Mailbag: Seeking Tradition or Seeking Christ?
The Danger of a Church Made in Our Image
I occasionally receive emails from readers who have questions about my journey to Catholicism. I’ve decided to start sharing some of these conversations here (with personal details removed) in the hopes that they might be helpful to others navigating similar waters.
Recently, I received an email from a BYU student who is drawn to the Catholic Church, but for reasons that may present a hidden spiritual danger.
The following exchange is lightly edited.
Hello Isaac!
I’m a member of the LDS church, returned missionary, and I currently go to BYU. I’ve been having some “cracks” in my faith lately as you call it, and have been heavily attracted to the Catholic Church. I just watched your interview you did with Matt Fradd, and thought it was fantastic.
Anyways, I’ve been extremely disappointed with the modern LDS church. I’ve always been a very traditional guy in politics and all other matters, and it seems to me that the LDS church becomes increasingly more worldly, slowly changing rhetoric and doctrines to conform with the world for the sake of larger membership, and not offending that membership. This is my biggest hang up— not only that the modern leadership seems to contradict the past leadership (Benson, Kimball, J. Reuben Clark types) but that we seem to contradict or disregard many of the teachings of the New Testament. This observation has just highlighted in my mind the need for authority and respect for tradition, which the Catholic Church does very well. Did you ever have a concern like this one? And has the Catholic Church resolved that concern? I know that no church is immune to cultural shifts and maybe spouts of more liberal rhetoric and clergy, but does the Catholic Church have that same issue of “cultural drift”? I’m in the process of investigating the Catholic Church, and it seems very appealing. I’ve been reading Aquinas, and my perspective on God and omnipotence has changed and doesn’t really work with LDS theology.
I just find the more I really think about what I believe, and then search for a place that has similar beliefs, it always conforms to Catholic theology.
Although I’m very well read on it, LDS church history has never really bugged me. I still have a very firm testimony of the Book of Mormon, and my view right now is that either the LDS church is true and has drifted away from the truth, or that the Catholic Church is true and I must investigate. I’d love any advice or book recommendations you have to offer.
Thanks for reading this! I hope to get a response in the near future.
I want to respond to several points you raised in your email. I want to state upfront that, since I don't know you personally, I can only base my response on the email you sent. Please forgive me if I misconstrue something you said.
If you will excuse my boldness, I think your approach to faith presents both an opportunity and a spiritual danger.
The Opportunity
The opportunity is recognizing the need to be faithful to Christ. You said:
we seem to contradict or disregard many of the teachings of the New Testament
my perspective on God and omnipotence has changed and doesn’t really work with LDS theology
my view right now is that either the LDS church is true and has drifted away from the truth, or that the Catholic Church is true and I must investigate
If your faith is centered on Jesus Christ, the chief question must always be, "What must I do to be faithful to Him?" Faithfulness to Christ requires that we value the truth above all else, follow His commands and teachings, and accept His revelation as truth. When we consider that Jesus founded a church with His authority and commanded His disciples to gather and worship in His name, we should seek to be part of that church and accept its teachings as though coming from Jesus Himself. The LDS and Catholic churches have this idea in common.
But as you say above, you have noticed in several areas that the LDS Church is not faithful to Christ. This gives you some reason to doubt whether the LDS faith is truly the one founded by Jesus. Motivated by love for Christ, I definitely suggest that you study the Catholic faith to see whether its claims are true. If the Catholic Church really is the church founded by Christ, carrying His authority and promises, then it is there that we will find "the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22-23).
The Danger
But how do we find the true church? Here lies the danger. It is a common danger which leads to self-deception, even while seeking the truth.
The danger is the temptation to seek a church made in our image, matching our expectations. You say in your email:
I just find the more I really think about what I believe, and then search for a place that has similar beliefs, it always conforms to Catholic theology.
I should warn you that this is not the Catholic approach to faith. Jesus did not meet the expectations the Jews had for a Messiah. Neither His way of life, His teachings, nor His manner of death matched their expectations. When they applied the test you outlined above — thinking about what they believe and searching for a match — they misjudged the Lord of Life.
To avoid this same mistake, we do not search for a church whose teachings or culture match our expectations or demands. Rather, we look for a church which shows clear signs of being divinely commissioned. This allows us to find the truth even when it doesn't match our expectations. Jesus proved His Divine Sonship through His display of miracles, the startling wisdom of His teaching, and His resurrection, among other things. Those who saw these manifestations of Divine power could respond in faith to His teachings, believing what He taught even if it contradicted their desires.
You mention specifically the LDS Church's "softening" of its teachings to appease modern people. Be careful with this judgment. Jesus Himself was accused of being soft on sin because He spent time with sinners and outcasts, disregarding the Pharisees' traditions. If we believe the truth is found in a certain cultural attitude, posturing, or strictness, we will cut ourselves off from the truth in favor of some group that shares our judgment of how the "pure faith" must look. Jesus says that the kingdom will be filled with both wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30) and good and bad fish (Matthew 13:47-50). The temptation to reject the universal faith in favor of a sect containing only the pure, rigid, and strict has been present since the beginning of Christianity.
To illustrate this by analogy, suppose a man is frustrated that the Supreme Court of the United States has made many decisions that, in his judgment, are incorrect. He then discovers that a few years ago someone started their own Supreme Court in rural Kansas, and this court’s opinions match his beliefs perfectly. If he wants to know “which is the true Supreme Court of the United States,” he will be deceived if he bases it on which court agrees with him. The true court is, rather, the one universally recognized, with clear history dating back to the country’s founding, whose justices were installed according to the laws of the land.
No analogy is perfect. But the point is that the judgment, “This church teaches what I agree with,” and “This church is the one established by Christ” are separate judgments. If you seek a church which agrees with you, you will likely find one, but you cannot know by that test whether it is the true church. If instead you seek the one established by Christ you can also find it, and then conform your beliefs to match its teachings.
If your interest in Catholicism comes from a belief that it is immune to cultural pressure or will meet the expectations of American traditionalists and conservatives, you will be disappointed.
But if your interest is in Christ and His truth, His presence, His doctrine, His sacraments, and His grace, you will find all of those in "good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over" (Luke 6:38). Salvation is in the Catholic Church, because salvation is in Christ, and the Church is His body. And in the Church we find everything given to us by God for our salvation. Even when it is not what we expect. Even when it surprises us. Even when it disappoints us.
For book recommendations, a good starting place would be The Early Church Was the Catholic Church by Joe Heschmeyer and The Light of Christ by Thomas Joseph White. The Catechism is always, of course, a necessary read.