Apologetics for the Masses #470 - The Revolve Bible Church and Mike Gendron's Viral Anti-Catholic Video

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Topic

I sent an email to Pastor Ryan Day, and the entire Leadership Team (24 people), of the Revolve Bible church in California, regarding the biased, bigoted, and viciously anti-Catholic video of a Mike Gendron presentation - at that church - that they have posted on their YouTube channel.

General Comments

Hey folks,

I cannot thank all of you enough for all of your prayers, kind and encouraging words, and financial support that you sent my way this past week in response to my "situation" - getting laid off by the Diocese of Birmingham, along with 7 other folks, as the diocese basically shut down most of its ministry offices. It has been a truly humbling experience, and, on behalf of my entire family, again...thank you! It is my privilege and my honor to have so many wonderful people as subscribers to this newsletter! You guys are awesome!

Just so you know, I have a few possibilities that are percolating, but it's too soon to report on anything for certain. My goal...my hope...is to be able to go full-time with the Bible Christian Society - as I was for several years before the bishop asked me to be the diocesan Director of Evangelization back in 2009. But, if I can pull in another job or two, or three, as I've done most of the last 25 years, then all the better. I will keep you up-to-date as things happen, but again - many, many thanks for all of your support.

One thing in particular, though, is that I would ask for your prayers for a special project I'm working on. I think it could be pretty big. Can't reveal any details just yet. You guys will be the first to know, though, if it materializes.

Introduction

This week, we're back to that viral anti-Catholic video of Mike Gendron's that I have addressed in a few previous newsletters, specifically, Issues #453 - #461. Back in December, I sent an email to the pastor of the church where Gendron gave that particular presentation, which is the same church that has posted that presentation on its YouTube channel. That video has now garnered over 1.6 million views. So the lies...and there are a lot of lies...in that video, have been viewed many, many times over and there is no telling how many souls could be lost because of it.

My email to the pastor was basically a request for them to cease and desist posting the video on their channel. On their church's website - Revolve Bible Church - it mentions that the pastor values integrity. So, I asked him where was the integrity in putting out lies about someone else's religious beliefs so that they could be viewed by so many people. He never answered me.

So, I sent him the email again, just this afternoon, a couple of hours before publishing this newsletter. But, this time, in addition to sending it to him, I also sent it to the other 23 members of the church's Leadership Team. I'm hoping that it will spur discussion and that at least one of the people on that team, will indeed exhibit some real Christian integrity and lobby for the video to be taken down.

Another thing I did in the email to the pastor, and the subsequent email to him and his leadership, was to offer to come out to his church in California, at my own expense, to give a presentation on what the Catholic Church actually does teach.

Anyway, that email is below. What I am asking you to do, is to first read the email I sent, and then pray about going to the Leadership Team page of the church's website - Revolve Bible Church Leadership Team - click on any one, or more, of the folks on that page so as to get their email address, and send them an email asking them, in the name of truth and integrity, to please remove that video, with all of its lies, from their YouTube channel. If you do send any of them, or all of them, an email, please do two things:

1) Be charitable. The assumption is, at least initially, that this church, its pastor, and its leadership, are acting out of ignorance, not malice. So, just be polite and simply ask them to remove it and/or to allow me to come to their church to present an alternative view. Short and sweet.

2) If you do send any emails to these folks, let me know if any of them respond to you. Please forward any correspondence the church sends you to me.

And, remember, pray for these people. They have been taught lies. Pray for them to have their eyes and their hearts open to the truth...the fullness of truth.

Okay, here's the email I sent:

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Dear Pastor Day (and Revolve Bible Church Leadership Team),

I am writing to you, Pastor Day, as I did back in December, to inform you that you are spreading false information, and thus doing a great disservice to the Body of Christ, through your church's YouTube channel. On the website of your church, it is stated that you value integrity. Well, I certainly hope that is true and that you will be open to a frank and honest conversation regarding what I am about to assert in this email. You see, on your YouTube channel you have posted a video of a talk given at your church by Mike Gendron. The title of the video is: Ex-Catholic Exposes the TWISTED Teachings of the Catholic Church. The explanation below the video states the following: "In this video, Mike Gendron, an ex-Catholic, visits Revolve to give a seminar that exposes the twisted, unbiblical, and outright satanic teachings of the Catholic Church that most people are completely unaware of."

The title of the video should actually be: Ex-Catholic Exposes His Twisted Understanding of the Teachings of the Catholic Church, as there is precious little that Mike Gendron accurately teaches about the Catholic Church. He presents himself as expert in all things Catholic, yet much of the information he puts forth about the Catholic Church and its teachings - in his talks and through his website - is demonstrably false. I have exposed the misperceptions, half-truths, and outright lies that he presents as authentic Catholic teaching any number of times in my past e-newsletters (www.biblechristiansociety.com/newsletter). I have also called him out in direct correspondence with him for lying about Catholic teaching. Yet, he continues to do so.

For example, in his talk at your church, Gendron stated the following: "Today you are probably aware that many Roman Catholics are baptized at 7-days old." That is a patently false assertion. I imagine there are some babies baptized when they are 7-days old; however, to say "many" are baptized at that age, as if it was some sort of teaching of the Church, is an absolutely ridiculous assertion. I have participated in a number of Catholic baptisms over the years and not one of them was ever on an infant who was exactly 7-days old. Now, this is a rather minor matter in relation to the rest of his video, but does not our Lord say to His servants that if He can trust them in small things, He will give them authority over greater things? Which implies that if He can't trust you in the small things, then you can't be trusted with the greater things. Mike Gendron can't even get the small things right about the Catholic Church, so how can he be trusted to get the big things right?

Speaking of which, Gendron also asserted this in his presentation: "Then you have the 'Sacrifice of the Mass' in 500 A.D." His assertion that the "Sacrifice of the Mass" was somehow invented and introduced into Catholic teaching in 500 A.D. is demonstrably false. There are allusions to, and direct mentions of, the Mass in the writings of the Early Church Fathers - Clement in the 1st century and Irenaeus in the 2nd century as just two examples of that. So he gets the minor and the major matters regarding Catholic teaching wrong, and he does so quite often.

Which is, again, why I am writing to you today. As a self-professed Christian, and as a man who says the church he leads values integrity, I am asking you, as a matter of integrity, to remove that video from your YouTube channel due to the misrepresentations and outright falsehoods regarding Catholic teaching that it contains. Furthermore, I would like to ask you a question: Has your church ever hosted a fair and balanced presentation - maybe by an actual Catholic - about the Catholic Church?

It seems to me to not be in accord with Christian charity that in order to "inform" your people about the teachings of the Catholic Church, you would invite a biased, bigoted, hater of the Catholic Church to your church to do so. Where is the integrity in that? Would you ask Nancy Pelosi to come in and give a talk at your church to inform your congregation about the Republican Party? Would you think that she would give a fair, honest, and unbiased presentation about the Republican Party and its views and values? If not, then why would you allow Mike Gendron to present his particular form of bigotry to your congregation and expect that they would receive a fair, honest, and unbiased view about Catholicism? If people want to disagree with what the Catholic Church teaches...fine. But, don't you think they should disagree with what the Catholic Church actually teaches as opposed to what people falsely claim the Catholic Church teaches?

Mike Gendron left the Catholic Church because it would not, in accord with Scripture (Matt 19:9), recognize his 2nd marriage as a valid marriage. He has been angry at the Catholic Church ever since. As a result, for 40 years he has been spreading misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies about Catholic teaching.

So, again, I ask you, in the spirit of Christian charity and integrity, to remove that video from your YouTube page. I would also put to you this thought: If you would like your congregation to hear an honest and accurate view of Catholic teaching, then I would be willing to come out to your church - at my own expense - to make a presentation to your congregation. I would be open to folks asking questions, to disagreeing with me, to presenting a counter view, and so on. In other words, I am open to hearing opposing viewpoints. I have no problem with that. I just believe your people have the right to hear an honest presentation of what the Catholic Church actually teaches and why, as opposed to the false information they received from Gendron's presentation. As I always say: Error fears truth; truth does not fear error. I simply believe, given the untold number of people who may have believed the false information in that video, that, at the very least, as a matter of Christian justice - as a matter of Christian integrity - your congregation should have the opportunity to hear the truth about Catholic teaching. Let them disagree all they want, but they should at least be allowed to have the misinformation they have been fed corrected.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

In Christ,

John Martignoni
Founder/President
Bible Christian Society

Nunc est tempus, hic que locus!

Closing Comments

Don't forget to check out the "Articles of Interest" below. And please keep praying for us...we keep you in our prayers each day! Have a great week!

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Articles of Interest

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St. Patrick's Offers Mass of Reparation After "Trans" Funeral

Pope Francis Launches Synod on Synodality Study Groups

Speakers at Conservative Conference Urge Lawmakers to Embrace Life

Alabama Supreme Court - Life Begins at Conception

AI on Pedophilia and Other Questions of Morality and Faith

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