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

Opus 2025-547: Whom Do You Blame?

I’ve been listening to a Matt Fradd interview with David Wood?  It is three hours long but it might be worth your time.

In the conversation they were talking about Muslims who converted to Christianity and the question was asked what percentage of the Muslims who leave Islam when they find out the deceptions and false teachings move to atheism instead of Christianity?  Wood said it was a good question and he did not really have any statistics on it, but he knew that it was a good portion that did not embrace Christianity, that went on to reject all religion.  What got me interested was that their reason is the conviction if one religion lies to me, then all religious lie to me.  That’s my paraphrase.

What would happen in our world if we took that same attitude toward everything?  Now being one who doubts what climate change scientist tell us, I would be one who would simply ask if we can prove that the climate scientist are lying to us does that mean that we discount everything that all scientist say?  Some cynics would say yes.  Some skeptic you say yes.  Some open minded people might even say yes, but most of us would realize that that’s not really a fair analysis of the situation.

Move on to politics.  If we’re convinced that one politician is corrupt, does that mean that all politicians are corrupt?  As you can see this comes from the other side because most of us would tend to say yes.  But that’s not a fair comparison; not a fair way to look at things.

So we need to be looking into each situation ourselves instead of just taking other people’s words for it.  One reason I think that many people move to atheism instead of embracing Christianity is that the truth of Islam, or the false Islam, was right there in front of them.  All they had to do was read the Quran.  If they were really concerned, they could go into the Hadith.  The evidence was there, it was documented, and if they simply believe what somebody told them in the face of other people claiming it was not true, then whom does the blame lie on.

If you tell me that my favorite apples are on sale at the local grocery store and I go and order a big box of those apples, when I get the invoice and find out the actual price is not a bargain, but it’s full price, whom am I going to blame.  Am I going to blame you because they were on sale yesterday when you were there?   Am I going to blame you because you made the whole thing up?  Or am I going to be honest about it and say, “I should have looked at the price myself.”

Ultimately, the choices we make, and the direction we may go in life are based on our own personal decisions.  Yes, there are other influences and sometimes we’re forced into things we don’t want to do, but most of the time we have more to say about things that we want to admit.

So man up. Or maybe we should say person up. Above all grow up.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-109: Retreat

I’m listening to a Catholic podcast while I peel potatoes.  It’s hosted by somebody named Matt Fradd and I’ve noticed him, but not really listened before.  It was a fascinating experience.

Fradd and his guest started off talking about how this American is going to Australia to speak at a purity conference.  He was talking about keeping yourself sexually pure, and so forth, and he was attacked by covens of witches.

It was interesting the way these men were talking like they were devout Protestant Christians, throwing in Catholic terminologies and jargon, but the vibrancy of the Holy Spirit in their lives was very real.  It was a broadening experience to listen to.

They got off on the talking about one of the “saints” in Australia, a man I’ve never heard of and don’t know his story.  Evidently he was being persecuted and was locked up in a prison, not allowed to say the mass, and given menial tasks.  They talked about how, while sweeping the cells, he prayed for people that he could hear screaming in other places, and he made it a spiritual time being locked up there. Then they said this,

“He turned it into a retreat.”

That thought made the listening worth while all by itself.  How often do we look at hard times as persecution and hardship?  I hope I never experience real persecution but I hope I have the maturity to use the time to get closer to the Lord, to turn it into a retreat.  I guess a ridiculous example of that would be listening to faith building podcasts while I do menial chores like peeling potatoes.

homo unius libri