Michigan Catholic columnist, author argues history’s skeptics unwittingly point to truth of Christ

DETROIT — When it comes to the historic enemies of Christianity, Gary Michuta thinks along the lines of Hamlet’s mother in Shakespeare’s famous masterpiece: “Methinks thou dost protest too much.”

In fact, Michuta contends, sometimes it’s the very protests of the Church’s most strident critics that end up unwittingly proving her claims to truth.

“I liken it to when you’re driving on the freeway and you start to notice all the cars ahead of you swerving into one lane. You can tell there must be an obstacle there that you need to get over,” said Michuta, a Michigan Catholic columnist and nationally known author and apologist.

“It’s the same with the enemies of the Church. Whenever they would encounter something about Christ or the Church that they just couldn’t deny, they had to swerve to avoid it. They’d try to sweep it under the rug, or explain it away or somehow avoid the logical conclusions that follow from it.”

Try as they might, those swerves throughout history ultimately end up paving a path right to the Church’s doorstep, Michuta argues in his newest book, “Hostile Witnesses: How the Historic Enemies of the Church Prove Christianity,” by Catholic Answers Press.

The concept — historic Church foes giving unknowing witness to Christ — is a common thread throughout Church history, but to Michuta’s knowledge, never before have specific examples — from Herod in the first century to Hitler in the 20th — been compiled into a single book.

“There’s really never been a book written quite like this. There’s always been little bits and pieces, but never all together,” said Michuta, who lives in Livonia and is a member of St. Michael the Archangel Parish there. “When you put them all together, it forms a picture.”

The aim of “Hostile Witnesses,” Michuta said, is to compile “counter-evidence” against the claims of those who would discredit the Catholic faith by pointing to the unavoidable admissions of even those who set out to destroy it.

“There are plenty of enemies of the Church who have no choice but to concede certain things. One is an attestation to the genuineness of Christian miracles, beginning with the New Testament scribes and Pharisees, who claimed that Jesus ‘cast out demons by the prince of demons,’” Michuta said. “They couldn’t deny that he worked these miracles or that they were genuine, so they had to cast it as something other than God.”

Other examples involve the supernatural witness of Christian charity, Michuta said. For example, when Julian the Apostate, a fourth century pagan Roman emperor, saw that the Catholic Church was attracting converts by caring for the poor, he reacted by ordering his own government to follow suit.

“He figured that was how Christianity was growing. He likened it to pirates giving cake to children to lure them onto their boats,” Michuta said.

By ordering his pagan high priests to compete with the Christians by giving state subsidies of wine and grain, Julian thought he’d outdo the Christians and win back the hearts of the new converts. But his effort ultimately failed, Michuta said.

“Julian failed because it didn’t make sense to the pagan worldview,” Michuta said. “Christian charity just wasn’t part of normal human life. People mocked charity. But it was part and parcel of what it meant to be a Christian.”

Other examples in the book include the witness of anti-clerical newspapers writing about the 1917 miracle of the sun at Fatima, and the writings of Muslims during the Crusades about the humane treatment of conquered people in the Holy Land by Christian landlords.

Ultimately, Michuta hopes “Hostile Witnesses” will find its way into the hands of those who might not be so inclined at first to accept the Church’s view of things.

“Apologetics is intended to remove intellectual obstacles that prevent evangelization. Sometimes people have misunderstandings that will stop them from hearing the Gospel,” Michuta said.

“In today’s society where there’s so much skepticism, sometimes people aren’t open to friendly sources like Scripture or the early Church fathers. But they might listen to the enemies of the Church instead. My hope is that the book will be a means to opening the door for skeptics, so that maybe they’ll see there really is something very strange and wonderful that happened in the first century.”

“Hostile Witnesses” is available for $14.95 at shop.catholic.com.

 

---

‘Hostile Witnesses: How the Historic Enemies of the Church Prove Christianity’

By Gary Michuta

Catholic Answers Press (El Cajon, Calif.)

$14.95

264 pages

shop.catholic.com