"Are you saved?"

Can there be any other question that Catholics fear hearing more? Catholics do not fear this question today because they are not saved or have any grave concerns about if they are in the right Church or not, but the realize that the prejudice and ignorance that often accompanies the question. Western Protestant Christianity is so far removed from the Church founded by Christ and is so far removed from an authentic interpretation of the scriptures that the Catholic knows if he answers the question with its genuine answer (I am Catholic: I am saved, I have been saved, and I am being saved by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ), a debate will likely ensure in which he or she will hear lines like "You Catholics worship Mary" or "You Catholics worship pagan idols" or "The Pope isn't in the Bible" or "You believe you are saved by works", etc. The lines are almost endless, and endlessly filled with ignorance (and among anti-Catholics arrogance).

Truth in Love.

How does a Catholic respond to the claims that Fundamentalists and others will throw at them. In Truth. In Love. Truth in Love. In order to evangelize our sisters and brothers in Christ who attack our faith and hurl insults at us, we must not attack, we must not be on the defensive, but we must teach them by clarifying what we believe. And we must show them our convictions by teaching as if what we teach were true. I often hear Catholics answer questions about the faith with a question mark. The tone in their voice makes an answer on the Eucharist sound like a question "We believe in the real presence?" Now I've been told that people from Michigan end every sentence as if they were asking a question, but as Catholics (and Catholics from Michigan), we must avoid this. If we are asked if we worship a pagan idol in the Eucharist, we must smile, explain that Jesus Christ teaches us, as it is recorded for us in the Bible, that the Eucharist is true food and true drink, that it is his body, blood, soul, and divinity. If we do not believe this, how are we going to convince anyone else that it is true.

I am convinced that 90% of the problem is that non-Catholics are at first unwilling to be intellectual honest. I know it was my own problem when I was both a Lutheran and Baptist, yet every Protestant knows that there is something wrong with demoninationalism, and desparately thirsts for the truth. They have Jesus, but they know that something is missing - His family, His Church. In my own conversion once I stopped saying "You Catholics believe" and started saying "What is it you Catholics believe about....?" I was almost instantaniously doomed to become a Roman Catholic. As soon as I was willing to really listen, the answers poured in so fast it made my head spin. "The Pillar and Bulwark of truth is the Church" - How could have I missed that in my Bible before? With a small army of well catechized Catholics I quickly found most of the misconceptions about the Catholic Church spoiled. It took time, and a lot of patience, and a lot of learning, but once I was willing to say "Okay, tell me about the Church", the Holy Spirit worked on my heart and softened it towards His Church.