James White's Deficient Research: Counting Numbers at Trent (Regarding the Canon) / Gary Michuta's Deuterocanon Web Page
Sunday, January 13, 2008
My good friend Gary Michuta (currently on the front page of his website) has shown how Reformed Baptist apologist Bishop James White has miscalculated a bit concerning his description of a vote at the Council of Trent with regard to the canon of Holy Scripture ("The 44% Solution: Why Anti-Catholics Should Trust Their Instincts"). I find this a bit humorous, since Bishop White was trying so very hard to show that Steve Ray was an incompetent buffoon with regard to the issue of the canon, and used the "Trent vote" argument that Gary was refuting in his paper.
Steve has lately been the favorite whipping-boy of several folks whose views are characterized by anti-Catholicism. The Right Reverend Bishop was really laying it on thick in his introduction to his hit piece You Tube video "exposing" Steve's supposedly atrocious apologetics methods:
Once again, faced with opposing arguments, the good Bishop is quick to charge deliberate deception and lying (as he has done with myself and many others):Steve Ray Grossly Misrepresents Church History---Again
Here is a tremendous example of the kind of scholarship put forward by Ignatius Press and Catholic Answers in the person of one of their "experts," Steve Ray. This kind of gross misrepresentation is simply too easy to refute, yet it is so very popular amongst Rome's adherents.
Well, now I know who posted this video: none other than Gary Michuta himself. He joined YouTube just today to post this wonderful example of "As long as it is in the service of Rome, don't worry about the truth thing--it will all come out in the wash." Evidently he views it as his job to protect Steve Ray when Ray makes utterly absurd statements on CA Live. In any case, it is Michuta who now gets to own this mess of half-truths and deception, and own it he will.Will Rogers famously remarked that he had never met a man he didn't like. It looks like Bishop White may have never engaged an opposing argument by a Catholic that he didn't think was deliberately deceptive. He seems utterly unable to comprehend that a Catholic might sincerely, honestly hold a different viewpoint than he does, without knowing that it is a lie and intending to deceive others with it. That's why I have little to do with him anymore. Interacting with the man (well, attempting to) is an insult to one's intelligence. I commend Gary for his Job-like patience in still being willing to interact with White's vapid inanities. I don't have anywhere near such patience and so I admire a person who does.
(my emphases)
Gary's Deuterocanon Web Page will eventually have a link to the above "44%" article. It has many excellent ones posted already. And if you're interested in a Catholic book that tackles the "Apocrypha" issue, then check out Gary's excellent volume, Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger: The Untold Story of the Lost Books of the Protestant Bible.
