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Interview with Ex-Catholic, Baptist Pastor

Matt Fradd, author, speaker, apologist, sat with Don Smarto for a discussion about the differences between their faiths. I think Matt says something to this effect below, but let me say it as well: today we rarely hear conversations where disagreements arent hostile, and argumnets that are refreshing and constructive. This talk is charitable, direct, and on the issues where either is challenged, honest.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE WEBSITE AND LISTEN

From his website:

My Interview with Ex-Catholic, Baptist Pastor

April 23, 2013 by mattfradd

 

 

Several months ago I was on my way to Chicago to deliver some talks with Catholic Answers. During the flight I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a man sitting beside me.

After the flight, at baggage claim, a man named Don Smarto approached me, he said that he was sitting behind me and had overheard my conversation.
Don went on to say that he used to be a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church with plans of starting his own religious order! He then informed me that he has since left the Church and is now a Baptist pastor living in Texas. 

Don Smarto as a seminarian.

Last month I happened to be in Texas, and I contacted Don. He arranged for me to be interviewed on his ABC program. A program normally devoted to “parenting today’s youth,” but for me he made an exception.

We had a very charitable discussion on what unites and divides us as Catholics and Protestants.
In our discussion we talk on a broad-range of topics:

• The Problem of evil
• What is the Church
• The Protestant reformation
• Why to Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
• The authority of the Catholic Church
• Pornography
• Abortion

. . . and much more. It’s about 70 minutes long, so go grab a coffee, and enjoy!

I hope you’ll share this talk with your friends (Catholic and non-Catholic alike), as an example of how we can disagree without being disagreeable, and argue without being argumentative.

* Thinking on my feet, I accidentally said that it was the first council of Constantinople which defined Mary as Theotokos, when it was, in fact, Ephesus in 431.

Coffee Break

Coffee Break

 

Perhaps the biggest piece of news this week is also the most disturbing. Not to diminish the matter, but I also feel like I was the last to know, like, why didn't more people talk about this and share it? Rick Warren's son, Matthew, committed suicide at the beginning of this week. Rick Warren is the acclaimed pastor of Saddleback Church in California. His son, who I know very little about apparently suffered a long time battle with mental illness. No doubt, this is a sad and shocking story. My prayers have been with the family. You can read the story here. The autopsy which emerged this morning tells that it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Very little words come to mind other than "tragic" when thinking of this issue. A kid I ate lunch with in High School did the same thing to himself.

The good people at Catholic Answers discuss the Catholic Church's teaching on suicide: http://www.catholic.com/video/church-teaching-on-suicide

An important issue, too. Little did I know, the first story I heard that led me to trust the Catholic church was a suicide story, which also led to me choice of a Confirmation Saint, St. Padre Pio.

St. Pio was a man of so many miracles and spiritual gifts. In confession he would often tell the person what they did wrong if they held anything back, or he would tell them information that would be impossible for them [or him] to know. Popular too, he would spend some 16 hours on some days listening to confessions. He had a big gift as a seer. So a married man, sick with depressions takes his life on a bridge. Padre Pio was always surrounded by crowds so much that it was tough for anyone to get through to him. The woman knew of his gifts and wanted to ask Pio to pray for the man's soul but could not get to him. The story goes that when she almost gave up, Pio came to an abrupt halt, pointed through the mass of crowd as to make a path straight to the woman and yelled, "don't be afraid, he confessed on the way down." The woman knew what he was talking about. It remains one of the most vivid stories from St. Pio's many. It was compelling to me, enough to give Catholicism a look.

One piece of news that is of specific interest is the attack on a Egyptian Coptic Christian Cathedral today. You can read that here.

A bit of disturbing news in the domestic world, a US Army Reserve picked Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as "extremist" religious groups. Read it here. Disturbing, cause they classify these next to the Klu Klux Clan and Al Qaeda.

What else happened this week?