Stuff about me.
A novena is a prayer said over nine days. Catholic Dads is inviting people to pray a novena for the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel starting tomorrow. The ninth day of the novena will fall, not so coincidentally, on September 29th, the feast day of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.
Check out Catholic Dads each day for the next nine days.
Jennifer Fulwiler posted the audio of her conversion story on her blog. Her story is about her journey from lifelong atheism to Catholicism.
A few of the things she said caught my attention because they were so close to my own conclusions. One in particular was about her struggles in discovering what to believe by reading the Bible. After she had concluded there is a God, she was looking how to find him. Her first attempt was not to go to a church. Instead, she bought a Bible and began to read it.
In my own journey, I came to a point where I had to analyze the basis of my beliefs. I had thought that my Evangelical beliefs were the obvious result of clear interpretation of scripture. But when I tried to put aside the biases I knew I held in interpreting the text of the Bible, I started to wonder if the Bible was that clear. I then looked around at all the Evangelical denominations, with their sometimes opposing views on scripture, and concluded that it was not.
Furthermore, as Jennifer put it, this is a system that requires literacy, the printing press, and high reading comprehension skills – a realization I also came to see. These things were just not available until the last few hundred years. What if I had been a person living in France in the year 800? Few people were literate, and even in the unlikely event that I would have been, easy access to a complete copy of the Bible was even less likely, and a personal copy would be unheard of. How would I have even had the chance to read scripture for myself and determine which beliefs were correct?
But what if I was able to have access to the Bible. Would I have come to believe in what many Evangelicals refer to as “Biblical Christianity?”
Throughout history, heretical teachings used scripture to support their positions. History also showed that those who supported heretical beliefs generally did so out of sincerity in the validity of their beliefs. If scripture was so clear and ovbious, why did so many people get it wrong when they interpreted scripture on their own? My own conclusion was that if I were able to eliminate my biases and came to theological conclusion based purely on the words of scripture, it was highly unlikely that I would arrive at all the same beliefs I held as an evangelical.
Jennifer’s experience turned out to be exactly the kind of experiment I had thought about. What happens when an educated person with no theological bias reads scripture? Will that person arrive at my, formerly held, Evangelical beliefs?
As a former atheist with no religious training, Jennifer was the perfect candidate for the theoretical model I had imagined. She had a college education and no biases of what the scriptures should mean.
Her conclusion? The system of reading the Bible and figuring out what to believe based on that alone is “unworkable.” Jennifer’s experience confirms what I concluded about the premise of my evangelical beliefs; the idea that my beliefs came from obvious interpretations of scripture was based more on presumption than reality.
The only resolution I could find was a church with real authority. A church that dated back to Christ and his apostles. It turns out that Jennifer came to the same conclusion. You should go listen to the rest of her story though.
[nggallery id=2 w=400]
Ever do something that undermined the message you were trying to teach?
Right before lunch today, I took my daughter, Bailey (3 1/2 yrs old), and my two nephews (6 and 4 years) to the park at the end of the block – more like a patch of grass with a play gym on it. We had been there a few minutes when my nephews called me over to look at what they found. Bailey followed me over, and we saw a rattlesnake crawling along the wall at the side of the park.
Ah, the joys of living in the New Mexico. It really was not surprising to find the snake there, the park is right next to a stretch of open desert. It was obvious how the snake got there.
Being the good father/protector that I am, I told the kids to keep their distance. But being the free-range kids advocate that I am, I also took the opportunity to use this as a teaching moment. I explained how dangerous rattlesnakes are, pointed out the rattle, and told them how the snake uses it to make noise to warn people or other animals away when it feels threatened, but sometimes they will bite without rattling first. All the while I repeatedly warned them to stay away from rattlesnakes.
I managed to get a picture before it crawled away and out of the park.
The danger abated, we played a bit more before heading back to the house. My wife was there when we got back, and we told her about our encounter. My wife asked if the kids tried to play with it with that worried mom tone. “Of course not,” I said and gave Bailey an impromptu quiz to show the valuable life lesson she learned.
“Bailey, what do you do when you see a rattlesnake?”
My daughter furrowed her brow for a few seconds while she pondered the question. Her face lit up and I knew she figured out the answer. My fatherly pride kicked up another notch.
So what do you do when you see a rattlesnake?
“You take a picture!” Bailey announced excitedly. My wife burst into laughter.
Sigh. It easy to forget that what you do is more of an example for you kids than what you say.
I’m living with my in-laws. My family is still in “transition” so living with the in-laws is a good thing. (Have I ever mentioned I have great in-laws?). Honeybun and Sunshine are still living in Colorado while I’m here in New Mexico until we can make it work to move them down here.
So for the time being, we are involuntarily separated. The good news is that they came down for a visit and will be here for a week and half, through Labor Day. Last night I got to put my daughter to bed for the first time in 3 weeks, and today I came home at lunch to eat with them.
I think Honeybun summed it up best when she told me last week, “You got the perfect job in the wrong state.”
Things have changed quite a bit since my last post.
I quit my job! I had been a supervisor in a call center for that last 7+ years and had been looking for a career change, especially since last year when I finished grad school. That career change happened when I was offered a job with a school district managing their data. That school district is in another state.
So I have moved from beautiful Colorado to hot New Mexico. So that’s the news.
The latest internet meme.
The driver of the ice cream truck in our neighborhood has a lead foot. Seriously, I have never seen an ice cream truck drive so fast. There has been a time or two when we fleetingly thought about buying something from him, but he is past our house and around the block before I can even reach for my wallet. I swear the driver thinks he is training for a drag race.
This afternoon the weather was great so we had our doors open when we heard the passing of the ice cream truck. A moment later we heard “ice cream man…ice cream man…” Honeybun and I both looked out the screen door at the same time to see the 7-year old neighbor girl from a couple houses down running past. “Ice cream man! Ice cream man!” She had her little hand in the air waiving a dollar bill and running as fast as her little legs would carry her. A moment later her mother passes by…”Don’t run into the street.”
I was thinking, “no way she’s catching that guy.” It was almost heartbreaking, “Ice cream man…Ice cream man!” little legs pumping, money waiving.
I guess he must have heard her when he stopped at the end of the block to turn the corner. A few minutes later we saw her walking back toward her house, Popsicle in hand, mom walking behind. Mission accomplished and all was right with the world.
But I bet that strange ice cream man will drive by again at 30 mph tomorrow. He truly is someone I would say is not in it for the money.
Great day yesterday.
Started just hanging around the house. One of our bushes plays host to a number of ladybugs. Bailey loves catching them. Afterwards she was giggling over how they tickle her fingers.
We had been looking forward to taking Bailey to see fireworks for the first time. The weather wasn’t wanting to cooperate though. The day had been mostly cloudy and rain storms were passing over. I decided to take Bailey to the park anyway. Honeybun met us there later and brought extra clothes (Bailey already went through one change for getting wet) and the canopy.
The rain began again about a half hour before the fireworks were to start and the temperature was going down. We lowered the canopy as far as it would go. It was 54 degrees and we were bundled up under blankets and a tarp to keep the rain off. We could see other fireworks in the distance so we were hopeful the show we were at would not be rained out. But start time came and went with no fireworks. The rain was still coming down and just when I thought it wasn’t going to happen, flash…”boom!”
Coldest 4th of July I ever remember, but totally worth it.
More of Bailey on the rope at gym class. Moving pictures this time.
