1) Because 99% of us are not involved.
This was addressed in my preface but it is worthy to be mentioned again upfront. If you are discussing something that you took part in, and I don’t mean rooting for the home team, but actually playing the game, then I can understand some enthusiasm. What I cannot understand is why people sit and yell at their TV sets or sit in the stands and yell at the ref’s who are ‘making bad calls’. You are not in the game, you are a bystander that is paying big bucks either through your cable company, directtv, ppv, sporting arena to watch other men/women compete in something that has no impact on your life outside of the mundane 2 hours of watching a ball be thrown/kicked/ran. Get over the fact that your favorite team, which you again have no affiliation with, just lost by an upset. I cannot believe that this actually affects people on an emotional level.

2) Because it is insignificant when compared to learning something new and educational.
If you consider that the average ‘game’ of any given sport takes roughly 2 hours. And you watch 2 games a week, then you have just blown 4 hours of your week watching something that amounts to absolutely nothing. You could have spent 4 hours reading through literature, philosophy, classics, rhetoric, politics, current events, culinary, how to chop down a tree, or better yet, you could have been doing something active and participating in life. But instead you were plopped down on a couch, yelling at the TV, or sitting in a stand paying 50-200 bucks a ticket, eating GMO based food and slurping down copious amounts of alcohol or corn syrup. If you consider that in a given year, if you watch 4 hours of just sports a week, you are wasting over 200 hours of your life. That’s equivalent to sitting on the couch for over a week straight watching mind numbing play after play. What could you have been doing to better yourself? What could you have learned in 200 hours? You could have become a skilled pianist. You could have been lifting weights. You could have been writing the editor of your local paper on some misinformation that he was spreading. Who knows? But your 200 hours are not gone and wasted.

3) Because they are a distraction from life.
Sports serve nothing more than to distract people from their mundane lives. They feel the need to watch sports because it gives them a sense of accomplishment… No wait, scratch that. How can they feel accomplishment when they were not even participating? They watch sports because they literally have nothing better to do? That I find hard to believe as well. It appears that sports really do just serve as a distraction from life and it’s necessities. How often do we see people plop down with friends to watch the game on a Monday night? This forsakes the idea of intelligent conversations between men. There was a time when, if a group of men gathered, they discussed things of importance. Now you hear men get together, grunt, and discuss their disdain with their rookies on the team, or discuss why it is a rebuilding year, they never want to discuss what is going on in each others lives or what is affecting them through politics. I’m sure if someone was given a choice between doing a bit of community service and bettering the lives of others verse watching some sports with a few buds, most would certainly opt for watching the pigskin get tossed. How sad that is…

4) Because they feed a fictitious need of primal man for competition.
No, wrong. What this boils down to is the desire of every man to feel like a ‘hero’. Whether you are playing the sport and you want to be Johnny Quarterback, who gets all the girls and gets lifted up on the other players shoulders when he makes the game winning play, or you are the fanatic sports commentator that calls an upset and every one praises you for making such a good call. These are one and the same, they serve the same purpose. There is no primal need within man to be the winner of competition, but a fairytale-esque slay the dragon, IE win the basketball game mindset. Much like how women idealize men coming and sweeping them off their feet because of pop culture, men feel the need to be the ‘hero’ and then ’sweep the women off their feet’.

5) Because they affect people on an emotional level and that is absurd in and of itself.
The idea that sporting events actually affect people on an emotional level is absolutely absurd to me if you took no part in the game. I can understand those that played a game in a championship and lost and subsequently cried because they were so close to being the ‘hero’s’ and potentially signing big contracts, getting scouted, etc. But for those people who watch a game, and after the game are actually in a worse mood than they were before hand because their team lost just boggles me. To truly be saddened by a recreational activity’s outcome is absurd and as such makes the person who is upset absurd.

6) Because they are inconsequential.
Let’s face it sports are inconsequential. Do you think anyone these days cares about who won against a certain gladiator in the coliseum? Do you think that this does anything other than perpetuate Hollywood actors? No, these events do not matter on any scale. Given light that there is a super bowl every single year, does it really matter who wins the current super bowl as they will be obsolete next time around?

7) Because they are machines for propaganda and consumerism.
What are all the commercials during games geared towards? They are geared either towards propaganda or consumerism. Either they are pushing forth an agenda or they are encouraging you to buy something. People who watch sports fanatically often want the latest pair of sneakers with one of the athlete’s names on them. Or they are sitting there craving whatever fast food restaurant is being peddled by the next commercial. It encourages the mindset of want rather than need. You will never see a commercial during halftime that is encouraging people debt free, but what you will see is a commercial introducing 0% APR for new card members. You will never see a commercial suggesting organic alternatives to Lay’s chips, but you will see a commercial telling you that corn syrup is fine in moderation and anyone that says otherwise is uneducated and/or ignorant. So not only are you watching something that is inconsequential, but you are also being sold on things that you don’t need, further perpetuating the ‘American dream’.

8) Because they use up your memory which could be used for something of substance.
The last point I am going to touch on is this. Your memory is a wonderful thing, and for some people it is better than others. So please don’t muddle it up with useless information about sports and which team won and what kind of play that was and so on so forth. You could be retaining information that is useful to you like what some of our constitution says. You could be remembering sacred scripture. You could even be memorizing who our political leaders are whether you agree with them or not. These are part of the educated mind, not who plays what position for a specific team. These are things that again are inconsequential and only take up precious memory where other important things that are actually consequential could be retained. Imagine how much more cultured we would be if people gave less of a damn about sporting events and cared more about their political influence, or served to better their community, or even educated themselves so they would not repeat history’s errors.

In conclusion…
Sports have their place in the world. They serve as a recreational device used to escape reality and serve our inconsequential need for hero’s and corn syrup, and really they are not much worse than playing a video game every day of your life, in fact they may even be better considering that they are at least semi-social. But people ought not get so caught up in sports as they are just that, a recreational, inconsequential, distraction from what is really going on in one’s life.

The television above us was tuned to CNN and the news of course was about the earthquake in Haiti. The first thing out of the woman’s mouth is, “just burn the bodies” in a cold callused voice. She started rampantly complaining to me and anyone that would lend an ear about how much sending troops to Haiti is going to cost the taxpayer and how much she doesn’t care about Haiti. She then went on to talk about the navy seals that are on trial for allegedly punching a terrorist in the face after detaining him, and all the reasons that Obama is bad. She even said at one point, “Obama reads too much Marx… Ya know who Marx is don’t ya?”, to which I replied, “yeah”.

I was desperately trying to get out of the conversation but she kept trying to suck me back in. I decided to try to eat as quickly as possible. I thought that as long as I kept my mouth full I wouldn’t have the temptation to rip into this lady for being a social moron.

The lady continued to whine about how Obama was bringing the terrorist leaders here to the courthouse just blocks away from the capital and how much that was going to cost our nation. She whined about how the US is the only country that is sending aid to Haiti and how it’s ridiculous that we are out there. She even was whining about how Haiti was going to be all over the news for weeks. Who cares? If you watch the news you are lied to anyways, if you don’t like it just turn it off.

But the thing that really stood out in my mind, was when she said, “Obama can afford to send over ten thousand troops but can’t afford to heat homes in America where people are freezing to death! There’s something wrong with America!”. At this point in the meal I was finished. I was ready to leave and not have to listen to this lady’s pestering voice anymore.

As we left the restaurant I couldn’t help but smirk and laugh as I said goodbye to everyone there. Outside I began to verbally express my displeasure with our company at lunch to Emily and she agreed the lady was absurd and possibly not fit to operate a motor vehicle.

Now the real kicker, and I don’t particularly care either way in all honesty, is that this burger lady incessantly moans to everyone she comes in contact with. She probably tells everyone she knows that Obama’s health care plan is socialism at its finest and rails against the bill, but my issue is: If you don’t support universal health care, why are you so riled up that Obama is not paying for the heat in all American households? This seems to be a logical disconnect for the “conservative”. The idea that we should not render aid to anyone else until we provide for the welfare of our own, in the form of heating their homes is absolutely outrageous. It’s perfectly acceptable to her for Obama to pay for everyone’s heating bill for the entire winter, but you try to give somebody a free medical visit and it’s like you are wearing a Che Guevara shirt while waving a Chinese flag and saluting a statue of Marx.

Now don’t misunderstand, I am not in favor of universal health care. But I’m also not in favor of heating all Americans’ homes for free either. Why does it matter if we send relief to a disaster ruined country? How does this equate to providing something absolutely free to Americans which they are not entitled to?

In America people can work to provide money for the basics in life like heating a home and drinking water, but in Haiti right now, what can you do for money? Where are you going to get fresh water? How are you going to receive shelter from the weather? Where are the basic necessities for sustained life?

- Protestants have no problem with standing in church and pledging allegiance to the flag, yet make no practice of reciting prayers.

- Protestants accuse the Catholic church of including things in their prayers not found in scripture, but rather than reciting prayers which are based on scripture, they wing it behind the podium.

- Protestants and fundamentalists don’t believe in the true presence in the Eucharist, however still believe it is defiling the body and blood of Christ to take it when you are not of clean spirit. How can you defile Christ when you don’t believe it to truly be Christ?

- Protestants, specifically Fundamentalists, take communion 2-4 times a year, but… Never mind this just proves my point that they really don’t believe it is worth a damn.

- Fundamentalists believe that America is the promised land and have no problem saluting a flag but can’t kneel or bow to an icon of Christ.

- Fundamentalists and protestants believe that “true Christians” support the United States when the Bible says that “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rules of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” (Eph 6:12).

- Fundamentalists believe that scripture alone should be our source of doctrine however the Bible never says that scripture alone should be our source of doctrine, thereby using poor logic.

- The Bible says “All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice” (2 Tim 3:16), and fundamentalists try to use this to prove that the Bible is all we need, but in the very sentence it says to reprove, well what are we reproving if we don’t rely on tradition for anything?

- Fundamentalists attack Catholics because Catholics believe that we are saved through and by Christ by our faith and works, yet they must perform a prayer to receive the Holy Ghost. If you have to do something, that is a work. This is not faith alone.

- Fundamentalists and Protestants both attack Catholics on the grounds that we should be saved by faith alone, but the Bible says explicitly “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” in James 2:24.

- Fundamentalists and some protestants believe that to be saved you must accept Jesus as your savior before the Holy Ghost can come to dwell within you, however we see quite the opposite in Luke 1:41-44 “And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.”

- Fundamentalists do not call the Blessed Virgin Mary blessed at all. “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42). If Mother Mary were just a woman who carried Christ in her womb, why was she called blessed in the same way that our Lord is called blessed?

- Fundamentalists and Protestants neither confirm the fact that Mother Mary was without original sin, yet have no problem affirming that Adam and Eve were created without original sin. They seem to forget that original sin is passed down from generation to generation, and Mother Mary would need to be untainted by sin in order to give birth to our Lord.

- Protestants and Fundamentalists, with the exception of a few, do not call the Blessed Virgin Mary blessed at all. It is clearly expressed in scripture however that we should. “And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” (Luke 1:46-48).

- Every fundamentalist sect wants to lay claim to being the ‘original’ church or the church founded by Christ, yet where are their church councils? Furthermore, they have no miracles that would testify to their authenticity, while the catholic church has numerous.

- Protestants whether fundamentalists or calvinists or any flavor of the brand are entirely antinominian. There is no penance, there is no repercussions. If you are elect you are going to heaven. If you are saved you are going to heaven. These are the mentalities that they approach salvation with.

- Fundamentalists pay no reverence to God. The chapels have large screen tv’s, stand seating often times, they talk in the sanctuary, they pretend to believe in the true presence of God but pass notes during service, and you will find more ‘clubs’ than at your local high school. College group, middle school, varsity, old people, single people, newlyweds, apparently everyone needs a different version of the gospel.

This is by no means an exhaustive collection of my issues with protestantism and fundamentalism, but it’s a start. As I think of more I will create a part 2.

I was born and raised in a baptist home, attending a baptist church, and every summer attending a baptist youth camp. At the age of 5 or 6, I asked Jesus into my heart. I don’t remember asking Jesus into my heart very well; too young to do so. I remember my family being ecstatic about it. I also remember being baptized, although I couldn’t see anything because I had to remove my glasses for it. As I continued in the baptist church I surrendered my life to the Lord at youth camp, not knowing what that meant entirely however. Most people believed it meant I would either become a missionary or a pastor, and I assumed I would as well. By high school I was beginning to second guess the baptist faith and the doctrines therein. I questioned it’s obedience to the flag, I questioned it’s unsound doctrine, I questioned it’s lackadaisical liturgy.

So began my studying of theology, naturally the first progression for anyone thinking they are wise is calvinism. Obsessing over the 5 points, I memorized scripture, listened to debates, read books upon books over calvinism, and eventually came to the conclusion that I was chosen to study calvinism because I was elect. While studying calvinism though in high school I began to also read some of Augustine. After all, calvinists love to quote Augustine. I began to attend irregularly a reformed presbyterian church but felt it lacking in liturgy and switched to the RPCNA, where they practiced the exclusive psalmsody as well as some recited prayers. I fell in love with the sit and kneel of the dutch reformed and wanted more and more. I craved high church liturgy. I felt a draw towards the Catholic church but as a recent convert from baptist to reformed (the two mortal enemies of the Catholic), I could not bring myself to study much of it. I eventually fell disenchanted with the scholarly pretentious attitude of the calvinists around me and pushed myself away.

I decided that it was my time to leave public school and 2 days before the first day of my senior year I changed to a private christian school nearby, Maranatha Christian Academy. What a mistake that was… What I encountered here was so similar to public school that I became disgusted with Christianity in general. I never disagreed with Christianity, nor did I ever claim it was incorrect; I do not want the reader to misunderstand. I simply became nauseated by the thought of Christians. All along the walls of the school were posters of “Relationship not Religion” and “Love, Not Judgment”, and other silly phrases that the postmodernist hipster Christians would use. But guess what, they got to me.

By the end of my senior year I was a bonafide postmodern nondenominational communist liberal christian. I attended, shortly albeit, a nondenominational church, and enjoyed the freedom of wearing shorts to church. But can you blame me? Who doesn’t want to drink espresso while wearing a ‘Jesus is my homeboy’ t-shirt and shaking like a Polaroid picture to the influence of the Holy Ghost.

It didn’t take me long to come back full swing to my old arrogant ways of high church and this time I was back in force. I began to again, feel the draw of the Catholic church on my heart… I purchased pictures online of classical catholic icons and saints, but just told myself they were nothing more than art. I couldn’t give into temptation! I kept studying the presbyterian faith while searching for something with more liturgy even, and found myself wandering towards the Lutheran church. I arrived at the lutheran church less than a year ago, give or take a few months. I visited a couple different churches but just did not feel like it was where I needed to be. I couldn’t escape the Catholic Church’s grasp any longer.

It was time to go to some of my old friends for advice. It would have behooved the reader if I would have mentioned earlier that during my stay in the calvinist faith I was active on xanga condemning homosexuals to eternal suffering. Xanga was no longer active though at this point, subsequently, I came to facebook to meet back up with friends and to my amazement they had split theologically right down the middle. Some converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, but most converted to Catholic; what a truly amazing moment it was to see this. That is that all of us, with the exception of a few staunch “truly reformed” folk, had all made our pilgrimage to the faith of the ancients. I knew now that I needed to study the Catholic faith, but even more so, I felt at ease that I could finally study what I had so longed for.

Still convinced of the reformed faith, just wanting a higher liturgy, I got a book recommendation from everyone I could, most notably Mark Burns, who provided me with a plethora of reading, which I still have not finished. Gradually, the Lord began to crumble the walls of theology I had built around myself over the years and I decided I had to experience the church. I began attending the SSPX local to myself “St. Vincent de Paul” and fell in love instantaneously.

I felt at home.

The women there were dressed modestly! Not one without a head covering! The families were large and the children, no matter how young, tried their hardest to genuflect on their way into the pew. The entire congregation recited prayers, sat, stood, and knelt simultaneously; everyone revered the sanctuary as a holy place.

I knew Rome was where I was intended to be all along, but what a backwards way of bringing me to the Catholic faith, Lord. I am continuing studying in the Catholic faith, but the climactic ending is that I am in catechism class. Emily and I, are both attending the local FSSP and are in catechism class together with my friend Eric, who is also converting to the Catholic faith; Praise God! We are on schedule to be confirmed by Easter.

Now, if you have made it this far through the note I apologize for wasting your time. This is not even what this note was meant to be originally, this is just what came off the top of my mind. I promise everyone that is reading this though a follow-up note on a few of my issues with the protestant faith, as well as a few of my loves for the Catholic faith. Along with those I will also be writing a few of the things that I have seen within literature that even more so solidify my positions in the Catholic church. Also, please forgive my numerous grammatical and spelling errors. It’s 3:27 am and far beyond my bed time.

pax

Robert Sungenis wipes the floor with AOMIN.

The Westminster Confession of Faith says “ VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.”

This is in contrast to tradition, scripture, and episcopacy playing equal roles within the church and in doctrine. Sungenis expounds on this as well on his website catholicintl.com

My issue with sola scriptura is that it is a logically fallacious presupposition. The idea that scripture alone should interpret scripture, or that scripture alone should be the authority for all doctrine or matters within the church is preposterous as the Bible never states that it is the sole authority. Within the Bible stating it how can they believe it? Because it is deduced from scripture?

2 Thess. 2:15 says “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” I think we all can agree the keyword here is Tradition.

Mark 16:15 says “And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” We see the commandment to the apostles to preach, not write, yet 3 of them still wrote. Do we consider the other apostles’ messages to be defunct because they were not written as scripture? No they were presented orally, as tradition. Sungenis has a great writing on this.

2 Timothy 2:2 says “And the things which thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also.”

We stand with a great church heritage of Tradition, Scripture and Episcopacy. We have the Ecumenical Councils, the Scripture, the Bishops of Rome, The Pope, and the Early Church Fathers.

“Since this is the case, in order that the truth may be adjudged to belong to us, “as many as walk according to the rule,” which the church has handed down from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, and Christ from God, the reason of our position is clear, when it determines that heretics ought not to be allowed to challenge an appeal to the Scriptures, since we, without the Scriptures, prove that they have nothing to do with the Scriptures. For as they are heretics, they cannot be true Christians, because it is not from Christ that they get that which they pursue of their own mere choice, and from the pursuit incur and admit the name of heretics. Thus, not being Christians, they have acquired no right to the Christian Scriptures; and it may be very fairly said to them, “Who are you? When and whence did you come?” Tertullian A.D. 200

“But in learning the Faith and in professing it, acquire and keep that only, which is now delivered to thee by the Church, and which has been built up strongly out of all the Scriptures….Take heed then, brethren, and hold fast the traditions which ye now receive, and write them and the table of your heart.” Cyril of Jerusalem A.D. 350