[Jamillah Grant]

I think the Church I attended was also like Joel Osteen. It was in a large theater; the pastor started off with a joke. A topic was announced and the pastor outlined which aspect of the topic as his sermon. He related the topics of the sermon to his own experiences.

All that was missing was the massive revolving globe. I think the lectures are very interesting and entertaining.

[Jamillah Grant]

I guess if a Church is not Catholic then its protestant. However, when I think of protestant; there are no similarities. An austere building with just a podium and maybe a cross on the sign to signify Christ. Many have Christ in their name and no other symbolism. No contrite of heart to begin the service; No profession of faith; No readings of the old testament and new testament; no Eucharist for believers. The only other church that I visited was the Episcopal Church. Their services closely resembles the Catholic Mass. They also believe as Catholics in faith and works rather than just faith alone. I noticed that they refer to themselves as an “Apostolic Church.”

[Jamillah Grant]

I attended the Christ the King Church. A protestant domination with nothing noting what sect of protestant is professed. The service was in a large theater; the minister started the service with announcements about refreshments; procedure to book a baptism as early as tomorrow. Prayer over tithes and offerings asks for blessings. I thought this was unusual. I bit odd. He actively solicited different age groups, then he gave them an evangelization assignment. The youth group, especially those who participated in sports were to invite their entire team to their church. Once the assignment was stated. He asked for agreement by a show of hands. There was a lot of call and response about the benefits of being a Christian; mostly new testament verses from Paul the Apostle. After a musical interlude the minister; announce the title of “Hope again,” as a part of the series. a call for the group to evangelize and grow the church. The biblical basis on his sermon was Romans Chapter 8;12-13 . Three ways we overcome in life; adoption, strong deliver; and Love. His sermon was about the benefits of being a Christian and particularly about belonging to that particular Church. Do you know what it means to be adopted? A heir of God and a joint heir with Christ as our brother. Again, there was a lot of show of hand, amen, and responses to this call. When the holy spirit enters our heart we know we have been adopted. A litany of worldly problems and the prayers of a nation to be delivered. God is our deliverer. Romans 8;18. Fragility of life Romans 19. “World passing away but there’s coming a better one; so we have hope”. “God will deliver us from our cries of pain and from this corruptive world.” Not exactly fire and brine stone but an updated version of it. Our world need Christ and its the only answer. Roman 8: 22.
There was no relating the old testament to the new testament. The was no communion. There was only the Bible study and sermon on the Book of Romans.
In engaging a Protestant, one should be comfortable with the certain common scriptures that they tend to site. Roman 8:31 is a common tool that is used to display that God is on their side and they are protected from any offensive presence. Sometimes they use as the ‘devil’ use it when he was trying to tempt Christ. They say things like, “you can do anything” sometimes the things they list defies natural laws. So one needs to be able to put their challenges into perspective; just as Jesus did. It’s interesting to note the scriptures that protestants tend to site compare with the scriptures Catholic tend to prefer. The difference reveals the theological stance of protestants and Catholics.

[Jamillah Grant]

J.
I think by accepting their invitation you were doing exactly what Paul explained. You were brave enough to accept an encounter that was not familiar. Contrary to what many think; those who read the bible closely will realize that Christ interacted to Arabs and Samaritans. In the old testament, it was the descendants of Ishmael “Ishmaelites” who discovered Joseph in the pit, that his jealous brothers had thrown him into. Arabs were in the room when the Pentecost occurred. The three wise men were from the “East”. They were wise enough not to disclose Christ location to Herod.
As for the Muslim Ramadan, not eating during the day is a act of fasting and prayer. The ending of the religious event which lasted for about a month, is the feast and celebration. A social event!

[Jamillah Grant]

In Corinthians 19:23 Paul is explaining the empathy and passion an evangelist should feel in order to bring the lost the Good News of the gospel. To be one with others is to understand their situation and identify with them on a personal level. In order to evangelize, one must understand from a personal level rather than a philosophical level. One must get rid of or suppress any sense ” superiority” based on the entitlement one has enjoyed that the other may not have experienced. There are no “others”. It’s just humankind and the complications of life that one experience.

I only one experience with encountering someone who claimed not to believe in God or Christ. We were going door-to door when we encountered an atheist. He said there was no proof that God existed. After explaining to him the existence of earth and its planetary order was no accident. Its not a coincidence or haphazard existence but one that is orderly and mathematically precise. To be precise takes a plan and implementation; it does not happen by accident. He persisted that it was not proof. So, a thought entered my mind to ask him to proof to me that God did not exist. He said he could not; so he smiled, shook my hand and said “it was nice talking to you.”

One thing I noticed when I encountered this self proclaimed atheist was that he was a lonely man. I empathized with him and his lonely condition. I sensed that some how or in some way, it was not about his disbelief but about his lack of evidence that someone cared enough to talk to him. Someone wanted him to understand, he was not an accident of nature but that he was here for a purpose. He was invited to our services (not sure if he ever came).

[Jamillah Grant]

KJSSPEI,
Thanks, I think the video was good especially since it was a completely new story line from the other videos that he has produced.
With regard to the language proficiency, It seems he has enrolled in a Spanish course. He also uses Babbel or Rosetta Stone, I think? Studying different languages seems to be one of his past times. He has studied Arabic, French and now Spanish; His native language is English.
I was able to visit Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church when I visited him for Thanksgiving. The video only displays a portion of the churches historical beauty. Hopefully my visit will encourage him to continue to embrace Catholicism and possibly enroll in RCIA.

[Jamillah Grant]

One question in particular that I would have answered differently with regard to Dr Craig’s answer about what religion is most different than Christianity. After hesitating a moment, Dr. Craig stated Islam. I have been introduced to Islam and Judaism; and I found that these two religions are similar with regards to their stance on the importance of Christ or whether he was the Messiah. Both recognize Christ “as a historical figure”. The religions most opposite of Christianity are those that do not consider that there is one God or that there is a God, nor is the teachings of Christ part of their religious pillars. Those religions that are not invited to “ecumenical councils” and are least like Christianity. However, this particular argument was at a point where the debate with off course.

[Jamillah Grant]

Colin,
I too stopped the debate on several occasions. I do not think that the exchange was something one could fully enjoy and comprehend by sitting and listening straight through to the end. Therefore, I wonder if those in the audience who sat there for over an hour were able to get the fullness of each argument or the times that non-sequiturs were used for answering the question at hand.

[Jamillah Grant]

In the light of the Christian apologist’s answers, how do you think that you did? Did you miss anything important? Could you have phrased your response differently/better, etc. — and if so, how? Also, did the Christian apologist miss anything? Could his or her response have been phrased differently/better, etc. — if so, how?

This was an interesting debate which emphasized the thinking of prominent philosophers. Each taking a stance in favor of one philosopher or another. However, I got the feeling that neither were listening to the other and their answers were from their own convictions rather than from answering the question in light of convincing or proving that God exists or not. Dr. Craig very eloquently expounded the moral argument, the teleological argument. However, the essence for change has to include and internal desire to know and believe there is a God. No amount of intelligent debate can convince anyone whose mind and heart is not willing to accept theism. The stance taken by Dr. Hitchens was predisposed to conclude that no matter what rational you can explain that God exist, my inner being is predisposed to objection on the basis that, ” I am not a free being if there is a God that defines for me what is right or wrong. Therefore, Dr Hitchens’ answers were consistently non-sequitur. I feel that Dr. Craig missed the mindset of Dr. Hitchens; in that he presumed that he could convince through his logically stances an agreement of the existence of God.
Dr. Hithens, responses could only refute or try to belittle the argument of God’s existence through evading the question and offering up the contrary. To everything that anyone ever supposes, there is an opposite or contrary stance. The debate moved off topic on several occasions without a definitive answer to the question “Does God exist?”
The fact that no one can logically prove that something does not exist puts the atheist in a losing position. One only has to ask the question, What is your proof that God does not exist? Proving a negative is not possible, this is why Dr. Hitchens had to repeated use non-sequitur answers. His mindset is that proving God exists will not make me a better or worse person.

In my personal experience, when evangelist approach a non-Christian who listens and develop a dialog are persons seeking a better way or purpose for their lives even though they may claim that they are agnostic or atheist. Dr. Hitchens was not seeking and therefore was not really listening.

[Jamillah Grant]

He was referring to my testimony of why I believe there is a God. I had explained to him a unforgettable moment when I was saved by angels or the holy spirit. At was after that moment that I had no doubt that there was a God and I was his child.
I explained to him that after a long day teaching at a Catholic school, I boarded a train for home which was about a 40 mile ride. I had a special seat that was at the end of the coach near the exit and facing the westward sky. I was also home when a light started glaring through the window. It was so bright that I tried to avoid it by turning around and facing the opposite direction. Yet the glare was still unbearable. A voice keep saying “move”, I reasoned with it they I did not need to change my seat. Yet the voice became stronger and the light glared brighter. Then the command came to “move now”. The next stop was the end of the run; home. It did not make any sense but I figured it must be something beyond my understanding happening at the moment. So, I reluctant moved to the only seat that was not occupied at the head of the coach. Just as I was going to sit down the train hit something on the track and I was knocked into the seat; injuring my right wrist which was gripped on the back of the seat ahead of me. I saw people running away at that same time. The train had hit a semi truck which was stuck on the track. My friends had harassed me about moving so close to home. When they started exiting the train, there was a lot of oohs. One friend turned to me and asked weren’t you seat here. I went into shock. The seat that I had occupied was the only place on the train that had any damage. There were shards of glass with very sharp pointed breakage across the seat and floor. She looked at me with awe stating, “you must have a guardian angel”.
I never doubted the existence of God and his Holy angels again. He must have saved me for a purpose. Thank God that I realized that there was no logical explanation but the voice of an angel. So, I moved after the strong command without satisfying my logical mind.

[Jamillah Grant]

This film was produced by my fourth son Harun, who was not baptized or ever attended Catholic training of any kind. Not to be confused with the one who called in declared he was Catholic. The first son, Laval was baptized Catholic and did get some religious training.

[Jamillah Grant]

After asking my son if he could use the beautiful Cathedrals in his artistic talents; I was surprised that he wrote and produced this You-Tube. I asked him how did he come up with this story. He said it just came to him and he wrote it down. He is not a Catholic. He does not speak Spanish as a native language. I gave him my website to look at and told him to get permission on any work he did. So, I did ask him to talk to the priests before producing any art. I thought he would take photographs or paint one of the beautiful Cathedrals in San Francisco.
This is what he texted me.

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[Jamillah Grant]

One good reason is an excellent way to talk to protestants or non-believers. It seems to take the edge off of getting into a conversation about who is right or wrong in their thinking about choosing the religion they follow. Even though the person, I spoke with was Catholic, it made him stop and think about why he had not veered away from Catholicism and investigated any other religions. Saying he was a cradle Catholic just did not give him a “one good reason” why he continues to be Catholic

[Jamillah Grant]

Two people that came to mind when I prayed; both are fellow parishioners.

I had a conversation with one of them where I listened to their religious perspectives. He’s a “cradle Catholic who had not yet thought about his “one good reason.” He was curious about my journey of leaving and returning to the Catholic Faith. I shared my “one good reason” with one of them, by introducing it as: Would you mind if I told you of my most compelling reason for continuing to be a Catholic? This question came out of discussion about my inquiry into different theological philosophies.
After explaining my reason, my friend dubbed it as, ” A road to Damascus moment”. I had not thought of that when I explained it to him.

[Jamillah Grant]

Yes, collateral damage came to mind as I prayed on the effect of sin(s). Although, we try to avoid it sometimes our actions hurt others that we do not know or that we did not intend to effect by our actions. For an example, in a divorce even though the dissatisfaction and disagreement might be between the husband and wife; friends and family relationships are also lost or broken.

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