A Poor Excuse for Leaving the Church

I’ve been Catholic long enough now to have seen people come and go and whenever I’ve gotten some indication that someone I know is struggling or drifting away, I’ve often invited them to talk about it and to challenge them on what’s going on. And whenever I’ve done so with men, especially with those who have one foot out the door, they always describe their complaints as being intellectual in nature. They’ll start to deconstruct the existence of God, or the credibility of the Bible, or Church history, or whatever. And whenever I’ve heard these objections, I’ve never found them to be particularly compelling or novel and for my part, I’m usually able to find a solution that I find satisfying. And what I often find happens in these conversations is that they will end with a response that goes something like, “Ya, I guess.” or “I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree.” And the thing that I would like to say in conclusion to these kinds of exchanges is, “What would convince you? Because you’ve framed this as an intellectual and a rational problem that needs a rational solution and it isn’t addressed and resolved on those grounds, then there’s no longer an obligation to remain in the Church.” Because here’s the thing. There are compelling rational arguments and responses that are far superior to the objections that any of us mere mortals might raise. There will always be someone smarter out there who can respond to those objections and who have responded to those objections.