Maria is a 62-year-old mother of two. She was raised Catholic. She has gone to mass all her life but more for the interactions with others than because of any true belief. She lost a friend to cancer recently and has been thinking a lot about death. She is having a hard time believing that there is anything after death, but the thought of ‘nothing’ scares her. Her husband is also Catholic. Although he does not attend church, he has always strongly believed in heaven. He encourages her to pray more to help with her anxiety about death. She tries to pray but feels awkward and silly, as she is fairly sure that there is no one listening. She spends all of her time trying to avoid thinking about her death and the death of her loved ones.

Brian is a high school student at a public school. He is well known there for his Christian faith. He is very concerned about climate change and has been trying to learn about what the Bible has to say. He has read much of the New Testament, but every time he has started reading the Old Testament, he has been unable to finish, as he finds the writing highly detailed and kind of boring. He is a member of two different Christian Facebook groups. He recently posed the question about what the Bible says about climate change but has been surprised and discouraged by the range of answers. Some say that the Bible says to use the Earth however we want, and that climate change is not real. Another person said that it is real, but it is a sign of the ‘end times’ in Revelation, so we should not be trying to stop it, as it has to happen before Jesus comes back. Someone else suggests that the Devil is behind it even though the Bible never mentions climate change because God gave him control of the Earth. Brian is concerned that there is no agreement about this and thinks about trying to read the Old Testament again to see if he can find the answer for himself.

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