Doug Batchelor - can I ask CAF'ers for their opinion

[adgloriam]

A few years ago I found a video from Doug Batchelor and I think he tries hard to bash Catholics. Afterwards I tried for several years without success to find the video again. So now, today, I finally did find the video again. And now I know the pastor is Doug Batchelor and he’s apparently a “Seventh-Day Adventist”.

Can I please ask the CAF community for a comment on this pastor and the Seventh-Day Adventists?

Because I’m not from the US and I think this level of anti-Catholic bashing is somewhat extreme so I wanted to hear other folks experience with this.

 

[Francis]

JW’s and Pentecostal’s are the most anti-Catholics ever! , i have read about Doug Batchelor, president of his show called Amazing Facts am pretty sure he is a hard core anti Catholic and solo preacher /self taught which is more dangerous, they are against the Catholic Church,the Pope ,sacraments and divinity of Jesus,and take great delight in targeting and spreading errors and hatred towards,Mother Mary as their specialty.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Seventh Day Adventists have been known in the past for expressing extreme hate speech towards the Church. In recent years, some of them are trying to build more bridges and denounce the Doug Batchelor types in the Seventh Day Adventist faith as a fringe element. However, I’m pretty sure that even the ones trying to act nice don’t like us too much.

I’m not going to watch the video because I’ve already seen enough crazy from Seventh Day Adventists in the past, particularly when they mailed out to all local households a book called “National Sunday Law” which is some kind of conspiracy theory they advocate, discussed here:
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/National_Sunday_law

The book contained all kinds of references to the Church as the Whore of Babylon and other things. It really didn’t make much sense and seemed to be written by someone who was mentally disturbed. Apparently this came from some national SDA organization. The local SDA church in my town, which is pretty small and non-descript and trying to present itself like just another welcoming Protestant church, put up some web page trying to distance itself from this gunk…but I see by their webpage that they like this Bachelor guy and show his videos at their events.

Bottom line is that while I am pretty open to all faiths, there are a few I run away from like the plague, and SDA is one of them. Too much hate.

 

[lilypadrees]

My mother grew up with friends who were SDA. And they weren’t anti anyone’s choice of religion.

My only experience with SDAs was positive. Their church services are held on Saturday instead of Sunday. They believe that Saturday is the Sabbath Day and do no work on that day. Many are vegetarians. And those who do eat meat refuse to eat any meat deemed unclean.

Like my mother, I’ve never heard them speak negatively about Catholics or about other Protestants.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Found a past thread on this Batchelor person. Definitely anti-Catholic and should be avoided.
I’m grateful the local SDA in my town is quite small.

Doug Batchelor: His Catholic Church Attacks Non-Catholic Religions

Hi Catholics, There is a guy I saw on the BET network. His name is Doug Batchelor, president of his show called Amazing Facts. In his show he preaches the bible using an 80 inch screen television. He has made me upset. If there are Catholics right now reading this, please give your feedback. I’ve watched other religious channels before but they never criticized other religions. This show brutally criticized the Catholic Church. Let’s begin on what Mr. Batchelor preached: Catholic Church Attac…

 

[EricF]

After reading this thread, I think I’ll skip looking this fellow up. No SDA’s near me, but the JW’s are pretty gung-ho. Once I put a St. Francis statue on the porch, they’ve stayed away.

 

[adgloriam]

Thanks @Francis, @Tis_Bearself, @lilypadrees, @EricF I appreciate your thoughts and experience that you took the time and trouble to share with me. I also want to apologize for this late reply, but I wanted to take some more time to think things over.

 

[drac16]

SDAs are really passionate about eating healthy foods. Many of them are vegans or vegetarians (their prophetess was a vegetarian). I’ve heard that their prophetess said that worshiping on Sundays is the mark of the beast (they worship on Saturdays).

 

[adgloriam]

JW’s and Pentecostal’s are the most anti-Catholics ever! , i have read about Doug Batchelor, president of his show called Amazing Facts am pretty sure he is a hard core anti Catholic and solo preacher /self taught which is more dangerous, they are against the Catholic Church,the Pope ,sacraments and divinity of Jesus,and take great delight in targeting and spreading errors and hatred towards,Mother Mary as their specialty.

Well, I actually have a few friends that are JW and we’ve always gotten along very well - I honestly love them, and they have been wonderful friends to me and my family, to some of them I owe a debt of gratitude, and there were a handful of them that helped me out in decisive moments of my life.

But I also met 1 or 2 JW’s that weren’t alright and were somewhat aggressive in their proselytizing. Again, I don’t know if those are representative or if they were simply pharisaic about their doctrinal differences. (I also met Catholics that were not lovely.)

The Pentecostals are a very broad term, and as you know we even have a Pentecostal Movement within the Catholic church. I can’t really say if I’ve met any Pentecostals knowingly.

But, I found Doug Batchelor interesting and worthy of mention because he seemed like the “exemplar archetype” of anti-catholic. A guy to remember when you need to give an example of all the classic anti-catholic deleterious sophistry summed up. I think there are certainly lovely protestants in the world and ecumenical dialogue is something we should to engage in when there is a possibility, however I take it that unfortunately the Doug Batchelor line-of-argument is the antithesis of respectful mutual understanding.

God bless.

 

[adgloriam]

SDA have been known

Thanks Bear, I knew there were (a few) older CAF threads on the subject but I wanted a short opinion from current CAF’ers that I have come to know. And honestly I was hoping you’d answer because I appreciate your views and you’re always very knowledgeable about issues relating to US society, so I take your opinion as invaluable.

I have come across some protestants personally, both from my own country and converts returning from the US, that reflect some anti-catholic speech like this Doug Batchelor character. So when it happens I am curious to backtrack those influences in their speech and also to understand what kind of protestant missionaries are being sent from the US to the rest of the world. Because, I have encountered this kind of anti-catholic speech coming from South-America to Europe with a marked US influence at its origin dating to the 70’s-90’s.

The SDA certainly seem to have some extremes within them and I really appreciate the experience you’ve shared.

Thank you.

[btw: Your Lenten thread was lovely, and I’m sorry it got derailed. God bless and take care, I wish you a successful Lenten growing closer to Jesus. ]

 

[adgloriam]

My mother grew up with friends who were SDA. And they weren’t anti anyone’s choice of religion.

Like my mother, I’ve never heard them speak negatively about Catholics or about other Protestants.

Thanks @lilypadrees I guess every Christian is his own person. And it’s good to know that different Christians can keep charity above all and don’t let doctrinal differences cause rift. Some of my best friends are radical anti-Catholic protestants and I only realized how much many years later. That didn’t stop us from maturing a beautiful friendship.

However, it can be good to be aware. And after having met many people from other religions and denominations I do prefer to know outright if they hold any prejudice or preconceptions.

 

[Francis]

@adgloriam

Well, I actually have a few friends that are JW

That’s nice to here from you ,Most Catholic’s appreciate our protestant brothers for their zeal the knowledge of scriptures,and their personal relationship with Jesus, but not likely from the other side ,though they are a few exceptions. i remember as a child ,after the Mass, during the feast day of especially on 8th September the Jw would ,distribute anti catholic materials flyers /handouts and against the Catholic Church and Mother Mary and asked us to repent and leave the Church,my father would request them politely, that we respect one another’s differences and pray for unity and give a good example to our non Christians brothers ,and that they had asked for our address, and the very next day came home with their bibles a group of 4 or 5 of them and started arguing about idols and Mary ,my father being a heart patient has chest pain and my Mom asked them to leave peacefully that was my experience and many more protestant deno would follow suit.i guess your right Jw are more aggressive.
2 John 1:7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! 8 Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive a full reward. 9 Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching; 11 for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a personJesus prayed for unity ,and also we should have love with discernment. Jude 20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21 keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on some who are wavering

The Pentecostals are a very broad term, and as you know we even have a Pentecostal Movement within the Catholic church. I can’t really say if I’ve met any Pentecostals knowingly.

There is a huge different between the Pentecostal Churches,and the Pentecostal Movement in the Catholic Church ,i remember one of my neighbor was a Pentecostal ,they where very loving family and i often use to play food ball and other games with them.i guess there are good and bad on broadsides. Pentecostals use different strategy to convert Catholic like invite them for a prayer meeting and stuff like that .

 

[Francis]

Continuation
@adgloriam

I think there are certainly lovely protestants in the world and ecumenical dialogue is something we should to engage in when there is a possibility,

Yes i agree what you said after all they are good and bad on both sides , We have to be the the instruments of unity than to scatter as in Matthew 12:30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. John 17: 20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Last but not the least ,Love with discernment Philippians 1:9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight (discernment )10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, God Bless

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It’s interesting that right after you made this thread and I responded, I was on a community forum for my hometown asking for recommendations for a charity that helps the local homeless and those in need. One of the recommendations I got happened to be the local SDA church. The person recommending them didn’t have any idea what type of church they were or anything about church in general, they just said, “That church behind the XYZ Restaurant takes all kinds of stuff and uses it all to help the local poor.” I happen to know from growing up in the area and spending a lot of time there that the church in question is the SDA church.

I really wish they would mend more fences with the Catholics because it seems like the people who attend are probably nice people. But I just can’t be friendly to some church that goes around promoting ideas like the Catholic Church has the mark of the beast. One has to draw the line somewhere.

Thank you for the good Lent wishes. Hopefully the mods will fix the other thread.