Bob Jones University and the Anti Catholic Attitude

Father Dwight Longenecker who blogs at Standing on My Head has a good article at the National Catholic Register on anti Catholicism and Bob Jones University. See Bob Jones University — Racist and Anti-Catholic?. He of course before he was a a Catholic and a Priest attended that University.

I think this part is very important:

My own progress from Bob Jones graduate to Catholic priest was a journey that took nearly 30 years. As I gradually grew into Catholicism, I understood that I was not rejecting anything good from my devout Bible-based background. Instead, I was accepting more and more of God’s fullness, until at last, I was received into the Catholic Church. In my book More Christianity, I explain how Catholicism is not something essentially different from evangelical Christianity, but something more.

This is the sort of dialogue we need with our separated brethren who follow Bob Jones type fundamentalist Christianity. Step by step we need to overcome the prejudice of anti-Catholicism with a genuinely listening ear, with nonthreatening information, discussion, and most of all, with the radiant and joyful example of holy, Spirit-filled Catholic lives.

Then, in time, we may read that Bob Jones University has also issued a statement acknowledging and apologizing for their anti-Catholic prejudice. If so, we will have succeeded in winning not just arguments, but everlasting souls.

I think this is very true. While the heat of politics were involved in the Hagee situation this year I don't think Catholics represented themselves well in that. At least many on the web.