My Confrontation With The Church
How I Got Saved: Part I
By James Donahue
I grew up in a Methodist home. My mother made sure that I attended Sunday school every week even though she and my father rarely came to church. Every summer I remember attending a week of Vacation Bible School at the Baptist church. Thus I was familiar with the basic Bible stories.
When in high school I was singing in the Methodist Church choir. It was discovered that I had a fine tenor voice. I drifted out of church attendance by the time I was in college but I remained active in choral singing. I joined the university a Capella choir when I attended Central Michigan University and sang many of the great choral hymns. Thus I knew the stories and I knew the music when I teamed up with Bill Havers to reject Christianity altogether.
Bill, a brilliant musician and psychology student, grew up in the Free Methodist Church and decided early in life that the religious practices there were not going to be part of his world. When he performed, often on bar stages and group get-togethers, Bill liked to give a mock altar call that always brought laughter from his audience.
I was in a serious automobile accident during my senior year in college. I was hospitalized for two weeks with a severe head injury. Bernice, the girl I was with was also hospitalized for less serious injuries. I took a year off from college to recover. That winter Bernice and I developed a serious relationship that led to an engagement.
Bernice was a Roman Catholic. That engagement forced me to take a serious look at the Christian religion. By the time I was back in college I was enrolled in a training program offered by the Catholic Church for men like me, non-Catholic people seeking to marry into the church. It did not take me long to realize that I would not be forced to pledge any children from this marriage to become members of the Catholic Church. Through careful study and by firing hard questions at the priest teaching that class, I knew it was a religion I could not accept. But I loved Bernice. What was I to do? It did not take long after this for the engagement to end.
It was not long after this that I met Doris, the woman I married. But the dating period with Doris was strained because she was an active Baptist. She dragged me off to church a few times and I rebelled at the fact that “outsiders” such as I were singled out for the old “Havers” altar call. We were warned that failure to accept Jesus as a personal savior would doom us all to an eternity in Hell. I refused to accept the call but my love for Doris prevailed and we were married before I graduated from college. By mutual agreement we rarely attended church.
It was when I took a job as a bureau reporter in South Haven, Michigan, that circumstances drove me back into Christianity. I picked up a report that the Baptist minister was teaching a Wednesday night Bible class and that he was predicting the Second Coming of Christ and the looming Battle of Armageddon. I contacted him and got invited to the class. He was teaching that the sudden return of the Jews to Palatinate, having been driven there by the Nazis in World War II, was a key prelude to the prophetic warning leveled in the New Testament Book of Revelation.
That week I stopped at a local magazine shop to get my regular copy of Playboy, and on impulse, also bought a paper back book by the Rev. Billy Graham that spoke of events during the “end times.” It was while lying in bed, reading Graham’s book, that something hit me. Graham described the constant movement of the stars, planets and constellations to prove the very existence of God. He asked where all of this energy comes from to create and maintain this complex universe. That question hit me hard. That night I quietly prayed, asking for God’s salvation. It was a very private event and I am not sure I ever spoke of it to Doris.
She agreed to attend the South Haven Baptist Church with me the following Sunday. But we were not drawn to that church and the following week she urged me to attend a new Bible Church was was getting started just on the edge of town. It turned out that Doris had that whole church congregation praying for me and my appearance was an answer to their prayers. I found significance in this.
These events describe how I fell into Christianity, accepted Christ and began what promised to be a great life of Christian living. But this was not to be.
How I Got Saved: Part I
By James Donahue
I grew up in a Methodist home. My mother made sure that I attended Sunday school every week even though she and my father rarely came to church. Every summer I remember attending a week of Vacation Bible School at the Baptist church. Thus I was familiar with the basic Bible stories.
When in high school I was singing in the Methodist Church choir. It was discovered that I had a fine tenor voice. I drifted out of church attendance by the time I was in college but I remained active in choral singing. I joined the university a Capella choir when I attended Central Michigan University and sang many of the great choral hymns. Thus I knew the stories and I knew the music when I teamed up with Bill Havers to reject Christianity altogether.
Bill, a brilliant musician and psychology student, grew up in the Free Methodist Church and decided early in life that the religious practices there were not going to be part of his world. When he performed, often on bar stages and group get-togethers, Bill liked to give a mock altar call that always brought laughter from his audience.
I was in a serious automobile accident during my senior year in college. I was hospitalized for two weeks with a severe head injury. Bernice, the girl I was with was also hospitalized for less serious injuries. I took a year off from college to recover. That winter Bernice and I developed a serious relationship that led to an engagement.
Bernice was a Roman Catholic. That engagement forced me to take a serious look at the Christian religion. By the time I was back in college I was enrolled in a training program offered by the Catholic Church for men like me, non-Catholic people seeking to marry into the church. It did not take me long to realize that I would not be forced to pledge any children from this marriage to become members of the Catholic Church. Through careful study and by firing hard questions at the priest teaching that class, I knew it was a religion I could not accept. But I loved Bernice. What was I to do? It did not take long after this for the engagement to end.
It was not long after this that I met Doris, the woman I married. But the dating period with Doris was strained because she was an active Baptist. She dragged me off to church a few times and I rebelled at the fact that “outsiders” such as I were singled out for the old “Havers” altar call. We were warned that failure to accept Jesus as a personal savior would doom us all to an eternity in Hell. I refused to accept the call but my love for Doris prevailed and we were married before I graduated from college. By mutual agreement we rarely attended church.
It was when I took a job as a bureau reporter in South Haven, Michigan, that circumstances drove me back into Christianity. I picked up a report that the Baptist minister was teaching a Wednesday night Bible class and that he was predicting the Second Coming of Christ and the looming Battle of Armageddon. I contacted him and got invited to the class. He was teaching that the sudden return of the Jews to Palatinate, having been driven there by the Nazis in World War II, was a key prelude to the prophetic warning leveled in the New Testament Book of Revelation.
That week I stopped at a local magazine shop to get my regular copy of Playboy, and on impulse, also bought a paper back book by the Rev. Billy Graham that spoke of events during the “end times.” It was while lying in bed, reading Graham’s book, that something hit me. Graham described the constant movement of the stars, planets and constellations to prove the very existence of God. He asked where all of this energy comes from to create and maintain this complex universe. That question hit me hard. That night I quietly prayed, asking for God’s salvation. It was a very private event and I am not sure I ever spoke of it to Doris.
She agreed to attend the South Haven Baptist Church with me the following Sunday. But we were not drawn to that church and the following week she urged me to attend a new Bible Church was was getting started just on the edge of town. It turned out that Doris had that whole church congregation praying for me and my appearance was an answer to their prayers. I found significance in this.
These events describe how I fell into Christianity, accepted Christ and began what promised to be a great life of Christian living. But this was not to be.