At the recent Connecticut Catholic Men’s
Conference, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with the keynote
speaker, Tim Staples, who has been a Catholic evangelist and apologist for the
past 23 years. I asked Tim if it’s difficult to defend the truth in a culture
that doesn’t even acknowledge anymore that truth is a real thing.
He replied, “Absolutely. We’re back to
Pontius Pilate’s question, ‘What is truth?’ You’re exactly right. And so,
apologetics is really, really crucial in our culture. In fact, one of my newest
hires at Catholic Answers is a fellow by the name of Trent Horn, who wrote, I
think it’s the best popular-level book on answering why we believe in God. It’s
called Answering Atheism by Trent
Horn. Great book. But we really do, we need more apologetics works like that.”
Tim then went on to describe how the emphasis
of his ministry has changed over the years:
“When we first started at Catholic
Answers, we were really focused on the Catholic-Protestant matter. And not just
Catholic-Protestant, but Fundamentalists in particular, and the Pentecostals
that tend to be a bit more anti-Catholic. That’s where we started. But the
culture has moved to a place now where we have a growing agnostic and atheist
population. And we also have what we call ‘nones,’ N-O-N-E, that are basically
nothing. Lots more of those today. So, we do need to answer those basic,
fundamental questions: Why do we believe in God? Why do we believe in truth?
Can you prove that to me? Yes, we can!”
In the early years of Catholic
apologetics, the primary mission was to counter the false claims made by
Fundamentalists about Catholic doctrine. Many of the most successful Catholic
apologists were former Protestant preachers, like Scott Hahn and Tim Staples,
who had been raised in very anti-Catholic environments. When they came to
understand what the Church really teaches and converted to Catholicism, they
understood exactly how their debate opponents thought—because they once thought
the same way.
However, these days there is a popular
concept called “relativism.” This means that all declarations of fact are
really nothing more than personal opinion. If you haven’t noticed, we now
live in the age of relativism. There is no such thing as absolute truth anymore.
According to a lot of prominent folks, everyone now is allowed to define for
him or herself what’s right and what’s wrong.
But the
basic claims of relativism are ridiculous. Here are things a relativist will
say with a straight face: “The only absolute truth is that there is no absolute
truth. The only idea which is definitely wrong is the idea that something can
be definitely wrong. The only opinion which is strictly forbidden is the
opinion that certain things are strictly forbidden.”
The average 6th grader will understand
the blatant contradictions contained in these statements, while the average
college professor will wholeheartedly agree. (Which reminds of a line Dr. Peter
Kreeft said: “Some things are so foolish only a PhD can believe them.”)
Tim Staples acknowledged it’s more
difficult to debate a relativist, someone who doesn’t believe in absolute
truth, than to debate a Bible-thumping anti-Catholic Fundamentalist. His
organization has evolved over the years to meet the challenge.
Tim explained, “Chris Stefanick wrote a
little booklet that we sell at Catholic Answers called ‘Absolute Relativism,’
It’s a great title. But that title alone says a lot: ‘I’m a relativist, and I’m
ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about it!’ The logical inconsistency!”
As I mentioned last week, go to YouTube
and search “Tim Staples” for hours of fascinating video. Also, consider
purchasing the publications Tim mentioned, Answering
Atheism and “Absolute Relativism.”
The Lord calls all believers to be able
to explain our faith. Our present-day culture, steeped in doubt and despair,
needs to hear the Gospel message more than ever.
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