How Catholic apologetics target evangelicals amid a broader decline in membership
Catholicism, and increasingly Eastern Orthodoxy, seems to have an appeal for a segment of highly educated and ambitious evangelicals. JD Vance, whose conversion to Catholicism I previously wrote about, is an example. The sociologist Brad Vermurlen, who wrote the definitive account of the evangelical New Calvinism movement, also appears to be in the process of converting to Catholicism.
What’s going on here?
First, it’s worth noting that Catholic conversions are primarily an elite phenomenon. For those without college degrees, it’s more likely that people leave Catholicism to become evangelical. This phenomenon writ large has swept through Latin America, for example. The Catholic Church is also far from healthy.
Steven Wedgeworth wrote a piece for World opinions on some of these trends.
Roman Catholicism is not thriving in America. Apart from gains from immigration, the Catholic Church is following the same path as the Protestant mainline. It’s losing members at a dramatic pace.
The Pew study shows that American Christianity’s biggest source of decline comes from within. It is not doing a good job at retaining its own members. For every adult who joins a Christian church, six leave. But when we take a closer look, this problem is disproportionately coming from one particular Christian tradition: Roman Catholicism. Whereas Protestantism, including both evangelical and mainline varieties, loses 1.8 members compared to every new addition, Roman Catholicism loses 8.4. That’s an astounding rate of loss.
He continues,
While it is true that certain academics and media personalities have left their Protestant churches for Roman Catholicism, the national statistics still point in the opposite direction. Only 2% of Americans who were raised Protestant are now Catholic, whereas 14% of childhood Catholics are now Protestant. While good for the headlines, conversions from Protestantism to Catholicism are blips on the national map.
Even though the overall flow of people is from Catholicism into Protestantism, the loss of evangelical elites to Catholicism is an interesting phenomenon. The Gospel Coalition just published a very interesting piece by Andrew Voight looking at it.
In recent years, several notable Protestant converts to Roman Catholicism have made waves online. Influencers like Cameron Bertuzzi of Capturing Christianity, Candace Owens, Joshua Charles, and Eva Vlaardingerbroek crossed the Tiber from various expressions of Protestantism. Prominent evangelical pastors like Ulf Ekman, Keith Nester, and Brook Thelander made headlines when they converted to Roman Catholicism.
In a previous article for Christianity Today, Voight noted that part of the appeal of Catholicism comes from its doctrinal clarity and historic liturgy.
A foundational element in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic institutions is a rich tradition with doctrinal clarity. This can be quite appealing when compared to modern evangelicalism…Those who find Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy appealing also share in common a longing for the deeper reverence of liturgy and the sacraments, which is often far more mystical, reflective, and reverent than in Protestantism.
But in his TGC piece, he also notes that there are Catholic apologetics aimed at Protestants.
What drives these Christian thinkers to make this jump? Several theories could be explored, but one factor might concern the surprising savvy of online Roman Catholic apologetics, particularly on platforms like YouTube. When someone has questions surrounding various views on Christian traditions, doctrines, or sacraments (e.g., the Eucharist), a YouTube search will turn up a litany of Roman Catholic videos, while Protestant perspectives are rarely sufficiently and accurately presented. I suspect there are at least two reasons.
First, Catholic apologists are much more focused on growing Roman Catholicism as an institution (i.e., “the one true church”) than on merely winning souls for Christ. This makes sense given Catholicism’s traditional view that to be outside the church is to be outside Christ. The call “home” is a call to the institution of the Catholic Church, not merely a call to find redemption in Christ. Second, Protestant apologetics has leaned heavily into addressing atheism, postmodernism, and modern secular culture’s loss of morality, without focusing enough on learning and practicing our Protestant distinctives.
Where Protestant apologetics is more focused on winning the secular world to Christ, Roman Catholic apologetics often has a different audience in mind: their “separated brethren.” Targeting Protestants is explicitly encouraged. One writer argues, “We have from baptism a mandate to evangelize, and Protestantism is one of the fields most ready for harvesting.”
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Italian Protestant pastor Leonardo De Chirico points out that it was once often perceived that evangelical Christians were proselytizing Roman Catholics. Now, it appears Rome is returning the favor in full force via YouTube and the internet. De Chirico cites as one example Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire ministry, which has “exploded with videos, books, and courses designed to attract disappointed evangelicals toward Catholicism.”
If I might put this in my own words consistent with my own observations: Catholics are strategically seeking to convert rising evangelical elites and developing content (and other items) with an eye towards this end.
In CT, Voight notes that most evangelicals are poorly equipped to respond to these kinds of Catholic appeals.
Sadly, this ignorance can often be weaponized in interdenominational polemics, with which very few Protestants are prepared to engage. Whereas Protestant apologists and theologians have focused most of their efforts on combatting atheism and secularism, Roman Catholic apologists, for instance, have leaned more heavily into ecclesial dialogue when it comes to promoting their traditions, doctrines, and dogmas—as evident in the reach and influence of organizations like Catholic Answers.
[…]
This goes to show that even some of these popular Protestant voices seem unable to accurately discern our theological differences and to graciously engage with important doctrinal distinctions. Protestant leaders should offer better examples of how to respond to claims levied by non-Protestant institutions—both from the pulpit and in the public square.
I notice that it’s not uncommon to see social media interactions in which evangelicals are outclassed by Catholic or Orthodox counterparts. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Catholics were being strategic in their interactions, avoiding more sophisticated Protestant thinkers who might have better answers. If they are, this would be smart.
I have a number of personal observations about these trends.
First, I’m not sure that I’d fully agree that Protestants focus on reaching the lost while Catholics also emphasize converting Protestants. Outside of elite evangelicals, there’s a still a strong streak in evangelicalism that believes Roman Catholicism is heretical and that even faithful Catholics are going to hell. They absolutely support trying to convert people from Catholicism to evangelicalism.
The fact that many evangelical churches and organizations send missionaries to already Christianized Catholic or Orthodox countries implicitly rejects the authenticity of those nations’ Christianity. While the people doing this might say they are trying to reach the irreligious, I’m pretty confident they’d be delighted to see converts from Catholicism or Orthodoxy into evangelicalism.
So, I think this goes both ways.
Second, my observation is that Catholic apologetics aimed at Protestants are not especially compelling unless at least one of two factors is also present.
- The target is already alienated from evangelicalism (lots of people fall into this bucket)
- The recipient is embedded in a milieu with a heavily Catholic social network, especially where conversion brings perceived benefits or aligning with the norm within that milieu.
The combination of these factors is extremely potent. An example of a Catholic normative milieu is movement conservatism. I believe most religious conversions are heavily driven by these kinds of network effects, regardless of direction.
Third, I also observe that Catholic apologists tend to present a highly curated version of the Catholic faith designed to appeal to the evangelical. Since most evangelicals are ignorant of church history and, apart from perhaps the Marian dogmas, very little of Catholic belief and practice that would be especially off-putting, this can be very effective. We hear quite a lot today about Catholic Social Teaching, but very little about the Syllabus of Errors and innumerable other papal documents.
Fourth, while the evangelical masses can be quite hostile to Catholicism, evangelical elites are quite friendly to it – maybe too friendly. For example, in our podcast about my three worlds article, R. R. Reno, editor of First Things, recounted the story in which the evangelical Chuck Colson said to the Catholic (convert from Lutheranism) Richard John Neuhaus, “You supply the ideas, we supply the votes.” If that’s how evangelical leaders think, why not become Catholic?
Fifth, and relatedly, evangelical leaders seem deeply hesitant to engage in polemics designed to counter Catholic conversionism, whereas the reverse is certainly not true. In fact, there’s a growing segment of extremely obnoxious online Catholic accounts, an equivalent perhaps of the so-called “Ortho-bros.”
While few major Catholic figures act like this, they certainly aren’t pulling their punches in terms of making their strongest arguments in favor of Catholicism and against Protestantism. Evangelicals don’t seem to do this.
Perhaps I’m more ecumenical than most. I believe Catholics who are putting their faith in Christ are saved. While I believe Protestantism is more true, I don’t see the need to try to convert people out of other Christian traditions. I’d rather have a no poaching policy on this stuff, especially in the current climate.
But if Catholics are actively working to convert current or future Protestant elites, that has to be responded to. Evangelical leaders should be able to articulate the less attractive parts Catholic theology, history, practice and even embarrassing converts (e.g., Candace Owens) that are likely to be overlooked or minimized by Catholic apologists seeking to convert Protestants.
A version of this article was published at aaronrenn.com.
Image: Sanctuary of Loyola, Jenaro Pérez Villaamil & Eugène Cicéri (1850). Wikimedia Commons.
