"The Mouse That Roars"
Point-and-Click Evangelism
by David L. Palm

"Are you nervous?" my wife asked as she noticed my hands tremble a bit on the computer keyboard. "Yeah, I am," I admitted, sheepishly. "I always get nervous in these things." I finished typing a quote from St. Cyprian of Carthage out of the book perched on my lap: "Would heretics dare to come to the very seat of Peter whence apostolic faith is derived and whither no errors can come?" With a press of the Enter key my message shot out to a live discussion group on the CompuServe computer network. Two or three seconds later, about a dozen people in various parts of the country saw my message appear in a small "message box" on their computer screens. A couple of them typed their responses to mine and transmitted them, again in a matter of seconds, to the group. I was connected to this on-line service using my home computer and modem.

All it takes is a local phone call to connect to an on-line service like America Online, Prodigy, or CompuServe. Click your way through some user-friendly menus, and in short order, you're in a brave new techno-world where you can participate in "real-time" (ie. "live") discussions with folks from literally all parts of the world on any topic, including the Catholic Faith.

This particular discussion I was engaged in had started innocently enough. The traffic in the forum (the virtual "room" where the real time chats take place) was rather sluggish. Just to mix things up a bit I typed, "Does anybody have an opinion about Pope John Paul II?" One guy shot back with a terse reply: "He's a nice guy, but he's not infallible." The game was on.

From there several non-Catholics and I spent an hour or so engaging in some (polite, mind you) intellectual fisticuffs, capping off the evening with a delightful exchange about the biblical and historical evidence for papal infallibility (hence my use of the quote from St. Cyprian). As we bid each other God's blessings at the end of our confab, one of them paid me a high compliment: "I'm surprised at how well Catholics can back their beliefs up from the Bible."

For a lot of people the Internet is a gigantic mystery. But it's really nothing more than a very large number of computers throughout the world, interconnected in various ways, whose owners have agreed to let other peoples' information take a free ride on their system as it traverses the globe. The Net makes national and international communications both cheap and easy. And so a growing number of people have taken to conversing on-line with like-minded folks about the things they care about the most, whether hobbies, politics, philosophy, or religion.

On-line services have for many people become the 1990s equivalent of the local lodge or club meeting.

That's where Catholics and evangelism come in. Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15). These days it's not necessary to leave your house to obey His command. Now there are a lot of different ways one can be involved in evangelization.

If the idea of "going live" in an apologetics discussion group gives you the heebie-jeebies, don't worry. You can always opt for a "forum" on one of the major on-line services or a "news group" or "list" on the Internet. In these, topics of discussion are spread out over days and even months. It gives you time to think the issue through, do a little research, and compose a reasoned response instead of having to shoot from the hip (which is what apologetics is all about, after all). This gives you the opportunity to reach many people with information they may never get to hear anyplace else - a cogent explanation of Catholic doctrine. On-going discussion groups are really better suited for delving into the Catholic Faith. Catholicism is not a sound-bite religion, and while occasionally one needs to swap proof-text for proof-text with a Fundamentalist, it's certainly not the best approach to Catholic evangelism.

Of course not all the message traffic is controversial. E-mail is a great way to correspond with Catholics all over the world, sharing ideas and encouraging each other in the Faith. Sometimes the live religion forums or news groups become dominated by folks who are basically religious bullies. They get used to picking on Catholics who don't know their faith and can't put up much resistance. Here's where a knowledgeable Catholic can do a great service. Bullies aren't used to being challenged, so a couple of well-placed socks in the nose (figuratively speaking) will often send 'em packing.

One evening a Catholic friend, Steve, and I wandered into a forum where a Fundamentalist fellow was shooting Bible verses at some Catholics, who were clearly getting the worst of it. Steve and I plunged right in and spent the next couple of hours as a tag team, challenging this guy to explain his own beliefs in light of Scripture passages we knew were impossible to reconcile with his position. By the end of the discussion he was clearly on the defensive and has not shown up to bother Catholics again. It's rare that a modern man or woman gets to feel like a knight in shining armor, rushing to the defense of Holy Mother Church, but this is one instance where I felt that way.

One of the great things about these on-line encounters is that they're not confined to interacting with just Evangelical or Fundamentalist Protestants. You may find yourself discussing the existence of God with an atheist, the merits of evolution and creation with a rationalist, the existence of objective reality with a Buddhist, the divinity of Christ with a Jehovah's Witness, or the ultimate meaning and purpose of life with a Generation X'er. And this broad range of topics can lead to some excellent ecumenical opportunities. For example, a good Catholic friend of mine has recently teamed up with a staunch Calvinist to challenge a regular participant in the CompuServe religious forums who goes by the very appropriate pseudonym "St. Cynic" on materialistic Evolution versus the Christian belief in special Creation. Even though Catholics and Protestants regularly discuss their theological differences in these forums, they sometimes band together to present a united front to non-Christians on topics where we share common ground.

For those of us who love the Faith and want to share it with others, these on-line exchanges are "red meat and strong beer," a welcome tonic for what ails us, namely, flabby intellects and a "closet faith" which we too often keep strictly to ourselves. Our Holy Father, John Paul, has told us to begin to re-evangelize our darkened world, to shout the Gospel from the rooftops if necessary. On-line evangelism is a great way to be light and salt (Matt. 5:13-14) in our modern culture that cannot see and has no taste ;-) (turn the magazine sideways to see the on-line equivalent of a wink-and-smile).

So, what do you need to be an effective cyber-evangelist/apologist? First, let me tell you what you don't need. You don't need to be an expert philosopher, theologian, or Bible scholar. You don't need to be erudite, witty, or eloquent. And you don't even need to have all the answers at your fingertips, just the willingness to look them up.

What you do need, at rock bottom, is a living faith in Jesus Christ. Put simply, you can't give away what you don't have. You need a solid conviction that the Catholic Church is the Church directly established by our Lord. Some of the questions non-Catholics raise are tough, so you should enter these discussions with confidence that there are good answers, even if you don't have them on the tip of your tongue (or fingers, in this case). And you need an active prayer and sacramental life. Evangelism of any kind will be fruitless unless we call on the Lord of the harvest to provide the desired outcome (Matt 9:38; 1 Cor 3:7).

On a more personal level, you need a thick skin. Sometimes you need asbestos-lined body armor! [that's on-line lingo for a "big grin," a little grin is made by typing ]. The Catholic Faith elicits an almost unbelievable rage in some people, and the anonymity and lack of face-to-face interaction involved in communicating on-line can bring out the worst in otherwise decent folks. People say things to each other on-line that they would never say face-to-face. So be prepared for the inevitable ad hominem arguments. Keep your cool. Don't respond in kind and don't let other people's rudeness or haughtiness get you down. But don't let them get away with this kind of behavior either.

Non-Catholics rarely understand how strongly Catholics feel about issues such as the Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints. They may say things, whether accidentally or on purpose, that are quite offensive. It's appropriate to point out how offensive these things are, but don't wear your emotions on your sleeve. And, as in all apologetics encounters, stay on topic. Don't let your interlocutor steer you into a hundred different backwaters. Remember, when somebody abruptly changes the topic it often means that he's finding your arguments a little too difficult to answer.

Finally you need some basic equipment, most notably a computer, modem (14.4 or faster, if possible), and a subscription to an on-line service. A knowledgeable friend to help show you the ropes would be great. A computerized Bible package is extremely helpful too, both for rapidly locating those verses that you just know are lurking somewhere in the Good Book, and for cutting and pasting Scripture passages into your messages, saving loads of typing (see Envoy's special selection of Bible software advertised in this issue). And for the truly dedicated cyber-apologist, electronic copies of the Catechism, the documents of Vatican II, and other reference works would be very helpful

Being a cyber-apologist, you won't have to sink a load of money into acquiring apologetics material. You'll have on-line access to a huge variety of apologetics information. All of the major on-line services (CompuServe, America Online, Prodigy, etc.) have "libraries" of Catholic material available. And if you have access to the Internet (most services provide this now) you can "surf the Web" and access a wealth of information including papal encyclicals, writings of the Church Fathers, Catholic tracts, even complete on-line versions of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae and the new Catechism.

There is a Catholic evangelization booklet written by Paul Whitcomb entitled The Catholic Church Has the Answer. That's the perfect motto for this generation of Catholics. People today are desperate for truth and for their lives to have meaning. The Catholic Church has what they are looking for. But someone has to tell them.