 All right, good afternoon. How y'all doing good conference so far? Okay, you've had some good lunch Okay, so now I have to be extra energetic They gave me like the really toughest times to present like 8 30 in the morning Got to wake up and then now with the after lunch moment here So I have to be extra caffeinated in all of my talks, but I am very energetic about this topic You got a sense of that from my words last night. I'm very Passionately believe this is so important for our day and age. This is the the fundamental issue In our in the battle in our culture today is when if a culture doesn't believe in truth at all It becomes very hard to present anything not just about the gospel But as Pope Benedict said we lose basic human values We don't even know how to live to live friendship to live dating relationships to live marriage live family life Yeah, so this is so fundamental. We're gonna get into this here today I'll just jump and get started. Are you ready to go? Okay, I want to tell you a story about the first time I heard the expression moral Relativism so I grew up in a good Catholic home as I mentioned a good Catholic school outside of Chicago And it was when I went away to University. I went to Indiana University I remember my my friend was taking an ethics class. He signed up for a class and he told me about it There's an ethics class. I'm taking and I remember thinking wow, isn't that that's that's beautiful Indiana University, it's a secular non-religious Institution and yet it cares about ethics and it's trying to teach good values and ethics in the classroom This is wonderful. So I asked my friend. Oh, tell me. What are you learning about ethics in your class? And he says oh, I'm learning all about the theory of moral relativism and I never really heard the term before and I always heard those words moral relativism. So it's about Being very moral with your relatives. It's like, you know family values probably ask oh, tell me What is this moral relativism all about and he says? Oh, it's the idea that there's no truth That you can have your truth and I can have my truth, but there's no truth That's true for everyone so I can make up my own morality. You can make up your morality But you shouldn't impose your values your moral standards on other people because everyone is free to choose their own moral standards for themselves I love this theory of moral relativism and I was just a a young Catholic just starting to get involved in my faith And I didn't really know that much, but that just didn't sound right to me And again, I hadn't studied any theology or philosophy So I didn't really know how to defend the faith, but I just started asking him some questions So I said so really you believe this world moral relativism goes. Oh, yeah, this makes sense to me I said, so let me get this straight So you believe in moral relativism. Yeah, so you believe that truth is relative. It's dependent on each individual Yeah, that there's there's no absolute truth. That's true for everyone. Yeah, yeah So can I ask you a question? Do you believe moral relativism is true for everyone? I was like, gotcha And and and he kind of smiled and kind of chuckled and he said well, yeah I guess relativism isn't really logically consistent. Is it? To say that there's no truth that's true for everyone, but relativism is true for true is true for everyone That's not consistent. I was so excited. I was so proud. I'm like patting myself on the back I'm like, what a great defender of the Catholic faith. I am I'm gonna be a junior Scott Han This is gonna be awesome And and then he I was excited and I did win that opening little exchange that little debate But I have to tell you something. I did not change his mind. I Did not change his belief in relativism Even though he admitted it's not logical. It doesn't make sense. It's not logically consistent He admitted that he still went on continuing as a moral relativist And I share that story with you because my experience from that time over the last 20 years working especially with University students young adults young professionals are 20s and 30s I'm convinced that there's no quick silver bullet that's gonna address the issues of moral relativism There's no quick here's three-point apologetic thing You know, I mean there's so many other topics that'd be a lot easier to talk about like Jesus's real presence in the Eucharist That's easy John 6 we can really knock that all the park really easy, right? There's other patch topics We could explore and apologetics like confession Oh John chapter 20 would be really great the papacy Matthew 16 lows are really easy to talk about moral Relativism is not an easy topic to get into because the issues are at the level of worldview It's not just like a one-point issue It's how we view the world and you can't have an elevator speech that sums up how we should you view the world and really in a Convincing way and so what I'm gonna share with you today are more long-term strategies Keys I like to call them keys that you can have in your pocket that are referred to key attitudes key approaches That you can talk to your friends to your children to your co-workers About moral truth in a convincing compelling and compassionate way But maybe an example would be this to express why I think this is so challenging today You know, it's kind of like imagine if we were in chemistry class now, so we're in chemistry class and we're doing chemistry equations Let's say this side of the room had the traditional periodic table of elements But let's say this side of the room has a periodic table of elements But the numbers are very different than what's on this one and the professor starts giving chemistry equations What's gonna happen here? Are the two groups gonna come up with the same answers? No, they're not but if you're over here and you've got the the periodic table of elements that doesn't make sense It's it's not accurate Yours internally you're you're you looking at the chart you're doing the equations you think well this of course makes sense This is right, you know because according to your chart It does make sense and then this group over here They've got the traditional periodic table and they're doing the chemistry equation. No, no, but hydrogen oxygen is H2O I mean that's really what it is. No, no, it's really H5O over here because you've got different things going on And then they're saying no you're wrong and you're saying no you're wrong and you just increase volume And you're just shouting at each other, but the issue isn't how you're doing the chemistry equation The issue is what are your starting points? What periodic table are you working off of and what that's what we have to realize We as Catholics when we encounter the wisdom of this world The the wisdom that the world is offering of moral relativism We have to realize there's a whole different periodic table of starting points there So many times we Catholics might get sucked into a conversation about abortion or about the definition of marriage Or about homosexual relations or gender or the environment or care for the poor who might get sucked into these conversations and And we fight on just those individual points forgetting that the real issue fundamentally is Looking at the table itself. I want you to start having conversations not about just the individual moral hot-button issue in the culture I want you to start bringing your conversations to deeper fundamental levels because I think that's We're long-term we can win hearts a lot easier. Does that make sense? So with that, let's ask our lady on this Thursday to intercede for us in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit Amen. Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So what we're gonna be looking at are Okay, we need the slide to change here, it's not changing on the clicker here if I can get some help from the people upstairs Can we get to the next slide? The clicker is not working for some reason All right, is there anyone up there that can click my slide for me? All I need to do is get to slide number two. That's all I need. There we go. Okay. All right So I'm gonna we have to do this manually this this this won't be hard though So normally that all I'm gonna be sharing with you is based on this book that I wrote called who am I to judge? Responding to relativism with logic and love There's a DVD component that we use for small groups that many families are using with their children many Catholic high schools Are using it young adults are using this So I'm drawing on on these resources here and in a fuller presentation I'll go through six keys for engaging moral relativism depending on our time I think we'll get through most of these we may get to at least four or five I think today, so I want to talk about the first one. Are you ready? So number one I want you to repeat number one after me ready say law equals love I Need to say it was a little more gusto ready law equals love Now why am I having you shout that out? It's because the last thing our secular culture thinks about when it hears about moral law or the Catholic moral teachings the last thing Our secular world thinks about is love They just think when they hear about these moral teachings of the Catholic Church These are just some random rules from your religion and if you want to follow those rules Hey, that's fine for you, but please don't impose your rules from your religion on me The last thing they're thinking about is love and what we need to do is reframe the conversation on Every moral issue because everything the Catholic Church teaches Everything the Catholic Church teaches especially in the moral realm is all about love All the moral law comes from the God who is love who brought us into existence out of love He didn't have to create us and even though we turned our backs on him and we turned into sin He still loved us and sought us out and he gradually reveals himself to us reveals his law his plan for us So that we can be happy and we could thrive and flourish So that we can experience more love and share more love in this world Every little thing the Catholic Church teaches is ultimately about love You know why does God give a Moral law. Why does God the father give the Ten Commandments? Why does Jesus give the Beatitudes? Why why does any good father in the home give moral law? You know I and right now my kids are into archery They went to Catholic mountain camp this last week and they all came back And they really want to do archery in the backyard And I have to give law about be careful that you don't have any of the little siblings around So you don't shoot them in the eye and make them blind at a young age here You know, they'll be really careful. I'm giving a law because I don't want them to hurt someone. I Think about one of my boys who's into the archery right now. He's about to turn 13, but he was our first Colorado baby and We moved to Colorado 13 years ago. So he was our first child born in Colorado and this kid was a climber Do you ever have a climber in your family? This kid he just was a major climber He would climb on the coffee table climb on the couches climb on the top of the couches He would move chairs to climb on top of the chair to get on top of the counter So he can get up to the cabinet and give himself a snack as a one-year-old and this kid I think was the altitude in Denver. He just had to really get up there, you know But this summer When he was born so he's about 13 months old this particular summer when he was 13 months old He was watching his older siblings go on the monkey bars in the backyard And you could tell he was eyeing it thinking that would be really cool And sure enough one day little Carl did it. He climbed up the side He reached out for the first rung and then he found himself holding on for dear life And his older sisters came running inside I came out there and I saw Carl hanging there like this with a look of horror on his face And then his older brother was underneath him holding him up like this so he didn't die Well, I rescued Carl that day, but it was then I had to give a certain law It was then that I issued my monkey bar decree And I told him you can't go on the monkey bars anymore. Do not go on the monkey bars now Why did I do that? Who could tell me? Why did I give him the monkey bar decree? Is it because I just want to control him It's all about control. I want to control my 13 month old I'm on a power trip with my toddler. No, that's not what it's about Is it about a test? Many Christians that's what they go to they go, oh, it's a test You know, but let's just think about that. Does that make any sense really? So Carl Don't go on the monkey bars Why dadda Don't ask why just obey me. I'm testing you to see if you'll submit to my fatherly authority Is that is that why I give that law? No, why do I give this law is because I love Carl I want what's best for him. My mind knows that he's not made for this. This isn't good He could get really hurt and because I love him. I want what's best for him The law flows from my love the rule flows from my relationship with him And yet it's our modern world that's trying to separate the law from the love the rule from the relationship The devil's been doing this all the way from the very beginning in the garden of eden in the fall We have to see that no the the moral law is a part of god's plan for us He made us he made us to to live a certain way and if we live that way We're gonna thrive. We're gonna be happy if we don't live according to his plan Then we're gonna hurt ourselves and hurt other people We as catholics have to do a much better job talking about the ten commandments talking about moral law That we have to talk about love. We have to help people see that it's the path to to fulfillment I like to think of it like this It's kind of like the think of the moral laws like the instruction manual for our lives Do you ever buy like some technological device a phone or a computer or tv and it comes with that instruction manual Are there any of you here that like to read instruction manuals? There's some of you. Okay. Yeah, that's just always about eight percent in the audience Some of you raised your hand. The others are embarrassed. They didn't raise their hand But you do like reading instruction manuals. I'm not like that at all But I have friends that are and they've told me like I got a new laptop this last year a new IBM think pad And and I'm sure it comes with an instruction manual says things like don't put in temperatures that are too hot Don't put in temperatures that are too cold. My favorite one is don't use in water But some guy going water skiing with their laptop You know, so IBM has to put that in there so that you operate it properly And then you don't sue them if it breaks and you do something stupid, right? But but here's the deal You know, think of think of it this way um What if I looked at that instruction manual and I saw it said Do not use in water IBM Who are you to tell me what to do with my laptop? This is my computer. I can do whatever I want with my laptop. Don't impose your views of laptops on me Am I free to take my laptop water skiing? Yeah, I'm free and I'm free to destroy it in the process, right? Are we free to break God's moral law? Absolutely, but we'll hurt ourselves and we'll hurt other people So if I had to give you a scripture verse here, I would turn to psalm 119 verse 105 Psalm 119 verse 105 your word, oh lord Is a lamp to my feet a light to my path That's that's how that's how the bible views god's law is it's not like this restriction It's not this random rule. It's not just a random test. No God gives us the law and the law corresponds to how he made us It's like the divine instruction manual. He's the divine manufacturer. He made us. He knows how we work He knows if we do certain things, we're gonna be be flourishing in life If we do other things we're gonna be frustrated and unhappy and hurt ourselves and hurt other people The law is a lamp to our feet Psalm 119 verse 105 Let's always have that perspective now. I'm gonna share a fun story here A number of years ago. I was flying back to denver after giving a presentation on the east coast And uh, I was sitting down and then as they were boarding somebody Saw me and then came up to me and said excuse me. Are you edwards three? I said yes, I'm edwards three and he says, oh Wow, I've been I've been watching that that show on the catholic cable channel that shows symbol on an ewtn and About the catholic faith and I'm learning so much and I'm not even a catholic I'm a methodist and I love what I'm learning about the bible and and the sacraments and mary and the catholic beliefs and But I've got some questions now about the catholic faith And I've been wanting to talk to a catholic about these questions and you're here Can we talk when the plane gets up in the air and I said, oh sure. I'd be happy to talk Well, we get up to 38,000 feet and he comes tasks me on the shoulder And we're having a little discourse in the aisle and everyone around is completely oblivious to our conversation Everyone's just immersed in their own tablets watching a movie or playing with their phones or have their laptops out doing some work completely unaware of our conversation until He dropped the bomb on me So after a little small talk finally, he says, okay Here's my big question So when is the catholic church finally going to update all of its teachings on sex? And I was like, whoa I wasn't ready for that. I was thinking. Oh, he he likes the show He's a fan He's probably got some simple questions This'll be a lot of fun and then he throws that at me and oh my goodness and everyone around Who is completely unaware all of a sudden went like this They got really curious and interested all of a sudden they were wondering What's this Catholic guy gonna say? I was wondering what I was gonna say, but I never got the chance Because this guy just kept going on and on he just kept saying things like this He'd say, you know, I study to this. I know where all this comes from it comes from the medieval period It's all about power and politics and control and and we just need to let people express their sexuality You know humanly however they want so it's not just repressed People should express their relationships however they want. We shouldn't be doing theology in the bedroom He just kept going on and on and on all the other christian denominations have gotten up to speed with sexual teachings Why is the catholic church so far behind and he just kept going on relentlessly? He was kind But he was intense and I couldn't get a word in and finally I realized I just have to kind of cut him off And I just said excuse me excuse me Do you know why the catholic church teaches what it teaches about sex? And do you know why it's always going to teach what it teaches about sex? It's because the catholic church loves people And you could tell he was kind of like not ready for that I said the catholic church loves people and I said do you work with young people because I do I work with thousands and thousands of university students and young adults young professionals in their 20s and 30s And sir, they're very familiar with all the ideas you're promoting here Because they're growing up in the post sexual revolutionized culture in which we live They know all about this. They know all they've been bombarded with visions of free love and open-ended Relationships and the hook-up culture. They've experimented in this world But you know what they tell me when I get the chance to give a talk and then you come up afterwards and they're honest You know what they tell me it's not working for them It's not working for them. They talk about the fears. They have will I ever find someone that will love me for who I am Will I ever find a lasting love? They tell me about how they have felt disillusioned about love They tell me about how they have felt used They and they doubt that they'll ever find a happy relationship Do you wish more pain on the next generation? And and then I I shared with them things I think you're probably familiar with About what's happening with marriage in our culture that fewer and fewer people Are bothering getting married anymore I mean that the number of adults that are married is like 50 percent and plummeting So if you're 18 or above chances are you're not married in our culture anymore Who here is married anybody? We have you know, we married people. We have minority status in the united states Because this fewer fewer people it's like marriage Why bother? I mean we've got good jobs. We get along We like each other. Why do I need some certificate from some church? So marriage is on the decline Especially in the younger generation, but what's fascinating just fascinating listen to this Is that even though people aren't bothering getting married if you ask the same adult world What are some of your biggest hopes in life? What are your major goals in life? You know what 92 percent will say? 92 percent of adults will say I hope one day to have a happy marriage Isn't that strange doesn't it seem almost schizophrenic like they're not bothering getting married, but they admit they long for it That shouldn't surprise us at all as depraved as the culture is These are still human beings men and women made in the image and likeness of god They're made for love god wired them this way. They're made for a lasting love Deep on their hearts god has put this desire to be known to be loved for who they are And a committed love that's what we long for it's just that the younger generation doesn't think that's possible anymore They've looked at the train wreck of their parents generation Maybe their own dysfunctional family life or broken homes and and they just think is it really possible And then when they've experimented in dating relationships, they've just felt used or let go down and and they just doubt it's possible That's why Pope Francis and Pope Benedict both have said now is the time To proclaim the good news of marriage marriage itself is good news It's a gospel because we can look those young people in the eye and say those desires you have for a lasting love Those desires you have to be known to be loved for who you are those desires are good God put those desires there and you can have those desires fulfilled if you follow god's plan For love sex and marriage not what the world is offering Now these are some of the ideas I shared with my new Methodist friend at 38 000 feet And I can't say he joined rcaa on the spot But he certainly slowed down And he paused and and he admitted all right You've given me some things to think I hadn't considered that And sometimes that's the best you can hope for in an initial exchange I'm sharing this story with you though not about all the particulars I'm sharing this story with you because I want you to remember what's the first thing I talked about with him What was did I talk about let me tell you about Theology of the body or did I tell you about let me tell you about humanity tier Let me tell you about natural law. Did I go there? What did I talk about first? love I would go there to all those things eventually if we had a lot more time But I wanted him to see that this is all about love and I want you to do that too frame whatever conversation the next time You're you know Out for lunch with that friend or out for coffee with that sibling or You're there in the office and some moral topic comes up resist the temptation To immediately go to well, here's the three reasons why I think marriage is this way You need to go there you need to go there eventually But first you've got to win the right to be heard. They need to know that this is about love That's why I emphasize this first point. Let's say it together again one more time together ready law Equals love. Okay. Now we're going to go to point number two. So we get point number two up on the screen We got point number two There is a big difference between making a judgment And judging someone's soul. So we're trying to get to point number two on the screen If we can get point number two on the screen. Is anyone up there? There we go. All right, excellent. Perfect Okay Making a judgment and judging someone's soul You see Have you ever watched like on cnn or PBS or I know some news show Where there's like the secular journalist or secular politician And and maybe there's a debate about some moral issue And then they bring on like the more traditional conservative probably christian person They some christian talking about abortion say And the christian is trying to explain like why abortion is wrong We shouldn't have abortion in the country and then all of a sudden the secular person on the other side of the debate pulls out a bible verse They pull out this bible verse. They love this bible verse. Oh, they know this bible verse really well I doubt they do lexio divina every day and study the scripture or come to the institute of li biblical studies conference But they this bible verse they could preach it like a baptist preacher And they're gonna take this verse and they're gonna throw it at the christian You've probably had this verse thrown at you. What what verse is this the guy says What do you mean to say abortion is wrong? We shouldn't have abortion Your jesus said don't Judge And he throws that verse at us When we get that verse thrown at us, what do we christians tend to do? We go like this We cower. We're afraid of recording jesus against this. I don't know what to do They're quoting the bible and I guess i'm not supposed to make any moral judgments I guess I can't say anything's right or wrong because jesus said don't judge I want to help you with this. Are you ready? I want you to know It's true. Matthew chapter 7 verse 1 jesus says don't judge lest you be judged. He says this in the sermon of the mount I want you to also know That there are other times in the bible when jesus commands people to judge Later on in that same gospel of matthew. He tells the apostles that they're gonna sit on 12 thrones and judge the 12 tribes of israel St paul says in his letter to the carinthians that the spiritual man judges all things So there's sometimes when the bible says we shouldn't judge and other times when the bible says we should What is this all about the issue isn't about judging? We all should make judgments you all make judgments you chose you looked at the calendar You looked at the price you looked at the conference You thought I want to do this on this weekend and come here to this conference and not do these other things I could do in july so you made a judgment you used your mind. That's a good thing. God wants you to make judgments It's just what are you going to make judgments about? That's the real issue here. Are you going to make judgments about other people's souls? We should never judge other people's souls Should never judge someone's spiritual status before god that's between them and god alone. I I can't make a judgment on that But can we make judgments in general? Do you think can I ask you this? What do you think like if it starts pouring out pouring raining pouring rain outside We get some pouring rain here. Can I use my mind to make a judgment? I'm going to get an umbrella. Is that okay? Am I a mean and tolerant person if I do that? No god gave you a mind. He wants you to use it If let's say you're trying to get to the conference that we know the conference starts at a certain time And you're on the main highway, but google maps is telling you there's a big accident The road is closed and you're gonna if you stay on the road You're gonna be eight hours late to the conference. Can you use your mind to make a judgment? I'm gonna take the back roads Can you do that? Does that make you a mean judgmental person? Of course not God gave us a mind. He wants us to use our mind and we make judgments all the time It's a good thing Just don't judge someone's soul Don't condemn someone to hell. You don't know all that's going on in that person's life That's between them and god alone Now I think we all get that but I want I want to just test this idea a little bit Can can I ask you this can we use our mind and make judgments? About other people's actions I see a lot of you nodding. I thought this was a christian conference Don't you know jesus says don't judge So can I just ask you if your friend is trying to get here on time for scott hon's talk at the conference And they're on that highway and you notice on google maps that there's that eight hour delay They're gonna be eight hours late. Can you use your mind to make a judgment? They're gonna miss the opening night of the conference. Can you do that? Does that mean you're gonna call your friend and say and you're gonna go to hell if you're eight hours late? You're not doing that Right. You're just just making a logical judgment that just makes sense, right? If I see my little daughter chiara my little five-year-old right getting to run out into a busy street Can I use my mind to make a judgment? That's not good for her That she's gonna get hurt. Can I do that? Am I judging her soul when I do that? No, I'm just making a judgment about her actions. We can do that I know this sounds really basic, but I got to tell you In our era of such moral confusion, even these basics are not clear I can't tell you how many not only young adults but quite frankly Full adults have told me Hey, thank you for spending a lot of time on that distinction between making a judgment judging someone's soul That really helped me to see that I can say things are right or wrong without feeling like I'm condemning someone And because that's the fear I I will tell you especially people in their 20s and 30s So many of them said that tree that was so helpful because I want to be a loving person And you helped me to see that I can still say things are right or wrong and still love people And I don't feel like I could have to condemn them, but I but I can say that this is wrong Let's let's go there though. Can we do that? Can I say can I judge someone else's moral actions? Can I do that though? Can I judge someone else's moral actions? Really? I can play that role Let's say that there's a young gal goes to Ohio State And she's a freshman and she's sleeping around with one man after another after another after another Can I use my mind to make a judgment? That's not good for her. Can I do that? Can I make a judgment with my mind that she's not going to be happy She's not going to find the love that she's longing for that she deserves something so much more than this. Can I do that? Can I judge her soul? I can't judge her soul. No way. I I don't I don't know her background. I don't know her situation I don't know I don't know the whole story. I don't know all this going on Who am I to judge Pope Francis would say and rightly so in this case here Right, let's say this poor gal Let's say she came from a really dysfunctional family and never experienced authentic love Do you think God takes that into consideration? I don't know all that but God does Or let's say even worse. Let's say she was abused deeply wounded from that wound in her life Again, do you think God takes that into consideration life or let's say she was just taught by modern educators This is what it means to be a liberated woman use your sexuality this way. I don't know the whole story I just might know. Oh, this is what she does on Friday Saturday nights, but I don't I don't know the whole story God knows that I should never be in the business of judging someone's soul. That's between them and God That being said Here's the crucial point Should I ever say something to her? About what's going on in her life If I love her and God has put this person in my life. Should should I talk to her about it? I'm not talking about if she's a complete stranger. I'm not talking about that, right? I mean imagine you just walk up to her dorm room. Hi, you don't know me, but you're in mortal sin. That's weird I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this is your sister. This is your roommate. This is your niece God has put this person in your life. Should you talk to her about this if you love her What is love the definition of love according to Aquinas quoted in the catechism is this to will the good of the other That's what love is to will the good of the other to seek what's best for someone else. Then if I really love this person Should I try to show them a better way? Absolutely Now that doesn't mean like you have to do it right away. You have to do it the right time the right way The right words the right spirit, you know, so I want to be really clear Some of you are thinking oh cool Finally someone's telling me I've been waiting you're gonna leave this talking I can't wait to call my brother, but why not tell him for years brother You're in sin. Edward 3 told me to call you because I have to love you. That's not what I'm talking about You maybe you need to there's a lot of other things you might need to do before you ever have that kind of conversation Like maybe you haven't talked to your brother since Christmas And you need to build up the friendship You don't just send him some book in the mail About his moral problem when you don't have a friendship with him Maybe you need to really build up the friendship Let him know that you really sincerely care about him that you love him no matter what he does with his life You still love him. You're still always going to be there for him. You may not agree with all those other things You don't have to get into all that but but he just needs to know that there's some trust Maybe that needs to be a focus before you start getting into The deeper conversations you got to win the right to be hurt first Maybe or maybe he's just so hurt in life He needs to know about the mercy of god and And just that there is a god that loves him and has a plan for him And wants to help him and heal him. Maybe there's other things before you go after the big moral issues You know, every situation is different. It's not all black and white here I want you to know that there were times on good friday that jesus was silent There were times on good friday when jesus stayed silent That was the most prudent thing to do and you may have situations where it's better to remain silent But when push came to shove and he had to speak he spoke He was not afraid to speak the truth Even when it cost him his life And that's my question for many devout catholics Who know better who know that there's real right or wrong and we all have people in our lives like this And we might prudently go. Okay. I don't know if I want to bring this up with my family member or this friend But then we make that the long-term plan. I'm never going to bring it up That's dangerous Even if you choose i'm not going to bring it up this week this month this year You still need to be doing a lot of things to move toward that conversation. Do you pray for that person every day? Do you make sacrifices for them? Are you fasting for them? Are you praying jesus? I pray I can have that conversation with my dad I pray I can have that conversation with my brother. I pray I can have this conversation with my co-worker Are you praying for that? Are you looking for opportunities? So many catholic stages kind of go good. I don't have to I just I don't have to get those conversations that's not love And this is what the culture of moral relativism is doing It's making us scared to talk about what's right or wrong scared to talk about the things that matter most in life And and it's dividing us. I would argue the culture of moral relativism is dividing us. It's keeping us from loving each other So think about it this way, right? If I if I If I have my friend I who's coming to the conference And he's on that highway and I see on google maps that there's the big eight hour delay and I'm talking to him on the phone Should I say something to him? But if I just sit back and go, oh, well, it'll be good to see you When you get here Whenever that'll be Is that love? Is that a loving thing if I know that he's gonna be delayed eight hours and I don't tell him Is that a loving thing for me to do? That's not love If I see my little daughter chiara getting ready to run into the busy street and I just sit back and go Well, I wouldn't do that if I was a little five year old But I mean, if that's the way you want to live chiara, I guess you could do that. That's fine for you. Is that love? Is that love my friends? Indifference is not love Indifference is not love and the culture of moral relativism is getting us to be indifferent to the people in our lives If I go out in the backyard and I see a little carl dangling from the monkey bars And I and I just look at him go well if that works for you I mean, I don't want to be judgmental. I don't want to be intolerant. It doesn't seem to be a good idea But I don't want to say anything that's not love And relativism is getting us instead of responding with love to respond like kane in genesis four Kane who says am I my brother's keeper? I mean, I'm just doing my own thing. I'm just in charge of myself That's selfishness. Let's rise above the cultural moral relativism and start loving people amen All right, next one. We're going to go to the next slide here. So Slide oh wait that word that one worked. I think it's working now. Okay Relativism is not neutral Relativism is not neutral You know, I think what's often presented is relativism is the open-minded position We're very open-minded, you know, we you know, we don't say that there's any one view that's better than another view We just kind of want to take in all views together So we're going to be very neutral and very open-minded very tolerant. We're going to be very neutral like like switzerland That's kind of the view that is often promoted in the culture about what relativism is really all about That is not the case You need to know that relativism the relativistic mindset those who are the you know pushing the relativistic culture They are some of the most aggressive evangelists in the country Some most aggressive evangelists in the western world They're the ones that are really wanting you to adopt their view of relativism And they're really put a lot of pressure a lot of energy into this I'm going to tell you a true story True story about a young gal who came from a good catholic home was involved in her faith involved in her youth group in high school She goes off to college immediately wants to get involved in her Newman center the campus ministry She's going to mass every day or every every sunday and then she's involved in some of the campus ministry things But then that first year at college she takes a class And she gets to know some people and then she's at a party on the weekend And somehow in conversation with the college students the topic of gay marriage came up And they asked her what she thinks and she says oh, I think marriage is between a man and a woman And all of a sudden one of the guys at the party one of her so-called friends stands up on a chair And gets everyone's attention. Hey everybody. Did you hear what she just said? She thinks that gay marriage is wrong. She thinks that marriage is only between a man and a woman Can you believe that and all of a sudden everybody starts going up to her says, how could you believe this? Why do you think your view of marriage should be imposed on everyone else's? Why are you so intolerant? Why are christians so judgmental? And and she's trying to answer their questions She's trying to give some explanation But do you ever been a situation like this where the more you try to explain the more you kind of feel Like you're digging yourself in your own grave And after she was emotionally bullied for 20 minutes that night. She finally had to leave and walk out of the party But she walked out changed She walked out changed. She told herself it's too hard To stand up for my catholic faith It's too hard And god bless her I mean who wants is anyone here who wants to be labeled a bigot like I hope I can be labeled a bigot Is anyone want that who wants to be viewed by all your friends and all your peers is just a mean intolerant person No one wants that right? So I empathize with this poor girl But I'll tell you something dangerous happened in her soul that night As she walked out and she just told herself it's too hard to stand up for my catholic faith She then started to adopt Oh, what could be called a soft relativism Relativism it was kind of like where she'd find herself in situations with her friends in the future And she didn't want to be beat up like that again So but she didn't want to jettison her catholic past her catholic values and all so She would just add one little word to all of her moral statements just one simple Or two actually two two simple little words to all of her moral statements And it was a way for her to kind of be accepted by her peers and still kind of connect with her catholic past So when when a topic would come up, let's say about abortion. She would say Oh abortion is wrong And then she would add just two little words for me for me Just two little simple words. That's that's pretty harmless, right? And what what that allowed her to do is that she would still say abortion was wrong But by adding for me It was a way she didn't have to reject her catholic past At least she thought in her mind that oh, I can kind of still say I'm against abortion But but I say it's just for me And then if other people want to have abortion or promote abortion, that's okay for them And then her friends would go yeah, you have a weird belief But you're not trying to say that that's that's true for everyone. So I guess we can we can accept that Do you see how that those little words helped her? Because she didn't want to just wake up one morning and spit at a crucifix and reject Jesus Reject the catholic church So it was a way to kind of like say oh, yeah, I kind of still think abortion is wrong But I'll just say for me And privatize it and just say it's just not wrong in reality and everyone else could choose what they want Same thing. What what is marriage? Well marriage is between a man and a woman for me But if other people want to view marriage in a different way they can do that And again, these are just two little simple words Does that seem that harmful? Just two little words This is what so many young people do today Here's the challenge though Is that once we add those two words to all of our moral statements once we say that This is wrong only for me. It's not wrong in reality It's it's just I think it's harmful for me. It's not necessarily harmful for everyone else. Like once I kind of do that Something starts to change in my heart. I no longer have truth to guide me It's kind of like this. We start making big moral truths out to be things like I'm gonna go really fun on you here ready like your favorite flavor of ice cream Can I do a little poll with you? We're gonna do a little survey right now Okay, we're gonna talk about ice cream everyone loves ice cream But if you had to choose between chocolate and vanilla, are you ready? How many of you think chocolate is better? Raise your hands high be proud. Okay. You got chocolate people here. How many of you think vanilla is better? Right, okay, so some people think chocolate some people think vanilla Is there really a right answer? chocolate, of course No, it just depends on everyone's individual taste, right? And your taste could change, you know as you get older Maybe you used to like chocolate, but now you like vanilla a little better your taste can change Same thing again. It's like what's what favorite music do you listen to classical listen to rock? I listen to country music rides all different tastes or what sport do you like like as a kid growing up in chicago? I love the chicago bears nfl football. I love nfl football and now as i'm older I love what the rest of the world calls football. We call it soccer So my taste can change right now think about that if I start saying for me Soccer is better than nfl football for me classical is better than than than country or I'd say for me Chocolate's better than vanilla if I start if I use that same terminology for me abortion is wrong Notice what I'm doing There is no longer truth outside of me to guide me There's no longer truth to be my moral compass. It's all dependent on my own personal opinion My own personal taste like chocolate and vanilla And those tastes can change So guess what happened to this young gal? When she started adopting this for me morality Then what starts to happen is when she faces moral choices of her own certain temptations on her own She has nothing nothing to guide her at all Except her own personal taste in that moment Her own personal preference in that moment. There's no truth outside of her So then she started noticing she was started Experimenting with certain ways of living and doing things she never imagined herself doing And by the end of her freshman year at college She became a moral relativist rejected her catholic faith stopped going to church on sunday All because of this little for me morality that crept in She started compromising because there's no truth outside of you in the moment Well, I guess you know it used to be for me this way, but maybe for me today. It's okay to do this with this guy And now all of a sudden the devil's got you This is the danger and I've had many young adults tell me that's so spot on They've all they said like they might not have had the same story like at a party But they all talk about how much pressure there is I am so scared to ever say anything is right or wrong Many devout daily mass going eucharistic adoration going catholics young catholics On campuses in their 20s and their 30s admit to me how scared they are to ever talk about moral truth with their peers Because they know they're going to be labeled and they know they're going to be beaten down And so they have admitted they sometimes do this move to try to fit in But as one young adult in colorado told me yeah when you start doing that for me morality It's a very slippery slope and you wake up two or three years later And you realize you're not the same person that you used to be Because as I said this morning Truth is not an abstract concept truth is a person Jesus christ who said I am the way the truth and the life And so to the extent I say well, this is just true for me I'm not just denying a moral line a code in the catechism I'm denying jesus christ as the eternal truth who's true for everyone And once I drive that little wedge between me and jesus with my for me morality I open myself up To many more temptations and many more compromises So I want you to see Relativism is not neutral people are very aggressive and they're getting young people to adopt this for me morality Which is the first step outside the church First step to break them in their friendship with christ And what we want to do is be able to resist that to to as popendic said we have to resist this imposition of relativism on us And I want to give you practically can I give you a little practical note here? This is when people love this this is really helpful for you ready? The next time you find yourself in one of those conversations about a hot button moral issue And you dare to say something's wrong and wrong for everyone and your friend then turns to you and says Don't be so judgmental. What what can you do when you come right back? I'm going to give you one little line having your pocket. You use this line ready. Just come right back and say Excuse me. Are you judging me? It's so funny because the relativists isn't used to the christian playing the don't judge card But in all seriousness and all seriousness This isn't ingest I I think this strategy will help you to have a deeper conversation to talk about the more fundamental issues Not the particular moral issue at hand But that deeper worldview like the periodic table of elements we talked about earlier Is going to help you have a more genuine conversation Not one that's so heated and personal and emotional, but a genuine conversation about a fundamental view of the world Imagine the conversation going like this. You're at Thanksgiving dinner and ant sally says, why are you catholics? Why are you so intolerant? You come right back to say to ant sally? Excuse me ant sally. Are you judging me? And ant sally immediately is going to feel very uncomfortable I'm not judging because because judging is the worst sin in a secular age, right? So as I she's never been called the judgment That's what she prides herself in is being so non-judgmental so tolerant and she doesn't know what to do with that But then she's going to come back and maybe say something like but you know, I'm not You're the one being judgmental. You're the one that's saying that this is wrong for everyone. That's judgmental And once she admits that now you got her now you have the opportunity to open the door for a deeper conversation And I don't want you to talk about abortion necessarily right now I want you to go just go to say ant sally hold on a second here It sounds to me like maybe you believe in the the view of moral relativism Would that be fair to say that you believe everyone makes up their own morality? Everyone makes up their own reality. They make up their own truth their own moral values Is is is that what I hear you saying ant sally? I mean I I would love to talk about that with you actually But but right now I'm feeling like this, you know that you think that the way to look at reality the lenses in which to view life Is through the lenses of moral relativism that you believe there's no moral structure to the universe everyone decides for themselves What's right or wrong and ant sally? I respect you and and you're free to wear those glasses That that's how you want to view the world with those lenses. You're you're free to do that But you haven't convinced me that these are the best glasses to wear And I got a lot of questions about that and I'd love to talk to you about that But right now I'm feeling like you want to just force these glasses on me And so ant sally you're I mean you're free to believe if you want to believe there's no moral structure the universe You want to believe in moral relativism? You're free to do that ant sally But the one thing I'm going to ask you ant sally is this please do not impose your faith In moral relativism on me No, I'm being a little more rhetorical up here on stage. So you don't have to have that kind of tone But you get the idea see too often we catholics have to talk about gender and Marriage homosexuality and we just just get sucked in to these issues and you're just going to end up in a shouting match I want to talk about the glasses I want I want ant sally to talk about the glasses because she's never had to think about these glasses before These are the glasses. She's just been wearing because that's what the culture has given her She's never asked the question. Are these the right lenses? Through which to view reality and I want her to start thinking about that So I'm just going to start so so ant sally, but but again, I'd love to hear about your moral relativism. Tell me Why do you think that makes sense that everyone just makes up their own morality? Let her talk So ant sally then how would how would that work in a culture? How would a society get along in a culture? Just said everyone could do whatever they want let let her talk and then ask her a question So ant sally, so if I said for me Kidnapping little children was okay with would that make it okay because for me that's that's my value system Or if I said for me raping women would make would that what is a good thing would that make it? Okay, ant sally we catholics too often do all the talking all the explaining all the defending On this one the best thing to do is give them the ball Let them talk because they because as they talk they're going to start thinking about it And they've never thought about it and it doesn't make any sense They're going to quickly feel like they're running in circles. They're contradicting themselves. They're skating on thin ice And I'm not trying to do that to make them feel uncomfortable. I just want them to not be So like convinced that these are the right ways. I want them to go. Wow. Those were good questions I've never thought about that before because then my friend ant sally might be more open to hearing a full Fuller presentation of catholic view of morality. So sally Can I just share with you like this is a different way of maybe looking at it? This is how ways catholics look at it and you don't have to agree it with this I just want you to just just try this jacket on for size, you know again, you might not want to wear the jacket That's fine But I want you at least just try this on for size and I'm convinced if we can walk people through a catholic world world view And they try it on for size. They're going to go This actually fits really nicely Because it makes more sense. I think long term. That's my experience of working with young adults teaching university students walking I'm blessed to have them for a whole semester long class where I can walk them through this And many of them have had conversions Not because of like here's five apologetics on this issue. No, it's because of the whole world view They start going this just makes more sense, but they have to put it on. They have to try it. Okay next point Relativism is a mask. Relativism is a mask I often tell the story about many years ago I think it was maybe 2004 2005 sometime around then I was giving a talk in the new york city area. It was actually over The hudson river on the new on the new jersey side. There was a big conference center hotel center And there was this big conference with young adults And there was a young adult Man that was there that came up to me after I gave a talk on moral relativism Kind of maybe a little bit like i'm doing here and he had this notebook and all these notes He was taking and saying dr. Street. Dr. Street. Yeah, I got some questions for I've been taking all these notes I really loved your talk. This was awesome. I got some questions for you and uh, I said, okay What's your question? He says, here's my big question. Do you think I'm a moral relativist? I said, I don't know. I'm just getting to know you And I asked him I said, well, I mean why why do you even ask that? He said, oh, there's just some things you said in the talk that made me wonder if maybe I'm a relativist And I said, I'd be surprised. I mean you're a practice in catholic, right? Oh, yeah I'm involved in my young adult group in Manhattan. I love going to eucharistic adoration and I go Yeah, I mean it seems like you're pretty connected in your faith. Oh, yeah, I don't you're a relativist But I'll just ask, you know, so like let's take a moral issue like abortion like you think abortion's wrong. He says, oh, yeah Yeah abortion is wrong for me And there were those two little words And I asked him I said, well, wait, wait, hold on. What do you mean for me? He says, oh, well I mean for me. I believe it's a baby in the womb. It's a human life and says we shouldn't kill human life But if for someone else they think it's just a bunch of cells or it's not human life then for them It's not really killing and so abortion would be okay I looked at him and I go Yep, you're a relativist. I think that's pretty clear And and I started debating with him. I go well, let me just ask you You just said that you think this is a human life And so it here's the deal it either is a human life a child mainly the image and likeness of god Or it's not it's not dependent on my feelings. This is not dependent on my opinion It either is truly human life or it's not he said no no But for someone else they create their own reality for them if it's not it's not killing And we're just debating and debating and I and I and I thought wow this is getting nowhere And there's all these other young adults now kind of crowding around listening to this debate So I changed the topic I said you mentioned Eucharistic adoration that you love going to adoration There's a little chapel right right here. We're standing outside a room They had set up as a Eucharistic adoration chapel said so some crazy man came in here and desecrated the Eucharist Would that be a bad thing? And he says oh, yeah, that'd be really bad for me I said What do you mean for me? What about for Jesus and he says oh, I mean because for me I believe that this is the real presence of Jesus his body and blood You know, but if somebody else doesn't have that belief then for them It's just a piece of bread and they're not really doing anything wrong. I go. No, no, no, no, hold on Either this is the real body blood soul and divinity of Jesus Christ in reality Or it's just a piece of bread my feelings my opinion my mood my thoughts Doesn't change that reality. There is or isn't he's like no no everyone decides for himself I couldn't believe what I was hearing this conversation was going nowhere Finally Finally as we were standing in this big hallway that had these big windows that overlooked the Hudson River down into Manhattan I pointed out the window. I said I want you to look right now down at lower Manhattan Because down there there used to be two towers standing there and on september 11 2001 terrorists hijacked airplanes crashed them into those buildings thousands of people died that day Many little children lost their mother or father on that day Could you look those little kids in the eye and say that what happened on september 11th wasn't a bad thing It's just bad for them because they lost their mommy that day But it's not but it was good for the terrorists because the terrorists thought they were doing something good Could you look those kids in the eye and actually say that to them? And he was like, oh man, that'd be really hard. I oh, this is really personal I lost friends in the tower that day that oh this would be really hard, but You know, I guess if I had to be consistent I would have to look those kids in the eye and say that what happened was not bad It just felt bad for them But the terrorists thought they were doing good and so it was good for the terrorists and at this I'm like I have no idea what to do now. I need a big plan b And my plan b was simply I told him I go, I don't know what more I could say to you I don't know what more I can say But there's one thing you told me You said that you love jesus and going to eucharistic adoration They're having adoration right in that room right there Would you be willing to go into that room and pray? And just ask jesus what he thinks of your moral relativism. Would you be willing to do that? He said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, he was really kind. He seemed like a really nice guy, but whoa The way his mind thought about these things it was so radical If you've ever encountered someone willing to go that far in their relativism, it's hard What do you do? And I was just I was stunned. So I went to bed that night just like I was hard to sleep It was just so hard and then I got up to leave the next day and it was after the closing mass I had my suitcase. I'm walking out that same corridor with the windows and he chases me down again He's got his notebook again. Dashie. Dashie. Thank you so much for talking. I stayed up I really thought about what you said. I stayed in the chapel till like 2 30 last night I took all these notes and I gotta tell you something. I realized something last night. I said, what'd you realize? I realized I'm not really a moral relativist I'm thinking yeah, right Hey, and he says no no no dr. Sri I'm not really a moral relativist I've just been wanting to say I'm a relativist Because I want to be able to say Premarital sex is okay And then he looks down pauses Then looks me in the eye and he says I want to be able to say Premarital sex is okay for me What an honest humble young man To come back to me didn't have to do that But to come back and then admit that the reason he was trying to espouse relativism wasn't because it was a real Great philosophical system that made a lot of sense. It isn't The real reason behind his wanting to embrace more relativism was it gave him an excuse for a moral failure in his own life A certain sin that he didn't want to have to call a sin his conscience wasn't Wasn't comfortable with what he was doing in his in his promiscuity And so relativism helped him to rationalize his sin and tried to help him make not feel guilty about what he was doing But in the end as he went before jesus in the blessed sacrament, he knew the truth And he just wanted to admit that's the reason I espouse relativism I share this story with you my friends because many times when you're talking to someone about some moral issue And there you're you're talking at this high level here You're talking all about the moral issue itself realize a lot may be going on underneath all that under the surface You're talking not to an idea A debate you're talking to a real person A person who may have many struggles and doubts and hurts and fears in their own life And we need to treat them like persons That god loves pray to their guardian angel fast for them and realize that there might be a lot more going on than all this You know all these big debates and arguments appear. There may be a lot going on in that person You know think about this psychologist talk about do you know that anyone studies psychology? Do you know the the theory of cognitive dissonance? You know what that is the theory of cognitive distance sounds really abstract but really simple it's just simply you know when Your behavior doesn't match up with your beliefs You feel discord there's there's internal tension and we want harmony within ourselves So we don't like that discord when I I have a certain belief But then I'm living over here in a way that doesn't correspond to that belief So what do we do we can't live with that disharmony? So we do one of two things we either go like this We readjust our behavior to get our behavior back in line with our beliefs Or what's the other thing we could do? We could change our beliefs to justify our new behavior, right? What is easier to do? What do people tend to do? They tend to adjust their beliefs to justify the behavior I think that's what people do right. Have you ever done that? He ever said I'm going to make a new year's resolution Have you ever done this? Oh this new year. I'm gonna you know start in january. I'm gonna eat healthy foods. I'm gonna avoid bad foods I'm gonna eat healthy right you ever do something like this and then it's like the second thursday in january And you're out with your friends at some pub or something and Then they bring out those big onion rings Onto the table right and all of a sudden you see your hand going out to reach the onion ring your mind saying Eat healthy foods Don't eat fried food and now all of a sudden you find your all of a sudden that hand Is just keeps bringing that onion ring in your mouth now what happened? So you have a belief but your behavior is not aligned with your beliefs anymore. And so you'd feel uncomfortable So one thing you could do is put the rest of the onion ring down and then just say okay I'm not gonna eat anymore adjust your change your behavior to match up with your belief Or you could do What I might do is say something like well It's about fellowship. They order the onion rings and it's about friendship. So I should eat a couple You know, it'll be fine or I'll I'll eat a salad later and somehow that'll just balance it out Or I can kind of tell myself something like this to change my beliefs Mother always taught me onions are a vegetable You've all done things like this right you changed your belief to justify what you're doing Learn from your own humanity your own weakness And realize that there are many people in your life who may espouse relativism Not out of ill will but out of weakness maybe and and they just not comfortable with themselves There's something they're doing and and be aware of that pray for that. That's why in the last point I'll leave you with this this So relativism is a mask often covering up some hidden weakness hidden sin not in every case But at least be aware that that might be the possibility The the I'm gonna skip real freedom actually just for sake of time I'm gonna go to the last one You have to read the book to get number five Number six lead with mercy Lead with mercy. This is the last point. It's related to the relativism mask thing We have to realize that we can't just Talk about the moral truth issue itself We have to talk about the larger truth of the gospel The gospel message is more than just contraception is wrong premarital sex is wrong marriage between man and woman care for the poor Care for the environment the gospel message is more than all of these individual things The gospel message also includes god's rich mercy His forgiveness his grace the grace that he gives us to help us To to live like him to live the moral law the way we could never do on our own That's the full gospel message when we just start debating the moral issues imagine if you're talking about relativism And there's there's a guy you're talking to at work about and he's he's a catholic But he's spousing relativism and you're just talking about it could be you're talking about abortion You're talking about gay marriage and you're debating that issue You could be just up here at the level debate remember you're talking to a person Let's say this person here himself Has a hidden sin that his wife doesn't know about he doesn't want his friends to know about his family Know about he's addicted to pornography And he's adopted relativism because he just feels so horrible about himself. He's so ashamed Of what he's doing and and it's a way to try life. I can just say there is no real right or wrong for everyone Then I can just somehow feel better for me, but I just keep coming at him Hey, listen to this cd and listen to this talk and watch this youtube video And i'm not even aware of the person in front of me I I may not really advance the ball and help him You know and in focus and I work with focus so many young College students are addicted to pornography today Even the really good ones you go to a newman center I've talked to many chaplains at newman centers who hear the confessions over and over and they say, yeah You know the ones that actually are really involved in the newman center He said like, you know, like maybe 90 of them are have are struggling with pornography 90 and this is across east coast west coast midwest. I hear this over and over again Now if I were to show up on college campus to give a talk about pornography and I walked in and said Brothers stop looking at those things. Don't you know, that's mortal sin. You need to get some self-control You need to stop doing this. This is wrong. Here's 10 reasons why this is wrong Stop doing it and I stopped there. Is that going to be really helpful for them? They already know it's wrong They already know that they just feel trapped. They feel helpless That's actually just throwing salt on their wound. Now don't get me wrong We have to teach the truth about what's right or wrong, but I need to always present always present it with mercy The big picture of mercy that it'd be different. Like if I came into those same college students and I said to those guys brothers Jesus knows what you're looking at And he loves you He loves you no matter how many times you fall He is so in love with you and he really wants to help you He wants to forgive you and he can forgive you every time you make a mistake in this area You can always receive his mercy in confession and you should go to confession, but not only is he gonna forgive you every time If you keep coming back to him in confession, there's grace that's there that can actually help you To overcome the slavery you feel yourself just so entrenched in there's real grace that can help you And and there's great programs out there and Accountability groups and other things that could help you and I'm going to tell you some stories of god's grace working amazingly And and other men's lives who were right there where you are right now and yet And and they came and they asked for god's help and then and then over a course of a period of time They found real healing and sobriety in this matter Which approach is going to be more helpful for those young people The approach when I just talk about the moral truth Or when I talk about the moral truth in light of the whole truth of the gospel message of mercy Clearly the latter And that's the approach we want to always have in mind st. Bernadette of Clairvaux said that the reason so many people Don't embrace The catholic faith is not because they they're just not intellectually convinced It's that they don't realize how good and how loving and how gentle and how patient and how merciful This god is And they don't realize how how much this god longs to help us with our struggles So if all I do is present here's the high moral law Humane vitae. Here's the high moral law care for the poor. Here's the high moral and I just throw the moral law up here But I don't talk about grace Many people are going to look at that moral law go that that this is just too much. I can't do that It's too hard and I give up Realized to win the battle of relativism. I hope you use all those other keys I hope that's going to help you penetrate hearts and all but to really really get people to follow Jesus And get rid of relativism. You need to proclaim the truth of god's mercy with it as well. Amen All right, well my friends, there's so much more. I'd love to talk about I'm going to just talk about that this is the book that I wrote the one on the you're right Who am I to judge it comes with little small group questions people can use it for For men's groups women's groups things like that but probably more interesting I know a lot of you do bible studies. This was a video study that we did with young adults And and it's a lot of engaging stories. There's a family I'll tell you about in colorado that told me that they use this with their They have two college age kids and two high school age kids And they've been wanting to have all these moral conversations with the kids But didn't know how to get into it and they said dr. Shree We went on a ski trip So we drove seven hours to the other side of colorado for a ski trip And we watched your videos for the entire seven hour car ride and it was so amazing. I thought that's not safe But who am I to judge? Because I teased them like oh no, we actually had the dvds playing we weren't watching them We were just listening to the stories and the stories were so engaging real life situations our teenage and college age boys We're asking questions. It led to so many helpful conversations So if you're looking for a resource, especially with the next generation that might be helpful for you Okay, so I'll just close with this you can always find me on various social media platforms And if you listen to podcasts So I have a podcast that comes out each week. It's called all things catholic You can check it out on google play or on itunes. You can Put my name, but you have to put my whole name by the way Edward sri if you want to check out my podcast if you only put my last name sri You will find an indian hindu guru And that's not me You put an edward sri. You'll find it My wife and I just did one about our 20th anniversary pilgrimage. We just did so that was this week's episode So all right, let's close in a glory beat and i'm happy to i'll stay here and answer any questions for about 10 minutes or so So too, if you have any questions, I know there are a couple people that didn't get their books signed and i'm happy To do that as well. Let's oh can I just mention one last thing? I I forgot to mention this Scott mentioned i'm I do a lot of work in myriology This is my newest book on mary and I just want to let you know about it's an amazing cover They did called rethinking mary in the new testament Because many people think there's not that much to mary in the new testament She only appears a few times what I did in this book here is I walk through every new testament reference to mary And I try to glean it for all that we can get from it So I have a whole chapter for example just on the word hail And getting into all the debates about hail and what we can learn about mary from that or a whole chapter Just on full of grace a whole chapter just on do whatever he tells you So like I think there's like seven chapters just on the enunciation going through Going through that line by line. So my microphone is off. That's a sign. I'm supposed to end Let's ask mary to pray for us in the name of the father the son the holy spirit Hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus Holy mary mother of god pray for us sinners Now and at the hour of our death amen in the name of the father and the son the holy spirit Amen. Thank you all so much and god bless you