Opus 2026-071: Interview: Matt Fradd and Daniel Suazo

I just finished watching an interview between Matt Fradd and Daniel Suazo.  Fradd is a devout Roman Catholic who hosts a podcast called Pints with Aquinas.  Suazo is a Catholic convert out of Judaism.  At times it was very frustrating and at other times enlightening.

Suazo has both great insight and frustrating blindness.  At times he shares the big problem with Judaism.  It is no longer the religion expressed by the OT but an aberration based on the creative imagination of the Rabbis.  He admits this but does not seem to understand what he is saying.  He speaks of the Talmud with great respect . He shares a few of its ridiculous moments and ignores what they demonstrate.

One example is when he says that the Law of Moses says nothing about mixing dairy and meat.  That is true.  He points out that the Rabbis have explained this conclusion from a statement about boiling a baby goat in its mother’s milk.  (That is my paraphrase).  To him this seems a noble and honorable thing.  In reality it is the extreme arrogance of legalistic scholars.  If something doesn’t make any sense he explains it as allegory.

He then explains the attraction of the Catholic Church in the similar application of scholarly rationalization by the priests.  He somehow finds a parallel between Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the movement of the tabernacle by David.  I am still scratching my head over that one.

Can I expect to see Suazo in heaven?  I think so.  He is clear about the trinity, incarnation, resurrection and other basic doctrines.  I think God will be more lenient on some of the nonsense we advocate than we will be.  As I have said, Jesus did not die on the cross to see how many He could send to hell.

As long as we know what we believe and why we believe it we can gain by listening to people that we don’t understand, or if we do, don’t agree with.

homo unius libri