Pointing out errors is not proselytizing or browbeating. Whatever opinions are false should be corrected. The alternative is to let them pass unchecked as if they were true,and to let people continue to be misled. That is worse than people arguing past each other.
Recognition of Truth is based on faith. We have
faith that our Church is without error. So too, do others with regards to their ecclesial communities (for Christians) or religion or non-religion. Pointing out “errors” is therefore largely useless. One needs to make a leap of faith. I made a leap of faith when I reverted back to the Church from atheism. It didn’t come from people pointing out my “errors”. God knows they had been doing that for years (wife, mother-in-law and various acquaintances).
The leap, in my case, came from hitting rock-bottom in emptiness, and while on a business trip, picking up the Bible from the night table in the hotel, and reading the Gospels. Because I had a Catholic upbringing, suddenly a light went off and I found myself back in the Church and on a journey that continues to this day, with all its ups and downs, picking one’s self up from falling flat on the floor, and going 3 steps backwards for every step forward, then bursting forth, then falling again.
Conversion is a much more complex issue than people pointing out errors, though recognizing errors or inconsistencies certainly can play a role. But that usually doesn’t come from an Internet argument. It comes from reading learned authors, questioning, discerning. Bottom line is one has to open one’s heart first to the Gospel, and then try one’s best to seek the Truth. I have yet to meet anything other than an amateur theologian on the Internet or among most laity. I know only one layman with a Master’s degree in theology. And I have yet to hear of anyone converting from an Internet argument.
When I reverted to Catholicism, I had plenty of opportunity to have my “error” of becoming Catholic pointed out to me. From my my wife, my mother-in-law, and one co-worker in particular.
To hear it coming from my wife (Evangelical Anglican) really hurt (fortunately we’ve turned that corner many years ago but it was really, really rocky for a long time).
I hang out with Benedictines. They don’t proselytize. They don’t point out errors. They welcome all who come as if Christ Himself were walking through the portal of the monastery. They dialogue by listening, not by insisting. They are experts in doctrine and have solid formation in theology. But they don’t proselytize or point out errors. When asked, they simply explain. If not asked, they don’t intrude into their guest’s “mystery” as they put it. They make him or her feel welcome, and heard. My wife turned to a monk when we hit a crisis a few years ago and now she recognizes the value of Benedictine spirituality. I pray for her conversion every single day, but I don’t argue with her about it, nor do I point out her “errors”. As I mentioned, we turned that corner.
Here’s a concrete example of how I reached out to a Protestant a few years ago. I was standing outside the monastery on a beautiful summer’s day waiting for Vespers. An Evangelical who had just visited picked me as a target to proselytize how it was “all the works of man”, “unscriptural”, etc., using the usual proof-texting methods. This is what I replied:
“I see you really love the Bible. So do I. Have you ever heard of lectio divina?”
he replied that he hadn’t.
I explained that it was a slow, meditative way of reading Scripture, where you really attempt to get to the the Truth hidden in the passage and where you not only read and meditate Scripture, but you
pray it. I asked if he had Internet and he said he did, so I suggested to him that he google “lectio divina”, and there would be plenty of (mostly Catholic) sites explaining it.
He ended up being really enthusiastic about my suggestion and promised me he would look it up.
Hopefully I planted a seed, but maybe I didn’t. What I do know, is that I didn’t turn him off by butting heads with him. Because of I screw up at evangelizing by relying on proselytizing, and drive someone
away from the Church, it is
I that will have to answer to God on judgement day for it, not the one I drove away.
