My Conversion Story

“To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” – John Henry Cardinal Newman

So many people have asked me about my conversion story so here it is. I was raised Southern Baptist. We did not attend church much as a kid, my mom would occasionally send me and my sister to the usual vacation bible school and we went to church some Wednesdays because the van came and picked us up and dropped us off. At about age 8 or 9, my father got invited to the other Baptist church which was right around the corner and was one in which most of the family attended. We went every Wednesday and every Sunday. I got what the Baptist referred to as “saved” at age 11. I remember this event well. It was 3-day revival. If you have never experienced a Southern Baptist revival in Mississippi, you need to go to one. It gets intense. Its usually 3 days of intense preaching. It is what some refer to as Hell-fire and brim stone preaching. I remember being so moved by the Holy Spirit that I felt that I could no longer sit in that pew. I had to go down that aisle to the preacher where he guided me into making my decision to invite God into my heart and follow him. I was Baptized the following Sunday. From that point on, I was engulfed in the religion. I went every time the doors were open up until I was married and in the military. In my early twenties, I had stopped going to church regularly. I was what some referred to as back sliding into a life of sin. My faith admittedly was weakened. I am not sure if this was due to the culture in which I lived or if it was due to some other reason. At age 23, I did a tour serving in Iraq under Operation New Dawn. I do know that by the time I had got back to the States, I had stopped going to church all together and would only go to any type of service if it was a funeral. I think the first time that I remember being consciously aware of my faith issues was in 2014. I was 26 years old and was dating my current wife, Brittany. She had invited me to go to a Methodist Church service one time that her late husband’s family went to. Out of the love I had for her and the respect I had for her and her late husband, I agreed. I don’t recall the service or the preaching. I do recall that toward the end of the service, they had the lord’s supper. I refused to partake because it did not feel right to me. My knowledge of the Lord’s supper at that time was that of a Baptist. It was symbolic so I should have been able to go up and receive but for some reason, I could not. It could possibly be that I knew my faith was almost nonexistent. I was still a theist and I still believed in the Christian religion, but I was almost bordering on Agnostic views. In the year 2019, me and my wife took an anniversary trip to Savannah Ga. We chose this destination for its beauty and its history. We toured the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist. It was a Catholic Church that had its first cornerstone laid in 1799-1800. It went through several upgrades, a fire, and more upgrades to the building it is today. While me and my wife was inside the Church, we were mesmerized by its beauty. I recalled feeling a warmness and an almost calling or an invite from unknown forces to explore. I of course did not mention this feeling to my wife as though she might think I had gone crazy. I knew very little about Catholicism and what I did know came from Hollywood movies and gossip from the media. Months went by and I had slowly started thinking about my faith or lack thereof. I, having the Socratic method like mind, was always asking myself questions. The first question that arose was “Out of all the denominations in my area, why was I Baptist?” Well, the answer to that was “My family in the local community was Baptist.” So that made me naturally think that if my family would have been Methodist or Pentecostal, I too would have been that. What was the difference between all these different churches? Obviously, it was a difference in interpretation of Scripture. Ask a certain question to any Pastor of several denominations and one will get different answers. That led me to research the Baptist church. My research led me to the man who started the Baptist Denomination. John Smyth was an ordained Anglican priest. “Soon after his ordination, his zeal landed him in prison for refusal to conform to the teachings and practices of the Church of England. He was an outspoken man who was quick to challenge others about their beliefs but was just as quick to change his own positions as his own personal theology changed. Smyth continually battled the Church of England until it became obvious that he could no longer stay in fellowship with this church. Thus, he finally broke totally from them and became a ‘Separatist’” (Traffanstedt). He took his new beliefs and went to Holland to start the Baptist Denomination. This research then led me to find out about the Church of England and where its roots begin. “The Church of England was among the churches that broke with Rome. The catalyst for this decision was the refusal of the Pope to annul the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, but also a Tudor nationalist belief that authority over the English Church properly belonged to the English monarchy” (History). King Henry basically didn’t agree with the catholic church’s teachings, separating from papal authority and placing himself as the head of the church. “It resulted in a Church that consciously retained a large amount of continuity with the Church of the Patristic and Medieval periods in terms of its use of the catholic creeds, its pattern of ministry, its buildings and aspects of its liturgy, but which also embodied Protestant insights in its theology and in the overall shape of its liturgical practice.” (History). This led me to research the origins of the Protestant reformation. I stumbled upon Martin Luther who challenged the Catholic Church when he nailed his 95 theses to a door. Whether or not he actually nailed them to a church door is unimportant. Martin Luther was a Catholic priest that spoke out against the abuses of the Church. He wasn’t the first, but he was the loudest because the invention of the printing press allowed his work to spread far and fast. This research led me to the theory of sola scriptura. I ended up rejecting sola scriptura or the bible alone theory. When I rejected it, ultimately rejecting Protestantism, I had nowhere else to go except Catholic and Orthodox. That is when things got scary for me. Scary because it was new to me. It went against everything I had been taught. What did I know about Catholic or Orthodox? Nothing beyond what Hollywood movies, the news and rumors I had heard among those in the protestant section of the religion. What would my friends think? What would my wife think? What would my family think? Was I crazy? These were the questions that ran through my mind? The main difference that separates Catholic and Orthodox is Orthodox don’t accept the office of the pope. In my opinion all the churches in the Orthodox section are divided politically and culturally and cannot agree on who has the authority beyond scripture and tradition. Because of this, they cannot form councils to infallibly define something when there are disputes. That left me with Catholicism. It turns out, everything I knew or heard about Catholicism was either a myth, a lie, or a half-truth. Most coming from rumors passed on generation after generation by those originally favoring the King of England in the original colonies. I had told my wife about wanting to go to a Catholic Mass. There was a Catholic Church in the nearest big city. She was skeptical but agreed to go with me. We went once or twice and loved it. It was different but the most impressionable difference on me was how it was done. As a Baptist, it was typical to walk in and some people would notice you coming in. There would be people talking, cracking jokes and fellowshipping with one another before church started. When I walked into the Catholic Church, it was all silence. Nobody was talking or gossiping. They were either sitting their quietly or they were kneeling in prayer. I didn’t see any eyes on me at all. I am not knocking the Baptist way I was used to, however as someone that can have social anxiety, the Catholic way was more appeasing. My wife and I eventually talked about converting. She was hesitant at first due to the rumors she was familiar with from news and from some people she knew who were ex-catholic. She eventually agreed to go through the process of converting with me. Since converting, I say that me and my wife have grown closer together in our marriage but also have grown to be better parents. We are now enriched in this 2000 plus year religion that we find to be wholesome.

The End

Side note: A lot of the history in this story is edited down for time. There are of course multiple perspectives and narratives that I did not use in telling it.

Works Cited

“History of the Church of England | The Church of England.” Welcome to the Church of England’s official website | The Church of England. Web. 1 Jul 2022. <http://www.churchofengland.org/news-and-media/media-centre/history-church-england>.

Traffanstedt, Chris. “Short Biography of John Smyth, Baptists.” The Reformed Reader commited to historic baptist and reformed beliefs. Web. 1 Jul 2022. <http://www.reformedreader.org/smyth.htm>.

Idle Hands and Temptation

“My life is full of such lapses, and my one hope is in your great mercy” – St. Augustine

I have been in Pennsylvania for a month now. When I first come up here, I had the plans that I would work as much as I possibly could and spend my off time reading and writing. I have found that idle time can be a blessing or a curse. At first, I spent time at the library and the rest of time in my hotel room. I have noticed that idle time in my hotel room can easily lead to sin. It can start from something as simple as watching certain movies or shows on the television which could then lead to more sins like fornication or adultery. I’m not saying that movies or shows in themselves are sin; that would be ridiculous. What I’m saying is that these things can lead to thoughts which could easily lead one to going out and actually committing sins. As one proverb says, Idle hands are the devil’s playground. We can blame temptation from demons, or it could be curiosity. Curiosity can be a good thing or a bad thing. St. Augustine considered curiosity a temptation to be avoided. In his Confessions, Augustine sees curiosity as a good thing when it leads to praise of God but can be dangerous when it leads to other things. Avoiding sin is always a challenge and a battle.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that “This dramatic situation of ‘the whole world (which) is in the power of the evil one’ makes man’s life a battle: The whole of man’s history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity” (409).

So, what happens when we do slip up and sin? After all, sin can easily lead to more sin. “The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin” (Proverbs 10:16 RSVCE). There are two possible solutions, and one is a must. One absolutely must go to confessions. The second possible beneficial thing one may do is counseling or therapy. Confession cleanses our soul and therapy can help us get to the root of issues. Go to confession. Seek God’s forgiveness in the box and come out anew and refreshed from God’s grace.

Thoughts on a Facebook Post and R.I.P.

“Tell people the truth if you love them. Everybody does not go to heaven. Everybody is not resting in peace. A lot of folks are in hell because they did not repent and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior when they were alive. The Bible says there is no Peace for the wicket. (Isaiah 48:22) Yes Hell is Real and people go there every day. ‘He is in a better place now.’ That statement does not apply to everybody who died.We can REST IN PEACE when we die, if we: REPENT and turn back to God.Accept Jesus Christ as our personal LORD and SAVIOR. BELIEVE on His DEATH on the cross and on HIS RESURRECTION.Be ye saved while we are still alive.Now is the time for salvation.” – Unknown

I was scrolling Facebook when this came across my timeline. It was posted with the above photo. I thought it was interesting. As I was reading it, it seems as if the author of the post is confused about the intent behind the “Rest in Peace”. We all have seen this statement chiseled on tombstones and said out loud when someone departs from this world, but where does this statement come from? What does it mean? Does it mean that we are simply saying that the deceased person is resting in peace or going to heaven; or does it mean something entirely different. Let’s explore this further.

The saying “Rest in Peace” or R.I.P comes from the Latin “Requiescat in pace”. It comes from a prayer for the dead and used in the requiem masses in the Catholic faith. The full prayer is “Eternal rest, grant unto him/her (them), O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him/her (them). May he/she (they) rest in peace. Amen.”

This does not mean that we are saying that those who die are automatically going to heaven, but rather we are saying that we hope that they are in heaven or are in purgatory on their way to heaven. Prayers offered for the dead in the religion goes back to the old testament. “Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 macc 12:45 RSVCE). The Catechism of the Catholic church tells us that “From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them” (1032).

Over the years, the meaning has often been lost and reduced to a simple R.I.P probably from means of tradition or the societal norm, especially among a lot of the protestant denominations in the Christian religion that do not believe in purgatory or prayers for the dead and that also want to avoid any Catholic beliefs.

Should “In God We Trust” Remain as a Motto?

Over the years, American traditions have been questioned. One of these traditions is the United States national motto “In God We Trust.” The biggest objectors to the United States national motto “In God We Trust” are the secularist and separatist. Secularist are those who are non-religious and believe theistic views should not be included in government affairs. Separatists are those who are religious and believe there should be a full separation between church and state. Using the First Amendment as justification for opposing the national motto, secularist, and separatist have been trying to challenge it in courts. Not only has the courts ruled that the motto does not violate the First Amendment, but there is a historical precedent for the inscription. The United States national motto “In God We Trust” should remain a motto and remain on currency because of the historical precedent.

The words “In God We Trust” was only adopted as the national motto by Congress in 1956 (Public Law 84-851) as an alternative for the United States unofficial motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” which means “out of many, one,” however the inscription goes farther back in history. According to an article titled “Coining Controversy,” Brown states, “The phrase first appeared on an American two-cent coin in 1864 thanks to the joint efforts of a Pennsylvania minister, a ‘Christian nation’ advocate and a compliant U.S. treasury secretary” (12). The phrase was legislated to appear on all silver and gold coins in 1908 (Brown 14). In 1955, the phrase was legislated to appear on all paper money (Fisher 683-684).

“In God We Trust” may have started as an inscription on coins during the civil war but theistic notions go back to the founding fathers. In the Declaration of Independence, it states “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” (32). “Divine Providence” in this statement means being under God’s control. It is important to note that the Declaration of Independence has no legal authority (Brown 12). The Declaration of Independence may not have legal authority, but it still shows that the United States’ founding fathers felt significant enough to mention God. This also shows neutrality between religions because it is not a specific God.

Some people believe this motto is oppressive to atheists and citizens of different faiths and violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (First Amendment). The motto has been challenged several times since its adoption and each time the courts have ruled the motto to be constitutional. In an essay titled “Adopting ‘In God We Trust’ As the U.S. National Motto,” authors Fisher and Mourtada-Sabbah stated that “In Aronow v. United States (1970), the Ninth Circuit ruled that the inscription and its use as the national motto represented ‘patriotic or ceremonial character and …no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of religion’” (689).

In conclusion, some organizational groups and some individuals from time to time want to change laws and tradition. Some will go as far as continuing to challenge it in the courts despite the previous rulings declaring the motto constitutional. The motto is fairly new in American history, and there are some historical religious reasons for the motto prior to adoption. In recent times, the reasons for the motto have become more secular. In the essay titled “Adopting ‘In God We Trust’ As the U.S National Motto,” authors Fishers and Mourtada-Sabbah point out that “The primary purpose of the slogan was secular and served a secular ceremonial purpose in the ‘obviously secular function of providing a medium of exchange’” (690). This mounting evidence should be considered worthy enough as a reminder that “In God We Trust” should remain listed on currency and as a national motto.

Works Cited

Brown, Simon. “Coining CONTROVERSY.” Church & State, vol. 66, no. 6, June 2013, pp. 12–14. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=87852423&site=eds-live.

Fisher, Louis, and Nada Mourtada-Sabbah. “Adopting ‘In God We Trust’ As the U.S. National Motto.” Journal of Church & State, vol. 44, no. 4, Sept. 2002, p. 683-690 1. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/jcs/44.4.671.

“The Bill of Rights: A Transcription National Archives.” National Archives. Web. 2 Mar 2021. <http://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript#toc-amendment-i>.

“Declaration of Independence: A Transcription National Archives.” National Archive. Web. 2 Mar 2021. <http://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript>.