Eric Sammons, a former Evangelical, entered the Catholic Church in 1993 and has been involved in Catholic evangelization efforts for over two decades. He is the father of seven children and author of six books, including The Old Evangelization: How to Spread the Faith Like Jesus Did. His website "Swimming Upstream" can be found at ericsammons.com and he can be followed on Twitter @EricRSammons.
Author: ericsammons
No More Scraps: Regaining Rightful Catholic Pride
The movie Braveheart dramatizes the heroic struggle, led by the commoner William Wallace, for Scottish independence. In one scene, the Scottish nobles gather after some initial victories by William Wallace over the English. The nobles begin bickering over how best …
The Missing Ingredient in Today’s Catholic Evangelization
Twenty-some years ago, I had a typical freshman year in college: studying, getting acclimated to dorm life, and training to go door-to-door to get people to “make a personal decision for Christ.” Wait, what? Didn’t you do that last one …
The Tyranny of “Dialogue”
Growing up, I saw a lot of sitcoms. Too many: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Night Court, Cheers (ok, so I was an NBC guy). One thing you start to realize when you watch these shows is how incredibly formulaic …
The Benedict Option: Not for the Faint of Heart
In the months after 9/11, some commentators noted that the tragedy brought America out of the false sense of peace it had enjoyed since the end of the Cold War. With the fall of the Soviet Union, many Americans had …
How to Be One Hell of a Catholic Evangelist
If it’s Monday, then my son is hearing the same refrain from me: “If you keep your bedroom clean this week, you get a pack of baseball cards.” On Sunday I check his room, and if it’s clean, he gets …
A Church that Repels Instead of Attracts: The Latest Pew Research Findings
The Pew Research Center just released its latest study on “America’s Changing Religious Landscape.” The subtitle tells the story: “Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow.” For our purposes, I want to focus …
Correcting Jesus: The Gospel According to Abner
Enthusiastic about Jesus’ message of love, tolerance and mercy, Abner was one of Christ’s earliest followers. At times, however, he was concerned that Jesus didn’t always deliver this core message of acceptance and compassion. This is his story… All Are …
How Great We Aren’t – The Catholic Church in America Today
Those who follow baseball know that the past decade has seen what is called the “Moneyball” revolution in how players are evaluated. In the past, players were gauged using popular, preconceived narratives: Who knocks in the most runs? Who gets …
Making Mass “Relevant” is Irrelevant to Evangelization
Many Catholics have witnessed or read about Masses gone wild: polka Masses, life-size scary puppet Masses, and probably worst of all, Los Angeles Religious Education Congress closing Masses. In these extreme cases, it is clear that there is something fundamentally …
The Church’s Essential Mission: Conversion, Not Welcome
“All are welcome!” You can hardly walk into a Catholic parish today without encountering this slogan. Not so long ago all the talk was about the “New Evangelization,” but that topic has been back-burnered in favor of “welcoming.” No one …
