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  Day 1: Spiritual or Religious? CHALLENGE: I consider myself spiritual rather than religious. Why isn’t that enough? DEFENSE: Because God loves you and wants even better things for you. When people say they are spiritual rather than religious, they frequently mean that, although they don’t practice a specific religion, they recognize there is more to the world than matter, that it has a spiritual dimension. This is good! But it doesn’t go very far. Wouldn’t it be …

  How a Popular Mis-Quotation Made it Into the Catechism In the sixteenth century, St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. Supporters and critics alike have called them “God’s Marines” in recognition of their founder’s military background and their willingness to be deployed around the world in service of the Church. The Jesuits’ founding document is even addressed to “Whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God beneath the …

The history of Christianity is one of debate. As the Gospels reveal, Jesus was challenged right from the start. Rival schools like the Pharisees and Sadducees posed pointed questions to him, trying to trap him in his words and even to get him in trouble with the authorities. Some of Jesus’ most famous statements were responses to challenges from his critics: “What God has joined together, let man not put asunder.” “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” &ld …

Leading your Protestant friends into the Catholic Church can seem like a hopeless task. Your friend may seem too far away, too biased against Catholicism, or even too apathetic. I would have loved to have had Jimmy Akin as my wingman in discussions with Protestants about Catholicism more times than I can count, but he is usually busy and, last I checked, hadn’t mastered the art of bilocation. I was sitting at lunch one day with friends: one Catholic, two Protestants, and we were having a …

In his groundbreaking Pro-Life book, Persuasive Pro-Life, Apologist Trent Horn teaches pro-life ambassadors to follow these five ambassador rules when they engage in conversations on not just abortion but any controversial topic: Don’t be weird. Make your evidence bulletproof. Use questions instead of statements. Actually listen. Agree whenever possible. Right now, we're going to delve deeper into #3 - Use questions instead of statements. When we make statements in conversation, they ca …