Interview on February 9, 2023 with Mya, who is studying administration of justice, on the Central Quad at Long Beach City College.
Do you consider yourself religious?
Mya: Yeah. I used to be a Baptist Christian, but now I’m just spiritual. I believe in God. I wouldn’t consider myself a Christian. I used to go to church every day. I read the whole Bible and I studied it. But then when I got to high school, they have lectures about how they used Christianity to take over places, forcing religion on people. I didn’t want to be considered part of that, so I just call myself spiritual. All the schools teach about Christianity, but it’s about conquering, how they used it to take over places.
Do you still read the Bible?
Mya: I lost my Bible, so I don’t read the Bible, but sometimes I’ll look at Bible verses.
Do you share your faith with others and encourage other people to believe in God?
Mya: Yeah. I used to go out with the people I used to go to church with and talk people into going to church and how they should get baptized.
Do you still think it’s a good thing to encourage people to be baptized?
Mya: Yeah, in a sense.
Do you believe in a life after death?
Mya: I feel like every religion and every ethnicity has their own way of dealing with that because they’re scared to die. One way that I was taught was heaven and hell. Once you ask God’s forgiveness and to wash away your sins you go to heaven but if you don’t accept the gift of eternal life, you go to hell. The other religions are kind of similar, but they’re not, like Mexicans have the Day of the Dead, I think, it’s just certain ways they deal with it. I feel like none of them is actually real. Energy doesn’t die, so we will pass on. Our bodies will die, but we’ll still be there.
How do you decide if abortion is right or wrong?
Mya: What I would say about abortion is that it was made for a reason, from a KKK leader, I forgot her name, to bring down one specific race. So if we didn’t have that, everybody that’s been pregnant and was not taking it seriously would have had a kid. I feel like it’s nature and we’re going against nature’s law. If God didn’t want that person to have a baby, they would never have had a baby. Sometimes it can either make you or break you and teach you something because a lot of people just play around with it, something serious. It was meant for something serious. You can also die from getting abortions. And once you get an abortion, it mentally affects you and it takes away from you. I’m not with that.
Do you think marriage exists only between one man and one woman, or can two people of the same sex be married?
Mya: I don’t have anything against gay people, but it’s just not right. It’s not normal. They see it and they think it’s okay, because they see somebody else doing it and that’s what the government wants. So I wouldn’t really blame them, I would blame the government, but it’s just not right. I don’t agree with it.
If someone asked you who Jesus is, what would you say?
Mya: They refer to Him as the Son of God, but if I had to say who Jesus was, I would give the Bible’s description of Jesus, not the fake image that they put out as Jesus.
Why do you think there’s a God?
Mya: Because I have been a Christian almost my whole life and I walked away from it. I got baptized, I got reborn, I got everything, and once I started figuring out the truth, I stepped back from it. And God was still showing me that He’s real through signs. A lot of things that I went through, He was there. That’s why I’m spiritual, because I believe that God is real. He showed me. Even when I doubted myself and said He wasn’t, He still showed me. That’s the reason I got this tattoo, my middle name, on my neck. Faith. I have faith.
I hope the interviewer gave her a Bible.
God brought her to you for a reason.
” But then when I got to high school, they have lectures about how they used Christianity to take over places, forcing religion on people. I didn’t want to be considered part of that, so I just call myself spiritual.” How important it is for Christians to be in high school education to provide an alternative to the leftist narrative, which presumably comes from dumbed-down leftist texts. Now that Mya is in college, how important for Christian ministries to provide an alternative to the leftist narrative by bringing in speakers with a different point of view, provided college censorship has not precluded the possibility.
That really is not a leftist narrative. The Church has apologized for that.
There have always been historical things like the Crusades, the Inquisition, Galileo etc that some people just can’t get past.
Most Catholics come to terms with it or do not think about it much.
Today, you will be shocked to find that many history books for school-children have been re-written, to support liberal-leftist agendas– and immature, demented, liberal-leftist teachers have used these books for political indoctrination of kids to be anti-American, anti-White Males, and anti-Christian. Long ago, when I was in school, we were taught the same things, but to understand history from a realistic, mature point of view. Mankind has always made mistakes! That’s the way it goes. We were taught to overlook errors, and learn from history– and in studying history, learn not to repeat past mistakes. And always to respect our great country and great religion.
And, what is our “great religion?”
You know, if we could time travel back to 1940 and ask random Catholics in American or Europe these same sorts of questions, I doubt the answers would be any more substantial or correct.
Time travel back to the Middle Ages, and you’d get even worse responses from a typical village Catholic.
You may not know this– but Catholics raised before Vatican II– regardless of whether they were just average, or intellectuals with advanced college degrees– were all very well-educated in the Catholic Faith. You could not possibly compare them, with the tragic situation, of today. Those who graduated from the eighth grade, long ago, and even many poor children in Catholic countries— (like the three Fatima children; two are Saints!) — long ago, had a much better education in their Faith, than many today, with Master’s degrees in theology, from goofed-up, liberal-leftist, famous colleges and seminaries. It’s sadly true.
They couldn’t tell the Ascension from the Assumption.
Mary appeared to children who were not well catechized like the three shepherds and St. Catherine Laboure.
You want there to have been some golden age of Catholicism.
The Age of Faith was in the Middle Ages.
The whole point is– the little chiidren of Fatima, poor and humble, who spoke with Our Lady and had a great mission from her, for the world– really knew their Catholic Faith better than many do, today! If they had been much older, of course, they would have known more– but Francisco and Jacinta died very young. Many Indians, like St. Juan Diego, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha– also knew their Faith well. And kids in Catholic schools long before Vatican II, received far better educations, and knew their Faith well, by the tine they were ready to enter high school. Many Catholic boys also entered Minor Seminary at age 14, after 8th grade graduation, and became priests. This was not a “Golden Era,” of course not. We had a far better society, of much-better educated people, very adult, mature, serious and responsible. Many were dedicated to doing a good job, no natter what field they entered– including the Catholic priesthood, religious life, teaching Sisters and Brothers, etc. And most girls grew up to marry and be a good wife, mother, and homemaker– that used to be considered a very important profession! The very best! So important, a woman gave her life to this highly important role! And she was a fine church and community member, too! The very best! May we someday eradicate the evil Death Culture, by the grace of God– and restore our society to be really good, with good people, once again, with basic Christian faith and morals, obedient to God! “One Nation Under God.”
St. Catherine Laboure was born into an upper-middle-class home. Her father was well-educated, and ran a successful farm in a town in the Burgundy region of France, famous for wine-making, among other things.
Looks like I have some misspelled words in my post of April 19th at 4pm!
You are right about St. Catherine Laboure background but I do not know how well educated she was.
I was thinking of St. Bernadette.
Maybe we have different ideas of what well-educated is.
I think if you look at any age of the world there is evil.
St. Catherine Laboure was shown the Miraculous Medal to convert sinners
The children of Fatima did not know the Faith very well but eventually Lucia learned it.
I think you confuse social values with religion.
None of that is really about knowing the Faith.
There are pagan cultures that you would approve of.
I don’t think the USA was ever a beacon of the virtue of religion, it is a beacon of economic hope and freedom.
It was founded to provide refuge to those who did not like the establishment-religious or political.
Of course, St. Bernadette was known to have had an unusually difficult time with school– and with learning the Catholic Faith. Again, I was speaking of the fact that today, many Catholics are poorly catechized– and the situation is extremely bad. By contrast, even poor people and their children, of long ago, knew their Catholic Faith better than many, today. Many Catholics today, also do not believe in the Real Presence. So– as you can see, I was simply making a comparison between two things. Regarding social values– people before the Vatican II era also were better educated in America, in both Catholic and public schools. Belief in God was much stronger, and before the 1960s, most American families went to Mass or to a Protestant church, regularly. (And Jews went to their synagogues.) Overall, we had a much better society, far higher literacy, less crime and sin, and Christian Morality was respected. Today, there are worries, because many kids often have poor literacy, which does not improve, beyond the early grades. Some high school grads are even illiterate, and can barely read. There is also an epidemic of sin and crime, poor social training, and a rebellion against God and morality. America was not founded on atheistic, secular principles, of mere economic opportunity. America had Judeo-Christian Biblical concepts in the hearts of her Founders. Belief in God is acknowledged in our Founders’ documents. God the Creator is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. It is recognized that the Constitution was based on general Christian principles (not atheistic beliefs) — but not the actual practice of any religion. Every State constitution also references God or the Divine. We are “One Nation under God.” America’s Founders referenced God or the Divine, according to basic Christian principles– but not the practice of religion, as they established separation of religion and state. We were not established as an atheistic country, based only on economic principles of progress—- and no acknowledgement of God, or a Supreme Being.
I can’t compare because I am not from that kind of family.
I was thrilled to read an article about NCAA Champion swimmer, Riley Gaines’ recent speech at Liberty University! There was a standing-room-only crowd, and they gave Riley a standing ovation! She said, “The room was full of shining leaders, secure in themselves and their identity in Christ!” Oh, how wonderful! I found a video of this event, and will watch it. I bet her husband, Louis Barker, a British champion swimmer, described as a “country boy,” is so proud of her, back home in Tennessee! One of Riley’s sisters is a Tennessee State Gymnastics champion.
Here is a wonderful “Huckabee Show” TV interview with Riley Gaines! She is a devout, conservative Christian.
https://www.huckabee.tv/guests/riley-gaines