I have another question if you guys have any questions feel free to message me
and maybe I'll make a video on it but today's question says this what do you
do when your friends make fun of your faith how do you defend your faith what
do you do when your friends are making fun of you here it is in a nutshell
number one listen listen and I mean really listen actually like listen to
learn don't listen sometimes we listen and we're thinking in our head what we
want to say or we're listening and we're actually getting offended and angry or
scared or fearful something just let all that go and actually just listen because
the best way to make progress with someone is to actually understand where
they come from first if you don't understand where people are coming from
you can't really answer their objections or their questions very well so listen
to learn actually try to learn what they believe even ask them questions back you
know say hey you know what do you mean by that you know can you explain more so
really really just listen don't be defensive and then once you listen then
you can take step two
step two is if you don't have the answers be honest and tell them that be
like I you know what that's a great question and I'm not sure the answer
I'll go home and look that up for you and I'll come back and get back to you
that way not only do you get to go home and do the research where you're growing
in your faith but then you get to take a good answer back to them and hopefully
make them you know think about it give them something to think about and maybe
they'll have to go back and do some research and return but go home and
research do a lot of research research from multiple sources for a bunch of
different areas books maybe videos whatever is useful get it really
knowledgeable on that topic because that question is probably going to come up
again in the future and you're going to want to be able to answer it
number three ask them questions to ask them questions in return we should only
be put on the spot so long so often so much before we turn that around and put
them on the defensive why should we always be put on the defensive for
example if they're bombarding you like God doesn't exist what do you mean God
does exist prove to me God exists and then you try to give an answer and they
beat that down oh yeah well what about all the you're the priests in the church
or what about all the the rules and what about this and that what about the
Crusades you guys killed everybody Wow you know they just bombarding you with
all the stuff sometimes people have a lot of anger and they just need someone
to talk to and they're venting they're not actually challenging and eventually
you learn the difference but here's the thing eventually turn that around and
like you know what you keep saying God doesn't exist how do you know that why
do you believe that God doesn't exist do you have any proof that God doesn't
exist and then BOOM who you can take a deep breath
you can think let them think for a little while think about how to ask them
questions challenge their position we don't know all the answers but they
don't either and they need to be challenged in that so don't let people
just continually bombard you think of a way to turn that around you know if they
say hello could the Crusades you just killed everybody you know and the church
was power-hungry and they wanted to take over the world or they were intolerant I
guess these religions ask them a question like you know what I'm just
curious do you know who the Pope was during the Crusades do you know what
year the Crusades took HAP took place do you know what the circumstance is going
on at the time the Crusades were 99 percent of people don't know so you
don't like no but they're stupid you know and they make them but the fact is
you're challenging them to think about the way they think and the thought
process is the better going on
next are your friends really friends are they really your friends and if they are
the nation understand when you ask them to respect your faith and you must at
some point say hey this is what I believe this is who I am
it's important to me can you respect that and you're gonna see how good your
friends are how close they really are to you just by how the answer I've lost
friends over my faith and I don't care because Jesus is most important to my
life but you're gonna see how close your friends are to you by how they respect
your faith and you may butt heads and you may have to work things out and come
to an agreement or something but the fact is they need to respect you for
your faith just as like if they're an atheist you need to respect them too you
might not agree with it it might be wrong it might be silly but you like
them as a person you still like them as a friend and you don't let that separate
you and that should go both ways just to be honest
now I've been persecuted and made fun of for my faith have been challenged in my
face oh wow that's why I do this full-time that's
why I'm a professional Catholic apologist which means I defend the
Catholic faith for a living because I started out answering questions and
being bombarded on stuff that I couldn't defend I didn't know how to answer I
mean it all started in high school when I was praying grace at the lunch table
and I said bless us O Lord and these thy gifts that you're and I finished in
every single person on both sides of the table was staring at me but hoping my
eyes but one guy was like dude did you just pray I was like no yeah I don't
know a little why and I was totally afraid that I was gonna be made of Jesus
Freak I was totally afraid that I was gonna be made fun up for the rest of the
year I was afraid of my faith and you know what they challenged me in that and
I was ashamed don't be like me don't be ashamed to pray for that
strength it was many years later when I went off to college at Franciscan
University I found God in a powerful way and the Holy Spirit filled me to
overflowing with the power and peace majesty stuff you couldn't even imagine
your and a great courage and I asked him for the strength to defend my faith and
I remember I had another conversation very similar I prayed before I ate and
one guys like did you just pray before you eat I'm like yeah I did cuz I had
the Cardinal Holy Spirit this time and he's like why am I the better question
is why didn't you don't you love God he's like well yeah yeah nothing if you
love God why don't you pray to Him uh well I don't want to talk about this
anymore and all of a sudden he was on the defensive see that's what I'm
talking about we can turn that around and put them on the defensive and they
don't want to talk about it anymore and I can't tell you how often I get that
but the fact is why should we as Christians be made to look dumb and
stupid I mean God's real if the Catholic Church is true and Christianity is true
we shouldn't be ashamed of that we should stand up for that and be like
yeah it's true and turn that around and let them be on the defensive we
shouldn't always be on the defensive
we'd be studying our faith at some point every day even if it's just reading an
article or reading a Mima in my Instagram or looking at one of my
youtube videos every day we need to live our faith we need to study our faith at
least a few times a week we really need to research our stuff because we're
going to come into people who challenge us reading to be prepared we need to be
prepared to defend our faith that's just how it is
because Jesus calls us - we're all called to share our faith at some point
and if you want to learn to defend it you've got to know it in the first place
so watch my youtube videos really learn your faith follow me on Instagram I'm
always defending the faith follow me on Twitter and especially on Facebook on
different platforms where you can find me because you're gonna find atheists
and different religions who are challenging the Catholic faith and how I
answer them also check out my book why do you believe in God in it you'll find
actual conversations where I defend the faith from different religions and
people who have questions concerns objections so you're gonna actually see
from real-life examples how to explain and defend your faith so get my book
it's called why do you believe in God can be found on Amazon or at one of my
conferences that I speak at and make sure to look below and you know check
out my social media and follow me on us if you want more inspiration and if you
like this video make sure to like it and also share it we really need to get the
message out there to everyone else and if you have comments if you will have
more specific situations that you've come across and you want to know about
you want to ask questions about how to defend this or that or you know put it
below maybe I'll be able to answer it in a comment and lastly if you want to see
a lot more videos like this and please support me on my patreon page because I
want to make hundreds of videos but I need the support from you and from
viewers like you
you