Closet Catholics and Scripture as a Weapon

My family and I started to become more active in our Faith. We actually did try to go to Mass each Sunday and I started reading a bit more. I needed to, in order to handle another attack from my Mother, should it ever come (which it would). I read great Catholic Apologists like Karl Keating, Tim Staples, Patrick Madrid, Stephen Ray, Peter Kreeft and Steve Woods – nearly all converts like me who could explain Catholic Teaching in my language – Protestant-speak, which I clearly understood. My family and I got a little more involved in our parish – mostly socially, at events such as the parish picnic in the summer and the Knights of Columbus fish fries during Lent. Beer was served at both!

We were no longer Typical American Catholics but rather Closet Catholics. We went to Mass on Sundays and came home and put our Faith away in the closet like a pair of well-worn shoes.

Part of the reason we were Closet Catholics is because I don’t memorize scripture, nor could I defend the Teachings of the Church. I would get that “deer in the headlights” look whenever anyone brought up an objection. Even though I was reading a lot about the various things the Catholic Church taught and accepted those teachings, I was in no position to talk about it.

I made a conscious decision long ago to not memorize scripture because it has always been used as a weapon on me. First, by my mother and usually when I had done something wrong and she would set out to prove it to me through the Bible. “You are in rebellion! The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians that…..” blah, blah, blah. My brain would shut down and I’d tune out, with no desire to ever know what the Good Book said. As an adult, and particularly when someone found out I was Catholic, scripture was again used as a weapon, “The Bible says that there is only one Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ!” or “Mary couldn’t have been sinless because the Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!” Nothing made me run from the Scriptures more than those who spouted fragments of it from memory to prove their rightness on whatever issue was at hand.

So I stuck with my favorite friends who did their best to live out their Faith but who didn’t really talk about it much. We were all “doers of the word”, rather than talkers of the word! And that suited me just fine, thank you very much.