Apologetics for the Masses #465 - Email to the Pastor of Revolve Bible Church

Email to Pastor Ryan Day of the Revolve Bible Church

Dear Pastor Day,

I am writing to you today to inform you that you are spreading false information, and thus doing a great disservice to the Body of Christ, through your 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.  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 - due to the misrepresentations and outright falsehoods regarding Catholic teaching that it contains - from your YouTube channel.  Furthermore, I would like to ask you a question: Have you ever had a fair and balanced presentation - maybe by an actual Catholic - at your 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 anti-Catholic 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, to present the "other side".  I have no problem with that.  I just believe your people have the right to hear an honest presentation of what the Catholic Church teaches and why, as opposed to the false information they got from Gendron's presentation.  As I always say: Error fears truth; truth does not fear error.  I simply feel, 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 justice, 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!