Class Blog Archive

Class met with Mr. Doran for the final chapter of our TOB study: "Living the Good and Free Life."

Class outline:

Last time, Sunday, May 26, was our final class for the academic year. Led by Mr. Doran, the class completed Chapter 12 of TOB for Teens: High School Edition -- "Living the Good (and Free!) Life." This chapter pulled together the threads of all that we have studied about the Theology of the Body this year.

Key points:

Class date: May 12, 2019

Mr. Doran taught this class. Here's his class outline. :-)

Class will be meeting next on Sunday, May 12.

Last time, we discussed how pornography kills love, degrades persons, and harms relationships. It also leads to a loss of personal freedom and often to addiction.

Key points:

Porn is any media — songs, stories, images, or videos — intended to arouse lust by showing nudity or sexual behavior.

Porn can harm the user by leading to an addiction. Especially in younger persons, it can lead to serious addictions and a warped understanding of love and sexuality.

The American Society for Addiction Medicine explains:
We all have the brain reward circuitry that makes food and sex rewarding. In fact, this is a survival mechanism. In a healthy brain, these rewards have feedback mechanisms for satiety or ‘enough.’ In someone with addiction, the circuitry becomes dysfunctional such that the message to the individual becomes ‘more’, which leads to the pathological pursuit of rewards and/or relief through the use of substances and behaviors.

In simpler terms, addiction involves changes in the brain that cause the following (and more):

Good Pictures, Bad Pictures by Kristen A. Jenson and Gail Poyner. I based my talk on this book plus online resources including those below.

All of the resources below include links to relevant research.

Protect Young Minds - Information for parents of younger children, from the authors of Good Pictures, Bad Pictures.

Fight the New Drug - Information for high-school students and older.

Class will be meeting next Sunday, April 28.

Last time, we studied Chapter 11: Dating with Purpose and Purity. Some important points:

Class will meet again THIS Sunday, April 7
But then we get a three-week break until the next one.

Last time, we completed Chapter 9: Celibacy & Religious Life, plus Chapter 10: Finding Your Vocation.

Key points on Celibacy & Religious Life:

Class date: 17 March, 2019

IMPORTANT: The focus is on transgender ideology and its errors, as distinct from individuals who experience transgender feelings.

Thought to ponder:

How can it be that if a girl likes pink and princesses, she’s the victim of tyrannical social conditioning, but if a boy does, that means he’s really a girl?

1. Why does transgenderism matter to you? Particular areas where the ideology is being pushed strongly today:

Class date: May 17, 2019

Videos covering class material -- watch these if you missed class:

• Fr Mike Schmitz on Gender Dysphoria

• Ryan T. Anderson on Responding to the Transgender Moment

• What Does the Church Think of Transgender People? | Catholic Answers

Information: