December 10, 2008 10:25 AM
Evangelical to Catholic - 13 months later
I write a lot. There are currently 3941 entries here at MommyLife - and 15,033 comments as well.
I've gone through many journeys with you here - losing lots of weight, taking on the school system when they were falling short with my kids, dealing with the ups and downs and ins and outs of relationships with 12 kids (including adults), three Pro-Life marches, magazine articles and columns, financial collapse/foreclosure, going gray, the surprise rise of Obama -
and my conversion to Catholicism.
That conversion has generated more conversation - and cost me more readers - than any other topic. This morning I mentioned that you could follow the thread of that through my category Catholicism. But I just found that it started here November 4, 2007:
I spoke yesterday at Maryland United for Life's annual conference. Maddy snapped this picture and also took care of selling books. What a sweetie!
The talk I gave is "Mother of 12 (and Former Radical Leftist) Lives to Tell About It!"
Besides my personal history, which includes years in the counterculture as an anti-war organizer, abortion rights spokesperson, drug addict, and welfare mother - plus having an abortion myself in 1977 (that child would now be 30 years old and how I wish I knew him or her!) - I talk about how coming to know God changed my view on the value of human life.
If you don't understand that your own life is sacred, there is no way you can understand that a baby's is as well. This is the gap that divides those who believe in abortion and those who believe in life.
How do you bridge that gap?
You begin with yourself - by honestly reflecting on whether your own life reflects a regard for life as a gift and a blessing. I describe my experience coming into Christianity with five children and expecting to hear Evangelicals singing a different tune than I'd been hearing in the world: One's more than I can handle," "I don't know how you do it - my two are enough to drive me crazy." And so on. Unfortunately, I found Evangelicals to be - with rare exceptions - pretty conformed to the world in this regard - thinking of children as burdens rather than blessings, and trading material wealth for the only real stake we have in the future: our children.
This is the challenge - to ask yourself if the media is correct and you are simply anti-abortion, or if you are truly pro-life. I have said publicly in a few venues now that Tripp and I are on our way to converting to Catholicism.
Read entire entry and comments here.
That entry - made before I had a Catholicism category - sparked 101 comments. It made some people decide to write me off forever. It prompted my husband - who had no exposure to Catholicism - to begin reading the early church fathers to find out where the truth lay - his own personal journey which led to being confirmed in the Catholic Church at Easter. This was not my doing at all, as I saw no reason for him to conform to my calling - but because in the face of the intense opposition to his wife's conversion, he wanted to find out the truth for himself.
Anyway....because I know there are so many new readers here, in case anyone wanted to know how it came about that such a strong fundamentalist/evangelical woman became Catholic in the first place, I thought I'd steer you to the beginning of this journey to see how it all began.
You might enjoy reading through the comments on the post above to understand why some evangelicals might be called to the Catholic church but find it too difficult to obey the call. We have met a dozen evangelical families in this area - and many in cyberspace - who made this journey and suffered the same harsh judgment we have.
I also know high profile authors revered by evangelicals who have converted or reverted to Catholicism, but have avoided the backlash I experienced by not going public.
I've always thought part of my calling was to build bridges. I suppose I was a bit naive in thinking that I could write that last November 4 and that my life would remain unchanged. But while many hard hearts were revealed, I am happy that some were not so hard. I received this in at the end of an email this morning:
Okay, and on another totally unrelated side note, I just found out a girl I know is Catholic and because of you I didn't automatically assume she was not a believer! That's progress for this Baptist girl! :D
Hallelujah! I believe it's a good thing when our assumptions are challenged. And in the face of the evil in which we live in this world, I think it's absurd and self-defeating to continue to foster the division, judgment, and self-righteousness we see in the Christian community.
Those interviews I did in Aurora, IL for Focus on the Family last fall showed me that Protestants and Catholics can work together for good in this world. But it took leadership. The pastors I interviewed had chosen to lead their flocks in seeking common ground with Catholics rather than continuing to shred the Body of Christ with their distinctives and proof-texts.
So if all I did in the past year - besides my own spiritual growth - was to cause one Baptist girl to give a Catholic the benefit of a doubt, well again, all I can say is
Hallelujah! What a Savior! What a gift is the Body of Christ!
Posted in Catholicism | Permalink
Comments
Barbara, you are most certainly building bridges...and tearing down walls!
I believe God is moving in the Church (by Church I mean all believers) to bring unity and solidarity. We are living in difficult times in a culture that continues to grow hostile to believers of all stripes. We need each other.
The world will know we belong to God by our love for each other.
Posted by: Elizabeth M Thompson | December 10, 2008 12:28 PM
Total side note...just wanted to let you know you look great in that picture!
Posted by: Stretch Mark Mama | December 10, 2008 5:37 PM
Barbara,
I really appreciate your blog. I am an evangelical who has grown up thinking that Catholics are misguided. I appreciate you making me take a look at the assumptions that I have always held.
Thanks.
Posted by: Jessica B. | December 10, 2008 6:56 PM
Hi Barbara,
Just wanted to let you know of another Evangelical to Catholic family ! My husband was a pastor with the Assemblies of God in a former life ( ! ) and it took us just over a year of near-constant reading before deciding that the Church was THE CHURCH !
Love to you and yours,
The Howells
Posted by: Allison Howell | December 10, 2008 7:14 PM
you may have lost alot of your readers but I hope to think you will gain more new readers esp Catholics (like myself).
Know that you and your family in my prayers!
Just wanted to share with you a famous convert who died 40 yrs ago today.
Fr. Louis (aka Thomas) Merton - Trappist monk
http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/the-belly-of-a-paradox
http://www.universalis.com/-600/today.htm
“The things I thought were so important – because of the effort I put into them – have turned out to be of small value. And the things I was never able to either to measure or to expect, were the things that mattered.” -
Posted by: mm | December 11, 2008 12:42 AM
As far as church attendance goes I was raised in Methodist/Epicopalian/Baptist. My cousins in Michigan are Catholic so I've a brief encounters with the faith. We now go to a community/non-denom with more southern Baptist leanings.
I guess I never really thought it was a big deal about the whole Protestant or Catholic thing and this is coming from a girl with a strong Irish background. I mean we all believe in the one true God, Jesus Christ, and the life everlasting right?
Oh and MM, I love reading Merton stuff. Good stuff.
Posted by: Jen K. | December 11, 2008 8:44 AM
Like your third commenter, Jessica, I too appreciate your openness in sharing your journey - I too have had my assumptions challenged. A few months ago I read several books on the Catholic faith to gain a better understanding of the church.
Although I am not in agreement with many of the Catholic church's teachings, I found that I *do* appreciate many of the traditions I formerly did not understand. I have a greater love and respect for my Catholic friends.
So, here's another Baptist girl whom you have challenged and encouraged!
Posted by: Windswpet Plains | December 11, 2008 10:59 AM
Barbara,
Bless you for continuing to build bridges. I've been lagging behind you on this journey to Catholicism and will continue. My heart is converted, the details remain. I know God is in control. My biggest fear was my very anti-Catholic sister-in-law and how would I ever tell her my decision? Well, God has been hard at work softening her heart and we have broached the subject a couple of times. She's still pretty much at the point of your Baptist commenter who now knows a Catholic can be a Christian. Smile. Not because of me, but because of other Catholics she has been privileged to know recently and to witness their faith in action. God is good!
We endured more hostility from our Evangelical friends when we left one Protestant church for another, but we have gradually distanced ourselves from our last Evangelical church so it may be easier for our friends to take the news than if we had left directly?
I seem to remember an even earlier post of yours when you said you were realizing that the Catholic position on Life might be more important than all the other theological issues? It was a post about your involvement in the Right to Life where you had met so many Catholic families whose ideas about family were more consistent with your own than most Evangelicals, and I think it was over two years ago?
Posted by: Sandy C. | December 11, 2008 7:39 PM
Barbara, you inspire me!
Thanks for posting the song, I LOVE it!
Posted by: Angela | December 11, 2008 11:01 PM
Great post! Another awesome convert, Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, passed away this morning. The Church will miss his brilliant writing and unparalleled scholarship, but he's heading to his true home, so praise God!
Posted by: Maggie | December 12, 2008 11:51 AM
One convert to another - welcome home! - and God bless you for your diligent efforts on behalf of the pre-born.
Posted by: Warren | December 13, 2008 2:09 AM
