Dear Friends at Calvary Chapel and Beyond, Something has come alive in me these past few weeks. I haven’t told anyone yet, but I’m writing now because I believe this needs to be said. Not out of condemnation, but out of conviction. Not to attack, but to awaken. What I’m about to say may challenge what you believe. But it’s not meant to insult. It’s meant to invite. I've decided to return to the Catholic Church. Why? Because I’ve come to believe something devastatingly simple: that Protestant churches—including the one I’ve attended—are not real churches. They are playing church. They may be sincere. They may be passionate. But they are not rooted in the original vine planted by Christ. They are branches that broke off—and I believe it is time to come home. Let me explain. The word “Protestant” means what it says: a protest. A movement not born from divine commission, but from rebellion. If the Church was truly founded by Jesus Christ—and has continued unbroken since the Apostles—then why would I cling to a movement that began fifteen hundred years later in protest against it? My faith is not a protest. I don’t want to build my faith on protest. I want to build it on Christ. ✠ What Martin Luther Really Did The man most responsible for that protest—Martin Luther—is often treated like a hero. But when I took a closer look, I saw a different picture. Toward the end of his life, Luther was sickly, angry, bitter, and deeply dissatisfied with what his rebellion had produced. He referred to the Epistle of James as an “epistle of straw.” He said the Book of Revelation was neither apostolic nor prophetic. He doubted Hebrews. He wanted the entire canon of Scripture rearranged to fit his theology. Let me say that again: Martin Luther wanted to remove books from the Bible—not just the Apocrypha, but even James, Hebrews, and Revelation. He succeeded in removing the following books from the Old Testament, now known as the Deuterocanonical books (or “Apocrypha” in Protestant circles):

Within the Catholic Church, something decisive is occurring, not in theory but in practice, not in press releases but in parish halls, chancery offices, seminaries, and sanctuaries. More and more traditional Catholic churches are no longer merely uneasy with LGBTQ activist groups and ideologies operating under Catholic roofs; they are actively refusing them entry, removing them where they already exist, and drawing unmistakable boundaries where ambiguity once lingered. This is not hypothetical. It is happening now, quietly, steadily, and with increasing confidence. Across dioceses, pastors and bishops are recognizing that LGBTQ groups, philosophies, and ideological frameworks are not neutral pastoral aids but carry with them an entire moral anthropology fundamentally incompatible with Catholic teaching. As a result, parishes are declining to host LGBTQ advocacy meetings, refusing the use of parish facilities for identity-based ministries that reject chastity, and prohibiting pride symbolism or activist literature on church property. Parish bulletins are being cleaned, resource tables cleared, and websites revised so that nothing remains that implies Church endorsement of ideologies that contradict the Catechism. In some parishes, ministries once operating under euphemistic titles such as “inclusion” or “affirmation” have been formally dissolved after review by diocesan authorities. Resistance takes many forms, and it is growing. Some churches resist by policy: written diocesan directives now explicitly state that parish ministries must conform to Catholic moral teaching in both doctrine and practice, and that groups promoting sexual identities or behaviors contrary to Church teaching may not meet on church grounds or represent themselves as Catholic. Other churches resist by structure: parish councils and ministry leaders are required to sign statements of fidelity affirming adherence to Catholic teaching, making it impossible for activist groups to remain without openly contradicting the faith they claim to inhabit. Still others resist by formation: priests preach clearly on human sexuality, confession is emphasized, and catechesis is strengthened so that confusion has less room to take root.