Catholic Elephant, Protestant Ants
Vort-2012-02-07
Hello everyone and welcome to The Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and
exposed. I’m Michael Voris coming to you from the Delta Region of Nigeria.
In the past few days, we’ve traveled in caravan hundreds of kilometers all over southern
and central Nigeria. These are the areas of Nigeria that are pre-dominantly Christian ..
meaning a mix of Catholic and Protestant.
And it’s time to dispel a common feel-good myth among western Catholics .. that the
faith is flourishing and growing like weeds in Africa .. or at least Nigeria .. the most
populous nation in Africa.
So what happens here is .. in many ways .. the trend setter for other African countries.
And here in Africa .. the once formerly thriving bastion of Catholicism is on the run as
hundreds and hundreds of Protestant sects over run the Catholic Church.
Like swarms of ants overrunning a large elephant .. it may take a while .. but eventually ..
by sheer volume .. the elephant succumbs. That’s what’s happening here in Nigeria.
While the Muslim terror groups in the north may grab the headlines with bombings and
kidnappings .. it’s the steady day by day erosion of the faith by Protestant denominations
in the south that may prove the undoing of the Faith in Nigeria.
On our third and fourth days here .. we made the long journey from Lagos to Onitsha ..
about 9 hours overland and then another 6 hours from Onitsha to Port Harcourt. Along
the way .. we shot some video out the windows of our convoy.
As we passed through the countryside .. we began noticing something very interesting ..
hundreds and hundreds of billboards for hundreds of different Protestant communities.
And believe me .. when we say hundreds .. we mean it .. it may have in fact been more
than a thousand.
This is just a very tiny sample of what we saw. Right in the center of what has
traditionally been the Catholic heartland .. it looked more like a swath from the American
Bible Belt.
Church storefronts of every imaginable name. One was even called the Burning Temple
of the Mountain of Revival .. we didn’t get a video of that one .. we went by too fast.
We did of course see Catholic parishes to be sure .. and the Catholic parishes generally
have larger numbers .. but that’s hardly much consolation when they are easily
outnumbered by nearly 150 to one.
And a very disturbing aspect of this trend is that .. according to the local faithful crowd ..
HUGE numbers of those people sitting in these makeshift protestant congregations are
former Catholics .. AND THAT should ring very familiar to the ears of Catholics in the United States.
At a talk we gave last night to a couple hundred Catholics in Port Harcourt .. we
confirmed this by asking if they knew Catholic family members who were now attending
Protestant services. Every single person raised their hands.
But there is a bright spot in all this. And the bright spot is this. As you know .. we don’t
usually pull any punches when talking about the Faith and we didn’t pull any at this talk either.
We were emphatic about the need for Catholics to know their faith and evangelize like
crazy. We pulled no punches about the deception that Protestantism represents.
And .. as a side note .. no matter how much people accuse faithful Catholics of being
mean and uncharitable and intolerant about the deceptions of Protestantism .. it absolutely IS a deception .. because people are deceived about and therefore unable to receive the Body and Blood of Blessed Lord in Holy Communion. This isn’t about sparing people’s feelings .. it’s about giving them every piece of knowledge they need to work out their own salvation.
So .. we characteristically stated the pitfalls and intellectual hurdles of Protestantism.
And wouldn’t you know it .. sitting in the crowd was a gentleman who came up
afterwards and introduced himself. He said he was a Pentecostal pastor and he’d heard
that we would be in town and this would be the topic, so he wanted to come and hear.
He asked for our email and phone number and said he wanted to talk further because ..
catch this .. HE HAD LEARNED A LOT and THINGS HE DIDN’T KNOW before.
Imagine .. saying the truth in a bold and clear and above all CHARITABE way ..
encouraged a Pentecostal minister to step up in great humility and gentleness and say that he wants to learn more.
Bottom line .. some people may not like the way some things are said. But other people DO LISTEN when its put very plainly and want to know more .. all you have to do is SAY it. And more to the point .. if you are a baptized Catholic .. you are commanded to say it .. it’s called .. the first of spiritual works of mercy .. instruct the ignorant.
Go and teach all nations to observe everything I have commanded you. We have our
marching orders .. now get to it. And please pray for the pastor. He and I will be staying in contact and further discussing the Catholic faith.
As a side note .. we have plans to be producing a Vortex episode in the next few days
from St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Abuja where Muslim terrorists killed over 40
people with a car bomb on Christmas Day as they were leaving Mass. Please keep us in
your prayers.
God Love you
