#patrick madrid

How to Make a Career in Apologetics

Let’s say you’ve spent several years studying the Faith and now you want to defend it as a full-time profession. Where do you start? How does someone become a professional “apologist?” Here are three paths:

1. Become a university professor

Professors have the benefit of a stable income as they engage in research, write articles and books, and teach students how to defend the Faith. This is especially true in the theology or philosophy department of an authentically Catholic university.

There are tradeoffs. As a professor, your obligation to teach students and generate academic research must supersede your desire to engage in apologetics. Moreover, in order to obtain a teaching position, you will probably need a doctoral degree. This can require five to seven years of intensive schooling, which may be out of reach for apologists who have families to support.

You should also know that most professors who publish apologetic works do not consider themselves “full-time” apologists. Instead, they identify as scholars who contribute knowledge to their respective fields of study. Their works might have apologetic content, but they are usually penned for fellow scholars, which reduces their circulation among lay people.

2. Join an apologetics organization

My journey to becoming a full-time Catholic apologist took a dramatic turn four years ago when I stepped into the office of Catholic Answers. Back then I served as the respect life coordinator for the Diocese of Phoenix, and I was leading a group of college students on a trip to a marriage conference in San Diego. Since the Catholic Answers office was nearby, I scheduled a tour for the students, but the night before the tour I got a fateful phone call.

A friend told me that Catholic Answers was hiring a new apologist, so I cobbled together a resume and prayed about what should I say the next day. When I stepped into Tim Staples’s office after the tour, I introduced myself and said, “I heard you were looking for new apologists. I’d like to throw my hat into the ring.”

A few months later, after reviewing my experience and seeing how I fared as a guest on an episode of Catholic Answers Live, I was formally offered the position of staff apologist. One reason I was given this opportunity was because I showed Catholic Answers a portfolio that included apologetics material I created and videos showing me defending the Faith on university campuses. And therein lies the difficulty with this path to full-time apologetics work.

Very few Catholic organizations hire apologists or are dedicated to apologetics. Of the few apologetic organizations that do exist, most have limited budgets and rarely bring on new staff members. But even if you find such an organization, and it is hiring apologists, you will need to prove you are worth of a full-time salary. Have you been formally trained in theology or philosophy? Have you published a book or other materials related to defending the Faith? Do you have a well-trafficked blog, podcast, or YouTube channel? Are you regularly asked to speak in your local community or even on a national level?

Most apologists spend years practicing apologetics as a hobby before they are able to engage in it as a full-time profession. That being said, this next path may be your best stepping stone into entering the world of full-time apologetics.

3. Become a freelance apologist

Unlike apologists who work for a university or apostolate, freelance apologists work for themselves and fund their own salaries. Some freelance apologists supplement their income with book royalties and/or honoraria from speaking events. But if you’re just starting out, you probably won’t have the notoriety that is needed to live off this kind of income. In my experience, it takes two to five years of speaking and writing before these activities have the potential to become reliable sources of income.

Another option is to ask family, friends, neighbors, your dentist, and basically anyone you know if they want to pledge a monthly or annual donation to support your work. This model, also called “support raising,” is popular among missionary-centered organizations like the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).

In 2008, I became a full-time pro-life apologist and joined an organization that could not pay me a salary. But this group did teach me how to raise support, and for nine months I made phone calls, sent out letters, and scheduled meetings with prospective donors. It was tough, especially since I did all of this during the “Great Recession,” but the hard work paid off, and for the next two years I traveled the country engaging pro-choice students on university campuses.

If you choose this path, remember that raising support isn’t easy, and you will have to get used to asking for money as well as having your solicitations declined. I would also caution you against leaving a stable job in order to pursue this kind of fundraising, especially if you have a family to support. This tactic is more common among unmarried college graduates, since they have to raise relatively low salaries; but I know some older, married couples with children who make it work.

Finally, I had the benefit of directing my donations towards an established nonprofit organization with a human resources staff. If you become a self-employed apologist funded by donations, you will need to follow applicable business and tax laws lest you find yourself giving a “defense” before agents of the IRS!

Start small, dream big

I know some of this advice isn’t easy to hear, but don’t let the challenges stop you from pursuing full-time apologetics work, and don’t wait to do apologetics until you have your apologetics dream job.

Before I came to work at Catholic Answers, I was essentially a freelance apologist. During the time I worked for the Phoenix diocese, at night I created apologetics materials, and on weekends I hosted free apologetics seminars at local churches. Once I even cut my own birthday party short to stay up until 3 a.m. creating a response to a viral anti-Catholic video being passed around on Facebook.

I didn’t make these sacrifices because I wanted to one day become a full-time apologist. I thought that kind of job was a wonderful fiction, like a genie or a unicorn. Instead, I did it because no one was else was offering apologetics in my community, and I felt God had given me the skills and the calling to fill that void.

If you feel you have that same calling, then offer your talents to local churches and schools, or make them available to a global audience online. As more and more people recognize your work, they will gradually trust you with more and more speaking or publishing opportunities. As Jesus said, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much” (Luke 16:10, NIV).

Yes, Christians Do Have an Assurance—but Not an Absolute Assurance—of Salvation

Many Protestants understand being “saved” as a one-moment-in-time act of repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s “personal Lord and savior” (a phrase that nowhere appears in the Bible, by the way), a life-changing transformation of “lost” sinner who becomes a “saved” child of God. They believe this to be an irrevocable step that eliminates the penalties of past sins and guarantees, no matter what might happen from that point forward, that nothing can undo or rescind one’s salvation.

“Once-saved-always-saved” is a slogan many Protestants use to describe their belief in a Christian’s absolute assurance of salvation. And though not all Protestants accept the once-saved-always-saved formula, many, such as Southern Baptists and the myriad of “non-denominational” denominations, do. Two Bible passages commonly cited in support of this view are:

1 John 5:13: “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

John 10:27-29: “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

St. John’s assurance that “you have eternal life” is a proclamation of every Christian’s moral—not absolute—assurance of salvation. Christ offers us the gift of salvation, and he will not go back on his word.

But you and I are entirely capable of going back on our word by abandoning Christ and, thereby, forfeiting his gift of salvation. St. Paul speaks about this in 2 Timothy 2:11-13:

If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Take care to notice the particular “if” in this passage. So while it’s true that we may indeed “have” salvation, whether or not we keep our grasp on it is another matter, as St. Paul will demonstrate below.

But first, let’s consider St. John’s other statement: No one can snatch out of Christ’s hand, those whom the Father has given him. No external power is capable of wresting us out of Christ’s loving embrace (Rom. 8:28-29), but you can do it, if you decide to willfully rebel against God through mortal sin (1 John 5: 16-17), and if you die unrepentant in that state, you will have lost your salvation because you will have, in effect, snatched yourself out of Christ’s hand. This is demonstrated by the following verses:

Romans 11:13-22: that first of all, contains a description of (and warning to not be like) those individual Jews living at the time of Christ who forfeited their salvation by deliberately rejecting Jesus Christ as Messiah, Redeemer, and Savior. They were once “branches” on a cultivated olive tree (i.e., the Chosen People of Israel) that symbolizes in this analogy those who were saved. Pointing toward their sin of spurning their Savior, St Paul declares:

They [i.e., those who lost their salvation by rejecting Christ] were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.

The “you” to whom he’s addressing this warning are gentile Christians whom he likens to branches from a “wild olive tree” that had been grafted onto the cultivated tree in places where the natural branches had been snapped off. Note well the warning he gives these gentile Christians regarding the possibility that they too could lose their salvation.

Hebrews 10:26–31: [I]f we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. . . . How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

2 Peter 2: 20-21: For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

Ask yourself: Is there any way someone could “escape the defilements of the world” other than by God’s grace and forgiveness (what many refer to as being “saved”)? No. So this means that some who been saved fall back into grievous sin, thereby losing their salvation.

And recall the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35. He’s a perfect parallel with the sinner who repents, pleads for mercy, and was forgiven by God and his debt of sin wiped out. But the unforgiving servant proceeded to mistreat a fellow servant and when the King discovered this, he reinstated his debt and threw him into prison.

The Bible is clear that, tragically, Christians can indeed lose their salvation by sinful rebellion against God. As the Lord himself declared, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matt. 18:35).

It's Entirely Possible to Miss out on (Or Forget About) Jesus’ Teaching

Once upon a time, when I was presenting a series of lectures on the Catholic Faith at a large suburban parish in the Midwest, during the Q&A session, a sixty-five-ish man raised a question I had never heard before. He prefaced his question by mentioning that he was a life-long Catholic who assisted at his parish’s daily Mass as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. He was clearly devout and serious about his faith, though his question evinced a curious lacuna in his knowledge of Catholic teaching.

“What would you say,” he asked into the microphone, “to those Catholics who, when they go up to receive Holy Communion, receive the host, but them bypass the chalice and return to their pews? They don’t even realize that they’re not getting all of Jesus!” The note of exasperation in his voice suggested that perhaps he might typically be the one holding the chalice during Communion.

A slight gasp rippled through the audience at the words, “They don’t even realize that they’re not getting all of Jesus!” That gasp was a good sign, for it indicated to me that at least some of the Catholics in the audience realized the flaw in his question.

He remained at the microphone anticipating, I think, a response from me about how “some Catholics,” for whatever reason, prefer not to receive the Precious Blood, or how “some Catholics” are a bit too traditional, or how poorly catechized “some Catholics” are, or something along those lines.

When I proceeded to explain, as gently as I could, that it was actually he who was mistaken about this issue, I saw his eyes widen with surprise.

“You see,” I said, invoking the time-honored Catholic formula used to describe the Real Presence of Christ, “Jesus is entirely present in the Holy Eucharist, body, blood, soul, and divinity. He is not partly present in the host and partly in the Precious Blood. He is truly, substantially, sacramentally and entirely present in each.”

At this, the man at the microphone tilted his head slightly, furrowed his brow slightly, and pressed his point saying, “But if you receive only the body of Christ but not the Precious Blood of Christ, you don’t receive everything.”

“Not really, no.” I responded. “Again, Christ is entirely present in each element, the host and the chalice. The Catholic Church has always taught this. If you were to receive even just the tiniest fragment of the Communion host you would receive all of Jesus. And if you received only the smallest sip of the Precious Blood you would receive all of Jesus, not, say, only a ‘percentage of him.”

Thanking me, but still with that quizzical, not-quite-convinced look on his face he turned from the microphone and walked back to his seat. It was clear he was really thinking about this issue, perhaps remembering a long-ago catechism class in which he once learned, but somewhere along the line had forgotten, this important truth about the Eucharist.

So, before the next questioner went to a different topic, I spoke a little more on the issue of the Real Presence, realizing that the man who asked that question was surely a faithful Catholic who loved the Lord, but for whom some of the teachings of the Church he had received when he was young had become a little fuzzy and needed to be clarified and reiterated. Others in the audience realized his mistaken idea, but as I spent a few more minutes elaborating aspects of Catholic teaching on the Eucharist, I could see that more than a few in the crowd were having some of their own haziness cleared up, which is always a good thing, no matter how long one has been Catholic. We’re busy and preoccupied with many cares, so it’s not all that remarkable that, over time, we might tend to get a little “rusty” when it comes to remembering everything we once were taught about the Faith.

Which brings me to a theory I’ve developed over the last nearly 30 years of speaking on Catholic themes to audiences across the country: It seems that most church-going Catholics these days who are serious about God and the things of God (i.e., those who go to Mass every Sunday, say their prayers, and strive to live out the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church) have about an eighth-grade level of knowledge of the teachings of the Church. Not because there’s something wrong with them, but because most Catholics—like that man at the microphone—ceased any kind of formal, systematic study of the teachings of the Church when they received the sacrament of confirmation, often at around the eighth grade. And once you get go off to college, get a job, get married, start raising a family, and so on, it becomes increasingly difficult to devote time to resuming a systematic study of the Faith.

This is why you (all of us) would do well to spend a little time each day or each week (more is better, but even a little is good) refreshing your memory, mind, and heart, with a review of Catholic teaching. Reading just one chapter a day from the Gospels (start in Matthew 1 and work your way forward) and two or three paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church will do wonders for every Catholic.

The fact that Patrick Madrid has a list of fictional band names is hilarious to me. Here's some of my favorite:

Acoustic Kitties

Dirty Diesel

Surveillance Cats

Zero Lizard