Conflict of Beliefs Aliw: Hi everyone! It’s Aliw. We wanted to bring back an episode that hit a chord with so many of you. In case you haven’t heard this conversation between Felix and Robert, this is a must listen. It’s a deeply personal conversation between two men who went against all family traditions and the courage it took for them to stand up for what they believed in. Felix: My question, Robert, was…like how would you still be able to talk to them—even if—when they still denied your invitations? Robert: Well, when you're inviting them to come to a Bible study or join worship service, or you know, to come and listen, and you're noticing that that's a point of tension, right? Because then all of a sudden, the conversation doesn't go quite the way that you wanted it to. And you have to be able to create this balance when you're with them, right? Be present, as the son, as a brother, as you know, as the nephew, or whoever the relatives are, that are there. Felix, you're not alone. There are stories like this, all throughout the church in every country. It's a problem that a lot of members deal with. And it makes them stronger. Aliw: From INC Media Audio, this is Making Changes, a podcast about the changes we go through and the life lessons we learn along the way…always with God by our side. I’m your host, Aliw Garcia Pablo. Today’s episode is about making big life changes – big enough that it affects your relationship with your family. Meet Felix, a listener who we met on Instagram. He recently found the truth in the Church Of Christ but is having challenges in his relationships with his family. Felix will be talking to Robert who joined the Church Of Christ over 20 years ago, who also experienced his own set of challenges with his family but have now found peace with them. Let’s listen in. Robert: Hey, Felix, how are you? Felix: I'm doing good, Robert. How about you? Robert: Oh, well, it's good. It's always good to be able to meet and talk to, you know, other members, even though you cross the country? You know, we're also tightly knit. Felix: Yeah, so basically, my questions were, you know, now that I'm a member of the Church, you know, even though when I was going through Bible studies, I was always, I was still facing persecution. Basically, it was last year where most of the time of 2021, it was very, very heartbreaking because of being persecuted by my own, even by my own loved ones. So my question is to you, you know, being persecuted at home, how did you still continue to communicate with your family? Robert: Well, it's—how long have you been in the Church, Felix? Felix: I've been in the Church for seven months? Robert: Seven months? Well, that's, it's a wonderful blessing. You know, persecution is a hard word. It's a tough word. Because often, it comes from a place where people think that it's, it's coming from a place of being mean, right? And a lot of times what it is, it's just confusion or lack of understanding, you know, about what's going on. And then, you know, of course, when they don't understand and it comes across, in a way that you know, you might be feeling like persecution. And I'll just share a little bit about, you know, my background, right? I'm the only member in my family, that's a member of the Church. I was baptized back in 1989. Aliw: This is when Robert opens up to Felix about his past. Robert begins to share how being raised Catholic, being an altar boy and doing all the rituals, suddenly didn’t feel right for him. As a young adult, he began church hopping from the Baptist church, then Pentecostal, then explored Evangelical Christianity,
