I started a blogspot primarily for longer epistolary post
so that I don’t clog my Tumblr with posts that no one will reblog because the
stories aren’t about them. Moving on then…
Today is rather awesome as it is both sunny and warm. Usually in early February we
have one week where it is gorgeous out. This will happen just before it gets
overcast and rainy out, like a Twilight
movie, and it will be like this until
June. Basically this is relevant.
Today is also awesome because I went to
Applebee’s with some friends. It was actually supposed to be one friend that I
knew from a church I used to attend. It was an independent Christian church
with its roots in the Protestant Restorationist movement (not be confused with
Luther’s reformation). You don’t need to look up a Wikipedia article on that.
Just think a Max Lucado book and you get the idea. I started going there when I
first moved here and attended for years, volunteering with teaching in the
children’s ministry.
Most of my friends were from this church, so it
was hard when I left this church in a conversion to Catholicism. Why did I
leave? Quoting Dave Armstrong in his article One Hundred Fifty Reasons I’m Catholic
(And You Should Be Too!” (I am convinced that the Catholic Church conforms much
more closely to all of the biblical data, offers the only coherent view of the
history of Christianity (i.e., Christian, apostolic Tradition), and possesses the
most profound and sublime Christian morality, spirituality, social ethic, and
philosophy. Alternate: I am a Catholic because I sincerely believe, by virtue
of much cumulative evidence, that Catholicism is true, and that the Catholic
Church is the visible Church divinely-established by our Lord Jesus, against which
the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail (Matthew 6:18), thereby
possessing an authority which I feel bound in Christian duty to submit. 2nd
Alternate: I left Protestantism because it was seriously deficient in its
interpretation of the Bible (e.g. “faith alone” and many other “Catholic”
doctrines…), inconsistently selective in its espousal of various Catholic
Traditions (e.g., the Canon of the Bible), inadequate in its ecclesiology,
lacking a sensible view of Christian history (e.g. “Scripture alone”),
compromised morally (e.g., contraception, divorce), unbiblically schismatic, anarchical,
and relativistic. I don’t therefore believe that Protestantism is all bad (not
by a long shot), but these are some of the major deficiencies I eventually saw
as fatal to the “theory” of Protestantism, over against Catholicism. All
Catholics must regard baptized, Nicene, Chalcedonian Protestants as Christians.”
It was a difficult decision to make because I didn’t
know how anybody was going to react. Some evangelicals are anti-Catholic and
see the Church as pagan, the anti-Christ, the Whore of Babylon, etc. Others are
relativistic and believe, “Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, etc. are all just
different kinds of Christians.” Although I more believe that I would be dealing
with the latter, I wasn’t sure enough to make a big deal of my conversion. I
stopped going quietly and, like a chicken, just emailed the Children’s pastor
and essentially said, “I can’t teach class anymore because I’m going to Saint
Joseph’s Church; I’ve been taking RCIA classes there and I’m going to start
attending mass there instead.” He didn’t send me a reply back. I just heard
from a friend that he got the email because he told her I was attending another
church, but he didn’t tell her why.
I was really sad about leaving though and would
listen to Carrie Underwood’s “Starts With Goodbye” and be all “This song is
about my church life!” I started talking to good friend from that church again
on Facebook when I was looking for roommates and apartments and all that good
stuff. She was looking for a roommate too and had said, “We could be roommates!”
We got together one weekend to look at houses for rent. It didn’t work out, but
we had fun and it was nice to get in touch again.
So that leaves off to earlier this week when I
was thinking about how we used to go to Applebee’s and I wanted to do that again
because I love their appetizers. I don’t even need an entrée. I’ll just eat the
Appetizer Sampler. As I was thinking, “Man, we should do that again,” a thought
hit me: I could instigate our meeting. Normally, I was invited to events and a
follower of other people’s plans, but I could just say, “Hey, let’s hang out at
Applebee’s and it could happen.” That is exactly what I did and we set a date
for today once I got off my shift at work.
I got off my shift early because the store
ended up with three people working during a slow stretch of time. So I left and
found a text message from my friend saying that she was bringing two other
girls with her. I knew both of them. They were from the Church and all three of
them went to the same Bible school. The university is Christian, Protestant,
conservative, fundamental, evangelical, non-denominational church (with Baptist
origins). Back in the day, I had wanted to study creative writing there. I said
it was cool for them to come along because I don’t have a problem with either
of them personally, but I became nervous. I wondered what I would say if everyone
started asking why I wasn’t going to their church anymore or what I would do if
they started comparing Catholicism to “born-again” Protestant evangelicalism.
None of this happened. I don’t know why I
imagined the most dramatic outcome. All of them are nice, friendly, funny,
regular girls. It’s not like they are crazy movie Christians.
They are more like this:
Than this:
Actually, it was fun to see all of them again;
a little awkward when they talked about church and school stuff that involved
everyone except me, but it wasn’t bad at all. We all had 2 for 20 entrée meals
since there were four of us and the two appetizers that came with it. I didn’t
get my Sampler, but at least I got my wings with hot sauce. I also ordered a mudslide
drink and a cookie sundae even though I was the only person getting a dessert.
Thankfully, the waiter brought extra spoons for the sundae so I wasn’t eating
it by myself while everyone was staring at me and ready to leave (but I would
have if it came down to that). When the waiter checked my I.D. for my Mudslide,
he tilted it to ensure it was legit and wondered what he was looking for.
Before long, all four of us were tilting our I.D.s for embossing or whatever
else might indicate a real I.D. from a forgery.
Now I am dog-sitting for three dogs who were
ready to be released from their basement kennel as soon as I arrived. They
barked up a storm, as though to say, "We know you're up there!" I
also got the cat's litter box cleaned out, which I have been meaning to do for
awhile. It's been getting bad and I want to install another scent of my Bath
and Body Works air freshener thingies, but not until I cleaned the box out so
that I wouldn't just be masking the smell.
Later I am going to write here about Vampire the
Masquerade.
Until then, Adieu.
