ALPHA
Evidently Alpha was designed to evangelize the un-churched. Alpha was founded and started by Protestant Nicky Gumbel. And Gumbel has a charismatic agenda!
The balance of topics covered in Alpha aptly reveals what Alpha really is. A program that spends two pages on the “Communion Meal”, eight pages on “speaking in tongues”, and sixteen pages on “healing” cannot make claims about introducing people to basic Christianity. Alpha does not teach basic Christianity; Alpha promotes Charismatic Protestantism.
The differences (between Protestant and Catholic teaching) are "totally insignificant compared to the things that unite us...we need to UNITE around the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus; the absolute essential things at the core of the Christian faith on which we are all agreed. We need to give people liberty to disagree on the things which are secondary." (Session 13 White Alpha training manual pp 63-68 Video V Talk 14.)
NONSENSE!
the “totally insignificant things” and “the things which are secondary” that are banished from Alpha are:
Sacred Tradition,
Teaching authority of the Church,
The Holy Mother,
Catholic understanding of the Sacraments,
Mass is a sacrifice,
The Sacrament of Confirmation
The Sacrament of Penance,
The Anointing of the Sick,
Holy Orders,
Sacrament of Matrimony,
and so on.
"we make it a rule on Alpha never to criticize another denomination, another Christian church or a Christian leader." (Telling Others, p114). Hmm. Then why not send these people over to the Congregationalists?
ALPHA is supposed to be an introductory course on basic Christianity. When did tongues and healing become part of basic Christianity? Not to mention that basic Christian teaching does not have to include errors and ALPHA is full of errors! What fool builds his house on sand thinking I will reinforce the foundation later? Why teach people errors and hope the errors will somehow correct themselves once the convert is inside the church? It doesn’t work that way. Dissent is a widespread problem in the Catholic Church. What the ALPHA convert will do is bring the ALPHA heresies into the Church. Who will correct him? Would it not be simpler for people to start out the right way without having to unlearn errors? Are we teaching tongues to first graders? What is the use of introducing complex spiritual topics to people who wrestle with basic concepts about God? There are some glowing reports by some bishops how great ALPHA has been as an evangelizing tool. What do these bishops really want, filling the churches with Catholics in name only or having smaller churches with real converts? If we cannot get them without the ALPHA program, common sense would dictate to leave them where they are. That would be better for all concerned.
Alpha and the 'New Evangelisation'
