I am a heretic 2.0. I (sort of) like the Catholic Church (and EWTN)

I have never been a big one for television. We have Dish Network at home with 4,356,297 channels (well maybe not that much) and sometimes my wife and I will flip through all of them and conclude..Yuck..there is absolutely nothing on. More often than not I will then let her watch something on Hallmark channel while I am upstairs playing the piano, on the computer, or sleeping in my big reclining chair with the dog.

The shows that I sort of like are "The Amazing Race", "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader", and lately I've sort of been fascinated with "American Idol". Sometimes there is a movie on that sounds interesting. Oh..the news and sports of course. Oh forgot..this year we got NESN so the Red Sox will be on my agenda.

Of course when you are in the hospital (as I was two years ago with prostate cancer surgery), watching TV is all there is when you don't have visitors. In the two days following my surgery I was sort of in and out on pain killers and all that, and really didn't have the attention span to watch any television show that would command me paying attention. I just wanted something nice and peaceful that seemed to minister to me. That is when I found EWTN.

Now I can't remember that much about what I watched. I do remember a couple of funny looking priests and nuns who seemed nice and even funny at times. I watched quite a few masses. Now I will admit that Catholics seem to do church differently than I am used to, but it was fascinating to watch something different. Their church (or mass) seems to center around the communion service.

Now I know some Protestants are critical of Catholics because they believe that somehow their communion elements are transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ, but I honestly fail to see what is so terrible in this belief. I guess it all revolves around how literally you take the "is" in "This is my body..this is my blood". At any rate I can not open my Bible and convince myself that they are definitely wrong in this. Besides, I knew an elderly couple at my first Pentecostal church in Rumford Maine that believed the same thing (or near it) anyway. I look at it this way, at least the communion service is meaningful to Catholics.

Oh and there was this elderly couple that had shows on Catholic saints. Now I know that Protestants are critical of Catholics because of their saints, but I don't see what is so terrible about showing honor to those great in the faith who have gone on before. At least a good Catholic has some sense of being tied to their past and knowing who those who are great in the faith are.
But anyway, that TV show seemed to make an impression on me for some reason, maybe I learned something.

I remember once of flipping it when the discussion turned to indulgences. That seemed a little wierd to me. But other than that, I can't remember hearing anything that seemed all that terrible on it. On and there were some talk shows that I seemed to enjoy. In a couple of days the Red Sox were signing Matsuzaka, and my interest flipped to following that story. But I have watched EWTN a little since (if I am up and flipping through the tube). Of the 3-4 Christian networks on my tube, I like EWTN the best..the others seem contrived and cheesy mostly. Plus I have never heard EWTN begging me for money; and I highly doubt whether they will use the contributions that are sent to the network for heated doghouses for the priest's pets.

So I guess I am also a Protestant heretic in that I actually like watching EWTN (sometime anyway). In fact you can listen to it over the internet, and I think I will do that now (haven't done it in a while).

Anyway, I have an idea on how this series will go. I think I will talk first about what we (or me anyway) should agree with the Catholics on..what (in my little mind) are the fundamental differences (I think it all reduces to one difference)..plus one difference that I personally have great difficulty with (that you might find surprising). Then I will talk about the differences that in my mind are overrated to some extent. Oh..also in my little study..I came across some groups in Christian history that I did not know much about and ended up really liking. I might diverge into those a couple of times.

Oh and this will not be "All Catholic all the time". I do have other interests.