Continuing my series on Robert George & R. J. Snell, eds., Mind, Heart, and Soul: Intellectuals and the Path to Rome (2018). Douglas Beaumont is a graduate of the late Norm Geisler's seminary. For several graduates, Geisler's Thomism was an expressway to Catholicism.
[Beaumont] One weakness is that it is easy for Catholics to get so caught up in all the ritual that they slack off on fellowship and discipleship. Many Evangelicals are adult converts; they became Evangelical in a very personal, usually powerful way and they carry that with them into their faith life. This is why they go to church even though there is no "pain of sin" if they skip out. This means that the average Evangelical church is likely to have many more fervent believers (234).A significant source of the difficulty is that a given person can be legitimately categorized as a Catholic even if they are in complete disagreement with the Catholic Church. That is because one does not become Catholic simply by agreeing with Church dogma, but rather by baptism. Because baptism is indelible on the Catholic account, dissent does not change the person's identification as Catholic. However, membership in most non-Catholic Christian groups is almost solely predicated on one's agreement with a given set of doctrinal affirmations. Consequently disagreement with a group's doctrine automatically removes them from that group. So to call someone a Calvinist who denies the doctrine of total depravity and perseverance of the saints would simply make no sense. However, calling someone a Catholic who affirms abortion and denies Christ's resurrection does make sense, but in a different way. I think this paradigmatic difference gives the appearance of strength to claims that are true in a sense but really cannot do the work they are meant to do in an argument. (235-36).
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