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Science Fiction writer John C. Wright will
be entering the Catholic Church this Easter.  I have been
wondering where his religious leaning were since his defense of
Christianity sounded so grounded in Catholic thought.  As a
former atheist I always rejoice when another former atheist joins the
Church (God is so good!).

Since Mark Shea first linked to one of
John C. Wright’s blog posts I have been a great fan of his blog from
such fun as the Space Princess movement, his posts on SF, and the ones
specifically addressing morality and Christianity.  I have
read all of his books which I greatly enjoyed and look forward to his
new book which
I have pre-ordered. 

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For my Protestant friends, all I can do
is
assure you that that Church you broke away from in centuries past has
been reformed of the abuses you complained of at that time. The Pope no
longer sells indulgences. The theological differences are minor enough
that Christly love, if you imitate His love, will cover them. I was
raised Lutheran, and drank in anticatholicism with my mother’s milk, so
I assure you I am aware of most or all the objections, subtle and
obvious, which you consciences in good faith might raise. The shock
that came to me when I looked into Catholicism is that the Catholics do
not teach what my teachers told me they teach. In any case, Protestant
friends, I will be closer to you than I was when I was an atheist, so
please consider this progress.

For my pagan friends, rejoice! My Protestant friends tell me my
Catholic friends are pagans anyway! So I will be closer to you than I
am now. And there is certainly some truth in the idea that Catholicism
is a child of Jewish and Hellenic thought: the ancient civilization of
Europe is still alive in the Catholic Church. If you worship Brigit,
and I revere St. Brigit, this will be a common bond between us.

For the Atheist friends, give thanks! You may think of Catholicism as
the most backward and obscurantist of the Christian sects. Not so! Not
only does the Catholic Church acknowledge Darwinian evolution, the
approach of at least some of the writers (St. Aquinas, for example, or
St. Justin Martyr) is as rigorous and as rational as even the best of
atheist writers, and darn mile more clear and rational than the worst
of atheist writers (who are the only ones we hear about these days).
Catholicism, in many of its branches, is not given to the religious
enthusiasms of revivalism that so many atheists find disquieting.
(Whether this lack of revivalism is a good thing or not, I leave for
the reader to decide. Certainly more enthusiasm and crusading spirit
would not be a bad thing for this Church at this hour of history.)