One of our subscribers received a distressing letter from an assistant to D. James Kennedy, head of Coral Ridge Ministries and well-known televangelist. The letter is here reproduced in full. Our commentary follows:
“Thank you for your interest and support of Dr. Kennedy and Coral Ridge Ministries. It is our prayer that we will be a positive resource for the spiritual needs of you and your loved ones.
“Concerning the ‘perpetual virginity’ of Mary. How much proof do you need? The Bible says Jesus had brothers and sisters. It says nothing about cousins. Is it believable that a man could marry a woman and not consummate (have sexual intercourse with) the marriage? Come on! Get real! Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born. When the Bible says ‘brothers and sisters’ it means brothers and sisters. We have no reason to believe that Joseph, Mary’s husband, was abnormal.
“KJV: ‘. . . knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son.’ ‘Firstborn’ suggests she had others. ‘Knew’ is from the intimate term referring to personal sexual knowledge. Adam ‘knew’ Eve and she conceived.
“NASV: Matthew 1:25: ‘. . . and kept her a virgin, until she gave birth to a Son.’ Notice the word ‘until.’ Obviously, after the birth of Jesus, she was no longer ‘kept as a virgin,’ but the marriage was sexually consummated.
“Forget Calvin, Luther, and Zwingli. Trust the Word of God, and please be realistic. Mary was a wonderful girl, and she lost her virginity like any other wife in history.
“We ask you to remember us in your prayers as we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ through television and radio.
“Sincerely,
“Rev. Ian. S. McSevney
“Assistant to Dr. Kennedy”
Our subscriber scribbled a note on the letter: “I thought Kennedy’s staff would be more educated and open-minded than this. I’ve answered the letter with Catholic Answers’ tract The ‘Brethren of the Lord‘, and I’m awaiting [Mr. McSevney’s] reply.
While we’re waiting for the next part of the exchange, it’s worth expanding on our subscriber’s disappointment. He is engaged in correspondence with a minister who seems entirely oblivious to the Catholic understanding of Mary’s virginity, entirely unaware that a Catholic response exists. “Come on! Get real!” he insists.
As disappointing as this attitude is, we aren’t surprised by it–we see it too often to be startled. You rightly expect a multi-million dollar ministry like Kennedy’s to have on staff a few well-read individuals, people who have hit the books to learn the other side’s best case. These “point men” should straighten out the troops who answer the thousands of letters that arrive each month:
“You’ve been pooh-poohing the Catholic position on Mary? It’s more subtle and more scriptural than you think. We have to oppose it effectively, which means we have to understand it from the inside. Here, read this summary, then redraft that reply.”
That’s the kind of thing a big ministry should be able to do with ease. After all, if Catholic Answers, a mere blip on the screen of evangelization, requires its staffers to understand the other side’s best case, shouldn’t Coral Ridge Ministries be held to the same standards?
Until it is, here, in microscopic form, is the way the Catholic can reply:
1. “Brother” and “sister,” and their plurals, are indeterminate in New Testament Greek. The indeterminacy arises from the lack of words for close relations, such as cousin, in Aramaic and Hebrew. We can conclude nothing about the relationship of Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” from those disputed words alone.
2. “Firstborn” does not imply there was a “secondborn” child. “Firstborn” was a legal term under the Law, designating the child who opened the womb and who, if male, had special rights and duties by virtue of being the eldest son in the family.
3. For the Jews, “until” did not mean what it means today. It implied nothing about whether an action happened after a particular instant. One cannot conclude that if Mary was a virgin “until” Jesus’ birth, she must have ceased being one after.
4. Calvin, Luther, and Zwingli, despite their substantial theological deficiencies, were intelligent men–at least as well read as D. James Kennedy and Ian S. McSevney. The three Reformers maintained Mary’s lifelong virginity precisely because they thought the Bible taught it.
The first three of these points are dealt with at length in The ‘Brethren of the Lord‘, where scriptural citations refuting each of Mr. McSevney’s points are given.
Positive things are going on in Colorado. One is the Archdiocese of Denver’s 23rd Mile Hi Congress, “Faithful by Choice,” to be held February 21-22 at the downtown Radisson Hotel. It is something Rocky Mountain apologists-in- training will want to attend.
The Congress will meet in four general sessions and a special Friday night session. As in past years, concurrent workshops will follow each main address. The workshops will offer practical guidance to teachers and catechists–and anyone interested in spreading the faith effectively.
The keynote speaker will Cardinal Jose T. Sanchez, a native of the Philippines, who serves as Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome. He has served also in the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Next up will be Msgr. William B. Smith, professor of theology at St. Joseph Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York. He will speak on “How to Form and Act Upon a Truly Catholic Conscience.” Noted for his sharp wit and sharp tongue, Msgr. Smith will explain, among other things, what the role of conscience isn’t.
The Friday night general session will feature Karl Keating of Catholic Answers, whose address on dealing with Fundamentalists and other sectarians will be followed by a free-for-all question period.
Saturday morning’s speaker will be Peter Kreeft, who will talk on “Overcoming Obstacles to Faithful Choices.” He teaches philosophy at Boston College, contributes regularly to several Catholic periodicals, and is the author of numerous books.
Following him will be Ronda Chervin, professor of philosophy at St. John’s Seminary near Los Angeles. She will explain how we can “Understand the Redemptive Value of Human Suffering.” In her remarks she will reflect on her own experience in dealing with rejection, cancer, and the suicide of one of her children.
The Congress will close with Mass.
For more information, write to Mile Hi Congress, 200 Josephine St., Denver, CO 80206 or call (303) 388-4411, ext. 286. The cost is $45 in advance, $50 at the door.
Hank Hanegraff, president of the Christian Research Institute, which broadcasts the “Bible Answer Man” program begun by the late Walter Martin, was the object of a challenge by Dave Hunt, prolific anti-Catholic and anti-New Age writer. Hunt asked Hanegraff, whose ministry exposes cults, to do the same to the Catholic Church.
Replying in the Christian Research Newsletter, Hanegraff said, “As a result of Hunt’s appeal, I have received numerous letters and phone calls–even during our ‘Bible Answer Man’ broadcast–asking me to brand Roman Catholicism a cult. In some instances I’ve been accused of not having the guts to stand against the church of Rome because of its immense power and vast resources.”
Hanegraff replied by “enunciat[ing] my reasons for not labeling Catholicism a cult.” First he defined what he means by cult, indicating such groups as the Unification Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Christian Scientists. His definition includes the newness of the movement; an ancient religion, such as Catholicism, would not qualify as a cult, even if it rejects doctrines which Hanegraff thinks are essential to Christianity.
As a matter of fact, he says, the Catholic Church does not reject the essentials–“the Trinity, Christ’s deity and humanity, his virgin birth, physical atonement, bodily resurrection, and second coming.”
“In fact, with regard to these essentials, evangelicals have more in common with conservative Roman Catholics than they do with liberal Protestants. For these and other reasons, it would be patently inaccurate and unfair to classify Roman Catholicism as a cult.”
Then come the qualifiers.
“[L]et me hasten to add that just because I believe it is inaccurate to label the Catholic church a cult does not mean I am soft on Catholicism. But if we are to fault Roman Catholicism (or any group for that matter), we should do so for the right reason. Hanegraff then mentions what he perceives as Catholic problems regarding salvation, Mary, and Sacred Tradition.
“CRI has had a reputation during our 30-year history of being credible and accurate. Even secular news organizations, who are worlds apart from us when it comes to world views, rely on the accuracy of CRI’s data and documentation. They know we have done our research and that the information we present is solid.”
So far as we know, though, CRI still speaks well on the air, and its correspondents still recommend, Loraine Boettner’s Roman Catholicism, so give CRI one brownie point and one demerit.
From Germany comes Christusstaat (Christ State), “the Word of the Covenant Community New Jerusalem in Universal Life.” The publication has a circulation of 100,000 in five languages.
A recent English-language issue is headlined, WE DISSOCIATE OURSELVES! Identifying themselves as “primordial Christians,” the editors say they have “decided for Christ and his law. . . . We dissociate ourselves from all church groups who use the name ‘Christian’ but are not willing to teach and live what the Nazarene taught. We especially distance ourselves from the Catholic and Protestant churches. . . . We pay our taxes because it is according to the law of this world. But we protest the fact that with our taxes weapons are produced, which are used to kill people and animals. We protest the fact that our taxes are wasted in order to destroy nature and foodstuffs.”
Although they have produced Christusstaat at no little expense, the editors say, “We do not want to convince anyone on Earth. No one has to think and believe as we think and believe. . . . We have no crime, no falsehood and deceit. We have no superiors and subordinates.”
They also have no use for Catholicism, which comes under attack every few paragraphs. The Church is condemned for promoting “the catechism instead of the Bible.” Worse, “Catholicism is syncretism.” Even L’Osservatore Romano comes under attack.
Does this sound like a Fundamentalist attitude? It isn’t. It’s New Age, as demonstrated by a large ad on the back cover. Readers are encouraged to purchase This Is My Word, “a work which surpasses beyond all doubt the contents of the Bible, for it contains in all authenticity the life, thinking, and work of Jesus of Nazareth, whom we experience as the greatest prophet, spiritual teacher, and wise man.” Inside one will find discussed “the Father-Mother-Principle,” why “the all-encompassing light will be visible,” and how “man can only understand the actualized truth.”
We don’t know how it happened, but our own Charles Harvey got his name on the list for the Silva Mind Control Method. He received in the mail a brochure titled, CHARLES HARVEY’S HUGE SUCCESS POTENTIAL RELEASED BY BRAIN-WAVE TRAINING.
Naturally this made Charlie perk up. He’s long suspected he has untapped potential, and here, apparently, is a way to put it to work. After all, a headline on one of the subsidiary articles insists, STUDY SAYS HARVEY CAN LEARN TO ACCESS SAME MENTAL STATE AS EDISON, FREUD AND BRAHMS.
Imagine that! Someday soon we might find this quiet staffer in the back room, psychoanalyzing himself while he composes a symphony on instruments of his own invention.
But is such a thing really possible? Evidently so. Jose Silva, founder of the Silva Mind Control Method, insists that “if you can count backwards from six to one, you can learn to think and function like the world’s most successful people.”
This is encouraging for people like Charlie, for whom higher mathematics is terra incognita. According to Silva, for success one needs only a kindergartener’s skill in counting. What a relief! Now Charlie can join intellectuals such as Vicki Carr, Carol Lawrence, and Loretta Swit, all of whom have used the Silva Mind Control Method–and look at what it got them!
Our October 1991 issue reported that the Church on the Way, located in Van Nuys, California, has visited half the 350,000 homes in the San Fernando Valley. “What if Catholics went door to door?” we asked.
They do, noted subscriber Justin W. Gullekson, who works with the Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota. The Diocese, under Bishop James Sullivan, has set up a door-to-door outreach program called “Opening Doors and Opening Hearts.” Over the next three years every Catholic family is eastern North Dakota will be visited, about 31,000 homes.
The visitations include apologetics work. “Every evangelist needs his apologetics, too,” says Charlie Eldredge, head of the committee overseeing the program. “If [Catholic] families wonder about Protestant Fundamentalists, Mormons, or other active proselytizers, we have quick and easy responses for them to use if someone else comes to the door.”
All visitors receive training in door-to-door techniques and in the teachings of the Church. “It’s a refresher course on Catholicism,” explains Eldredge. “I know that I’ve forgotten so much from CCD. The two-day seminar really puts Vatican II and the Church today into perspective.” So far, Mass attendance is up, there is a deeper sense of community, and one young man is looking into the priesthood.
The Protestant Challenge newsletter reports that “fifty years ago the Canadian Protestant League could hardly find buildings large enough to contain the crowds who flocked to learn the use of the gospel trumpet. Active branches were numerous, local officers sacrificially rallied local forces whenever free institutions and the rights of Canadians were challenged. Where are they now!”
In other words, one of Canada’s chief anti-Catholic organizations is undergoing hard times. Its income for the year ending August 31 was an encouragingly low $30,000, while expenses were $37,500.
The current editor of The Protestant Challenge, Jonas E. C. Shepherd, was a founding member of the organization, which began in 1941. He notes that “many of the old stalwarts have been taken home! Some younger ones have filled the empty spaces, but all too few seem to realize the ongoing threats of Jesuitism, Liberalism, Ecumenicalism, Charismatic Renewal, as well as crusades such as Evangelization 2000, which involves so much compromise away from biblical distinctives which are so vital!” He wonders why there are so few recruits.
Perhaps it may be that one-third of the latest newsletter deals with the pressing topic of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, for which disaster Cardinal Richeleiu and Louis XIV may be blamed. If this does not seem like the first issue to come to your mind when considering divisions between Catholics and Protestants, know that you’re not alone. In giving hundreds of parish seminars we have fielded thousands of questions, and not once has anyone asked about the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and our filing cabinets filled with correspondence from all over the world–Canada included–contain only letters which take absolutely no interest in the matter.
Could it be that Mr. Shepherd is beating not just a dead horse, but one from which the flesh moldered decades ago? Could it be that cries of “Jesuitism” ring hollow today, that they are insufficient any longer to prevent inquiring minds from investigating the bona fides of the Catholic Church?
Mr. Shepherd resides in the Toronto area. We hope to give parish seminars there later this year. If we do, we’ll make a point of trying to meet him. We might even bring along, as a courtesy, some literature from our library about the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
In a recent pastoral letter, Bishop Glennon Flavin noted, “Today we live in what could be accurately called a ‘contraceptive culture.’ . . . That I may not fail in my duty to God and to you, I am compelled to write this pastoral letter to you, the Catholic couples and Catholic physicians of the Diocese of Lincoln [Nebraska], and to remind you that birth prevention by any artificial means is gravely contrary to the teaching of God and his church, of which you are members. . . .
“The ban on contraception is not a disciplinary law of the Church . . . which the Church can enact and which the Church can change. . . . Because artificial contraception is intrinsically evil, it may never be practiced for any reason. . . . Catholics who practice artificial birth control . . . may not receive Holy Communion without commiting sacrilege. . . . Only the worthy reception of the sacrament of penance, which requires genuine sorrow for sin and the sincere intention to discontinue the sinful practice, will bring God’s forgiveness.”
One-time leader of the Students for a Democratic Society, one-time husband to Jane Fonda, and present California State Assemblyman Tom Hayden is teaching a 16-week course at Santa Monica City College. The subject is the “Environment and Spirituality.”
He explains that the Judeo-Christian ethic is at the root of the Earth’s troubles. The Bible teaches that man has been appointed to “subdue” the Earth. That’s wrong, says Hayden, who claims New Age philosophies are the answer.