Interesting post at Athanasius Contra Mundum by Boniface about Protestant converts. It’s always a bit interesting to hear a cradle Catholic’s opinion of us converts, and his (like most) is both very well said and misses the mark completely at some points.
Read the post in its entirety, but basically Boniface is discussing the fact that Protestant converts see the church in a slightly different light than a cradle Catholic, especially with regards to church traditions (true enough). Where he misses the point is in thinking that too often, ex-Protestants are just content to be home, and aren’t too concerned with Traditionalism, at least not until much later.
Not so. Perhaps if I had converted 100 years ago, this would have been the case. There are three points in which an average ex-Protestant (such as myself, who was well-formated in the few good things Protestantism has to offer) disagrees immediately when he enters the Church. In my case, disagreement was apparent before I was ever confirmed.
The first is undoubtedly music. Music in the modern American Catholic Church is pathetically horrible. It sucks. There’s just no other way to put it. The repertoire is tiny, knowledge of the Church’s musical heritage is a level below the average CCM producer, and the skill level of 99% of those who play the music is somewhere between rough and 1st-grade Suzuki. And don’t even get me started on the musical knowledge of the average cradle-Catholic layperson, who knows no other Mass than the Novus Ordo sung to a badly-played Mass of Creation (that blasted instrument of liturgical torture, written by a simi-Protestant who couldn’t make it in the real music entertainment world), and few “hymns” other than “On Eagle’s Wings” and “Here I Am Lord” (neither of which would pass in the most emotionally-sickening Protestant praise-and-worship service I’ve ever attended). Because of this, coming into the Church was for me a major sacrifice. My first impression of the Mass was a terrible contradiction – on the one hand, knowing that the Catholic Church was home, and on the other, realizing that I was going to have to suffer with musical Philistines for the rest of my life.
The second point well-formed ex-Protestants notice is the average Catholic’s abysmal ignorance of Scripture – both laymen and priests. In the Protestant circles I was raised in, the Bible was the end-all be-all of our faith. There was no magisterial authority, no true spiritual counseling – it was just us and God, and the Bible was all He left us. I began memorizing scripture before I could read. I had memorized the entire shorter Westminster Catechism before I was 10. Fundamentalist Protestants believe that knowledge of scripture probably means the difference between heaven and hell. Imagine, then, my shock at hearing my Priest (a 70-year-old priest, and during RCIA, no less) tell someone who was very close to me that their knowledge of scripture was way deeper than his. Imagine my disdain at not knowing a single Catholic who had ever read the Bible all the way through – who had little or no knowledge of the basic Old Testament stories I had been hearing since I was old enough to remember them, and who didn’t even know the meaning of the word “exegesis,” much less how to perform it.
The third point we ex-Protestants noticed was a little more subtle, but at least for me, it wasn’t a secret even before I was officially confirmed. That would be the startling leftism of the average clergy. It’s really somewhat striking how close many mainstream Catholic priests are to a communist apologist. This was, for me, most pronounced in the homilies I heard. Even getting past the priest’s often staggering inability to understand the scripture he was supposed to be talking about, it wasn’t easy (even if it was just occasionally) to hear some pretty leftist ideals being spoken from the lectern.
So I think what Boniface fails to see is that for many of us ex-Protestants, this arrival on our great journey home was both a great joy and a great sacrifice – and that’s a shame. Not a Sunday goes by but some part of me doesn’t wish for a good hellfire-and-brimstone sermon, or a brilliantly executed interpretation of St. Paul – realizing how much better the interpretation would be within the Church, since a Protestant by nature can’t really and fully understand most of what St. Paul was talking about. And oh how I long to sing the strong, God-praising hymns that as a Protestant I grew to love so much. And with that passing wish comes a great cry – mea culpa. Perhaps if we prodigals had never left, we could have helped to stave off the wolves directly responsible for the sorry state of the Church today. Even if not, we like to believe that we would have died in the attempt.
Don’t misunderstand me – I don’t mean to discredit or demean cradle Catholics, especially those like Athanasius and Boniface (who obviously understand well the problems within the Church and work very hard to restore Her former glory) by saying that the Church’s departure from tradition was their fault, or that they didn’t fight hard enough to break the siege. I also do not in any way want to diminish the joy we ex-Protestants feel every time we receive the Blessed Sacraments, or even just in thinking of and being a part of the unity of Mother Church. My point is that we ex-Protestants see more of the flaws in Mother Church than Boniface perhaps realizes. We may even see more that the average cradle Catholic of less than 40 years, because while we didn’t have the whole picture as Protestants, the pieces we did have were well-polished, and we weep to see them so tarnished (as they are at least within the American Church). Many younger cradle Catholics don’t see this, because they never knew anything better. And lest one think we ex-Protestants are just content to be home, rest assured, we intend to beg from you cradle Catholics the leading of the vaward in this coming charge against the wolves. While that boon may mean our butchery, such may be our great penance for departing from our Mother.
To be truthful, I haven’t had time to read all of Boniface’s post, and I only wrote on the topic once. However, I’m also a convert, not a cradle Catholic. I was raised agnostic, then I was Episcopalian, and before becoming a lukewarm Catholic, until I found the Traditional Rite.
I just wanted to put that out there. Also when I wrote on the subject last year, I only meant to point out certain converts who appear to make apologetics a business and miss the mark when it comes to Catholic tradition, but by no means all. God bless, and may He be praised for bringing you back to the Church.
My construction was confusing, it should have been: I was Episcopalian then a lukewarm Catholic before I found the Traditional rite. I must have reworded it or something.
Ah, my mistake – I was not aware that you are a convert. I apologize for including your name there (though it was a compliment, haha – and by the way, I hope I didn’t come across as blasting Boniface either – most of what he said was correct). To be truthful I do not clearly remember your earlier post and didn’t read it before writing this one.
Interesting point about apologists who miss the tradition for the business of apologetics. I actually find such folks difficult to understand; I can’t imagine coming from a devout Protestant background (at least a conservative one) and not immediately and strongly embracing the full historic tradition of the Church (and I’m hardly unique in taking that view, obviously). Apostolic succession was the doctrine which directly triggered my conversion, as well as the conversion of countless other fundamentalists, and when one starts with that particular doctrine, seeking out the historical teachings and traditions of the Church follows rather quickly. I wonder if those converts who do not quickly become traditionalists come from more liberal Protestant backgrounds, and so find the “traditionalism” more difficult to understand. In any case, a true apologist for the Church must (if he’s at all intellectually honest) eventually end up embracing Her tradition fully.
I have enjoyed your blog for some time now – God bless you and keep up the good work!
Dunadan-
This is a great complimentary to my original post, and I think a lot of your points are valid. Obviously, when talking about what converts (or cradles) “believe” or “think” we are dealing with gross generalizations that will inevitably fall flat when we try to universally apply them to everyone we know. But I think both what you have pointed out as well as what I pointed out are both true in certain contexts.
Although I am technically a “revert” (since I was baptized Catholic as a child), I think of myself as a convert because I never practiced the Faith before and I dallied with Protestantism for several years before returning to the Church. My post basically was reflective, commenting on the way conservative apologetically-driven theology affected me personally, and it definitely led me into a place where I kind of ignored tradition (referring to the so-called “small-t” traditions). As I came to appreciate tradition more and more, I came to see that the type of Catholicism I was living was disassociated from the historic tradition (for example, my family went from not wearing head-covering because “we don’t have to” to choosing to wear them because it was in line with tradition).
I’m grateful for your response and for all the attention this post has received.
Blessings,
Boniface
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