The kitchen door burst open and Lauren skated in, "Mom, Sarah says we took books out of the Bible." Not missing a beat, I replied, "She’s wrong, the Protestants took them out." She turned and skated back to correct her errant friend.

My daughter’s career in apologetics had been launched.

As I watched her go confidently out to defend the Faith, I thought back to my first apologetic encounter. It was a hot, sunny day and I was seven. My best friend, Linda, and I were playing in my sandbox. Linda looked up from her play, stared me straight in the eye, and said, "Catholics are going to hell." I looked at her. She continued, "That’s what my Aunt Bertie said. Catholics are going to hell."

Of course, I was all amazement. The good sisters at my parochial school had told us you had to be a Catholic to get to heaven. The way I figured, Protestants didn’t have a chance. I just blinked at my friend and shrugged. Knowing where she was heading, I just thought, "Is she in for a surprise."

Lauren’s skating encounter stirred me. We live in a small community and are home schoolers. Although we network with a small vibrant Catholic home school community, we also interact with a larger interdenominational group. We love our friends — no-nonsense Calvinists, cheerful Calvary Chapelers, openhearted Evangelical Freers, champion Scripture-quoting Nazarenes, et al. I knew my kids would eventually be challenged and I started thinking about what I could do to assist them in apologetics. We were already doing Scripture memory work, so I decided to periodically add an apologetics verse to their studies. All their Bible verses are on 3x5 index cards with the citation in big marking pen letters on one side and the verse on the other. The apologetic verses (see page 24) are on blue cards.

A word about memory techniques: There are various methods, but the one I’ve developed is very simple and requires no writing (see below).

If a set of verses is long, two weeks may be necessary to initially memorize them, though one week is sufficient for most verses. I also have the children cite the book, chapter and verse number at the beginning and end of each recitation. After they get several verses memorized, a review schedule is set up. The first year, I made the mistake of not reviewing sufficiently and they forgot a lot. When a verse is newly learned, I review it every day — one recitation. If they are "soft" on the verse, I go back to three recitations. When they have it nailed down, the verse goes on a weekly review schedule. As they learn more and more verses, they can be moved to a monthly or periodic review schedule.

We usually do our memory work, which also includes work in other subject areas, after prayers as our first subject of the day. If you’re not a home schooler, this could easily be done at dinner time. Another benefit of this, of course, is that you learn the verses too. The only depressing thing is how fast the kids memorize. My kids know way more than I do.

My children attend a Christian camp each year and I always prep them beforehand. We sit down and I pepper them with anti-Catholic questions. Do you pray the rosary? Do you worship Mary? Why do you follow traditions of men? Purgatory isn’t in the Bible, so why do you believe in it? Why do you confess your sins to a man? You Catholics believe the Pope is perfect.

One year at the end of our session, when Lauren had answered the questions fairly well, she looked at me and said, "Oh, Mom! I hope someone asks me a question!"

No one did, that year.

This year was different. Lauren, now 12, had a counselor who was an ex-Catholic. The first night, Lauren pulled out her rosary to pray before going to bed. Her Catholic friend, Lisa, said to her, "Oh, that’s nice. You’re going to say a rosary."

"Yes, we try to pray it everyday," replied Lauren.

A discussion began in the cabin regarding things Catholic. The counselor shared how she had a soft spot for Catholics as she had once been one. She then mentioned there were things in the Church that were difficult for her. Lisa admitted, "I’m always scared of confession and what the priest is going to say."

The counselor said, "You don’t have to confess your sins to a priest, you can confess them to anyone — that’s what the Bible says." Lisa was pretty taken aback and didn’t know what to say. Lauren sprang to Lisa’s defense, contradicting the counselor and telling her the Bible says, "Jesus breathed on them and said ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’"

The counselor looked surprised and said, "Oh? Where does it say that?" Lauren was a little excited and didn’t remember where to look at first. After consulting the index, at the counselor’s suggestion, they found the verse in John 20:22-23.

The counselor tried to explain it away by saying there must have been other people in the room that Jesus gave the gift to besides the Apostles. One of the other non-Catholic girls asked, "Does it specifically say there were others in the room?"

Both Lauren and the counselor said "No."

The Protestant girl then asked, "Do Catholics worship Mary?"

Lauren said, "No. We show her honor. If it’s okay to bow to a King and show him honor, why not do the same thing with Jesus’ mother?"

To her credit, the counselor agreed, adding, "I keep trying to explain to my husband that Catholics don’t worship Mary, they honor her." The conversation moved on and one of the girls asked why Catholics had more books in their Bible.

Here my daughter was a little off-track in her Church history as she replied, "The monks kept all the books until the priests and bishops decided which books belong in the Bible, and then at the Reformation, Martin Luther took certain books out."

The Protestant girl responded, "That’s terrible. That’s like ripping the words of Jesus right out of His mouth!" The counselor said, "Lauren is right that the bishops decided which books belonged in the Bible, then later they took some out, and then even later, the Catholic Church put them back in." The counselor had her church history a bit off-track, too.

Then the woman herded the girls to bed. As the lights went out, Lauren said to the counselor, "You know, it’s kind of stupid that Martin Luther said we’re to believe in the Bible alone. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 says, "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter."

The counselor said, "Really? Okay, it’s time to go to bed." That was pretty much the way it happened. It’s hard to get a twelve-year-old to tell you exactly what occurred, so my apologies go out to anyone involved if I haven’t transcribed the conversation precisely. Later, I had an opportunity to speak on the telephone with the counselor who is a graduate of Biola University. She told me she thought Lauren knew her Bible the best of the girls at the camp and that she was impressed that Lauren knew why she believed what she believed. As I hung up the phone, I was very proud of my daughter and whispered a prayer of thanksgiving.

e