It's a small world, you know it? I've been dealing with a Protestant gentleman at work lately. He is a very nice man and loves the Lord very much. He was obviously an uncatechized Catholic at some point and has left the Church. I gave him my chapter to read in Surprised by Truth 3. In return he brought me a video to watch. It turns out this is not the first time I heard about this video.
About two years ago I got a phone call from a friend of mine. She was really upset. She and her husband travel the speakers circuit telling the story of their conversion to the Catholic Church. They had been at a Marian Conference with a zillion Catholics speaking and selling their tapes. Some people approached them representing an organization whose name seemed to fit in with the environment. They asked for a brief interview. My friend and her husband consented to be interviewed and signed all the appropriate papers. A Priest who was speaking at the conference also gave an interview to these folks.
Months later the video came out. To their shock and disgust the video turned out to be an anti-Catholic, deceptive video claiming that Marian apparitians are Satanic visions. They were sick and angry. When they and the Priest who was deceived by these folks tried to reason with them and appeal to their consciences, they found they had none. They were told that since they signed the release, they had no legal recourse. I can almost hear them saying "nanoo nanno, we got you!" Isn't there something in the Bible they claim is their ONLY source of authority about bearing false witness against your neighbor?
What was just as disgusting was the way this video was laid out. Initially, they showed video of supposed UFO's and alien beings. They talked to people who had seen angels and UFO's and Marian apparitians. They first proved that these people were indeed seeing something. They used scientific evidence that there was a change in their brain waves, etc.
Then they go about analyzing the messages received from these three sources. They demonstrate easily that the ET's and the supposed angels brought messages that were not scriptural. But then they deliniate between the messages of the ET's and "angels" and those of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her messages, unlike those of the others, were centered around repentance, prayer and faith in Christ. At this point the Catholics who have already been lead to watch this video by the picture on the packaging and the title of the video are convinced that these "Pastors" of Protestant churches are saying what they have always believed; that Mary's always leads us to Christ.
I knew from the churches these "Pastor" were from that eventually their tune would change. I was not disappointed. After sucking in their unsuspecting, uncatechized, non-judgemental Catholic victims completely, they whip out their Sola Scriptura weapon and proceed to attempt to prove that since in some of the Church approved apparitians, Mary spoke about her being Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all graces, and since the scriptures say that Christ is our only Redeemer and One Mediator, that these messages are in the same category as those of the slanty eyed aliens and the whispy "angels of light."
My daughter, Esther was livid the rest of the evening. She was not alone. ;) Not only was this video deceptive in its presentation and message, I recognized it as the video that had been produced by people without the moral virtue to not deceive others or respect their fellow man by retracting their ill gotten footage.
Now I am in the process of asking my Protestant friend to prove the principle behind this video: sola scriptura; through scripture. It's never been done, but I'll let him work on it for a while. Meanwhile, I think those of us that speak out for the Church need to be warned by this experience and be very careful who we speak to. Who would have expected a bunch of anti-Catholic, anti-Marian, Protestant film makers at a Marian Conference. It just goes to show you that we can't always trust that those who claim the name of Christ are going to behave in a manner that honors Him.
