I just bought and watched a great DVD called Common Ground: What Protestants and Catholics Can Learn from Each Other. I found this to be a helpful, charitable dialogue between a Protestant minister and a Catholic priest.

Pastor Steve Andrews is the founding pastor of Kensington Community Church in Troy, Michigan. Kensington is a large, non-denominational, evangelical-Protestant church modeled after the successful Willow Creek Church near Chicago. Several years ago, some Kensington members who had left the Catholic Church to become Protestants were giving Catholicism a bad rap. Pastor Andrews thought there was a need to set the record straight, since he and other leaders considered Catholicism to be a significant part of Christianity.

This DVD presents Pastor Andrews’ interview of Father John Riccardo, pastor of nearby Saint Anastasia Catholic Church. The interview took place at St. Anastasia’s sanctuary, just in front of the tabernacle containing the Blessed Sacrament. Father Riccardo does an excellent job explaining Catholic beliefs and practices in a way that non-Catholics can understand.

If you’re looking for a video that you can share with non-Catholic friends who might be interested in learning what Catholics believe, this is an excellent resource.

A sample video clip is available from publisher Nineveh’s Crossing. Also available is a free study guide to the DVD, prepared by Catholic apologist and writer Dave Armstrong.

According to Catholic World News, Pope Benedict XVI is expected to issue his third encyclical this fall, which will likely be titled Caritas in Veritate, or Charity in Truth.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, revealed this in an interview with APCOM news agency. Cardinal Bertone also said that Pope Benedict will be working on the second part of his book Jesus of Nazareth over the summer.

I plan on attending the Catholic New Media Celebration here in Atlanta on June 22, and I hope to see you there, too. This is the first such event of its kind, and hopefully, it will become an annual happening.

The CNMC is a day to learn, share and explore how New Media can help the Catholic Church in the New Evangelization.

It will teach people — whether media producers or simply those who enjoy Catholic New Media — how to get involved in the exciting media revolution that is opening up so many new opportunities for the Church to spread the message of Jesus, the Bread of Life.

The Catholic New Media Celebration promises to be a festive, educational and spiritual one-day event to help all Catholics live out the “great relaunching” of evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II.

Atlanta’s Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory might be in line to replace Cardinal Edward Egan, the Archbishop of New York, according to an article in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

I found it funny how the article states that “few really know about the secretive church process of selection” then proceeds to tell us all about the details:

The Papal Nuncio, the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. begins the process of selection by interviewing priests and possibly lay people in the archdiocese about their perceived needs and condition of the church. He writes a lengthy report, including names of three candidates, which is sent to Rome. A group of cardinals review the report and add their opinions and thoughts and may rank the candidates. They give the information to the Pope. The Pope can choose one of the candidates or select someone who is not on the list. There is no time limit.

I guess it ain’t so secret after all!

When asked, “Who is Jesus?,” many people would say that he was a great moral teacher. However, if one examines his life and teachings, that option isn’t available to us. Jesus was either (a) a liar, (b) a lunatic, or (c) Lord.

True, Jesus was a great teacher. But he also made some outrageous claims about himself. Here are just a few:

• He claimed to be the only way to salvation:
  “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jesus speaking, as recorded in John 14:6, NIV)
• He claimed the authority to forgive sins, a perogative of God alone:
  Jesus…said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven. …the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” (Mark 2:5,10, NIV)
• He claimed to be equal with God, both by claiming God as his Father (John 5:17-18) and by using the phrase “I AM” to identify himself (see Exodus 3:13-16 and cross-reference it with John 8:58). It was this “blasphemy” of claiming to be God that led to his execution by crucifixion.

So, Jesus was either (a) lying when he made these claims, (b) confused or delusional when he made these claims, or (c) he really was who he claimed to be: God in the flesh. I believe that option (c) is the truth about Jesus Christ.

Atheist-turned-Christian C.S. Lewis wrote in his book Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him, “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ¹

Protestant author Josh McDowell examines the evidence for all three alternatives in chapter two of his book More Than A Carpenter. He sums it up as follows:

The issue with these three alternatives is not which is possible. But rather, the question is “Which is more possible?” Who you decide Jesus Christ is must not be an idle intellectual exercise. You cannot put him on the shelf as a great moral teacher. That is not a valid option. He is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord and God….

The evidence is clearly in favor of Jesus as Lord. Some people, however, reject this clear evidence because of moral implications involved. They don’t want to face up to the responsibility or implications of calling him Lord.²

This site takes its name – Option C – from this trilemma. My plan is to use this blog to present interesting items related to Christian thought, church history, apologetics and related topics. Enjoy!

1 C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1960), p. 55-56.

2 Josh McDowell, More Than A Carpenter (Living Books, Wheaton, IL, 1977), p. 33-34.