Unity Publishing - More Dangerous Than Any False
Apparition
By Paul Baylis, editor Marian Times
I have spent a good deal of time talking to atheists
and just trying to get them to believe "in God".
So, from a purely personal perspective, I am very disappointed
with some corners of the so-called Christian media who
make this task even more difficult than it was. God
is not a God of division. Jesus came to unify mankind
in the love of God. Medjugorje, to me, is all about
UNITY of religious thought and practice, of keeping
it simple, of loving God without man-made restraint.
But, it's not my personal issues with Unity Publishing
(and others like them) that really matter. Unity Publishing,
in the vein of many other quarters thriving on a diet
of disinformation from all around the world (and we
know who is the cause of that!) have made up their minds
that Medjugorje is false and they want the world to
know what they think the Vatican should have found out
and acted on by now, if not long ago. In their apparent
quest for the eyeballs of the sensation-seekers, and
casting themselves in the light of maverick crime-busters,
they are doing immense damage, splitting the Catholic
Church and contributing to a potential fulfillment the
end-times prophecy of "brother against brother".
This, more than anything, Satan wishes to accomplish.
God might be able to forgive millions of people being
duped, at His allowance, by the enemy (just as Job received
God's mercy for not knowing that he was the meat in
the sandwich of God's testing), but I'm not so sure
God would smile so brightly on any individual bold enough
to negligently afflict the Church founded through the
blood and suffering of His only begotten Son. Thus,
I say that these people are more dangerous than any
false apparition.
I came upon some Medjugorje-related book reviews on
different websites which repeated the same warning against
Medjugorje and invited people to go to Unity Publishing
and "read as many articles as possible" to
avoid being deceived. This is very similar to the line
I read on Unity Publishing's main Medjugorje page, which
is a litany of detraction at its worst. I conclude that
Rick has been busy setting forth his maggots of detraction
and division into the very living rooms of people who
are open to conversion - not conversion to Medjugorje
per se, but conversion to the Lord. Most of these "reviews"
pertained to Sister Emmanuel's "Medjugorje - the
90's", which gives evidence for Sister Lucia of
Fatima and Pope John Paul II supporting Medjugorje.
The review states: "The quotes in favor of
Medjugorje, attributed to the pope and Sister Lucia
of Fatima, could not be proved and are most likely lies".
Run this line in Google and see how many times the same
review has been placed! Nobody makes such a comment
unless their sole intention is to defend a negative
position on Medjugorje. A normal person with an open
mind says "Hmmm, if Sister Lucia really said that
about Medjugorje, then....". Rick's writing on
Medjugorje is full of this fanatical defensiveness of
a position that is scarcely defendable. The weight of
evidence against his position is likened to a mountain
against a molehill. But, Rick squirms and wriggles and
refuses to give. Now, that's scarey!
His mission statement is the promotion of unity and
a pledge to "dispel the darkness", "break
the spells" and free us all from "baffling
deceptions" when in reality it is really people
like himself who have created the darkness and the spells.
He has jumped on the bandwagon of people who created
the bafflement where there was none before. He says
his articles are "thoroughly researched",
whereas it appears more evident that Rick has simply
trawled through Google for any detraction article he
can find and, without vetting them for complete accuracy,
has simply added the information to his own articles
or tacked them one after the other in a long list of
anti-Medjugorje articles which he has labelled "humble
testimonies", encouraging those who are "genuinely
interested in discerning the truth about this issue"
to "take the time to scan as many of the links
as possible".
Let us analyse an article by Rick Salbato of Unity
Publishing. Rick once wrote that he thought God liked
what he was doing on his website. I nearly choked on
my coffee cake when I read this comment, after reading
what he has on his website. I want to give Rick the
benefit of the doubt as being sincerely trying to warn
the world of potential false apparitions, but after
just a short read of the type of journalism he uses
and the sheer determination he displays, at any cost,
to literally destroy Medjugorje, I simply cannot conscience
it. I simply cannot see any good in what he is doing.
It is a long, long essay, possibly Rick thought it
necessary to be so, because the guts just aren't there
and most debaters will know that if the guts aren't
there, you have to pad out the content, use tactics
such as straw men and tarring with the same brush, and
basically dig and dredge and connect dots and all those
other juicy spy thriller things. But as you will see
he falls well short. But, what is more amazing is that
he found the need or the time to do all this. I'm giving
up valuable praying time to write this rebuttal. But,
I hope I will pray a little better after I'm through.
I am compelled to write and write I will!
From a reading of Rick's writings, he comes across
as very much lacking in experience at putting together
an argument. He also seems to be lacking in some basic
theology and his penchant for making statements and
claims literally off the top of his head is astounding.
All this would be absolutely fine EXCEPT for the fact
that it is not just reflecting upon himself, but on
the whole Catholic Church and his rash comments and
conclusions are doing a lot of damage to the hearts
and minds of Catholics. It's time to put a stop to this
and let cooler heads prevail.
Refuting
Rick Salbato - Part 1 >>>
Go directly to Rick's points of detraction:
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