• California Catholic reporter Mary Rose visits a California college each week and ask students about God, good, and evil. 

  • Interview with Anthony, who is studying kinesiology, next to the pond in the center of the Cypress College campus.
  • February 6
  • Do you consider yourself religious?
  • Anthony: Yes, I do. For me it means being on the worship team, every Sunday church, and Thursdays are rehearsal. It’s Christianity. Non-denominational Church of Power in Anaheim.
  • Do you see evidence for the existence of God or is it pure faith?
  • Anthony:  It’s more pure faith. Just like things that happened in my life, I see it like, wow, that was God working.
  • Does your faith affect your morals so you find yourself living your life differently than other people?
  • Anthony: Not necessarily. I think we’re all human so we all go through the same struggles, some more than others. I just see how I come out of those struggles more often than other people and I credit it to God helping me out.
  • Do you try to share your faith?
  • Anthony: I do. I go out with friends and just like, hey, come to church. I try to make it seem like it’s not church, like we have life groups so I say, come to life group. Let’s do life together, go out, talk, see what we can work on and pray about. So yeah, I do my part.
  • Do you believe in an afterlife?
  • Anthony: I see the afterlife as more of an eternity. Where you are headed after you die here, I think of it as heaven. I think of it as being saved. Under God we are destined, we are promised this beautiful mansion where no evil lives and everything is pure, everything’s gold. That’s how I see it. That’s heaven.
  • I see it more as an eternity and living that promised life that God has promised us by being saved by Him living in our hearts, in our souls

  • Do you hold the traditional Christian beliefs on marriage and abortion?
  • Anthony: I do believe that marriage is between one man and one woman but that’s the type of thing I try not to talk about. Everyone at church is talking about the New York abortion law and thinks it’s terrible. Why would you wait until the baby is almost born? There’s no reason to have an abortion at nine months. I don’t believe in abortion in the third trimester. Really traditional Christians like my grandparents say no abortion ever, but what if the baby’s going to be a vegetable or just die? You wouldn’t want to give birth to a baby who’s just going to die.
  • You say you’re against abortion in the third trimester – what about abortion in the second trimester? What’s the difference for the baby between the second and third trimester?
  • Anthony: You got me. Nothing, I guess.
  • Would you now say you only support abortion for babies with severe life-limiting conditions?
  • Anthony: Yes, that’s right.
  • What if, instead of being diagnosed before birth, a baby is diagnosed with a life-limiting condition at birth? Should the parents be able to kill the baby then?
  • Anthony: You got me. You got me. You’re right. There’s no difference between the baby a few months before and right after birth. You opened my mind. It’s the same baby. There’s no difference.
  • Now that you see this, will you try to share it with other people?
  • Anthony: Yes, definitely, if it comes up. Thank you for opening my mind.