Another WHAP (TM) Against Heresy

"What did you just do? Those people walked away with their heads hanging low." - My Mom

I think I have reasonable goals in my life. To see a stigmatist. To see the Pope. To get into Notre Dame. Check, check, check. Happily today, I was able to knock off another thing from the ol' "To Do" list: Have a nice discussion with some door-to-door evangelizers.

They knocked on the door with their Watchtower booklets in hand. Ah, Jehovah's Witnesses. An apologetics softball. Sure, I'll take a magazine. Sure, sounds interesting. When was your religion founded again?

"It goes back to Abel, sir."

Uh-huh. But when was it organized?

"Umm in the 1800's. Our founder realized he was being lied to, and did some research. But the message goes back to Abel, Enoch--"

Huh. You don't say. But being Catholic, to me, it's really important to see a historical record of a religion, evidance that it's always existed the same way, at least back to Christ Himself.

"Well, look sir. There are 1,000s of religions. Thousands. But only one of these can be true; Christ only started one church, only taught one religion."

(blink) Did he really say that? SCORE.

I totally agree. And that's why it's so important to have a historical record. Certainly there are 1000's of denominations -- since the Reformation. But you're right, Christ only taught one religion -- and there's only one religion I know of which can trace its history from Christ, to 12 man, who ordained a couple hundred, who ordained a couple thousand bishops... down to this day.

"Um, ok. (the two look at each other) I guess we're a little rusty in this area, but we could check and get back to you--"

That's ok. I leave for school tomorrow. Yes, college. Pardon? I go to Notre Dame, in Indiana. Actually, I study historical theology there.

From here we discussed the nature of the writings of the Fathers of the Church (that is, its remarkable consistancy with the Catholic Church). We discussed the remarkable uniformity of the Christian Faith until the Reformation, and the chaos afterwards. We discussed the lack of any authenticated historical record for the teachings of the JW's. I did throw them a bone and said I wouldn't trust what I read about them on the Internet and get my future information on them from the horse's mouth -- "As a Catholic, I can certainly understand having your religion misrepresented. Hopefully, you'll do the same with regard to information you get about us." We complimented our mutual commitment to the culture of Life, and they went packing. Apparently, with heads hung. But hopefully it'll inspire them to look into the historical record of Christianit. Or at least, it'll inspire them avoid Catholic majors in historical theology.