As the old joke goes, two pastors were having lunch, and one says to the other that he has bats in his church roof and wonders how he is going to get rid of them. His fellow pastor delivers the punchline: just baptize them, give them their first confession and Communion, and confirm them — then you’ll never see them again.
The issue of young people, from their teens through early adulthood, leaving the Church is not news. Though recent data on a resurgence of Church attendance in this same demographic is encouraging, more work needs to be done.
That is a task made more difficult due to the ambient noise our culture makes, thanks to the marketing behemoths of the internet, music industry, and traditional Madison Avenue giants who have turned manipulating generations of young people through music, fashion, film, and television into an art form.
So, the Church has tough competition. But what is the Church and our faith but a series of victories over adversaries that seem unassailable (see Goliath)? Reaching a 15-year-old trying to explain the importance of studying for a geometry exam can feel tantamount to climbing K2 in the Himalayas. Evangelizing them is mountain climbing with a 50-pound rock tied to your back.
“Older” people have been trying to impart the faith onto younger people since Corinth was a postal route for St. Paul. In the past 50 years or so, our oh-so-modern world has wrestled with meeting young people where they are, and the attempts have not been all that fruitful. I remember being in a religion class where the teacher tried so hard to sound relevant to us, to speak our “language” and show us how “real” he was. It was then, and is now, the fastest way to get a young person to tune you out.
But God does supply us with talents and tools to serve him. That is how Justin West, a marketer by profession, but with a fervor for Catholic apologetics, sees his mission. I spoke with West last week because I had seen one example of his talent and the tool by which he expressed said gift, and I wanted to know more. You should too.
In his spare time, West, a self-proclaimed “revert,” combines creative craftsmanship with technical prowess, sometimes aided by his young daughter, to climb Mount Evangelist and reach those teens and young adults who may have let their faith grow cold or lukewarm.
He has an unlikely tool: artificial intelligence (AI). AI can be a scary thing, and many people do not understand it and never will — I certainly won’t. But as with all things, any tool is as good or as bad as the person who wields it.
West uses AI the way a surgeon uses a scalpel, and has created dozens of short, AI-animated, AI-soundtracked, and AI-voiced videos covering every topic and issue any moderately informed 15-year-old or 50-year-old could have about the Catholic faith. The content may be artificially created, but the message in each video is rock-solid Catholic teaching. Whether it be the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother, the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist, or why and how St. Peter was the first pope, you will find it at his website, Peter’s Barque.
He knows his audience. With attention spans shrinking by the minute, West’s videos are a series of quick cuts of animated movement paired with catchy music. Think of them as being what old MTV music videos might have looked like, if they had a soul.
No one has died and left me in charge of religious education for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but if that were ever to happen, I would make Peter’s Barque videos mandatory parts of the curriculum, for they are, pardon this, unapologetically apologetic. They are also a little snarky at times, never overtly mean, but every so often you may find a snide aside about the fallacy of Sola Scriptura or Jesus’ “brothers.”
A wise old priest once told me, yes, Jesus loves us no matter where he finds us; but he loves us so much he does not want to leave us there. West’s video project is on that same glide path. He is delivering sound Catholic teaching via a visually stimulating and theologically solid context that hits its target. And it does not talk down to young people or try so hard to “relate” to activate the internal shutdown button that all teens come equipped with. Because of the artistic choices West makes with these videos, they are also valuable refresher courses for any demographic.
West has made these videos free and accessible to anyone who wants to view them or send them to someone who may be hard to reach. I think they have the ability not only to lighten the weight on the backs of parents and teachers trying to instill a deeper faith in their children or students, but they may even be able to move that rock off their backs, put it on the ground, and make it a foundation of a stronger and fuller Catholic faith.
