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Autobiography of a Campaigner for Christ
Roman Catholic Booksby David Goldstein
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This "20th-century St. Paul" brought thousands (many of them fellow-Jews) to the Faith. Now, his captivating autobiography is back, full of practical tips on spreading, and defending, Catholicism.
The name David Goldstein means nothing to today’s Catholics, but back in the 1920s and '30s he was a sensation. A Socialist who had become a Catholic, he achieved nationwide prominence as an apologist, traveling across America defending the Faith. At the height of his fame, he published his autobiography -- hailed by the Catholic journal, The Sign, as ... “more than a story of personal achievement ... a textbook for those interested in practical apologetics. The human interest stories, the exciting debates, the changing scenes of activity, and the knowledge of psychology of crowds which Mr. Goldstein commands, enliven the tale into an absorbing story.”
His story, in capsule:
Goldstein’s family came to America from England when he was one year old, eventually settling in Boston. His parents were Jewish but unobservant, attending synagogue only “for the children's sake."
As a young man, Goldstein got a job in Mason's Cigar Factory, joining the Cigar Makers International Union No. 97. It was there that he first encountered socialists. “They seemed to know what they were talking about ... [they] continually read papers and books ... from which they gleaned data and arguments, often largely destructive, with which they easily silenced and at times overwhelmed their shopmates." He joined their cause, rising quickly through their ranks until he became prominent in Boston Socialist circles.
But his faith in socialism foundered when he read Frederick Engels' assertions about the family -- such as: "With the transformation of the means of production into collective property, the monogamous family ceases to be the economic unit of society. The private household becoms a social industry. Care and education of the children becomes a public matter.”
Appalled, Goldstein concluded that socialism was a false god. He resigned from the party, became an influential anti-Socialist -- and became open to the idea of the true God.
He first started looking for God by examining Judaism. But its claims failed to satisfy his intellect because of two serious flaws:
(1) Their own scriptures predicted a Messiah, yet they rejected the one man who seemed to fulfill all the prophecies; and
(2) a very small percentage of Jews were Orthodox, meaning most Jews didn't believe in Judaism either.
Then Goldstein examined Protestantism -- rejecting it, too, because its countless churches did not date back to the apostles or agree on a common creed.
His favorable introduction to Catholicism came from Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum novarum. He came to see the Catholic Church as the true champion of the worker and as the enemy of divorce. His examination of the Church's claim to be the one true church concluded with his reception into the Church.
Having learned the art of proselytizing from the Socialists, Goldstein proceeded to proselytize for the Catholic Church. At the request of then Archbishop William O'Connell in 1911, Mr. Goldstein started giving public lectures against socialism, which became extremely popular. Soon he was traveling state to state, debating any and all comers. Many socialists were brought into, or back into, the Church by Goldstein. Goldstein also recounts his encounters with Christian Socialists, refuting their attempts to show that Christianity and Socialism are compatible.
Goldstein talks about the difficulties of being a Jewish convert. He refutes the contention of many liberal Jews that one can be a racial Jew: Judaism is a religion, he maintains, and only an Orthodox Jew is really a Jew.
Yet the greatest hostility Mr. Goldstein encountered was not from Orthodox Jews, but from the non-believing Jews. Mr. Goldstein's plea to Orthodox Jews is for them to come into the Catholic Church, which is the fulfillment of Judaism.
At the request of the Church authorities, Goldstein quit his job as a cigar maker and became a full-time "campaigner for Christ.” Like Frank Sheed in England, Goldstein became an expert in "street-corner apologetics". He traveled throughout the U.S. debating Protestants, atheists, birth controllers, socialists, pacifists, Ku Klux Klanners, and lapsed Catholics.
The most amazing thing about his travels is that the local Catholic bishops not only gave him approval to come into their dioceses, they sometimes even joined him on the platform. (Can you picture that happening today?)
Sound Catholic answers to TOUGH questions on:
Academic Freedom * Agnosticism * Anarchists * Atheism * St. Bartholemew Day Massacre * The Bible * Birth Control * Blessed Virgin Mary * Bolshevists * Capitalism * Capital Punishment * “Catholic Socialists” * Certitude * Church (Protestant vs. Catholic concept) * Class Struggle * Commandments * Communist Manifesto * Competition * Confession * Conscience * Cooperation * Creed * Darwin * Determinism * Divorce * Evolution * Euthanasia * Family * Free Speech * Free Will * Galileo * God * Henry VIII * Hell * Heresy * Immaculate Conception * The Inquisition * Jews and Catholics * Jews and Judaism * Ku Klux Klan * Leo XIII * Materialist Conception of History * Natural Rights * Pantheism * Pacifism * Patriotism * Popes and the Papacy * Poverty * Protestants and Protestantism * Priests and the Priesthood * Private Property * Private Interpetation * Prohibition * Protestantism * Public Ownership * Seventh Day Adventists * Socialists and Socialism * Soviet Russia * Stalin * The State * Sterilization * Talmud * Unions * Unitarianism * War
“The record of the dramatic conflicts between Goldstein and his Socialist opponents is absorbing, and the details of his many successful encounters with the disciples of Marx furnish information that any Catholic speaker should be glad to have available. ... The tale of this man’s career is the tale of thirty years of brilliant battling for the Faith with little or no concern for material reward. The converts he has started on their way into the Church are many. That is his great achievement. But next to that let us put the silencing of those persons who held that the layman could not, with propriety, seek out the crowd and clear up its misconception of things Catholic. Goldstein has proved that that can be done effectively, gracefully, with true Christian dignity, not only in localities where the Church is known and understood, but where it is not known and almost always thoroughly misunderstood.” -- America (1936)
“Proves to the hilt the contention of Father Hecker that the non-Catholics of the United States are ever ready to give the Catholic Church a hearing, if her message is presented to them with intelligence, courtesy, tact and untiring zeal.” -- The Catholic World
BONUS SECTION: 43 pages of questions Mr. Goldstein was asked -- with his answers
Hardcover
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