In a post last week on the appointment of Dinesh D’Souza as president of King’s College, Rusty Reno wrote :
Surely we’re at an interesting juncture in American religious history when a prominent Catholic is tapped to head up an Evangelical College. A very interesting juncture. It will be interesting to see how the Catholic thing works out.
That was my initial reaction too. I would have also agreed with the description of D’Souza as a “prominent Catholic.”
Turns out, though, that may not be the case. In an excellent bit of reporting for Christianity Today , Sarah Pulliam Bailey gets an answer to the question everyone has been asking: Is D’Souza really a Catholic? Here are some of the relevant quotes:
“I’m quite happy to acknowledge my Catholic background; at the same time, I’m very comfortable with Reformation theology,” D’Souza told Christianity Today . “I’m comfortable with the evangelical world. In a sense, I’m part of it.”D’Souza’s wife, Dixie, is an evangelical, and the family has attended Calvary Chapel, a nondenominational evangelical church in San Diego, for the past 10 years . . . .
“I do not describe myself as Catholic today. But I don’t want to renounce it either because it’s an important part of my background. I’m an American citizen, but I wouldn’t reject the Indian label because it’s part of my heritage,” D’Souza said. “I say I have a Catholic origin or background. I say I’m a nondenominational Christian, and I’m comfortable with born-again.”
He said that his views align with the Apostle’s Creed and C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity .
[ . . . ]
“A lot of times, Christians spend a lot of time in intramural type debates and squabbles: Are you a Catholic or Protestant; if you are Protestant, what type are you; are you pre-millennial or post-millennial; what position do you take on Genesis 1?” D’Souza said. “I would comfortably describe myself as a born-again Christian, but I don’t feel it is necessary to renounce anything. I am not doing Catholic apologetics, that’s for sure.”
[ . . . ]
“If someone says, I’m Catholic and as a result I will not agree that the Bible is the sole source of religious truth, then we can’t hire them because they don’t agree with our mission statement,” he said. “If someone happens to be Catholic and agrees with the statement 100 percent, we would not remove that person from consideration.”
Marvin Olasky, the college’s provost, also has some choice quotes that you won’t want to miss. Read the rest at CT .
As an evangelical, I would say that the statements by D’Souza (and Olasky) hint that he is an evangelical. But before we add him to our roster, I’d like to hear if he’s been released from the Catholic side. What say you, folks? Does it sound like he’s crossed over (theologically, if not culturally and sacramentally) to the evangelical Protestant camp?
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
