By the way, just a note reminding those in the L.A. area that I’ll be speaking at GodBlogCon 2006 Friday morning (9 a.m.) and Saturday morning (10:30 a.m.).
I hope y’all’ll join me and other Christian bloggers (including Hugh Hewitt and La Shawn Barber) for the event.
The bigger the Catholic turnout we can raise for the event, the better.
GET THE STORY.
P.S. I’ll try to blog from the convention itself if I can!
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
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Jimmy,
One warning I want to give you. I have some connections associated with Biola University, and I want to tell you that there is a very anti-Catholic strain there – much more than at many evangelical universities. It might not be evident at this conference, but trust me, it’s there. Just a word of warning.
Posted by: francis | Oct 25, 2006 12:45:48 PM
Jimmy,
Is there any truth to what ‘francis’ mentioned in the previous blog post?
I have a couple of acquintances from there who are teachers in our local public schools. They are quite overt and unapologetic about their anti-catholicism.
Given its history, I’m sure that Biola has an anti-Catholic element like any Evangelical school, but–unlike John MacArthur’s outfit–they aren’t hardcore anti-Catholic.
They and their sister school, Talbot Theological Seminary, have a lot of Catholic friendly people, and I’ve always been treated with great courtesy and respect from staff and students in my dealings with them.
The folks at Talbot have even had me come in to guest lecture in their courses on Catholicism to let the Catholic side have its say, lest it be unintentionally distorted, which is a classy gesture that deserves respect.
The folks at GodBlogCon also have been nothing but open and respectful and desirous of including Catholics in the event. They have specifically put me on a panel devoted to how Christians of various confessional affiliations can work to further the cause of Christ in the blogosphere.
Bottom line: When someone reaches across the confessional divide to include Catholics, you don’t slap their hand away. You grasp it firmly and return the gesture of mutual respect that they are extending to you.
Bottom line: When someone reaches across the confessional divide to include Catholics, you don’t slap their hand away. You grasp it firmly and return the gesture of mutual respect that they are extending to you.
Jimmy,
You truly are a brutha in Christ!
I have a couple of acquintances from there who are teachers in our local public schools. They are quite overt and unapologetic about their anti-catholicism.
There’s nothing special to report there… There are still a lot of people who assume the other side is hell bound and that when dealing with a group larger than 20 or so people, you’re going to have your share of anti-whatever in it. We Catholics are no better at times.
GodBlogCon will be no different, even if people from this or that University/Denomination/Whatever choose NOT to show up.
At least its not like 100 years ago when everybody was still at each others’ throats (in a more literal sense…)
btw…speaking of blogging, I’m using Firefox 2.0 right now…this automatic spell checking thing is sweet. I feel like I appear smarter already. 🙂
I am a Catholic and was fortunate to be able to both take part in GodBlogCon (for http://www.biblehearts.com) and meet Jimmy in person.
My experience followed what Jimmy said above and I met a lot of wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ who were genuinely welcoming and warm. Jimmy was a wonderful representative of us Roman Catholics with his ability to articulate his point of view while also being humorous.
Last night I had dinner at a table with several of the more prominent speakers who expressed somewhat surprised admiration for Pope Benedicts recent writings and hope that we can all move more together.
Here’s a shout out to the GodBlogCon team and all of the volunteers at Biola/Torrey Honors Institute for the great conference. We will see great things from these young adults.
Unfortunately I had to miss this morning due to an unexpected familial obligation.
Jimmy: It was a pleasure to meet you – I’ll be hanging around your blog hopefully asking some good questions and sharing my views.
Did anyone else hear Jimmy’s interview with Hugh Hewitt? I thought he did a nice job, though I wish Hughg had asked him some better questions.