Tammy Peterson & The Rosary

Mar 22, 2024

Introduction

What is the purpose of miracles? Why does God move? Why are the results consistent, but the means by which they happen so different? Do miracles have any relationship to doctrine, or are they merely “graceful accidents”? What about the reality that our faith is based on the testimony of miracles, and not on the miracles we experienced ourselves?

Take Tammy Peterson’s most recent miraculous healing after learning to pray the Rosary, what are we to make of it? As a former protestant, I know what I would have said:

“Where’s that in the Bible?”

“Well what’s the other side of the story?”

“Just because she’s better now, doesn’t mean that she won’t die later.”

“She won’t stay Catholic. She’ll eventually leave for Protestantism.”

The problem with miracles is not that they happen. The problem with miracles is that if we grant them as true, then our whole worldview has to change.

Tammy Peterson’s Testimony

Tammy Peterson is the wife of famed author, psychologist, and dare I say, philosopher, Dr. Jordan Peterson. Those who have followed Dr. Jordan Peterson’s work know that the public knowledge of Tammy’s diagnosis and prognosis only came through tidbits of information at his speaking events and on his YouTube channel. The details were often very generalized and her outcome ambiguous. Other than these sorts of updates, Tammy was, for the most part, a woman who played a significant role in her husband’s success, but was mostly behind the scenes. Then she almost died.

Her doctor had discovered what appeared to be an easily treatable cancer, Renal Cell Carcinoma.1 She received word of her diagnosis while she was accompanying Dr. Peterson on his book tour. The doctor said there was no need to rush back for treatment and that she could do it after the tour. The surgery seemed to have gone well. Then one day, she felt a pain in her side. During her routine post-op visit, she would learn that this was no minor post-operative pain. It would be the first sign of a death sentence.

The doctor came in with a look on his face that Tammy described as “completely ashen.” The doctor was “…shaking and could barely get words out as he was speaking to me”, she recalls. The doctor informed her that she had a Bellini tumor on her kidney. In her own words she said, “It was a 100% terminal, 100% fatal.” Her doctor said “There is no treatment. We can only do surgery, and you only have about…10 months to live.”

I’ll highlight more details of her healing below, but in short, after learning to pray the Rosary she was miraculously healed, not just bodily, but spiritually.

Given that I began this Substack as a Protestant, I’m sure most of you will object to the veracity of this miracle as Jordan Peterson does, “It could have been the radiation…I mean we had really good surgeons.” The clip below should start at the 9 minute mark, which is when Tammy reveals how she was healed followed by Jordan’s rationalization of the event. Spoiler alert, he’s not swimming the Tiber yet.

How Then Should We Think?

Every time God moves, it is accompanied by a wide array of interpretations and denunciations. At first glance you may think I’m referring to the interpretations of individuals, but I’m not. I’m referring to the institutional and doctrinal interpretations of Catholic miracles vs Protestant miracles. As far as I know, there is no Protestant institution that would be able to affirm Tammy’s miracle without compromising some aspect of their Protestant identity.

If we consider individuals’ interpretations, they may interpret her healing as conferring only God’s love for her, nothing doctrinal. Some anti-Catholics may even argue that the miracle is a deception by the Devil to lead her into a false church. Others may take the side of her husband Jordan and say it was the radiation treatments and incredible doctors that are the simplest explanation. But the problem is that all of these all fail to take into account the whole miracle. Mainly that it is a Catholic Miracle, and not a Protestant one:

She is diagnosed with a cancer that has a 100% fatality rate.
She is given a Rosary from a devout Catholic friend and taught to pray the Rosary.
She is advised by a Catholic priest to pray a Novena for the sick.
She is healed miraculously, as she predicted, on her wedding anniversary.
She is the only known survivor of this form of cancer.
She joins the Roman Catholic Initiation for Adults (RCIA)
She is scheduled to join the Catholic church this Easter.

How should we interpret this? Would we believe her story if she walked into a Presbyterian or Southern Baptist Church with her Rosary and requested to become a member, after which she throws the Rosary into the trash as part of her membership requirement? No, because anyone who recognizes that God decides when he moves, how he moves, and how he leads someone, is leading Tammy to the Catholic Church. If you saw this happen to your spouse, could you stay in the denomination you’re currently in?

Doctrine and Miracles

These questions also highlight why a miracle like Tammy’s causes so much polarization between Catholics and Protestants. It affirms many truth claims of the Catholic Church, which if true, necessarily proves Protestantism false since their claims are more “negative” than they are “positive”. I’ll give an example.

Suppose two Christians are terminally sick, one Catholic and the other Protestant. Both of them are being prayed for faithfully. The Protestant prays to God for healing, and the Catholic priest administers holy oil for the Sacrament known as the Anointing of the Sick. Both are healed. The Protestant’s miracle affirmed that which the Catholics agree with, mainly that God exists, he loves us, and that he hears our prayers. But the Catholic miracle demonstrates not only God’s existence, but also a teaching of the Church: that God uses the sacraments, specifically the Sacrament for the Sick.

Neither Catholics nor Protestants can deny that either miracle has occurred. But if Protestants piecemeal the Catholic miracle by saying, “Well, it had nothing to do with the oil or the prayer the priest prayed.” They imply that God is deceiving this person to join the Catholic Church.

The purpose of miracles is shared by both Catholics and Protestants. Mainly, that they serve to confirm the doctrines of Christianity.

Miracles in the Bible are connected directly or indirectly with “truth claims,” meaning that there is a message in the miracle…A miracle is the sign that confirms the sermon; new revelation and divine confirmation go hand-in-hand (cf. John 3:2).
— Geisler, N. (2021). Systematic Theology. 39

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this,

The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask. So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father's works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God. But his miracles can also be occasions for "offence"; they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic. Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons.
— Catholic Church. (1995). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed.). Doubleday. par. 548.

For those that like scriptural references, Nicodemus visits Jesus and tells him that the reason he knows Jesus has “come from God” is because of the miracles/signs that Jesus is doing:

[Nicodemus] came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” — Jn. 3:2 (NIV).

In other words, miracles change or affirm your doctrinal commitments. For example, if you’re a cessationist (someone who believes miracles have ceased) and then you’re miraculously healed, you’re not going to remain a cessationist. Similarly, as we see in Tammy’s story, if you’re not a Catholic and then are healed after praying a Rosary, it would be surprising if you remained an atheist, agnostic, or a protestant.

The Church

What is the purpose of the Church? Some might say to love people, others might say to spread the Gospel, another might say to warn people of the coming judgment. But all of these answers beg the question doctrinally: What do you mean by love? What is the Gospel? What judgment are you talking about, and why should I listen to you?

These questions are all determined by doctrine, and doctrine is defined by an institution’s religious leaders, full stop. St. Peter says that Christians are not permitted to private interpretation. Regardless of which denomination you’re in, whether that be the SBC or the denomination of “Jesus, my Bible, and me”, you don’t define the doctrine your church teaches, you submit to it. When you no longer submit, you leave. For Catholics, they must wait for the doctrinal storms to pass and see God as faithful.

Tammy’s healing and its implications are obvious: that the Catholic Church might be what it claims to be: The one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church. In many ways, the Church mirrors C.S. Lewis’ trilemma: Christ is either a liar, a lunatic, or the savior. Similarly, the Catholic Church is either a liar, a lunatic, or where Christ is present, and thus salvation is found. This makes the miracle of Tammy Peterson very difficult for Protestant institutions, not persons, to parse.

Doctrines and miracles go hand-in-hand. If there is a Church out their that claims to be the one true Church, founded by Jesus, then it better have some miracles surrounding its claims. One example outside the Rosary is the Eucharistic miracles. This is called the “summit of the faith” in Catholicism, and these miracles testify to the claims of transubstantiation. These miracles occur when the bread miraculously becomes visible blood or heart tissue. Here is a website dedicated to them by the Diocese of Charleston.

What is the purpose of the Church? It is to be God’s representative on earth. It is a heavenly outpost that reflects the glory of the Son to pilgrims weakened by sin and despair. Its purpose is to nourish us on our pilgrimage with the body and blood of Christ, to reveal the nature of God, and the moral laws that signal man’s opportunity to cooperate with divine grace.

But how does one come to know this truth, that Christ did in fact establish a church, where he does nourish the believers with his body and blood, and that Mary is the mother to whom he entrusted them? God does it one miracle at a time.