Former Catholics

[Chris_in_Mich]

There are so many prominent converts to the Catholic faith I’ve even seen some apologists who are cradle Catholics assumed by many to be converts. Does the opposite also hold true? I remember when I was young, former MLB pitcher and former Catholic Frank Tanana would give my religion teacher fits, but he’s no where near as significant as the many notable Catholic converts. I’ve certainly heard of people leaving the faith, an historically there are obviously many, but are there currently any former Catholics that balance for Scott Hahn, Jimmy Akin, etc?

 

[MrS]

Chris in Mich:

There are so many prominent converts to the Catholic faith I’ve even seen some apologists who are cradle Catholics assumed by many to be converts. Does the opposite also hold true? I remember when I was young, former MLB pitcher and former Catholic Frank Tanana would give my religion teacher fits, but he’s no where near as significant as the many notable Catholic converts. I’ve certainly heard of people leaving the faith, an historically there are obviously many, but are there currently any former Catholics that balance for Scott Hahn, Jimmy Akin, etc?

Nope

The likes of someone like James McCarthy for instance are saddled with either part of the truth they retained being relegated to second place behind their “new found” truths, or
someone even more zealous claiming to be a former priest whose new found truths center on bashing.

MrS

 

[RobedWithLight]

Chris in Mich:

There are so many prominent converts to the Catholic faith I’ve even seen some apologists who are cradle Catholics assumed by many to be converts. Does the opposite also hold true? I remember when I was young, former MLB pitcher and former Catholic Frank Tanana would give my religion teacher fits, but he’s no where near as significant as the many notable Catholic converts. I’ve certainly heard of people leaving the faith, an historically there are obviously many, but are there currently any former Catholics that balance for Scott Hahn, Jimmy Akin, etc?

William Webster, a well-known critc of Catholicism, is a former Catholic. He has a website here. Dave Armstrong, if I’m not mistaken, has written several papers specifically aimed at refuting him.

Another prominent former Catholic turned anti-Catholic preacher is Eric Svendsen who has his own website here.

Gerry

 

[jennstall]

I think most of the prominent former Catholics tend to reject Christianity completely instead of joining a Protestant church – Matthew Fox, Mary Daly, etc. etc.

 

[kwitz]

One of the more famous ex-Catholics I know is Kurt Warner - who is now a fundamentalist of some sort (I can never get the distinctions straight).

My mom is a huge Warner fan and is so mad he’s playing for New York now. I just keep telling her I’d rather keep the Catholic Marc Bulger (well, I don’t know if he’s practicing but he did go to a Catholic high school ) than non-Catholic Warner. Of course the only thing that made her feel better is that Bulger is 1-0 and Warner is 0-1!!!

Kris

 

[David_E.Mahony]

I was left with the impression (failing the actual presentation of hard facts and figures) that the traffic was generally the other way, but where the other way went, I do not know. Was it to other, more fundamentalist religions? Was it to atheism? To agnosticism? I do not know; but suffice it to emphasise that ‘The Guardian’(UK) newspaper did at the time of the high-profile conversion of the Duchess of Kent to the Catholic faith throw in the interesting snippet that the traffic (and there is in saying this no guarantee of a continuance of such traffic today) was the other way, i.e. more left than joined. But where they went is still a mystery to me.

You will of course appreciate that in the UK we do not have a tradition of ‘supermarket’ religions – shopping here or there as they fancy may take, discarding this or taking up the latest offer. We are or have been generally, all or nothing.

DEM

 

[John_Higgins]

Rick Morrissey was the right idea:

COMMENTARY: Preaching has its place, but it’s not here

RICK MORRISSEY, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Sunday, February 3, 2002

NEW ORLEANS – It’s almost impossible to have a conversation with Kurt Warner without the subject of God falling into the tumble of words. You could be commenting on the wonderful lighting in the Superdome, and he would say it’s God’s will that the place is so bright and airy.

For those of us who believe in God, it's difficult to argue with that without looking like a pagan. Yes, I suppose it is God's will that the lighting is what it is in the dome. It was God's will that man harnessed electricity and designed light bulbs and thought up the game of football.

And I suppose it's God's will that the Rams will beat the bejabbers out of the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI [published pre-Superbowl], though more likely it will be because St. Louis has Warner, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Orlando Pace and the most talent of any team in the NFL.

For all I know, Jesus was an original Cleveland Rams fan and kept his allegiance after franchise moves to Los Angeles and St. Louis. I know for a fact he's a big Saints fan.

But should anyone care about what the Rams' starting quarterback thinks about religion? Or, more to the point, should anyone have to hear or read about it?

Warner sees Super Bowl week as his pulpit, but he's finding out what most preachers already know: The pews don't come with restraining belts. My guess is that most of what he said about Jesus last week will never see the light of day in newspapers or other media.

Many devout Christian athletes complain that whenever they refer to their religious beliefs during media interviews, their testimony often is edited out by heathen sportswriters wearing stained golf shirts.

There's a reason for this separation of church and sport: When people open up their sports section in the morning, they don't do it to read Warner's views on being born again.

And people don't open up the newspaper to read my views on original sin or the Immaculate Conception. It would be like sitting down to see the stage version of *Damn Yankees* and finding out you're actually watching a musical about the catechism of the Catholic church.

Am I less a Catholic because I don't want to quote Warner talking about Christianity? Am I headed for eternal damnation because I edit out references to Jesus in columns about the Rams' approach to the two-deep zone? No. Saying you'll take a pass on a quarterback's religious fervor doesn't mean that your beliefs are any less than his. It means you'd like to talk about football, which is the only reason so many people care about Warner.

What we have here is a fundamental difference in thinking. Warner can't separate his life from his religion from his sport from the chunky soup he slurps. It's all the same. God is everywhere.

Just not in the sports section very often.

I asked Warner why he thought people wanted to hear about Christianity from athletes.

"You practice what you preach," he said. "Everybody wants to see a 'good person' who says good things and also does good things. Athletes are obviously projected in that light. There are a lot of negatives in athletics. There's a lot of negative that's drawn out. There are individuals who don't believe in some of the things that I believe in.

"I think people want to see a guy who is a good guy. I can't always say it's a Christian because I think there are a lot of great guys who aren't Christians. But people want to see a guy who preaches the Good News and does what it says."...continued

 

[John_Higgins]

Morrissey continued:

Warner, like a lot of Christian athletes, also believes the converse – that people are itching for true-believing celebrities to fall. There might be some truth in that, but it’s more that people simply won’t give their hearts to athletes anymore. Burned by so many players who turn out to be heels, many fans are misers with their trust.

They don't feel good when athletes fail. They simply feel numb from it happening so many times. Three years ago, former Falcon Eugene Robinson was arrested for soliciting a prostitute. The day before, a Christian group had given him its humanitarian of the year award.

That's why it's hard to trust anymore.

Christianity is about falling and being forgiven, over and over again. But there's nothing in the Bible that says the conversions and its aftershocks, the sins and the forgiveness, have to be chronicled in the sports section.

Copyright, Chicago Tribune