The gospel is unbelievably great news, especially when held in its proper context without accreted doctrines and additional requirements that burden believers’ consciences. My heart is heavy knowing that, in the pursuit of church tradition perceived as rooted and reverent, many believers will find their consciences bound to fallible doctrines.

In recent years, several notable Protestant converts to Roman Catholicism have made waves online. Influencers like Cameron Bertuzzi of Capturing Christianity, Candace Owens, Joshua Charles, and Eva Vlaardingerbroek crossed the Tiber from various expressions of Protestantism.

Prominent evangelical pastors like Ulf Ekman, Keith Nester, and Brook Thelander made headlines when they converted to Roman Catholicism. Similar stories are littered across social media, YouTube, and websites like The Coming Home Network.

Prior decades witnessed numerous prominent Protestant-to-Catholic conversions, including Francis Beckwith, Christian Smith, and Thomas Howard.

What drives these Christian thinkers to make this jump? Several theories could be explored, but one factor might concern the surprising savvy of online Roman Catholic apologetics, particularly on platforms like YouTube. When someone has questions surrounding various views on Christian traditions, doctrines, or sacraments (e.g., the Eucharist), a YouTube search will turn up a litany of Roman Catholic videos, while Protestant perspectives are rarely sufficiently and accurately presented. I suspect there are are least two reasons.

First, Catholic apologists are much more focused on growing Roman Catholicism as an institution (i.e., “the one true church”) than on merely winning souls for Christ. This makes sense given Catholicism’s traditional view that to be outside the church is to be outside Christ. The call “home” is a call to the institution of the Catholic Church, not merely a call to find redemption in Christ. Second, Protestant apologetics has leaned heavily into addressing atheism, postmodernism, and modern secular culture’s loss of morality, without focusing enough on learning and practicing our Protestant distinctives. But it’s precisely this focus on Protestant distinctives that would naturally clarify the differences between the Protestant tradition and Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Protestants Are a Primary Catholic Mission Field

Where Protestant apologetics is more focused on winning the secular world to Christ, Roman Catholic apologetics often has a different audience in mind: their “separated brethren.” Targeting Protestants is explicitly encouraged. One writer argues, “We have from baptism a mandate to evangelize, and Protestantism is one of the fields most ready for harvesting.”

William Lane Craig recently commented on this trend: “Many Catholic apologists seem to be more exercised and worked up about winning Protestants to Catholicism than they are with winning non-Christians to Christ. And that seems to me to be a misplaced emphasis.”

Protestant apologist Mike Winger (BibleThinker) made a similar observation: “I believe Roman Catholic apologists are presenting content that’s inconsistent with Roman Catholicism because it’s useful in getting Protestants to become Catholic. And that I find problematic.”

Italian Protestant pastor Leonardo De Chirico points out that it was once often perceived that evangelical Christians were proselytizing Roman Catholics. Now, it appears Rome is returning the favor in full force via YouTube and the internet. De Chirico cites as one example Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire ministry, which has “exploded with videos, books, and courses designed to attract disappointed evangelicals toward Catholicism.”

Much of this is downstream from Vatican II, the contentious council many perceive to be the Catholic Church’s strategic move to appeal to their separated brethren (Protestants) to return to “home sweet Rome.”

Why Should It Matter to Protestants?

Roman Catholic apologists sometimes misrepresent actual Catholic doctrine. They soften terminology to appear harmonious with Protestant views on soteriology, among other doctrines. In using similar terminology and softening the severity of the numerous anathemas against Protestants, these influencers are attracting disillusioned or dissatisfied Christians to a tradition with its own concerning history.

Behind the curtain of liturgy, aesthetics, and reverent ceremony is a mountain of doctrinal, dogmatic, and ritualistic accretions that bind the consciences of faithful Roman Catholics. Such accretions (that were unknown to the early church) include teachings on purgatory, the Marian dogmas, transubstantiation in the Eucharist, papal infallibility, and priestly celibacy. Sometimes, the concept of “doctrinal development,” a view accentuated by Cardinal John Henry Newman, has been used to defend these dogmatic additions to early church confessions.

The truth is, significant theological differences still exist between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

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