Crying wolf
I take great offense as a Catholic that the picture accompanying the article about Jehovah’s Witnesses depicted them as wolves. This is defamatory and spiteful. Any depiction of a group of people as something other than human is unforgivable.

I am reminded of the posters Nazis hung on the streets and in schools showing Jews as an ape-like people, thus undermining their status as humans. At least the Nazis had the good taste to keep the cartoons in the same species.[!] You ought not perpetrate hate by influencing possibly impressionable minds to think so badly of another group of people.

Yes, evangelists who might win converts from the Church are dangerous and should, in that context, be treated as such. Next time have the foresight to find a better way of conveying that message.
Mrs. Aimee Naylor, Mobile, Alabama

The Editor responds:
Thank you for your thoughtful letter to the editor. We always welcome letters from our readers.

And we regret that you were offended by our graphic that accompanied the “How To Become a Jehovah’s Witness” article, which was written by a former Jehovah’s Witness. It was not our intention to offend.

However, to be candid with you, I think your statement that the concept of Jehovah’s Witnesses depicted as wolves in sheep’s clothing is “defamatory and spiteful” is misguided.
Were you aware that it was Jesus Christ who first applied the description of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” to those who present themselves as Christians, but who would inflict damage on the Church and cause disunity and confusion? You’ll find His words in Matthew 7:15-17.
Was Jesus being “defamatory and spiteful”? Was His use of the wolf analogy to describe human beings “unforgivable”? Did Jesus “lack foresight” in the way He chose to convey His message? Was Jesus “perpetrating hate”?

Or is it possible that His imagery of wolves in sheep’s clothing was an accurate way to describe the damage some groups do to the Church? Yes, the Lord was harsh in His assessment of the problem, but He was right and — after all — He is God. So His opinion on this matter should carry a lot of weight in this discussion. Wouldn’t you agree?

A gentle reminder
This message is for the author of Pope Fiction [Envoy editor Patrick Madrid] whom I heard today. What a perfect title. The pope is fictional! So, I shall do as commanded by God, in Galatians — let you be accursed. For false teaching. Such is Catholicism. Satan’s concoction.
Via email

From the Envoy psychic hotline
I am writing to you about the Envoy article called “You Can Trust Me, I’m a Psychic” [Issue 1.5, available on the Envoy website]. You mention Sylvia Browne, and you propagate lies about her. You said that going to three psychics’ websites, Sylvia’s included, you found all of them saying, “Yes, I have one of the greatest psychic pools filled with my hand-picked psychics, and they all experience the same capabilities as mine.”

I don’t know about the other websites, but you will not find anything even similar to this on Sylvia’s. She has only her and her son, Christopher, as psychics; she also has ministers who give counseling for free, but she makes it very clear that they are not psychics. Sylvia has provided help to police and just to everyday people changing their lives for the good.

Reviewing all this I can only come to the conclusion that you lied (which I know you did) in order to get readers to believe you. If you had presented truth I could respect you for it, even if I disagreed, but you are a liar. I hope you can find Christ because lying isn’t a very Christian thing to do. Well, actually, it seems to have become the Christian way thanks to people like you.
C. Aaron Henkel via email

Author Mark Shea responds:
I thank Mr. Henkel for the cool and rational civility of his letter. It may come as some surprise to him to discover that the article he is referring to was published in the September/October 1997 issue of Envoy and was written nearly a year before that in late 1996. This means that the websites I refer to have had nearly five years of water under the bridge between the time I researched and wrote the article and the moment Mr. Henkel did his quick and dirty scan of Sylvia Browne’s site, which incontrovertibly established in his mind my credentials as a liar.

Given the fact that the Internet is popularly referred to as an “Encyclopedia of the Now” and is notorious for the wild fluctuations of the content posted there over the course of five years, perhaps Mr. Henkel should have paused for a moment before settling on such an injudicious opinion. The fact is, as of the time the article was written, the quote (which I cut-and-pasted into my article right off the site) did stand as written on all three sites — to my great amusement. The fact that the site has changed since (in response to my article, for all I know) does not alter that reality in the slightest. Why, even the Envoy website has been known to undergo an editorial modification now and then!

Bottom line: I am a notoriously lazy writer. I don’t like to be bothered making things up about a funny subject like psychic quackery when the Internet is full of funny quotes from primary sources that I can download for free. So I just went to the sites mentioned and Voila! There it all was (in 1996). I hope Mr. Henkel can generously extend to me the trust he lavishes on quacks.
Mark Shea, writer/editor e3mil.com

Protestant appreciation
I’m not Catholic. I’m Protestant, but I know good work when I see it! The main thing I enjoy about your magazine is its light touch, its sense of humor. You are serious about your faith, but not dead serious, in the most negative sense of that phrase.

As I said, I’m not Catholic, but if I keep running into folks like you, I just might become one. My past objections about Catholicism, besides the obvious doctrinal ones, could be summed up by the statement: “Catholicism doesn’t make any difference to the Catholics I know; why should it make any difference to me? They don’t even like it, and they were born in it. Why would I want to become one?”

I can see from your magazine (I sneak peeks online) that your faith is real, strong, and a lot of fun, as much fun (and struggle) as I have in my Protestant faith. Whoda thunk it?
Keep up the good work.
W.J. Kirkpatrick, via email

The Catholic Church — alive and well
I have to respond to Hugh Smith’s comments in volume 4.6. If he is so anti-Catholic, why is he reading Envoy? Is he still searching? He appears to be a very angry man who is full of disdain for something he just can’t seem to walk away from . . . Wonder what he is missing in his life?

I am involved with evangelization in our parish, and what we have come to realize is that we have to stop looking at the numbers in Church. The full pews of the 60’s had many who were afraid not to be there. Were they truly Catholics?

We have come to realize that it isn’t the numbers in the pew, it is the quality of the participants. Our numbers may be fewer but hopefully, we are a richer group with a deeper faith and a stronger set of Christian values. The Catholic Church is alive and well.

We all need to pray for the Hugh Smiths of the world.
Via email

Envoy nails it
For our fast-paced lifestyle in this culture of America, I must say you guys/gals have hit the mark with this fantastic magazine (no inclusive language intended). I love to defend our wonderful faith, and Envoy gives me the tools to do so!
Kevin Lents, Loogootee, Indiana

A priest’s response to Girzone’s Joshua
I am a priest and read Girzone’s Joshua some years ago. [See the earlier discussion of the book Joshua in “As Received,” issue 4.6.] Like all things, I would see some good things in it, but the thing that still sticks out in my mind was his etymology of the word “religion.” He noted that it meant to “bind up.”
At best this seems to be poor scholarship, and at worst it may reveal a seemingly hidden agenda to suggest that religions are all the same and detrimental to a relationship with the transcendent God. In my analysis, a much better explanation for the etymology would be “to bind or to connect again.” Religion is a means to reconnect with God. After man’s fall, our relationship with God was broken, and there needed to be a means to repair this fracture. . . .

Not all faiths are equal, but all people share equally in human dignity. A main thrust of the Holy Father’s teaching is to respect human dignity and religious liberty, but this can never be confused with suggesting that all religions are the same or equally true.

I think a powerful image to help us understand this distinction is to think of the various religions as various toolboxes. I believe that Catholics have the best set of tools, but that by no means suggests that individual Catholics know how to use what they have been given. I think Girzone would see religions as various sets of tools, but he seems to suggest that all share the same quality of tools and in fact he seems to suggest that there is no real difference between them. I believe this is gravely deficient, especially if one truly studies the content of the various religions. . . . Jesus — in Hebrew, Joshua — the One who is the same, yesterday, today and forever is the One and only Savior of the world!
Fr. Glenn Kohrman, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Why so anti?
One of the most annoying things about some Protestants is the fact that they are always so anti-Catholic. The same holds true of Jehovah’s Witnesses and other sects. Why do we need, as Catholics, to keep being anti-them? We are meant to be pro-people. In this way we will find the best of each people and try to learn from them. I think this is a more positive approach, healthier and more Christian.
Carmen, via email

Is the SSPX in Schism?
God bless Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre!

I am a subscriber of Envoy and recommend it as a good Catholic and apologetic magazine. Your article on Archbishop Lefebvre does not surprise me. I do not share the intention of the article, although I find it factual enough in describing some aspects of the situation of the SSPX. Indeed there is an irregular situation about the episcopal consecrations, though not at all on the priestly ordinations, which have a legal status.

I’m not a theologian, but I can tell you that for thirty-five years I was sick and tired of “circus masses.” Of born-again-like “Catholic preachers,” of religious brothers and sisters leaving their orders, of disappearing habits or religious dress, of priests and bishops getting involved in politics, of liberation theology, priests abandoning their sacred vows and getting married, child abusers, open and blatant homosexual acceptance and permissiveness . . . and many of these persons are in “full communion with the Church”? Priests and bishops that oppose the Holy Father about contraception issues. Very intelligent and wise “theologians” who disregard papal teachings, while some bishops do likewise, etc., etc. . . .

God put the SSPX in my way about four years ago. The first Tridentine Mass I had attended in more than thirty years almost made me cry, and ever since I have been getting closer to God. I can’t see what is so bad in what was good and holy for 2000 years and unchanged for 600 years. Modernism and aggiornamento have only brought sorrow to the Church. While many religious orders have almost vanished, we in the SSPX have steadily grown.

We love the pope, we pray for the pope, we love the Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Through Mary we go to Jesus, our only Savior. May our Lord bless all his sheep and make a true flock with one Shepherd.
Erick L. Parra P., Guatemala

Express yourself. Send your comments to “As Received,” Envoy Magazine, P.O. Box 640, Granville, OH 43023, or email them to editor@envoymagazine.com.