In 2018, after a lifetime of Protestantism, and shortly before my 30th birthday, I made the decision to be received into the Catholic Church (you can see an updated archive of my Becoming Catholic blog series below). The process to make the decision took nearly a year, and the reading of several hundred books, the listening and watching of hundreds of hours of interviews/lectures/debates, and the having of many conversations with Protestant and Catholic friends and mentors alike. Looking back, however, I see many threads that led to the decision that went much further back. It was an agonizing decision, but I don’t regret it.
I was interviewed about my decision to convert during a time of scandal on the podcast of my friend, Catholic filmmaker and pro-life activist Jason Jones, who also converted during a time of scandal:
After deciding to become a Catholic Christian, I knew that the rest of my life would be spent articulating and defending the Truth and Beauty found in the Catholic Church—the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church founded and preserved by Jesus Christ. You can read my Becoming Catholic blog series here. It is a multi-part, multi-year, bite-size, fact-focused attempt at describing the journey of a lifelong protestant to the Catholic Church.
While that is my conviction, many of the best Christians I know, indeed many of my dearest mentors, are Protestants. They are my Christian brothers and sisters, and I am incredibly thankful for their witness in my life. Becoming Catholic is not about being anti-Protestant, but about embracing the Church. The very best of Protestantism comes to fruition and completion in the Catholic Church.
I am currently working on a book about my conversion, the proceeds of which I promised God would go to some good Catholic cause. In the meantime, the short-version of my conversion story is contained in the podcast above, as well as a recent book of interviews of Protestant converts edited by Princeton professors Robert P. George and R.J. Snell, entitled Mind, Heart, and Soul: Intellectuals and the Path to Rome.