California Catholic Daily reporter, Mary Rose, visits a California college each week and asks students about God, good, and evil. Interview with Rebbecca, who is studying chemistry, on the Pfau Library Lawn at CSU San Bernardino on January 15, 2020.
Do you consider yourself religious?
Rebbecca: No. I used to be but my family stopped following a lot of the things talked about in the Bible so we just stopped going. We decided not to go after a certain period of time where we just kind of fell out of it. Through the Bible it’s like, “Oh, the only way you’re going to heaven is if you believe in God and you follow all of the principles.” But then there’s people who are good people but they just don’t really follow religion or belong to a certain religion and it just didn’t make sense.
Do you believe in God?
Rebbecca: Somewhat. Yeah, I believe there is a God, somewhere, but I don’t want to put it on a specific person. Like I don’t want to say it’s “God,” but there is a god, I guess.
Do you think Jesus is a real person?
Rebbecca: Yeah. I think so. There’s been evidence of someone early in history, so I think he’s a real person.
Do you think Jesus is God?
Rebbecca: I’m not sure. I don’t know about that.
Do you believe in an afterlife?
Rebbecca: I believe there is an afterlife, but it’s more of the belief that there’s a place for the good people and there’s a place for the bad people and of course there’s a place in the middle, a happy middle, I guess. If I died today, I hope I’d go to the good place, but everybody does something bad in their life, even if it’s a minor thing. So hopefully the good place, but if not, hopefully the middle would be fine, too.
How should we decide what’s good and what’s bad?
Rebbecca: I think pretty much through morals. It’s a good thing to be nice to others. Bad things are, like, killing people.
How do you decide whether abortion is right or wrong?
Rebbecca: I don’t know. I’m not entirely to sure about that. I’m stumped. I’m kind of the person where, if it’s not bothering me, it’s their choice, go ahead and let them be who they want to be, whatever they want to believe in. There are a lot of people who get their babies aborted because they were victims of rape or some other situation where it wasn’t a very good space that they were in. It’s basically their choice if they decide they want to keep it or if they just want to not have it anymore, then it’s ultimately their choice. If she decides to go through with it and then she’s having PTSD from it, then she shouldn’t be allowed to kill it, of course, because that would be bad, but she could always find ways to set it up for adoption and find a place for it where she doesn’t have to have the memories of it through the child.
But what if someone said that a woman could place her child for adoption at birth rather than abort it?
Rebbecca: I’m sorry. No one ever asked me these kinds of questions so I’ve never really had an opinion on it. But now that I think about it, it’s just – hmm. I don’t know. Sometimes both of the decisions, either if you’re pro-life or if you’re pro-choice, they could contradict, in a way. Because they could have the choice to keep it and then once it’s born, not have it anymore. Or they could choose to abort and not have it any more, but they’d both still be blackened in a way. Like they still would be looked down upon, I guess, because one of them would be like, if she’s getting an abortion, then she looks like she’s incapable of dealing with her problems or something, even though it was a traumatic event that she had gone through. Whereas, if you decided like, “I’m strong enough, I can do this.” And then after two or three years of having this baby, you realize you can’t do it, then you look bad, as well.
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This young woman does try to think things out. She is right about the three places in the afterlife as the Bible does mention purgatory in I Corinthians 3:15; 2 Timothy 1:16-18; Matthew 5:26 and in many other passages such as 2 Maccabees 12:44-46, a book the Protestants do not accept.
She is also right that some people who have abortions are less guilty than others, but she does recognize that it is a killing of a child, and it really should not be done — when she says it is bad..
Regarding my last post, I do pray that she comes to the conclusion that she should help women who are caught in those situations, in the best ways she can, to bring their children safely to term and make as wise a decision as possible about their future.
Mary Grace…I love your interviews. So often they are heartbreaking and frustrating because of the lack of faith and knowledge from the people who talk to you, however, there are glimmers of hope. As a mother of a young adult and two teenagers, I’m fascinated with how young people develop their morals and how they choose to believe, or why they don’t. I think it’s priceless information in the understanding of what we as parents and catechists can do to make a difference. More often than not, your probing questions force the interviewees to think about tough moral questions in a way they’ve never had to before. I commend you??!