched that video its pretty weird how they present the video. The Jack Chick website sells this video so you can tell how truly objective it is. They do not deny Marian Apparistions but rather present the apparitions as on par with UFO’s then ultiamtely from Satanic powers to deceive the world. And that Marian apparations are part of the devils plan and that Mary replaces Christ in the theology of Catholics. They do some tricky editing to delete catholics referring to Christ but they sure don’t delete anything about Mary. They do some typical cut and paste of scripture and the cathecshim and low and behold we catholics are the Babylonian religion all over again and Mary has put herself over christ in her apparations and that her power is from the devil himself. Pure propaganda of course. If your friend is on the fringes of Jack Chick video productions I think you have your work cut out for you. I would just encourage you to present the cathechism in context of catholic teaching in its entirely and not the cut and paste job evangelicals tend to treat the cathchism.
 
I was reading his blog fairly frequently for a bit (having been mentioned on it once or twice). I started an e-mail dialog with him, but stopped rather abruptly so that I could listen to all of his debates, read his essays, find his books in bookstores and read them (exceedingly hard to find, BTW), to ensure I know what he believes. I’m still listening to the debates - there’s a lot of material.

In truth, it’s rather slippery. Often, he will simply ignore questions he can’t answer (Purgatory radio debate with Sungenis - Q: “Where does the bible distinguish so-called ‘bad works’ from ‘sins’, like you say in your book?”

And sometimes he descends into ad hominem attacks (Sola Scriptura debate w/ Tim Staples - Attack: “I’ve never heard so many lies in so short a time in my life.”).

Unfortunately, I’m about to get exceedingly busy for the next year or so. I am hopeful that I will at some point be able to refute his rather unthoughtful responses to my e-mails, but we’ll see. When I start to spend time drafting a response, I slip into prayer for him and before I know it an hour has passed. I would ask that anyone who reads this pray for him as well.

If you go to the main site and search for “james white” you’ll pull up some really good articles, and a google for “james white refuted” also brings up some wonderful essays and documentation. PhilVaz and Apolonio (google either) have both had encounters with him, and have spent much cyber-ink in dialog and refutation.

Just my quick thoughts.

God Bless you and Keep you,
RyanL
 
Dr. James White is an excellent source on Catholic theology. I have never seen any misrepresentation of Catholic dogma from his site. I have never seen him engage in ad hom attacks, in fact his debate’s with Mitch Pacwa are very cordial. To take someone to task for lying is hardly an ad hom attack if they are indeed lying! :rolleyes:
 
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kaycee:
Dr. James White is an excellent source on Catholic theology.
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Polemicists are never a good source for the views they are attacking. (That’s why the study of early and medieval heresies is so frustrating–usually all we have to go on is polemic against the view in question. Even when we’re dealing with relatively fair-minded and professional folks, like 13th-century Dominican Inquisitors, we simply can’t be sure that they are getting it right. And I’d trust a medieval Inquisitor trained in the traditions of Albert and Thomas long before I’d trust James White. The Inquisitor might burn me at the stake, which would be a pain, but he would at least try to be fair to my ideas.)

Edwin
 
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kaycee:
Dr. James White is an excellent source on Catholic theology. I have never seen any misrepresentation of Catholic dogma from his site. I have never seen him engage in ad hom attacks…
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Excellent source on Catholic theology!!! That’s a gut-buster! Granted I used to listen to him (yes, up in Phoenix - I live close by actually) before converting to Catholicism, but I always thought he was a bit harsh - even though I believed him…that is until I put the slightest bit of effort into actually studying.

Never seen any misrepresentation? Well kaycee that would show why you have such a misunderstand/misconception about the Catholic Faith which so clearly comes out in 99% of your posts.

Never seen him engage in ad hom attacks? I can’t even respond to this - as it would appear that ad hom attacks are his favorite method, lol.
 
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kaycee:
Dr. James White is an excellent source on Catholic theology. I have never seen any misrepresentation…
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I have changed my “signiture” to include Athanasius’ quote on the Blessed Mother being the Ark of the New Covenant, largely based on Dr. White’s apparent assertion that Athanasius was a “Sola Scriptura” believer. If the assertion is true, and not a misrepresentation, Dr. White had better start believing (as it is Sola Scriptura based). If the assertion is false, Dr. White should quite misrepresenting Athanasius.

What do you think?

God Bless,
RyanL
 
If he didn’t misrepresent Catholic theology and you kinda use James White as a source, then why do people say that when you post. They should agree with you then talk about that, but instead of people agreeing with your posts, by saying yes that is Catholic theology we understand it this way, because the Bible and history say this, we just interpret it differently.
But unfortunately I see a big difference in the responses to your posts, in which I think it is great that you are here. Now if you would look more closely at Catholic teaching to see what is wrong then it would help your dialogue with us. It would help your understanding of the Catholic faith and help us communicate better with you.
Why go to a non-catholic for Catholic theology, when I want to know about something I go to the source. Not someone’s opinion of the source.

God Bless
Scylla
 
E.E.N.S.:
Excellent source on Catholic theology!!! That’s a gut-buster! Granted I used to listen to him (yes, up in Phoenix - I live close by actually) before converting to Catholicism, but I always thought he was a bit harsh - even though I believed him…that is until I put the slightest bit of effort into actually studying.

Never seen any misrepresentation? Well kaycee that would show why you have such a misunderstand/misconception about the Catholic Faith which so clearly comes out in 99% of your posts.

Never seen him engage in ad hom attacks? I can’t even respond to this - as it would appear that ad hom attacks are his favorite method, lol.
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Care to document any of your groundless statements? :rolleyes:
 
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kaycee:
Care to document any of your groundless statements? :rolleyes:
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Groundless statements? How? James frequently misrepresents Catholicism; his Catholic theology is ‘bass ackwards’; and your idea of Catholicism reflect that as well…Where would you like me to start with documentation? You or James?
 
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RyanL:
And sometimes he descends into ad hominem attacks (Sola Scriptura debate w/ Tim Staples - Attack: “I’ve never heard so many lies in so short a time in my life.”).
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E.E.N.S.:
Never seen him engage in ad hom attacks? I can’t even respond to this - as it would appear that ad hom attacks are his favorite method, lol.
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Ad hominem means to argue against the man rather than his statements. It is actually an ad hominem to say that one should not believe James White because he is an anti-catholic. To say that one should not believe James White because he provides false information is better, but simply to say that he’s anti-catholic is just to say that his arguments can’t be true because of who he is, rather than because they are fallacious in some way.

Likewise, the quote from the Tim Staples debate is not an ad hominem. If White said, “We shouldn’t listen to Tim Staples’ argument because he’s a liar,” it would be an ad hominem. White wasn’t saying anything of the kind. He was indicating that what Staples had said was untrue.

The problem I see here (and at other forums I’ve visited) is that people are actually unaware of what makes an argument an ad hominem. They confuse it with an insult, and the two are not the same.
 
E.E.N.S.:
Groundless statements? How? James frequently misrepresents Catholicism; his Catholic theology is ‘bass ackwards’; and your idea of Catholicism reflect that as well…Where would you like me to start with documentation? You or James?
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I leave it to you to decide! :cool:
 
I always wince when I read post about James WHite. The last time there were threads discussing Dr. White on this forum, he took several statements out of context for his blog. ANything positive that was said about him-such as he is a skilled debator- was not included in his blog, leaving readers the impression that Catholics here were unfairly bashing the man. 😦 Or that we were being rude and uncharitable.

I think that praying for the man is the best defense.
 
If you kaycee are wanting us to point out specific statements of mis-representation, then this will just become a negative type arguement, not a very Christian thing to do. I would prayerfully look at your own posts and see if what I said earlier is clear to you.

I am currently reading James White and I admire his zeal, he has a love of scripture. He does pit the Catholic Church against scripture in his presentation as if the Church is anti-scripture. Which it most certainly isn’t. He probably doesn’t mean to do this but I believe that his zeal for apologetics has led him to believe that the Catholic Church’s belief in the Bible in light of the apostolic understanding of the faith is against the Bible.

He is giving me a better understanding of the position of his organization and that is very useful. I like the quantity he has available to read.

God Bless Kaycee,

Scylla
 
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