Hi, my name is Jeff Miller ...

... and I am an Amateur Catholic in more ways than one. I am a YACC (Yet another Catholic Convert) and being a Catholic for just under seven years also makes me an amateur in the faith itself. Just another Catholic who upon finding St. Blogs decided to join in. Blogging for me was a way to express the faith given me by grace and to try to grow and expand Catholic muscles by writing about the faith or responding to new stories with Catholic eyes.

My first blog was Atheist to a Theist which evolved into my present blog The Curt Jester.

Being an amateur Catholic means that you enter blogging with zero name recognition and that you must work to get recognized by other blogs. You have to crawl your way up the TTLB Ecosystem from Insignificant Microbes on up. Over the almost four years I have been blogging there has been a steady increase of the number of Catholic bloggers fast approaching one thousand. The large majority of course are fellow Amateur Catholics. Hidden Catholics who you would likely have never been introduced to without blogging.

One thing I love about St. Blogs is that you are introduced to the expertise and abilities of so many people. You find that some of your same struggles are shared by others and they often get you to think more deeply on a subject. You also learn that no matter how much you have read on the faith how little you really really know. This in and of itself is a great thing to puncture my own ego as it dreadfully needs to be. Before coming into the Church I spent about two years reading everything I could get my hands onto concerning the faith. Including a steady diet of Catholic radio and television. I must admit that I was rather a showoff in RCIA always being the first to raise my arm to answer a question and wanting to act like one of the instructors. The Catholic faith is inexhaustible, but I am greatly thankful to all of the Amateur Catholics who taught me so much and will continue to teach me in the future.

This is not to begrudge Professional Catholics who have made their way into the Catholic blogosphere. They attained their status through their abilities in the first place. I owe my own entry into blogging because of discovering Mark Shea's blog. I do wonder how many of us Amateur Catholics would want to be a Professional Catholic? I have thought how cool it would be to work full time for the Church. Especially EWTN or Catholic Answers. Though I am sure they don't need an apologist that has to always say "I don't know let me go ask somebody else on the staff."

That being said with Amy Welborn gone to Rome it is time for us Amateur Catholics to stage a coup. The B-Team has hit town and we are taking over. I just hope there is room for one more "crazy fool"on the B-Team. I must admit to envy when Der Tommissar assigned my friend Rick to Murdock's place.