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Brandon Vogt, bestselling and award-winning author, has just released his new book “What to Say and How to Say It.”
In this straightforward and practical book published by Ave Maria Press, Brandon offers essential tools for articulating even the most contentious aspects of our Catholic faith with clarity and confidence.
1. Brandon, what inspired you to write “What to Say and How to Say It”?
A few years back, I sent a survey to around 60,000 email followers, asking them to share the number one thing they struggle with in their faith. Predictably, a number of people mentioned difficulty in prayer, or a loved one who has left the Church.
But far and away, the most popular answer was some version of, “The culture is trying to squeeze the faith out of me. My Catholic beliefs are increasingly out of step with our world, which means I’m often embarrassed to discuss my faith, or even identify, publicly, as a Catholic, whether at work, school, or among my friends. I’m worried they’ll think I’m a bigot or close-minded, and if they push back against my views on marriage, sexuality, science, or religion, I just have no idea what to say. I’m so afraid.”
I received hundreds of variations of this answer. It confirmed for me that lots of people love their Catholic faith, and they find it true, good, and beautiful, but they’re increasingly nervous about publicly discussing it with others. They’re not confident; they’re scared.
After wrestling with this problem for some time, I finally hit on a solution. I found that our confidence about discussing any topic is directly tied to our clarity about it. We know this from experience, with other subjects. Think about it: the topics you’re most clear about are those you’re leastnervous about discussing, right? If you knew everything about baseball, inside and out, you would never get nervous discussing baseball with a friend, even a friend who disagreed with you about this or that facet. Nothing would rattle you. You’d find those conversations fun and invigorating because you’re totally clear about what you believe.
Continued below.
The Saemans Plant ‘Seeds of Hope’
In this straightforward and practical book published by Ave Maria Press, Brandon offers essential tools for articulating even the most contentious aspects of our Catholic faith with clarity and confidence.
1. Brandon, what inspired you to write “What to Say and How to Say It”?
A few years back, I sent a survey to around 60,000 email followers, asking them to share the number one thing they struggle with in their faith. Predictably, a number of people mentioned difficulty in prayer, or a loved one who has left the Church.
But far and away, the most popular answer was some version of, “The culture is trying to squeeze the faith out of me. My Catholic beliefs are increasingly out of step with our world, which means I’m often embarrassed to discuss my faith, or even identify, publicly, as a Catholic, whether at work, school, or among my friends. I’m worried they’ll think I’m a bigot or close-minded, and if they push back against my views on marriage, sexuality, science, or religion, I just have no idea what to say. I’m so afraid.”
I received hundreds of variations of this answer. It confirmed for me that lots of people love their Catholic faith, and they find it true, good, and beautiful, but they’re increasingly nervous about publicly discussing it with others. They’re not confident; they’re scared.
After wrestling with this problem for some time, I finally hit on a solution. I found that our confidence about discussing any topic is directly tied to our clarity about it. We know this from experience, with other subjects. Think about it: the topics you’re most clear about are those you’re leastnervous about discussing, right? If you knew everything about baseball, inside and out, you would never get nervous discussing baseball with a friend, even a friend who disagreed with you about this or that facet. Nothing would rattle you. You’d find those conversations fun and invigorating because you’re totally clear about what you believe.
Continued below.
The Saemans Plant ‘Seeds of Hope’
