PR Pope

PR Pope was written for the young adult, beginner atheist, or anyone who is contemplating leaving or questioning their faith. The goal of the book is to inspire young people who do not typically challenge religious beliefs to understand why it's important to do so. As the American right-wingers assert religious beliefs into legislation, we must teach young people that it is okay to question everything and no longer taboo to speak up regarding religion.

PR Pope focuses on modern issues facing Pope Francis and the Catholic Church. The idea is to use these issues to teach the young reader how to use logic and compare and contrast techniques. They can then apply these techniques to all religious and pseudoscience assertions.

Growing up as a Christian, I always felt it was strange when someone would tell me that "It's rude to talk about religion." My pastors always said we were "fishers of men " In Matthew 4:19 (NIV) Jesus said, "Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people." Wouldn't I have to discuss religion if I were going to follow Jesus? This seemed contradictory to me.

Once my exodus from religion began, I finally discovered what I was missing and the story is the same for politics. If you are discussing religion or politics and the other person agrees with you, they love it and they want more of it On the other hand, if you are challenging someone's beliefs or ideas, suddenly the two topics become taboo.

In short, it's not rude to talk about these subjects. It's only rude to some when you make them think critically or question their long-held beliefs. In actuality, you've only made them uncomfortable, and since they can't comprehend the cognitive dissonance happening in real time, they tend to perceive your questions as attacks on them personally.

This awful attribute is, thankfully, not universal. There are many people like me who love to be challenged and enjoy the sport of spirited debate. For some, the more heated the debate, the more progress that's made. The heat typically means we've struck a nerve.

PR Pope is intended to challenge the average person or Catholic to think critically. The history of the Vatican and the Church could be used as inspiration for thousands of R-rated thriller and horror movies. The modern Church, while taking baby steps towards progress, is responsible for producing a lot of suffering in the world. If your first thought after reading that last sentence was, "Yeah, but what about all the good they do?," then congratulations - you are part of the problem. Well over a billion people focus on the good that the Church does, and this book will occasionally do so, too. However, it's time more of us with a platform speak up and speak out about the evidence that we find to be contrary.