Catholic Radio Program today July 3rd 6:30 PM CT

[catholicxjw]

I am supposed to be on the radio today (barring any technical
difficulties) at 6:30 PM Central Time for about an hour.

Here is the link where you can listen on-line:

www.radiomaria.us/programs.html

Jeff S.

[arleneveronica08]

I listened to the program online and it was very good. One comment I wanted to add about the religious movements that came out the 1800's as well as the charismatic movement that happened in L.A. on Azusa St. in 1906 is the belief in the "Great Apostasy." You touched on it during the program. I don't think JWs talk about it as much with that exact phrase, but the 7th Day Adventists (where I used to attend sometimes as a child) the Pentecostals/Evangelicals including most televangelists, and even some Mainline Protestants do (I remember the term from Sunday School as a child). I think it's worth articulating that they say that Daniel was to "seal up the book until the time of the end" and since we are in the "end times," they say, there has to be a new channel of authority to restore the "apostasized" church. This is one of the premises of the popular "left behind" movies.

I am taking some graduate spirituality courses and I was recently reading Thomas Merton. He speaks about hearing about the "Great Apostasy" as a child and the fact that the Catholic Church was presumed to be the "apostate" church in his family. They weren't even very religious. Yet even some with "light" Protestant affiliations he said it was like an established fact in his circle. I certainly remember hearing those sentiments growing up. Even when I left the organization I had to gradually remove reading the Bible and approaching Christianity through those anti-Catholic and "end times" lenses.

Again, I think you effectively touched on that point during the radio show tonight. As a JW we read the Bible through the lenses of the Watchtower publications. Coming out is about a refining process of rereading the same scriptural verses with new lenses. Even the term organization rather than church shows how far JWs are from the first century church.

I really enjoyed the program--despite the technical difficulties. Hearing some of the doctrines verbalized that I used to believe, like only 144,000 going to heaven, sounds very strange to me now. Consequently, I am looking forward to the conference in August where all you spoke about will be expanded from a Catholic perspective.