My conversion story

Calvary Baptist Church in Belleville, Illinois- March 2010 

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First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Even though I have never been a Mormon, I still owe that organization an enormous debt (though they would be horrified to hear about it, I’m sure!) For, were it not for them, it is quite probable that I would not be a Catholic today.

Perhaps such an introduction to my story calls for a bit of an explanation, and so I will provide one. But first things first.

I have been a Christian most of my life. This is due to the fact that when I was almost 6 years old, my family moved to the city of Belleville, Illinois. It happened to turn out that we lived right down the road from a small church called Calvary Baptist Church. Though my father is a Pentecostal and my mother is a Southern Baptist, still, they started to send my sister, my brother, and me to this church because of how close it was to where we lived. (Neither of my parents attended church themselves, however.)

It was at Calvary that I first really started learning a lot about Jesus. Through going to church Sunday after Sunday, I learned much about the Bible, and how great a friend Jesus is (and indeed, much more than simply a friend- a Savior!) I also learned the basic gospel message, how that we are all sinners, and that such sin keeps us separated from God. However, Jesus came down from Heaven, died for our sins, and rose again so that we could be reunited to God. Now, relying completely on His grace, we need to place our faith in Christ, accepting Him as our personal Lord and Savior so that we can be saved.

After attending this church for about ten months, I finally accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, trusting in him to save me and forgive me of my sins. I was six years old at the time, and I did so on Easter morning in 1988, right before I went to church that day.

I continued to attend this church for the next few years. There were a couple periods when I started attending a different church for a few months, and during one of those times when I attended a different church, I was baptized (in May 1990). But I always returned back to my original church home of Calvary Baptist Church. It was there that I grew in love with the Bible. That church was filled with such wonderful people, who truly cared about everyone, no matter who you were. I learned so much there, not only about Scripture, but also about living a truly Christian lifestyle, and I will never be able to adequately express my gratitude for what they have given me.

However, in the year 1995, something happened to me that was to have a profound influence on my spiritual life. In my teen Sunday School class, we started a unit studying different religions and quasi-Christian sects. We discussed Islam, Mormonism, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and so forth. (We also discussed Catholicism, in fact, though I happened to be absent that week for some reason. Appropriately so, in hindsight, since Catholicism isn't a quasi-Christian sect.) I remember particularly, though, when we discussed Mormonism, and how I started realizing how strange were the beliefs they had compared to what I believed as a Baptist. For example, believing that when you died, it would be possible for you to become a "god" and rule over your own planet! How could that possibly be true? I wondered.

The reason I mention Mormonism in particular is because, not that long after we covered that unit at church, one Saturday I happened to be visiting a thrift shop with my family. Coincidentally enough, I happened to come across a copy of the Book of Mormon there. Since it only cost a quarter, and because I was interested in learning more about those odd Mormon beliefs, I decided to buy that copy. After taking it home, I read it all the way through.

What I read shocked me, but not for the reasons that I anticipated that it would. I was struck rather by how ordinary the Book of Mormon was. True, it did claim to be the record of an ancient civilization of the Americas. But absolutely nowhere did I read about those other strange beliefs I had heard about Mormons. There wasn’t anything in that book about people being able to become gods of their own planets. A lot of the doctrine actually presented in it was similar to what Baptists believe. What was wrong?

I was now starting to worry about my church's sources of information. Of course, I knew the people at my church would never deliberately lie about other people. But was it possible they were seriously misinformed about the Mormons, perhaps by people who wouldn't have any such scruples about lying? That is what appeared to me at the time to be the case. And if so, then would it not be possible that they could also be misinformed about the other groups that we had studied in my Sunday School class? I was starting to wonder

Today, of course, I now realize that my church was right about the teachings of Mormonism. Though beliefs such as men becoming gods are not taught in the Book of Mormon (which actually stresses there being only one God), later on Joseph Smith started teaching this doctrine, and it is now Mormon belief. The same is true with many other Mormon doctrines that are not recorded in the Book of Mormon (some of which seem to be actually contradicted by the Book of Mormon.)

However, though I know these facts today, I did not know them at the time. That being the case, while I was hardly ready to become a Mormon at this time, I did decide to start being a little more open-minded, and willing to do a little more research when trying to understand what other groups believed. Basically, I came to the conclusion that perhaps a lot of the knowledge of other groups I had was, in fact, "pseudo-knowledge", and not completely or perhaps even mostly corresponding to reality.

Now, the reason this is important is because it was about this time that I started feeling a tug at my heart, out of nowhere, to start investigating the Catholic Church. In July 1995 (the same month that I had bought the Book of Mormon at a thrift shop), I was flipping through the channels on TV one day, and came across channel 41, which happened to be the cable channel EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). I had always been interested in religious programming, which I could tell that this was. So I decided to watch it a few minutes. I knew it was a Catholic channel (and for that reason in the past had not really paid that much attention to it, despite my general interest in religious programming). But this day was different for some reason. (Interestingly enough, EWTN, which was my first real exposure to Catholicism from a Catholic source, had first started broadcasting on August 15, 1981 at 6PM. I was born 22 hours and 7 minutes later, at 4:07 PM on August 16, 1981. Coincidence?)

After watching it for a couple minutes, I suddenly started having this feeling that I should start investigating the Catholic Church. (I now believe it was the prompting of the Holy Spirit- though, of course, I believe this only in hindsight, after I had tested it, to make sure it was of God; cf 1 John 4:1). However, at the time, I just ignored such a feeling. Why would I need to investigate the Catholic Church? I wasn't particularly attracted to Catholicism, not least of all because Catholics worshiped idols, Mary, the Pope....basically, they worshiped anything and everything but God Himself. Or so I thought (though that same month I remember asking a Catholic friend why Catholics worship statues, and had that particular misunderstanding corrected.) Anyway, I just decided to turn off the TV. I figured such an absurd feeling would fade soon enough. Obviously, it would have to, wouldn’t it?

Perhaps not. Over the next few months, such a feeling to learn more about Catholicism remained. I didn’t understand why (it was totally inexplicable to me from a merely human point of view), and so I simply pushed it into the background. It was not that difficult to do. I had just started high school, and I had a lot of other things on my mind as well, which helped me not dwell too much on it. But then one Sunday in December 1995, when such a feeling to learn more about Catholicism came once more to the forefront, I had had enough. So I decided that I would go ahead and try to learn more about the Catholic Church. If nothing else, I would confirm the erroneous nature of the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and hopefully put such foolishness to rest.

I left my house, went down the street from where I lived (which was now in a different part of Belleville), and knocked on the door of an elderly man who I knew happened to be Catholic. I asked him if he would mind if I asked him some questions about Catholicism. Of course, he wasn’t prepared to start answering religious questions from some inquisitive teenager. However, thankfully, he did direct me to the house of another neighbor who happened to be Catholic as well that he thought might be willing to answer my questions.

So I went down to her house. Unfortunately, she did not happen to be home at the time. Her son, however, was, and he said he would be glad to help answer any questions I might have, at least to the best of his ability. Interestingly enough, he was a very devout Protestant, who obviously disagreed with the Catholic Church on some matters. But thankfully, he was also honest and tried to be fair, as well as being accurately informed about Catholicism. So, over the next half-hour to forty-five minutes or so, as we discussed one topic after another quite rapidly, he cleared up quite a few misunderstandings I had had about Catholic teaching. I was absolutely amazed that I had so completely misunderstood the Catholic Church. I apparently had a lot more to learn.

At the end of our discussion, I asked him if he knew of anyone else I could ask for some information about the Catholic Church. He suggested that I call a priest for some information. I was hoping he wouldn’t say that, because that was the last thing I wished to do. But I realized he was right. That would be the best thing for me to do. So when I went home, I flipped through the phone book, and started dialing some phone numbers.

It was a Sunday afternoon in December, but I was impatient to wait till Monday. The first number I dialed was of a church called St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, which I happened to dial because it was the only Catholic church I had ever even seen before to the best of my knowledge. No answer. Ok, so I decided to dial the Cathedral for the diocese (which is in Belleville). No answer there, either. Finally, I tried one more church. It was St. Luke’s Parish. This time I finally got an answer. It was the secretary. When I explained my situation, the secretary gave me a different number and suggested that I call it in a couple days and talk to a religious sister. I agreed to do so and hung up. On that Tuesday, I called Sister Grace at that number. And so began weeks of question after question concerning Catholic teachings and practices. (I was sure that every time I called her, she thought to herself "Oh, no! Not him again!") It was here that for the first time I was able to hear answers (in detail) to all of my questions that I had had.

Shortly afterwards, she even invited me to the church. Since I had no transportation there, she came to my house and picked me up. When we entered the church for her to show me around, I was absolutely stunned. It was the most beautiful piece of architecture I had ever seen in my life. It was also by far larger than the church I attended. I was at first skeptical when she happened to mention, matter-of-factly, that St. Luke's was one of the smaller Catholic parishes in Belleville. Later on, some days afterwards, another member of the church picked me up to take me to my first Mass. Needless to say, it was a completely different experience from what I was used to.

Sister Grace soon invited me to start attending RCIA classes as well. (RCIA classes are the classes one takes in order to become Catholic.) It was late in the process, but I started to attend for a few weeks. At this period, I was going through a great struggle, trying to decide in my mind whether I should stay Baptist or become Catholic. When the Sunday came when all of the candidates and catechumens (who were to be received into the Catholic Church at Easter) were to be sent off to the cathedral to see the bishop, that morning I called Sister Grace and told her that at that point in time I was not ready to become a Catholic. She understood, and that was that.

I continued to talk with her, and after a couple weeks, I was more ready to become Catholic, and I informed her of it. She, however, cautioned that it would perhaps be better if I waited till the next year to become Catholic instead. I reluctantly agreed, because now I felt I really was ready. But I decided that she was probably right. I am glad that I did, because my struggles did return. I kept communicating with her through the year, though, and by the time September rolled around, I joined RCIA again. This time, however, I was more prepared to become Catholic than previously, though I had not made my final decision yet. (I was still studying and praying a lot, as I continued to do through the months ahead as well, to make absolutely sure I should become Catholic, since it was obviously not a decision to be taken lightly, as I reflected, especially after my initial back-and-forth attraction had reinforced such.)

There were a few weeks during my year in RCIA in which I had been visited by Mormons (since I had lost my original Book of Mormon, and so simply called the number I saw on their commercials for a new one, since I did wish to have a copy for reference. This gave them the opportunity to send Mormon elders to talk with me.) At this point, I decided that I would even be willing to give the Mormons a chance to at least present their case to me, since I was more open-minded now than before. I even visited their church a couple times. But I started to learn that my original knowledge about Mormonism and their beliefs I learned as a Baptist happened to be right, after all. I didn’t learn it through the missionaries’ direct teaching at first, but rather through some literature they left me which did teach things such as men becoming gods. Even after discovering this, however, and asking the elders afterwards about it, I allowed them to present their arguments to me (mainly out of simple courtesy, because they had already gone to such trouble in visiting me), though, needless to say, I highly doubted they would be able to convince me. And so when, as I expected, their arguments were not persuasive, I kindly let them know that while I appreciated their time in teaching me their beliefs, I did not believe such teachings were true, and I was no longer interested in them continuing to visit me.

That brief yet strange interlude over, I focused again on studying Catholicism as much as possible, and learned more and more about it (especially by watching EWTN), while continuing to pray. During my entire time since my first talk with Sister Grace, it happened that not only were my objections answered, but I came to see how firmly rooted in Scripture Catholic teaching is. That year flew by. I know that I have heard many converts relate how their time of waiting to become Catholic seemed to go by so slowly, but for some reason, in my case, it seemed to go by very quickly. It was one of the happiest years of my life.

During that same year, as Easter was fast approaching, I finally broke the news to the people at my Baptist church that I was becoming Catholic. (I had not discussed it with them previously, because of their complete misconceptions concerning Catholicism, and so I did not see the point, since they would have thought me simply being "deceived" about what Catholicism "really" teaches, and thus dismiss my arguments without examination. I have, however, attempted to discuss it with them since, as well as with many other people as well numerous times, with the result that I become even more convinced of the truth of Catholicism).

Anyway, to be more specific, I actually talked to my Sunday School teacher about my decision. I called him up, and asked him if he could come to my house, so I could tell him some important news. He did, coming over in his pickup truck, and he simply took me for a ride, while I explained to him my decision. I was especially nervous doing so since he happened to be an ex-Catholic and quite opposed to the Catholic Church (though he did not seem to understand it very well). During the course of our discussion, he even asked me if I had ever truly accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. When I explained that I had, he didn't dispute the point, but only informed me that while he believed me, he still thought that I was making a huge mistake. We really didn't get into discussions about Catholic theology at that point (though later on we would). However, afterwards, I finally stopped attending my Baptist church (which was extremely painful, since I owed so much to that church, and it was hard for me to leave. I still greatly miss attending there.)

By the time Easter came around, I had now become completely convinced of the truth of Catholicism, and was finally received into the Catholic Church. (Ironically enough, at what was such a happy moment of my life, I also happened to have a sore throat, the worst I ever had, in fact, and so, physically speaking, I felt terrible on that Easter Vigil. But that could not take away from the joy that I had now that I was a Catholic!)

Since becoming Catholic, I have had some struggles, especially since as concern many matters, I prefer the way things were done in my Baptist church (such as the music). However, all of the problems I have had to deal with seem quite small when compared to what I have gained. In short, to sum up all of the reasons for why I became Catholic would be difficult, so I will simply borrow the words of G.K. Chesterton:

The difficulty of explaining 'why I am a Catholic' is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.

And that is, ultimately speaking, the only legitimate reason for joining a church: that it teaches the fullness of the truth, being founded by the Truth Himself (cf. John 14:6).