This post is a rebuttal. Click here to read the previous post in this series.

Randy Terry the self-proclaimed prolife potentate

 Is has been my first hand observation that the unmitigated gall of Randy Terry is without limit. 

I first met Randy Terry in New York City in 1989.  He was a young firebrand of a pro-life leader who led the charge with much bravado while demanding that those who believe abortion is murder act like abortion is murder.

His message was simple, direct and called for personal sacrifice.  He lambasted those who stood against his crusade.

Randy’s message spread like wildfire, and within a few short years 50,000 Americans had risked arrest.  I did so numerous times. The movement blessed Randy with millions of dollars and two houses before it was shut down by the concerted efforts of the federal government and the abortion industry.

No one can deny Randy a place in the pro-life history books.  Some go even further and dub him a poster child for culture war profiteering. 

Years later Randy, like me, joined the Roman Catholic Church.  He and I had discussed a Romeward journey a few times over the years.  Randy had even called me when he heard that I was joining the Church and attempted to talk me out of it –  to no avail.  I joined the Church in 1994 after reading Veritatis Splendor.  (I could do nothing else!)  Many years later Randy also “came home to Rome.”

I always wondered if one as self-directed as Randy could really become Catholic.  I believe that recent events  have answered that question.

Randy Terry recently  announced plans to enter into the diocese of Bishop John Darcy to protest Notre Dame’s regrettable decision to host President Barack Obama on campus.  (The visit and dialogue does not trouble me, it is the honorary law degree that violates their Catholic charter as I see it.) 

Randy’s bravado was met with a direct and immediate cease and desist order from the diocese of Fort Wayne- South Bend.  If Randy remains protestant then he is free to give such orders about as much consideration as he granted federal court orders protecting abortion clinics “back in the day.”   If Randy is truly Catholic, however, then such an order should give him pause.  Great pause.  As Saint Ignatius of Antioch taught (capturing the essence of the Church Fathers) Catholics give glory to God when they obey the local Bishop. 

This rule of obedience is robustly tested when we are asked to obey while we yet disagree with the local ordinary.  (See Father John Jenkin’s predicament as a fine example.)

If Randy gave Bishop D’Arcy’s injunction any pause at all it  was not evident in his recent column in the Journal Gazette.  Randy instead launched into this fine and honorable Bishop with the very same vitriol that has defined his bombardment of abortionists and abortion protecting judges.

It was both friendly fire and pure showmanship.  Randy proving himself the ringmaster of his own personal circus.

Bishop D’Arcy has, in the unyielding private judgment of Randy Terry, denied Christ and apostated from the truth once given.  (The good Bishop merely disagrees with Randy Terry on a tactical matter, something that many of Randy’s ex-friends did — but usually only once or twice.)

Randy’s invective reveals the shallowness of his Catholic conversion.  Turning Rome on its head, he accuses this direct agent of the fisherman of being a traitor to the faith, of being Peter before the cock crowed instead of Peter after the Holy Spirit’s indwelling.

Like the most rabid of cultists, Randall accuses Bishop John D’Arcy of denying Christ three times.

Mr. Terry finds great irony in the Bishop’s Good Friday rebuffing of Terry’s self-annointed strategy to turn the Notre Dame graduation into a so-called “circus.”  I find profound irony under other those big tops.  But not the same irony that Randall spotted.

Irony #1

I was in Wichita, standing against George Tiller’s unspeakable brutality and Judge Patrick Kelly’s statist injunction, when Randy stopped by just long enough to take up a few collections.  The priest (now Auxiliary Bishop) James Conley who received me into the Catholic Church years later witnessed Randy’s faith firstand.  When the federal judge ordered the Operation Rescue leaders arrested  Randy fled the city before sundown.  I know, I was there and I stayed, facing down the activist judge alone.   After 68 days of unconstitutional incarceration the judge relented and I was set free.

Such irony – Randy, who denied Christ by running from a federal “Pilate” in Wichita now finds in Bishop John D’Arcy’s well meaning call for prayers and student led dialogue a capitulation to “Pilate.”

Irony # 2

Randy Terry tried to make contact with me about two years ago.  The rumor mill reported that he was out of cash and looking to get back into the culture war profiteer business.  (Click here for more details on that profession.)  I took a call from a mutual friend who asked me to renew my relationship with Randy now that we were both “in the Church.”

I informed my friend that I would not make amends with Randy until I first heard from the woman that he divorced, Cindy.  Randy and Cindy stood together through thick and thin for many long years.  Cindy was my friend, and Randy “put her away”  after “falling in love” with the babysitter/secretary who aided he and Cindy during one of Randy’s numerous ill-fated political stints.  It was reported in the Christian press (World Magazine) that Randall Terry flat out abandoned Cindy and their minor children.

Randy did seek me out a year later.  He was unable to arrange the call from Cindy and so our relationship was not “rekindled.” 

Such irony – Randy, who denied Christ by turning “Judas” on the wife of his youth and his own adopted children now comes to South Bend to accuse Bishop John D’Arcy  of being a Judas  – despite Bishop D’Arcy having led (and is yet leading) the dissent against the president’s Notre Dame visit.

Irony #3

Finally we have the prolife potentate Randall Terry calling a Bishop of the Catholic Church into the confessional for failing to “follow biblical teaching” and for allegedly leading his flock into “the sins of omission and silence” and thus “abandoning Christ.”   

Did I already write  ”unmitigated gall?”

Such irony – Randy, who violates the heart of our Catholic teaching on humble obedience, has the audacity to allege that our good Bishop is in need of “conversion and restoration” simply because he disagrees with Randall Terry on how to best protest the president’s visit.  Randy’s remonstrating against the local ordinary  merely demonstrates that Mr. Terry’s own Catholic conversion was no more sincere than Peter’s pre-cock crowing denials. 

Or no more sincere than Father Guido Sarducci’s Roman collar.  (See hyperlink at the above picture of Randy attempting his best Joe Scheidler impression.)

It would appear that Randy did not join the Catholic Church to be a layman but rather joined up to be our first American pope.

I am pleased to note that we already have a German Shepherd in Rome far more genuine and thought out than Randy Terry can ever be.  And a fine Irishman here at home, to boot.

Randy’s telling protestations against Bishop D’Arcy bring to mind a practice of Roman soldiers at the birth of the Church.  It is said that many of them, upon being baptized, allowed all but their swords to be immersed.  Their hearts went to the Risen King, yes, but their swords remained ever loyal to Rome.  It would seem that Randy’s conversion to the Catholic faith was much the same.  His heart may claim some allegiance to Rome, but his pen remains loyal to only himself –  a culture war profiteer he remaineth still … and he doth protesteth too much as well.

Go home, Randy.  Notre Dame has a fine shepherd – one that does not shear the sheep for self aggrandizement or filthy lucre.   Go home, Randy –  and allow the local ordinary’s orders to bring a godly resolution to the Church’s problem at the University of Our Lady.   Go home, Randy –  your plan to turn this serious matter into a “circus” has done nothing but revealed you as a catholic (small c) , classless clown.

I strive to ever practice what I preach:  I will be home when President Barack Obama speaks at Notre Dame.  My family will be in prayer while Notre Dame dishonors its Catholic heritage by honoring the most pro-abortion president in our nation’s history with a law degree.  (St.Michael the ArchAngel , defend us in battle….)  By so praying we will be obedient  to the Bishop that God has given us, realizing, through faith,  that following the local ordinary is our very best strategy for a godly result in this troubling situation. 

I invite both Randy Terry and Father John Jenkins to join me in this faith-filled strategy.

Bryan Brown was formerly a leader with NorthEast Indiana Rescue and a former associate of Randy Terry.  Brown  left Fort Wayne in 1991 (as a protestant evangelical) after being sued by the local abortion clinic (under a subsequently discredited legal theory), and returned to Fort Wayne in 2007 (as a Roman Catholic) to establish the ArchAngel Institute in the building that previously housed the abortion clinic that had driven him from his homeland 17 years earlier.   He lives in Fort Wayne with the beautiful wife and five children that the Lord gave him after leaving Fort Wayne for Wichita, Kansas  in 1991. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Articles, Battles past. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.