One can probably guess Chick’s answer to that question, based on the information I have already provided, but let me ignore the word “Roman” for a moment and focus on the word “Catholic.”   The Catholic Church, along with the Orthodox Church, forms the “building block” of traditional Christianity. [1]   All modern-day Christians descend directly, or indirectly, from Catholic-Orthodoxy.   For Chick declare that the Catholic Church is not Christian, he would have to maintain that the other forms of Christianity, which the Catholic-Orthodox Church held to be “heretical,” were somehow correct.   Consider though his Statement of Faith. [2]             For example, he holds to the books of the Bible, which, as we would conceive of it, is a product of the Catholic-Orthodox Church, [3] and this would put him in opposition to the canon o...

              Before going into more detail, there are three points that I want to mention.   First, the Catholic Church is not the only Christian institution to recognize the seven sacraments. [1]   Second, a contemporary Catholic would find the idea of oil and salt at the celebration of Baptism to be foreign practice. [2]   Third, even if Helen was not Baptized, the Catholic Church would still hold her to be a “child of God,” in the sense that God is the “creator” of all human beings, and she would be “one of his children” (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7, 18-23).             In any case, there are two points here that Chick seems to attack.   One is the idea of Baptism being seen as a form of “rebirth,” or being “born again.”   And the other is the practice of infant baptism.   Let me tackle each point individually. Baptism as a form ...

              I remember being asked by a classmate, either as an undergraduate or in graduate school, if all Catholics had “Vatican citizenship.”   I looked at the person dumbfounded, and said, “No,” but now I wonder if such a question may have been due to the influence of Chick Publications.             In any case, when someone is baptized in the Catholic Church, he or she does not receive automatic citizenship to Vatican City.   The same is also true, when someone is baptized in the Episcopal Church (the common form of the Church of England/Anglican Church in the United States).   He or she does not receive automatic citizenship to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, even though the British monarch is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.             But Chi...

              We now turn to the Sacrament of Penance.   The terms “Reconciliation,” “Penance,” and “Confession” are used interchangeably to describe this sacrament, but the best term is, arguably, “Reconciliation.”   A frequently asked question regarding this sacrament, which is probably also asked in Orthodox and Anglican circles, is:   Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest?   To answer this question, one needs to understand the theology regarding the early Church structure/hierarchy.             One of the traditional understandings of Baptism is that, when a person is baptized, he or she shares in the Priesthood of Christ, which, according to the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, is superior to the Jewish priesthood, as Jesus is recognized as a priest in the Order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:13-7:28).    This teaching i...