I don’t know why I am deciding to post this, but I feeling God is calling me to share this with you. My home is not exactly the ideal Catholic home. You maybe say but what home really is? Sometimes I feel so alone, because unlike others in my home, my faith an integral part of my life. Sunday is not sunday without going to mass. I need to go to confess at least once a month. I enjoy Eucharistic adoration. These are not things I can really enjoy with my family. I knew giving my life to Christ would make me feel like an outcast with my friends, but it is my family who makes me feel like an outcast. My father would prefer that I was chasing women and have sex like he thinks every other boy my age is. My mother and sister think I am obsessed. I love my family so much and I wish we all had the same intensity when it came to our faith. I wish we could do things like go to mass together or pray a family rosary.

Last week, my dad busted into my room while I was praying a rosary. He looked at me and quickly left. The next day he came up to me pretty concerned and said to me “Why were you praying a rosary?” I looked at him with anger but quickly held back because he obviously didn’t know what he was saying. “Are you keeping some kind of novena?”, he asked me. “You are nineteen years and all you do is lock yourself in the room pray and read the Bible.” He continued to rant. “How come you can’t be like everyone else. How come you are not chasing girls, like others boys your age.” “I am religious”, he said. “I am religious to a degree. I go to church sometimes. I even have a devotion to the angels and saints.” He continued to talk but I slowly drifted off. How could he talking about the love he has for the saints in heaven, when he doesn’t even appreciate the saints in his home. I am not being proud, I don’t deserve to describe myself as a saint, because I am far from holy. I am trying though.

After he left, I took a deep breathe. I felt the tears coming, but I sucked them up. Then I remembered Luke 4:24 “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” Why should I cry, If I am truly living the gospel, I will be rejected. Then I remembered this verse. “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law (Luke 12:49-53).” WHOA!! Look my life reflected scripture. That gave me so much peace. I was doing the right thing.

Please pray for me and my family! Send me some feedback if you are going through something similar. Let us support each other.

St. Eustace, Patron Invoked in Times of Family Troubles, pray for us

First off, this is more of my own thoughts. I don’t have the answers here, but I thought my reflection might be worth posting.

Today I found out a good friend of mine from college is engaged! I am so happy for her!

Emily is one of the more remarkable women I’ve ever met. She was a girl on campus who when you’d talk to about her to other people you’d say “She’s the one that looks like our Blessed Mother” even though she’s tall, blond and pale. It was the way she held herself, her loving gaze. She lived out so many virtues that I long to live out. I tend to feel like I’m blundering my way through, and at times coming across as cold and blunt. But Emily has such a graceful smile. She looked at you with love. It was so simple.

In other ways, we were very much alike. While I would have never guessed it up her, in my private conversations with her, I discovered that we both cared way too much about what other people thought of us. We were prone to perfectionism and shyness. In some ways, Emily seemed to express to me that she felt she was hiding behind her shy pleasantness. We both had so many similar fears and I remember being completely astonished when she expressed that she admired me as well, this bumbling sister who could never get up in time to go to Thursday morning household Mass.

Admittedly, I reacted to the news of her engagement first with excitement and then with a twinge of jealousy. How come she’s found a husband? Emily was the one who was going to join a Carmelite convent in CA where her older sister is. Granted she left school before graduation to join early and then surprised us all by returning. The vocations director had recommended that she first finish school. She graduated and moved back home instead of the convent and sad to say I haven’t kept much in touch since.

Meanwhile, I found out that another household sister of mine, Katie, is entering her noviciate in the CFRs. My first semester at FUS, Katie lived next door to me. After asking a bunch of my friends about possible rides to the airport for getting home for springbreak, I found out Katie was on the same flight as I was. That summer we both ended up walking Crossroads, a pro life walk across the country, though we were on separate teams.

When I met her, she seemed primarily focused on marriage. She visited convents and was going through a process of discernment, but she always came across to me that her preference was to be married. Once we were in household together, I would say we never really got that close. She shared a few things with us about her discernment process. I knew bits here and there, and I do remember her dating a guy and being frustrated that she lacked peace with her. She longed to be closer to God and felt like the guy was more of a distraction.

In her testimony on the CFR website, she writes: “I transferred out to Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH in 2000 and pursued a degree in nursing. It was during my first year that I began to feel “the call.” Questions about motherhood, marriage, missionary and religious life started to arise in my heart. I started to visit religious sisters around Steubenville (now that I finally met Sisters!), but my heart was still closed to hear all God wanted to say… I was too afraid! I just wanted to get the “discernment” over with so I could move on with my life. “God, what do You want? What is Your will for me? You know best, so, all that needs to happen is for You to tell me and then let’s move on!” I’d say. The only reply I’d get to that was, “Katie, what do you want?” And so, this dialogue went on for a few years… but little did I know that Jesus was stripping me of my false perceptions of marriage, religious life and ultimately myself, so that I could come to know my heart of hearts.

After four years of intensely struggling with the fear of being called to religious life… after almost being engaged and running to every other outlet to escape my inner restlessness… I finally gave up the fight. I was asked to join a friend to visit the CFR sisters and agreed to go only on the basis to see New York City after the retreat… But, during this three-day “Come & See,” God outpoured His graces and revealed to my heart His Truth… He has been calling me to be His alone!”

When I was reading her discernment I felt a little like it was talking about me. The whole fear of being called. The stubbernness of wanting to tell God “Don’t call me.” I may want longingly to ultimately be with Jesus, my beloved. I may want to pass on the faith, pray for people, live a truly devout life and have my butt kicked with discipline. But as soon as I start seriously thinking about it, I …even now I start crying. It used to be before that the desire to have my own children to raise. Not other people’s children to teach but children to teach and raise in the faith from infants to adulthood. Now its no longer just children. Its the idea of a husband. I want one so badly, so strongly. I’ve been dreaming of my wedding since I was 4.

I know I can’t force God to give it to me. I’ve been in one relationship my entire life. The men I have been interested in have never pursued me. I’ve been praying for a more placent heart and I feel it is more content than its ever been in my life. But I still want to dream of marrying, of it being someday. Having that hope that someday God will give me the a wonderful husband and children.

If I die without Him giving it to me, than I know I will have my Lord in Heaven. Everything that appeals to me about religious life, can I not have it in marriage? Can I not grow closer and closer to God? Can I not volunteer at my parish and pray for people’s spiritual journey? Can I not go to daily Mass and pray the liturgy of the hours? Can I not go on spiritual retreats?

It seems the only thing that makes religious life appealing to me at all is that I’d rather be a religious than a single person forever. I feel like the vocation of a single person is like working for a temp agency.

Yet if God is calling me to religious life, and I’m stubbernly saying no, will he keep me in this temp field forever till I finally give in and so “All right. Religious Order it is.”

God, if you want me to join a Religious Order, than there has to be some desire for it in my heart besides simply the fear of being alone and single.

I know I shouldn’t be closed to religious life. And I’ve been told that you can’t properly discern when you feel under pressure. When I ask God in prayer, “Are you going to give me a spouse?” I get no response, or just a sort of nudge telling me not to look so far ahead, not to be anxious, not to worry, to focus on how I’m to serve Him now and to work for Him in the present.

So off to my temp assignment (which I feel like the single life primarily is. The freedom of having short lived temporary assignments by God). If He wants me to be a religious, He needs to make me restless on my path…a restlessness that finds peace in religious life. The only type of restlessness I have now is the anxiousness and fear that I will never been married.

“So… It’s “immoral” for Catholics to use condoms? Wow. You guys are taking this abortion thing a little too far now. I get not wanting to kill a fetus. But to stop a person from using protection and taking away their option to abort is just horrendous. ”

First off, I would separate the abortion issue from the contraceptive issue. Abortion is murder. Its the exact same thing as infanticide, only the child is a bit younger and its easier to pretend that the human life does not exist. The fact that it is killing a human being puts this issue beyond mere morality. It is a grave and serious injustice for any state or society to condone the killing of innocent human life.

It’s common sense. Granted, we’d all like to pretend that its a gray issue, but to pretend it is gray is to make the claim against human equality. It is to say that the value of a human is determined in ratio to either a person’s ability to suffer as Peter Sanger argues (in which case Sanger’s argument for legal infanticide would be reasonable), or in their mental capacities, thus the most intelligent person in the world would be more entitled to things than the average person and especially those who are developmentally disabled. In which case, we’d be arguing against the very principle of human rights, for the concept of rights is based on equality.

Abortion is intolerable.

Contraceptives is a moral issue. Now, I do know Catholics who bring the contraceptive issue into it. For they do understand that people’s perception that they have somehow a right to abortion stems from their perception that their fertility and their sexuality are separate. I will agree, that a society that has a Catholic viewpoint toward their sexuality would be one that would be less prone to condoning or partaking in abortions. But I do feel that we lose the case against abortion by confusing the contraceptive issue into it. The Church’s stance on sexual ethics has even a stronger basis on truly Christian ideas which at least I think can only come to acceptance through a true conversion of one’s heart, not through civil force.

I will not get into all the specifics of the Catholic view on sexuality, but in brief the Church teaches that “Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.” (CCC 2351) This does not mean we have to have 40 children. What this does mean is that we cannot engage in sexual acts when prudence demands that we space or limit how many children we have. We will tend to have larger families because prudence does not always demand that we have only 1.2 children.

The Church advocates Natural Family Planning to achieve the spacing or limiting of children. This works by monitoring the woman’s fertility signals and periodically abstaining when the woman is most fertile. To give those skeptical people the benefit of the doubt, the lowest statistic I’ve found on modern methods of fertility awareness showed its user effectiveness as comparable to non-hormonal contraceptive devices.

But then you might ask, what’s the difference? You’re still having sex when you’re infertile. Isn’t that having sex while you’re closing yourself off to children? Here’s the catch. We still cannot engage in any sexual act while closed in our hearts to children. Thus if prudence demands that we try to limit our children and regardless we still become pregnant, we are to accept the child with open arms. We aren’t to be grudge bearing. We aren’t to look at the child as unwanted or unwelcomed. Contraceptives aren’t sinful because having sex when you’re infertile is sinful. Contraceptives are sinful because they change the nature of the sexual act and even treat our bodies as if our fertility were a disease. Our only motivation to do this would be motivated out of our desire to engage in sex for pleasure only.

A couple can still sin while using Natural Family Planning, but NFP tends to do one of two thing to a couple. If they hold onto their contraceptive mentality, they will never be happy with NFP and will likely give up and resort to contraceptives. The only way to be happy with NFP is to learn to open your heart to more children. Thus you choose to limit your children only when prudence truly demands it, not simply because you are seeking after worldly things.

Its a hard teaching. Thus I would never impose it through the state. But I see its wisdom, and think its much better than what the world has to offer us.

A couple years ago I was in DC at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. I was there for the March for Life, but had some spare time and decide to walk along many of the side chapels. The great thing about the building is that each chapel is dedicated to different areas and countries of the world and in these side chapels you will find famous images of the Madonna and Child (that is Mary and Jesus, not the pop singer) that come from that area of the world. You walk around and get to see Mary and Jesus portrayed in every nationality there is, showing how each culture personally identifies Jesus with them and depict him as coming from their own culture and race. There’s even Japanese Mary and Jesus.

For me, this really shows the universality of the Church and how Jesus transcends cultures and nationalities. Yet when walking across the very head of the shrine is the large image of “Christ in Majesty.”(shown above) As I was nearing it, I overheard a couple of young people scrutinizes it for the fact that Jesus was portrayed with blonde hair and blue eyes. They began talking about how terrible it was that the Church “always” portrays Jesus as a white man. “How racist!”

First off, I don’t know about him always being portrayed as blonde hair, blue eyed. I’ve always been used to seeing Jesus with brown hair. But that’s besides the point. What I really must ask is why on earth does it matter? Would we be just as offended if we stepped foot inside a chapel in Japan and saw Jesus portrayed as an Asian man? Do we somehow think we can understand Him better if we somehow get an authentic picture of what his skin, hair and eye color were? How about knowing whether or not he had straight or crooked teeth? Most pictures I’ve seen he’s got perfect gum health, and 21st century dental health. Shall we take his height into consideration and argue that “No that Jesus is an inch taller than the average man of his location and time period.”

This really isn’t something to have our faith shaken over.

BTW, sorry I haven’t posted on here in awhile. I keep posting on my myspace blog, but its such informal stuff I really haven’t found it appropriate for this blog.

 
Some months ago I responded to forum post about waiting for marriage.  The woman I responded to emailed me back thanking me for being so upfront with her and for reaffirming her commitment to wait which she had been questioning, but I didn’t think much of it beyond that.  Then today I got an email from a random person who just recently came across my entry and emailed to ask if she could send it to her friend.  Now, I would have had no problem with her sending it to her friend without my permission.  Its a public forum.  But, as I’ve been short of time for writing the listener blog, I thought if I got two emails from people it really helped than perhaps reposting it on the blog may help benefit even more.  So here’s my response to "Sex now or later?"
 

Original poster:  I found that there isnt anywhere in the bible that explicitly
says not to have sex before marriage. Unfortunately, the Bible does not
come out and directly say, "Premarital sex is wrong,"

 
Yes it does. Its called fornication.

"Do you not know that
the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived;
neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes
nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor
slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor 6:9-10

"Now
to the unmarried and to widows, I say: it is a good thing for them to
remain as they are, as I do, but if they cannot exercise self-control
they should marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire." 1 Cor
7:8-9

Original poster: However, there are many instances in the Old Testament where God
not only allows the act but also encourages it. King David, who is
praised countless times in the Bible by God, is said to have had
countless wives. Abraham had sex with at least four concubines and
married his sister, something strictly prohibited in Ezekiel and
Leviticus. Jacob had sex on his wedding night with a different woman,
yet still remained in good standing with God. Solomon would have been
divorced over 700 times, while Boaz had sexual relations with Ruth, and
then he decided to wed her.

Encourages it? Nope. King David is never praised by God for having
many wives. He’s definitely not told by God to take more than one wife.
Abraham was not under the Levetical law as that was before his
lifetime. You need to look at the pattern of these stories to get the
fact that while these people are called righteous, God is not
considering them holy or living perfect lives. Moreover, as evidenced
by the new testement, God often gave consentury laws to help prepare
the people for the ultimate truth.

Christ is asked about his
teaching on divorce and is it is argued against him that under the law
of Mosses, a man could divorce his wife. Christ takes us back to the
beginning of genesis and tells us "In the beginning, it was not so."
and that only because of the hardness of their hearts was divorced
permitted.

What does this mean? That at the time period, it is
likely that the people were so corrupt in heart that had he said "you
shall not divorce your wives and be free to marry another." they would
have resorted to murdering their spouses in order to get out of
marriages they were unhappy with.

Remember we are in a new
covenant. Everything that came before was to prepare a people and even
though they are called righteous, the gates of Heaven were closed to
them and only opened to them because of Christ’s sacrifice on the
cross.

Original Poster:   Nowhere does it call men and women to "wait until marriage," a secular ceremony in the Bible.

 
Marriage isn’t a ceremony. A wedding is a ceremony. Moreover the
bible does not present it as a secular event, but as a God ordained
event, but it is easy to miss the fact that when the woman in genesis
is presented to the man and he says "bone of my bone and flesh of my
flesh" that God the Father is acting as the Father of the bride,
presenting Adam with his bride and Adam is giving his consent to the
marriage and thus validating the marriage. It is God ordained. That is
where the institution of marriage is first referenced to in the bible,
as why else would she then keep being referred to as the man’s wife?

Again, when Jesus is asked about divorce, he references that passage. See Mt 19:4

 Original Poster:  So basically, you cant have sex until you get married, and when you get married you have sex to have babies.

Word clarification: Open to having children. Not necessarily
actively seeking to have children, not coveting children, not saying "I
better get pregnant this time."

But this is the entire
Christian attitude with all things in life. It is about dying to self.
"Not my will, but [God's] be done." It is to place our entire lives
into God’s hands and submit to the things he places in our lives.

You
don’t earn Heaven by not sinning. God’s not placing a rule book on life
as "here’s all the things you can’t do and if you don’t do them, than
I’ll let you in." No, rather He’s saying "Give me all of yourself. Give
up everything you want in this life and seek after just me, for I am
love. I love you more than you are even capable of loving, but if you
give yourself to me, I will teach you and give you the ability to love
as I love. Then you will be like me and be able to particpate in the
Divine Life. You shall inherit eternal life and shall be with me
eternally in Heaven."

When we sin, we fail to love as He loves.

Original Poster:  Well I dont want to have kids so my marriage technically wouldnt be fully accepted by the church.

 If you married with a completely closed heart to children, you may not
be entering into a valid marriage because essentially you are not
giving your consent to enter into a marriage.

By the way, please don’t take what I said as criticism. I just
always got frustrated when people would tell me "Just accept it"
without explaining it. I think its absolutely wonderful that God is
calling us to such greatness, to such a deep love.

So much we
get caught up in the idea that our value is determined by the sum of
our accomplishments and failures. I’m still a good person, right? I’m
must be and then I’m ok. You are a good person. We all are. That’s not
the point. The point is that we’re all blind to seeing our own innate
values and the innate values of others. We end up going after lesser
goods, rather than the greatest goods of all and we fear self sacrifice
and fear God abandoning us.

God knows what you need. He knows what’s good for you and He longs to give you the best He has for you.

"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides." mt 6:33

Back in high school, my response was obedience with
disagreement.  In all honesty I felt that
for now our culture wasn’t ready for women priests but that eventually when the
time was right.  Other people thought the
time was now, but I disagreed.  It was
far too important to be able to reach everyone and if anyone would look at a
woman priest and not take her seriously, it held far more damage than if she
were President of a company and had someone uncomfortable with her.

I honestly don’t remember when my opinion changed, and at
times I flounder to articulate what I know now. 
What I can say is that my conclusion was based on two premises:  1. Christ knew society wasn’t ready for women
to be religious leaders, but later it would be ok and 2.  to argue that women couldn’t be priests would
necessitate that they lacked somehow in skills and talents needed for the
priesthood.

So often we just get insulted by the Church for her refusal
to ordain women.  Obviously there’s a
shortage of men entering the priesthood, and I know many people with the
impression that women already tend to be ahead of the men spiritually.  I know at my parish, our youth ministry
program is filled predominately with young girls.  At many parishes there are more female altar
servers than altar boys.  More women
volunteer their time in parish ministries than men.   I’ve even been told a number of times that
if I ever want to marry, I have to lower my standards.  I shouldn’t expect to meet a man who will
inspire me in my faith and be a true spiritual leader.  I should simply be satisfied that the man has
an interest in God at all and will go to Mass if I ask him to.  All and all, wouldn’t there be more women
even more qualified to be good priests than men?

As we approach the last week of Lent, I think anyone
confused about the Church’s teaching on this issue should pay close attention
to what happens in the passion accounts.  
Who stayed with Jesus through His suffering and who in that moment of
trial abandoned him?  If we truly belong
to a historically chauvinistic Church, than I ask why do all the gospel
accounts show us that all of Christ’s apostles except for St.
John fled while the women stayed by his side?  We also find that the Resurrection is
discovered by women.  Moreover, how can
we possibly say that our Church is chauvinistic considering the status of our
Blessed Mother Mary, the great amount of canonized women and the fact that we
have women saints that have been declared doctors of the Church?

To think that Jesus was diluting the faith down because
humanity wasn’t ready for female leaders seems completely opposed to how he
conducted the rest of His ministry.  Why
would he have hesitation on giving women such a role?  And if the men were simply trying to
overthrow women from leadership positions in the early Church, why would the
accounts of Christ’s death and resurrection so highlight the women’s
faithfulness and be so honest about the Apostle’s failures?

Obviously, Christ had to see women’s remarkable faith, and
yet he chose men.  Rather than arguing with the Church, we need to see what there is to learn from the Church’s teaching on this and what’s actually behind it rather than what we presume is behind it.

 For a great article on the role of women click here 

Recently, I took a trip to another world, an underground world where the light was dim and the music was mystical. A land where people looked with piety, at what seemed to be merely bread but they all knew it was flesh. They also sang songs praising the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I saw men with thick beards, long gray robes and sandals. There were women who dressed in grey robes and wore veils. I also got a chance to listen to beautiful sounds of young Catholic musicians. Where is this underground world you might ask? It may be in your backyard.

This mini pilgrimage is called Catholic Underground and they are popping up all over the place. I had the pleasure of attending the one in New York City, which is run by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. There is a Catholic Underground that just started in Philadelphia and Allentown, Pennsylvania. There is also one in Texas.

The night starts off with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the universal prayer of the Church, the vespers. Praise and worship music is played as the Church is darkened and the only thing left illuminated is the monstrance. It is an awesome sight. Some friars are also hearing confessions. After the Benediction, the second half of the night starts. The basement of the church becomes one Catholic party. There are also showcases from different Catholic musicians, poets, filmmakers, and dancers. After the showcase, the night ends with evening prayer.

If you are interested going you can find information at:

www.catholicunderground.net

www.catholicundergroundtexas.com

Check out the video:

Whenever something doesn’t exactly go my way, I usually look up to the heavens and say "I know you are in charge, this must be happening for a reason." It is so easy to say that about the little things, like missing your exit on the highway or losing five bucks, but what about the big things. What about the cataclysmic events in our lives? The events that change our lives forever? For instance, why did I get hit by a car in the tenth grade or why did she have to pass away? What are the purposes of these events, big or small? I personally always look for God’s hand in these situations. In these situations, I always believe that whatever is happening, must be happening for some greater good. If I missed my exit, it must be because my guardian angel must be protecting me for some accident or I maybe I might get lost and discover something new that I never knew was there before. The possibilities could be quite endless. The reason I am posing these questions is because I had a very weird day and I just want some answers behind all the madness.

Everything was fine this morning, I woke up, said my morning prayers, brushed my teeth and so on. When it came time for me to open my car door, something utterly strange happened, the ALARM went off. My used 1997 Toyota Camry doesn’t have an alarm, or should I say when the car was sold to me last May, the alarm was shut off. My mind couldn’t process all of this. How could this happen? What was going on? Why today, I have an exam in 30 minutes. Did I touch the wrong car? Nope. This was my car with the St. Anthony medal hanging from the rear-view mirror. I quickly called my dad on my Nextel, he simply told me to wait it out and look for some exposed wires at the bottom of the steering wheel near the pedals. I looked in that direction and I saw, a whole bunch wires, some red, some blue and some green. They were all tangled up and resembled some type of rainbow spaghetti. He told me to simply give them a tug and play with the key in the ignition, so I did. I did for about 20 minutes and finally the alarm stopped ringing. I quickly got into my car and went to school. I was about 40 minutes late. Funny thing though, my exam was canceled.

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While some sources are referring to "The Lost Tomb
of Jesus" as the work of director James Cameron, it is actually the work a
man named Simcha Jacobovici. 
Cameron co-produced the piece and as he has a more well-known name, the
news knows it will draw in more readers. 

However, when I first found out about the program that
aired this past Sunday, it was not the first time I had heard of Mr.
Jacobovici.  Just this past August, I had
heard him on a Catholic radio station promoting another documentary he made called
"The Exodus Decoded." The program was being promoted on the show
because it held a favorable position toward the Exodus, mainly that it is
plausable that it occurred and that, according to Jacobovici, there was
evidence of it.

I watched the program and enjoyed it.   And while it was criticized by scholars, a
lot of us who watched it went away pretty convinced that Jacobovici’s
hypothesis was compelling enough for us to take seriously.  Then
this past Monday came and Jacobovici informed the press of his new discovery.  He and his crew had found what he touted to
be the lost tomb of Jesus.  If it were,
it defied the belief in Jesus’ physical ascension into Heaven, as it contained
an ossuary (or bone box) labeled "Jesus son of Joseph." 

 And, as I had placed
some faith in his authority in his previous program, I was torn.  I was caught up in reanalyzing how I had gone
into watching the previous program and how I was going into this one.  As non believers on the Discovery Channel’s
forum touted that Christians were ready to embrace anything that affirmed their
beliefs and bury their heads in the sand at the things that opposed them, I
felt a certain element of truth. 
Granted, I also found myself aware of the same thing occuring among the
non-believers.  I had known that the most
critical audience of "The Exodus Decoded" had been the non-believers,
and now even before the show had aired, the forum was filled with non believers
spouting about how science had proven Christians wrong. 

Watching the program
on Sunday didn’t shake my faith.  But it
did overwhelm me.

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