My Dialogue With an Evangelical

The Council of Nicaea – Where much dialogue took place

I frequent a coffee shop in my area and when you go to the same coffee shop often, you get to know the servers. I had some dialogue with this one server. I knew that he was an Evangelical and had his head on straight regarding a lot of issues but last night we had a dialogue which raised some concerns.

When I told him that I was Catholic he naturally stated that he had some problems with Catholic theology. He first brought up praying to Mary. I explained that prayer is to ask and just as we’d ask our mother to pray for us, we ask the Mother of Christ to pray for us. I also shared with him the classic proof texts for this doctrine. I do consider this to be a legitimate objection that some Evangelicals have. However, from this point onwards the objections went downhill.

He said that the Catholic Church condones homosexual “marriage” and abortion. I asked him to cite a source on this. When he couldn’t I suggested that he read the catechism. He then said that he didn’t trust anything for doctrine that isn’t scripture. I pointed out that the catechism is where our doctrine is listed whether he finds it Biblical or not. He had to agree with me on this point. I simply told him that according to Catholicism, homosexuality and abortion are mortal sins and always have been.

He also brought up that he’s opposed to the prosperity gospel that the Catholic Church teaches and specifically cited Joel Osteen. I told him that the Church does not teach the prosperity gospel and that Osteen is not a Catholic and has never claimed to be.

At one point I asked him how many people were killed in the Spanish Inquisition. He said thirty million. I told him that the real number was between 3,000 and 4,000.

He also accused the Douay-Rheims Bible of error. I asked him for examples and he couldn’t give any offhand. I mentioned that I consider the New World Translation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to be in error and I cited specific verses that are falsely translated such as John 1:1.  I mentioned that he needed to give specific verses.  He said he’d get back to me.

One thing that was encouraging is he said that he heard that the Latin translation of the Bible is the most accurate translation ever made and wants to read it since he is fluent in Latin. I told him that it was called the Vulgate and was translated by St. Jerome.

To recap this dialogue, I was disappointed with some of the facts that this man brought up but I do see hope. He sounded open minded and seemed to care a lot about truth. I do hope that this man reads the Vulgate and tries to search out more truth.

He asked what Church I went to. I told him the Church and also told him that this Church uses the Tradition Latin Mass as opposed to the modern liturgy. I mentioned that it included incense, Gregorian Chant, and the priest facing ad orientem. He sounded intrigued when I told him this. He also understands the moral rot of modern society and how Biblical values are the answer.

There is hope for this man. He just needs to be guided in the proper direction.