A mother's reaction to her's son conversion.
But wait there's more, much more... here's an excerpt but trust me when I tell you you're going to want to read the entire thing:
Stan and Crystal Galloway, both teachers in Sioux City, wondered if Ryan was going through a phase.
He had been obstinate before. Crystal wondered if it was the varied religions her son had been exposed to while studying overseas in college.
But Catholic? They were deeply disappointed. "He had chosen to go against something we raised him for," Stan Galloway said.
Crystal Galloway said she raised her children to know that heaven is for believers and it was important for her to see them there one day. Catholics, she said, believe you have to work your way there, performing certain rituals and good works to earn a grace they believe is freely given to all.
"To be burdened by so many rules and rituals," she said. "It's bondage."
Ryan responded with a deep history of the Reformation, the ways of Catholicism and the Bible. While his mother took notes to make her points, she recognized Ryan was quick on his theological feet.
"It's pointless to say works are not relevant," he would say later. "But they don't want to research this."
He would quote the Bible. From James 2:24, 26: "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only ..." He would tell them Protestants and Catholics have actually come to an agreement on justification in a joint declaration in the 1990s.
But it grew icy between them, even as Ryan and Anu settled into a life together and took jobs working for Des Moines developer and Iowa state legislator Jack Hatch. Even as they studied in Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes that would lead to joining the Catholic Church and to partaking in its sacraments of confession, communion and confirmation. Even as they became pregnant and took a 10-week class called Before and After the Birth to make sure they were as prepared as possible for parenthood.
Even as they filled the baby's room with a crib, rocking chair, two dressers, a floor carpet, lamp, Pack 'n Play, changing pillow, 40 washable diapers, clothes, bottles, bibs, baby monitor, stroller, baby books, toys and a bag full of all the items they needed to bring to the hospital when labor struck.
Even as Ryan made her breakfast in bed, their love for each other growing.
Anu loved Ryan for the way he was interested in life and could talk about not only the Reformation but diets or their standard pillow talk — urban revitalization. Ryan loved that she came from a family with high social standing in India yet befriended the poor of Des Moines.
They loved each other for what was growing inside, their son Ezra, "the product of our love," Ryan said.
Yet the anti-Catholic literature continued to arrive in the mail from Ryan's parents.
Stop what you're doing, read it all... there's much more about Ezra, more that will grab your heart, twist it until it hurts, only to heal it in the end.
Read it.
Pass it on.
It's worthy.
