Growing Up
I grew up in a small town in Indiana and attended a Methodist Church with my mom and my brother. My dad never attended church; I never got an explanation why, so I assumed he just did not believe in God. I would have asked him, but I didn’t think that question would have been well received. Still, the rest of us went almost every Sunday, unless we were visiting my grandparents, since we would be traveling during the time of the service. The church service was not interesting to me, and I was not usually engaged during the sermon, my mind wandering to something else.
My mom and dad were very ethical and conservative. While religion was not that important to me; however, one of my best friends was very religious, and he later became a pastor in the Methodist church. In 1967, I started college at Purdue University, and during those four years, I almost never went to church — except for a couple of times with my religiously inclined friend from high school. But something must have left an impression on me.
After graduating from Purdue, I immediately signed up for the Air Force Reserves to avoid being drafted, since this was during the Vietnam War. After basic training, I attended tech school in Illinois, approximately a three hour drive from my home town in Indiana. One weekend, I was able to get a ride home and was going to take a bus back on Sunday. The first hour of the bus ride was fine, but I needed to transfer to a different bus in Indianapolis, and my connection was canceled. My base was about 150 miles away, and I had no way to get there. So I started hitchhiking — probably not one of my better decisions. After being stranded on a freeway in Indiana for a couple of hours, I finally started praying, which was unusual for me, since I do not remember specifically praying to God before this predicament. It is surprising what you turn to when you are desperate! Finally, a policeman came by and stopped. After hearing my story, that policeman drove me part of the way and then connected with another policeman to take me to the Indiana/Illinois border. With only an hour to get to my base, another person soon stopped and gave me a ride. I arrived eight minutes before the time I needed to be there. I was convinced that God had answered my prayer. I would like to say that I radically changed my life after that incident, but I didn’t. Nevertheless, I always remembered what happened that day.
Life and Career as a Protestant
In 1971, my next step was to continue on to graduate school and get married. When I was working on my MBA, a professor spoke to me about getting my Ph.D. and becoming a professor. I immediately knew that I wanted to follow that path. But when I talked to my wife about it, she was vehemently opposed. As a result of our discussion, I put my plan on hold until I could convince her that it was a good idea. Regardless, my plan to become a professor had a significant effect on my life and faith journey into the future.
Around 1975, I was attending various Protestant churches, listening a bit more closely to the sermons, but still not fully engaged. Finally, I realized that, while I had been attending church for years and hearing various Scripture readings each week, I had never read the Bible. Not wanting to read the full Bible, I decided the four Gospels should be the first books to read. Reading the Gospels had a profound impact on my thinking and helped me to really understand and believe in God.
The Protestant church I was attending had a small library, and I discovered an apologetics book which I borrowed. I do not remember the name of that book, but it would lead me to read other apologetics books in the years ahead, piquing my interest in apologetics. The books I read included Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell and The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. I also started listening to “The Bible Answer Man” (Hank Hannegraaff) and Ravi Zacharias on the radio. You may wonder what these Protestant apologists had to do with my journey to Catholicism, but their logic, knowledge and research helped to show me what I would need to do years later when I began researching the Catholic Church. For many years, though, I remained comfortable in the Protestant church and was learning more about defending my faith to people who were not Christian — I was not even thinking about the Catholic Church at all. During this time, I was still trying to go back to complete my Ph.D. and was accepted to several graduate schools with financial support provided. My wife remained staunchly opposed, though, and I still did not want to start the program without having her support.
Finally, believing I had her support, I entered a graduate program in 1985, but midway through the program, we were divorced. This is significant because a couple of years after my divorce, I met someone new, and we married in 1989. Years later, my new wife had a major role in my entering the Catholic Church, though for a number of years, we continued to attend various Protestant churches. I also started teaching at San Jose State University full time in the fall of 1989, after completing my Ph.D.
During this time, I continued to grow in my faith and learned about standing my ground when people did not agree with me—I did not like conflict and would typically try to avoid it. After teaching for a few years, I learned about the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a legal advocacy organization which helps to defend Christian rights in the work place. From the ACLJ I learned that, when I would introduce myself on the first day of every class, I could talk about my background and education, including that I was a Christian. Sometimes this disclosure would generate other discussions during office hours or before or after class.
In 1997, Billy Graham announced an event at the San Jose Sharks arena taking place during his visit to the city. I thought this would be an excellent event, so I put one of his posters on my office door. It was on my door for several months with no problem, but eventually someone complained to my boss, denouncing it as “offensive.” My boss contacted me and asked me to take it down. I was surprised by his call, but I told him that I would think about it. I started doing research on my rights, mainly using information from the American Center for Law and Justice, and realized that I had the right to keep it on my door. I told my boss that I would not be taking it down. Thinking that would be the end of the matter, I was not concerned. However, later I got a call from the Dean’s office, and the same information was repeated. They asked me to take the poster down and I refused, but then they quickly back tracked and said they had never asked me to take it down. In any case, my assumption was that I would not hear anything more about it. But about six months later, the complaint had reached the provost’s office, and again, they asked me to take the poster down. During this time, I had done more research, so I declined, and informed them that they should check with their lawyers. About a week later, they called me and told me that I could keep the sign up. One may wonder what this experience had to do with becoming Catholic, but I believe it was training for me to be able to stand up for my beliefs when others do not agree with me, even if those people are my superiors at work.
Sometime around the year 2000, I heard a debate between Jimmy Akin and James White on The Bible Answer Man radio show. I thought this would be interesting, since I assumed that the Protestant (James White) would easily win the debate. I “knew” that Catholics had many beliefs that were not supported biblically. I did not listen to the full debate, but I heard about 45 minutes of it and stopped listening when I arrived home. I told my wife about the debate and, that in my opinion, Jimmy Akin had won, which really surprised me. That did not have a profound effect on me at the time, since I assumed that James White may not have been the best person to debate. However, the debate did plant a seed for later.
While working at San Jose State University full time, I also started teaching an occasional evening class part time at William Jessup College, a small Christian (Protestant) college near San Jose State. I enjoyed teaching at a Protestant college since the classes were small and I could be more open about my faith. I used material from Larry Burkett’s book Business by the Book, which is still the best business and faith book that I have encountered. The Protestant college was very small. When they decided that they needed to expand, they found some property in Rocklin, California that offered 153 acres at a very good price, and they moved there in the fall of 2004. As part of the move to Rocklin, they wanted to start a Business Department for traditional undergraduates, since previously they only had a degree completion program in business for working adults who had already completed their first two years of college. I was hired to be the Chair of the Business Department and retired from San Jose State. I designed the new program and started the Business major in the fall of 2004. To me, it was ideal to be working at a Protestant Evangelical university and starting a new Business department. While there are problems at any place you work, including this college, I believed that I was working where God wanted me to be.
While working at William Jessup, we would frequently visit our son’s family. We would have interesting discussions with them about politics and faith and were generally in agreement on most issues. One interesting issue that we only spoke of in general terms was religion. Our daughter-in-law was Catholic, and while our son was raised Protestant, after research, he entered the Catholic Church. But we did not get into any discussions about Protestant versus Catholic. There were times that we attended Mass with them while visiting their house. But my wife and I believed that Catholics were wrong about many of their beliefs, even though my wife had been raised Catholic. (She had drifted away as a young adult.)
Journey Into the Catholic Church
Over many years, my wife and I had switched Protestant churches many times, for many different reasons. One time, after switching churches, we were talking to our Catholic son and his wife. Our son offered us the book Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn. Scott Hahn was a Protestant who researched and converted to Catholicism. I was not really interested in reading the book, but my wife was, so we did. This was around 2010. When we got back home, my wife read the book very quickly and immediately wanted to go back to the Catholic Church. This was a problem for me, but I slowly started to read the book, too. While my wife loved the book, I was not impressed with it at that time. There was, however, one statement in the book that I found troubling. Scott was quoting a friend who was also researching the Catholic Church, and Scott refers to him as stating “so far he says there’s not a single Catholic doctrine that he can’t find scriptural support for” (page 65). I thought that statement was unusual since I believed that many Catholic beliefs were not supported biblically.
I found myself in a situation where my wife wanted to go back to the Catholic Church, but I was not convinced it was the right thing to do. Moreover, I was working at a Protestant Evangelical University as the Chair of the Business Department there. It was not clear if I would be able to keep my job if I became Catholic. I decided that I needed to do a lot of research before entertaining the idea of my becoming Catholic. For the next couple of years, I did extensive research using the following sources on what Catholics believe and why:
- We started listening to Immaculate Heart Radio, the Catholic station in our area.
- I started reading books by many of the key apologists: Jimmy Akin, Patrick Madrid, Tim Staples, Steve Ray, and Devin Rose, among others.
- I visited many websites on what Catholics believe and why. One web site even listed all the scriptural passages that supported each specific Catholic belief. I also discovered the Coming Home Network, which shared the stories of many people who had entered the Catholic Church — many of whom had been Protestant pastors.
In this time, I learned that there were excellent resources to help understand any Catholic belief, but I had to be willing to research and read, even if at first I disagreed with the Catholic position. For example, I had always believed that the Bible was the final authority on what is true, but I was surprised to learn that this is not what the Bible itself says. The Bible states, “…the Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1st Timothy 3:15).
Finally, I came to the same conclusion that was in Scott Hahn’s book: I could not find a single Catholic belief that was not supported biblically. But I learned even more than that. In 2014, we took a pilgrimage to Italy with a group of altar boys and their families from our son’s Catholic parish. This trip reinforced many of the things that I had already learned, but I learned about so many new things as well, such as The Holy Face of Manoppello and Shroud of Turin, St. Francis of Assisi, St. (Padre) Pio, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, the Holy House of Loreto, and incorruptible Saints. After 65 years as a Protestant, I finally made the decision to enter the Catholic Church, but there were still some questions about my employment at a Protestant Evangelical university.
Problems After Entering the Church
I met with my boss at the university and let him know that I was going to enter the Catholic Church. He was okay with my entering the Church, which surprised me, but he told me that he would have to talk to the president of the university. Ultimately, the university president was not happy with my decision, but deemed it would be okay for me to continue in my present position, since my job was in the Business Department and not in Theology. It would only become an issue if the Board had a problem with it. Everything seemed to be fine with me entering the Catholic Church in 2015.
After entering the Church that Easter, I wrote a Facebook post about joining the Church that Jesus Christ founded. The following is the post:
“Today, after almost a 4-year journey I will be officially joining the Catholic Church. I am sure that some of my Protestant friends and family do not understand, so I will briefly explain. About 4 years ago, I read a book by Scott Hahn about his conversion process, and while the book did not convince me of anything, he made a comment that during his investigation he could not find a single Catholic belief that did not have biblical support. That started my investigation and led to my decision that the Catholic Church was the Church that Christ founded, their beliefs have biblical support and are correct. Thus, I had no choice but to start the process to join the Catholic Church, and today is the culmination of that process. If anyone has any questions about the Catholic Church, please let me know and I will answer to the best of my ability. I hope that everyone has a great Easter.”
This post did not sit well with some people in my workplace. A couple of people complained to the provost, and a couple of others complained to the president. The next week, my boss informed me of these complaints and that we would have to meet in the next couple of days. The meeting with the provost took place on Wednesday, involving my boss, several other leaders in the academic arena, and me, with my boss doing most of the talking in the hour or so the meeting lasted. Nothing was really decided, and there were no action items, so it seemed that my job would remain intact and the situation was over to my relief. It seemed like the main purpose was to inform the president that we had already had a meeting about this topic. At some point after this meeting, I was told that, while there were plans to make the Business Department a School of Business, I would probably not be able to be the Dean because of my post and my being Catholic. At that point, I decided to take 30 days off social media and use that time to process what was going on.
After about one day, I thought about the Protestant “Reformation” and realized that I had never read Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, which started the “Reformation.” I downloaded an English version of his 95 Theses and read through them. I was not impressed. I thought that they were poorly written, redundant, and really about three main issues: the Pope, Purgatory, and Indulgences. In fact, I believed I could write 95 better questions for Protestants. I talked to my wife about my impressions and my idea of writing 95 questions for Protestants. Initially she was not enthusiastic, but I started writing and organizing the questions anyway. It took me a couple of months, but I finally came up with 95 questions. These were reviewed by some friends and revised, and eventually I had a list that I was comfortable with. With a new semester starting at school, I did not have time to take the project further at the time, but my wife took over and thought that it would make a good book. This was a blessing, since I am adept at business writing, but my wife is good at writing things that people actually like to read. While I developed the concept and the questions, my wife ended up doing most of the writing for our book 95 Questions for Protestants.
Meanwhile, my work situation was becoming more of a problem for me. The university would not allow me to do anything to support Catholics on campus. The following are some of the things that I tried but was not allowed to do. Several of these I appealed to the president and was turned down: start a Catholic club for students; start a Pro Life club; have a Catholic “spiritual formation group”; and put signs up saying we could take Catholic students to Mass in our van on Sunday. (We could take the students to Mass, but could not put up any signs letting students know about it.) The only thing that I could do on campus was meet with Catholic students to pray a Rosary in the chapel — but this we just did and did not ask permission. We also met with Catholic students in our home one day per week, but were not allowed to advertise this meeting on campus. I did not have any specific statistics, but it appeared that some Catholic students during their four years of college were becoming Protestant.
At this point, while I was still happy with my decision to enter the Catholic Church, I was wondering if I should continue to work at the university. I decided to talk to three different Catholic priests. All three priests advised me to stay with the university. Meanwhile, at the university, things settled down somewhat and the Business Department was allowed to become a School of Business, and I was going to become its first Dean.
I was happy with the way some things were going at the university, but I still had some problems: Catholic students were still being led away from their faith; there was very little that I could do on campus to be supportive of Catholics; we had our book 95 Questions for Protestants being published which I knew the university would not be happy with; and personally, I wondered how closely I was cooperating with evil.
Two other things helped me decide what to do. I met with two people whom I really trusted on campus to give me advice—both of them had left jobs when some of the actions at those jobs conflicted with their ethics. Also, I started reading the Saints of the Day on the Laudate app on my phone, and I did not encounter a single saint that stayed in a Protestant environment once they were Catholic.
So while the business department did become a School of Business and I was named the first Dean, I ended up retiring from the position a few months later. While I retired from working full time, I continued to teach part time for San Jose State for another six years. Though I miss working there and some of my friends, I am convinced it was the right decision.
