Jefferson was humbled by a critic<\/a>. It turns out that he took the words of a pastor into account and was humble enough to accept the criticism as God working in his heart. Conversion, even for non-Catholics, is not a moment that you can’t pinpoint. It is an ongoing process, one that mirrors our Catholic journey. I will continue to pray for Jefferson that his humility will bring him to a greater understanding of what Christianity is…and ultimately lead him home to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you’ve been under a rock the past week or so {ok, so that doesn’t come across as entirely nice, so let’s just say you weren’t under a rock, but you avoided all social media outlets the past week \ud83d\ude09 }, you probably missed a “lovely” gem of a video that made the rounds on… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[526,534,528,536,524,529,530,234,532,236,527,531,535,525,533],"class_list":{"0":"post-9650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog","7":"tag-but-hate-religion","8":"tag-catholic-chris","9":"tag-fr-dwight-longenecker","10":"tag-fr-shane-johnson","11":"tag-jefferson-bethke","12":"tag-jimmy-akin","13":"tag-marc-barnes","14":"tag-marcel-lejeune","15":"tag-mary-lane","16":"tag-matthew-warner","17":"tag-phatcatholic","18":"tag-taylor-marshall","19":"tag-tom-hoopes","20":"tag-why-i-love-jesus","21":"tag-yoseph-m-david","22":"entry","23":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":175085,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/11\/organized-religion-good-humanity\/","url_meta":{"origin":9650,"position":0},"title":"Is Organized Religion Good For Humanity?","author":"Matthew Hartwick","date":"November 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently came across a website of an organization called \u201cFreedom from Religion\u201d which had a very specific goal: to help all people purge religion from their lives so that they could be \u201cfree.\u201d This view on religion is nothing new, and it isn\u2019t surprising that a movement is currently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pointing to Scripture","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/lightstock_167786_medium_cris_a-285x190.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39513,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/how-serious-are-we-about-the-new-evangelization\/","url_meta":{"origin":9650,"position":1},"title":"How Serious Are We About The New Evangelization?","author":"Jason Elizondo","date":"May 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week over at my Being Saint Joseph Podcast I talked about Zach Braff's new Kickstarter to support \"Wish I Was Here\" his follow-up to \"Garden State\", which is billed as a sequel in tone but not story. In a little over three days Zach managed to raise over 2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Social Media and Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Social Media and Tech","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/social-media\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I have a question for you","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Question-Mark-240x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20412,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/jesus-in-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":9650,"position":2},"title":"Jesus In the Church?","author":"Steve Scott","date":"August 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As viewed from the outside, it\u2019s easy to see the Church as just another big and apparently inflexible institution. Many non-Catholics and even some Catholics no doubt ask the question as to whether the institutional Church is even necessary In his book, The Spirit of Catholicism, Karl Adam reminds us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Manila_Cathedral_exterior-630x568.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9767,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/two-guys-a-girl-and-a-catholic-podcast-episode-40-why-i-love-jesus-but-hate-sopa-and-pipa\/","url_meta":{"origin":9650,"position":3},"title":"Two Guys a Girl and a Catholic Podcast Episode 40 – Why I Love Jesus But Hate SOPA and PIPA","author":"2GGCP","date":"January 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Episode 40 [powerpress] Current Events: Wide Web protests turn tide against anti-piracy bills as Congress effort goes down in flames Read more: http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/tech-junkies-protest-sopa-bill-designed-stop-internet-piracy-streets-york-city-article-1.1008161#ixzz1jsiNL6j8 Compare this with the Occu-pocalys Jesus vs religion video not sure where to put this but wanted to talk more about the impact then the actual video.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Two Guys, a Girl and a Catholic Podcast"","block_context":{"text":"Two Guys, a Girl and a Catholic Podcast","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/podcast\/2guysagirl\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/2GGCP-LOGO2-300x231.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":344672,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/response-archbishop-chaput-tocqueville-lecture\/","url_meta":{"origin":9650,"position":4},"title":"Taboos and Resolutions (A Response to Archbishop Chaput’s Tocqueville Lecture)","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"January 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"They say you shouldn't talk about sex, politics, or religion in public. As an evangelization-minded Catholic, I live a little differently, but I do tend to stay away from politics. I just don't like it. These days, however, there's no getting away from politics, even when we'd rather talk about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"The Gospel of John reminds us that the truth, and only the truth, makes us free. We're fully human and free only when we live under the authority of the truth.\" \u2014Archbishop Charles J. 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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/37f27af612b5985fdd77833198e938e6.jpg?resize=210%2C130\")
<\/a>I watched as the blog posts started to pour in in response to Bethke’s video and, as I had envisioned, the ability to dismantle his weak arguments were pretty convincing. {I am speaking only of the Catholic responses, by the way} It was clear to me, reading his lyrics from PhatCatholic<\/a>, that Jefferson is speaking more to the hypocrisy of religion rather than religion itself. This is a common objection I face in exchanges with non-Catholic Christians and unbelievers. I find myself frustrated because before I can even get to the beauty of sharing the Faith, I often have to peel back all the layers of hypocrisy rooted in false information, bad examples and bad experiences before I can really get to the core of the love I have for the Faith. It is like religious therapy in ways because it means that talking to non-Catholics can be time-consuming. I want to do a good job with sharing the Faith, so conversations for me are not cursory or some passing fancy. I am truly invested in whoever I want to share the Faith with. The results have been worth it, even with the time invested in those conversations, I know that God wanted me to use my talents to bring others to know the truth of our Faith. And the bonus has been that I forged some very wonderful friendships. I enjoy the personal connection I can make with people who are able to get past the hypocrisy. I sometimes feel like I learn more about my own faith and have a greater appreciation for it when I talk to non-Catholics. It makes me so incredibly thankful for the gift of Faith.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/video.jpg?resize=320%2C240\")
<\/a><\/p>\n