MP3 length: 51 mins 51secs
Download: http://siministries.org/Podcast/TheConversionofJosephPearce
Joseph Pearce – Conversion testimony – ‘A sound bigot cannot be too careful of his reading’
In his account of his journey from far right and Protestant extremism to Catholicism and Literature Professor at Ave Maria University, Joseph Pearce adapts CS Lewis’ words in Surprised by Joy: ‘A sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. Pearce expands that comment to include a racist, Protestant bigot, ‘and all the things that I was’. Lewis was referring to Chesterton – who had the same profound influence on Pearce.
He describes his childhood heroes of 60s and 70s Dagenham as ‘Nazi hippies’ – thugs who beat up coloured people while high on LSD.
Role models like these led his joining the National Front – which I was surprised to see described by Wikipedia as still a separate organisation, having assumed that it had evolved into the BNP years ago.
Pearce served two terms of imprisonment in the following years for publishing ‘material likely to incite racial hatred’ as editor of NF’s Bulldog magazine – having been appointed to the post at the age of 16. He remained defiant during his first sentence, and on release went immediately back to the magazine.
During his second prison term, he was slowly coming to Catholicism through his love of reading – the vehicle being G K Chesterton’s Distributist ideas as an alternative to global capitalism and Marxism, which are described in GKC’s article ‘Reflections on a Rotten Apple’.
Pearce came to like Chesterton himself, and so was especially receptive to the latter’s defence of Catholicism. Someone sent him a Rosary during his second prison sentence in 1985 and, although Pearce had yet to learn the Credo, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be, he was consumed by a desire to pray. He was finally received into the Church on St Joseph’s Day 1989 after ‘ a lot of inner healing.’
Although I would have liked to hear about his early life before the age of 14, this is an inspiring story of how God’s grace can triumph over a most unlikely defences.
