I’d like some help if no one minds, but I’m completely new here, so if I’m putting this under the wrong thread, please let me know and I’ll move it.
I’m a cradle-Catholic and a sophomore at a Catholic university (Boston College). I usually attend either the Tridentine Mass (“Extraordinary Form”) at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes or the Anglican Use Mass at St. Athanasius. I’m also a lector at my church at home, which is Ordinary Form. All that for background!
I’m in a French class with a friendly kid who converted from Catholicism to some kind of (forgive me) wacky “non-denominational” Protestant sect. Really nice kid, but he can’t leave off any opportunity to proselytize.
I was also in a (different) French class with him last semester. There was a radical atheist fellow who came in and essentially said all Catholics and conservatives are evil, blah, blah, blah. I argued with him (I think I won the argument, but he became very insulted because he was a professor–not my professor, admittedly, but a different one), and neither of us came out very happy.
But the kid came out happy, apparently, because, seeing I had a knowledge of Scripture, he rushed up to me after class and asked me if I wanted to do a Bible study with him. As you can guess, I knew where this was leading, so I nicely responded that I’d like to meet up with him but wasn’t so crazy about doing a Bible study with him. After going back and forth, he said, “OK, maybe some other time,” and left.
Wouldn’t you know it, we’re in a French class together again this semester, and this time he hasn’t stopped hounding me about going to his Bible study. Day in and out every single day! Finally (mea culpa), I gave in. We just met a few hours ago. Then he told me his church leaders had come too. Oh, no.
It started off all friendly and cheerful, until they started whipping out the Bible and asking me for every line, verse, period, and semicolon. I held my own, based on material I’d learnt from Catholic Answers, and responded to every one of his points.
He was furious. He started screaming at me, telling me I was going to hell. I wanted to stand up and leave at that very moment, but his friend calmed him down, whereupon he fell silent.
After his friend (who was much nicer about the whole thing) finished speaking, the first guy said that I was coming in with a closed mind and that I wouldn’t bear to hear “what the Scriptures plainly say.”
I pushed back, naturally. I quoted Lewis, Chesterton, Augustine, Aquinas, Newman–all of which I probably shouldn’t have, because then he told me I was following “their theology” and not what God is “plainly saying to me in the Scriptures.”
He wanted me to have a proof-text for every single word that was coming out of my mouth. I told him he didn’t have a proof-text for every single word coming out of his mouth. He just said that my mind was “made-up,” that I was not a Christian, and that I just wanted to argue, not listen.
I laughed.
He said my laughing about such a serious matter showed I was going to hell.
I said the Almighty created laughter, did he not?
“Not about salvation.”
By the way, he later laughed at my beliefs. I called him out on it in an instant, and he shut up quicker than you can say “Jack Robinson.”
We left on atrocious terms. He quoted another passage to me. I responded, “‘Love one another.’ That’s what you and I should do, no?”
He walked out.
The kid from class tried to smooth things over, but his church leader was so angry.
I need help. I never want to put myself in that kind of situation again, but, if it ever happens, what do I do? I responded to all of his points, using Scripture but also appealing to the fact that Scripture itself never says that it is the only authority.
I am well-versed in Protestant theology and was able to explain his theology, but he kept saying this was “new to me.” We eventually got into a ridiculous debate on the meaning of the words Christian, disciple, and called. I kid you not!
I know this is long, but could someone help me out here? My heart’s still racing from when the argument got very bad. My thanks!
I think you handled the entire thing really well! When someone starts to scream in general, it means that they are panicking and that is their last resort. You did nothing wrong, and may I add it was also extremely smart of you to meet them in a lounge as opposed to your dorm room. I think it was really low of your class mate to purposely surprise you like this (calling his leaders ahead of time and not even mentioning it to you until you were in the lounge!).
