The Usual Suspects: Answering Anti-Catholic Fundamentalists

by Karl Keating

The renowned apologist Keating presents snapshots, individualized portraits—some larger, some smaller—of arguments and people opposed to the Catholic faith. An excellent supplement to his first ground-breaking work, Catholicism and Fundamentalism.

Genres: Religion, Catholic

204 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Karl Keating (b. 1950), a prominent Catholic apologist and author, is the founder and president of Catholic Answers, a lay apostolate of Catholic apologetics and evangelization.

He received his undergraduate degree in Applied Math at UCSD in 1972 and went on to get a J.D. at the University of San Diego. He worked as an attorney practicing civil law in the early 1980s.

Leaving Mass one Sunday, he found anti-Catholic tracts on the windshields of the cars in the church parking lot. He wrote his own tract in reply and distributed copies of it at the Fundamentalist church responsible for the anti-Catholic tract. That was the start of what has become the country’s largest lay-run apologetics and evangelization organization.

Catholic Answers was incorporated in 1982, and in 1988 Karl left the practice of law and went into apostolic work full time. That year marked the publication of his Catholicism and Fundamentalism, the first book to deal extensively with challenges posed by “Bible Christians.” Other books followed: What Catholics Really Believe, Nothing But the Truth, The Usual Suspects, and Controversies. He is at work on several more titles.

For nine years Karl served as the editor of This Rock. He has been a columnist for the National Catholic Register and the Canadian Catholic Review and has written for many other publications. Each Tuesday he answers questions on “Catholic Answers Live.” His avocations include backpacking (his favorite locales are the High Sierra and the Grand Canyon) and flying.

Reviews

[Taryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had read the author's Catholicism and Fundamentalism and thought it was fantastic. I assumed The Usual Suspects would be nearly as good, but it is just what the title claims and little more. It is primarily a summation or professional anti-Catholics with little refutation of their claims (although there is some that I found very helpful, just not enough to warrant a higher book rating). I recommend skipping this one and reading his Catholicism and Fundamentalism instead.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE POPULAR APOLOGIST PROVIDES A "SUPPLEMENT" TO HIS "FUNDAMENTALISM" BOOK

Karl Keating (born 1950) is a Catholic apologist, the founder and president of Catholic Answers (the country’s largest lay-run apologetics and evangelization organization), and has also written books such as 'Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on "Romanism" by "Bible Christians"', 'What Catholics Really Believe: Answers to Common Misconceptions About the Faith,' 'Nothing But the Truth,' etc.

He wrote in the Preface to this 2000 book, "This book is not so much a sequel as a supplement to 'Catholicism and Fundamentalism.' In that book I tried to give a panoramic view of the attack on 'Romanism' by 'Bible Christians,' highlighting prominent anti-Catholic individuals and organizations and discussing at length... Here I present snapshots, individualized portraits... of arguments and people opposed to the Catholic faith."

About the references to the "brethren" of the Lord in the gospels, he observes, "we need to be able to stand far enough back to see that while the sacred writers refer to Jesus as the 'son of Mary,' never once are these 'brethren' referred to as the sons or daughters of Mary. This bifurcation is striking because it is abnormal. Writers tend to keep the same style throughout a work." (Pg. 45)

He is critical of defenses of the Bible [e.g., Science Speaks: Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy and the Bible] based on the "improbability of fulfillment of biblical prophecies," observing about the prophecy of the destruction of Tyre, "could it have been unlikely that Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful king of the region, would take Tyre?" (Pg. 59-60)

Of the supposed "renumbering" of the Ten Commandments by Catholics, he states, "[the Church] recognized that Exodus 20:4-5 should be read as a unit with Exodus 20:3. These verses form one commandment, the first. If catechisms usually do not quote Exodus 20:4-5, it is because they give a shortened form of the Ten Commandments." (Pg. 132)

Not as pathbreaking as Keating's "Fundamentalism." this book will still be of great interest to students of Catholic apologetics.