Dr. Francis Beckwith's Return to Rome

Dr. Beckwith and his wife Frankie are both very dear friends of mine, and I am greatly saddened to hear about their conversion to Roman Catholicism (click here to read what he said on his blog and here in an interview with Christianity Today).

I do admire him for the courage it took to step down as the president of E.T.S. and resign from E.T.S. completely, assuming responsibility for his convictions, living with the difficult and painful consequences and saving E.T.S from the firestorm of controversy that would ensue.

Dr. Beckwith was my teacher in graduate school. During that time I became very close with him and his wife Frankie. Since graduating in 2002, I have periodically kept in touch through email. It is a singular joy for me to see them the few times that I have since graduation, and I love them both very much.

Because of my utmost respect and love for them and because I have not talked with them personally, I'm not going to say much about them. I just don't think it would be right to do so having not spoken to them.

However, I have added them to my daily prayer list and I hope many of you who are concerned about them have done the same.

I will say that as a theological system I am totally opposed to R.C.C. I have studied their views on penance, Mary, the Mass and the Pope by reading their sources and find those views blasphemous and utterly incompatible with the Bible.