Learning Your Faith in a Flash!
Friendly Defenders Catholic Flash Cards
By Matt Pinto and Katherine Andes
Ascension Press (2001)
50 cards, $11.99
ISBN 0-9659228-1-2

Two questions crossed my mind as I tore the plastic off my set of Friendly Defenders cards. The first was, “Where have these cards been all of my life?” The second was, “How can I hide these from my children long enough so that I can read through them myself?”

No sooner had I asked these questions than our 5-year-old son came into the kitchen, saw the brightly colored cards and asked, “What are those Dad?”

Knowing that it was now impossible to hide the cards, I sat on the couch with three of our children and started reading through the cards with them. Created by Matt Pinto, author of Did Adam & Eve Have Belly Buttons?, and Fresno catechist and mother Katherine Andes, the set of 50 flash cards uses a set of colorful cartoon characters to pose the most common objections and questions about the Catholic Faith. Another set of characters on the backside of the card respond to the questions with easy-to-understand answers and Bible verses. The cards remind one very much of the Bible Topic Tabs put out by the Norbertine Fathers of Orange.

While the cartoon characters will appeal to primarily an age 3 to 10 crowd, the card’s content will appeal to people of all ages.

The cards are color coded by category. The 12 categories include: tradition, the Church, papacy, Eucharist/Mass, salvation, purgatory, Baptism, Mary, the saints, Confession, statues/relics/and holy objects, and Holy Orders.

On the front side of the cards doubters Challenging Chip, Curious Connie, Doubtful Dan, Persistent Penny, and Questioning Quincy ask the questions typically asked of Catholics. For example, on one card Questioning Quincy asks, “How can you believe a piece of bread is really Jesus?” On the backside of each card apologetic heavy-weights Charitable Charles, Confident Carlos, Gracious Grace, Joyful Joey, and Solid Sally respond to the questions with easy-to understand answers, a Bible verse, explanation, and related Bible verses. For example, in response to Quincy’s previous question Gracious Grace says, “Jesus called himself ‘The Bread of Life.’” She reinforces the quote with Scripture John 6:51 and related verses.

On another card, Persistent Penny—who looks amazingly like an Evangelical friend of mine—says, “The Bible forbids ‘graven images,’ so why do Catholics use statues?” On the reverse, Confident Carlos says “God himself instructed Moses to make two statues for the Ark of the Covenant.” The card includes the Scripture verse for Exodus 25:18 as well as related verses 1 Kings 6:23-29, 7:25-45, and Numbers 21:8-9. It also includes a description stating, “God forbids the worship of images, not the mere use of them as aids to prayer.”

Co-creator Katherine Andes knows well the value of teaching apologetics to her two children. That point was brought home to her two years ago. “My 12-year-old daughter, Lauren, was in a cabin with some other girls at camp and pulled out her rosary to pray. One of the other girls commented that confession sometimes scared her. In response, the Christian counselor—an ex-Catholic—said, ‘You don’t have to confess your sins to a priest, you can confess them to anyone—that’s what the Bible says.’

“Lauren sprang to the girl’s defense, responding ‘Oh yes you do,’” recalled Andes, “quoting John 20:22-23 – ‘Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”

“The counselor later telephoned me to comment on Lauren’s knowledge of the Bible and to say that she was impressed that Lauren knew why she believed what she believed,” said Andes.

The set also comes with a card explaining how to use the deck and suggestions for use. I envision the cards being used for role playing situations by home schooled students, in CCD classes, by children riding on long trips in the car, or even by RCIA candidates eager for an entertaining way to have their questions answered. Since the cards are broken down into categories the religious education instructor could easily pull out only those cards pertaining to a given topic of study.

Curious how long the cards might stick with children, I was impressed by my own son’s ability to remember two Bible verses after spending only about 30 minutes with the cards. With practice I’m confident that any child would be able to memorize the cards’ set of verses within weeks.

It’s been said that there is no greater gift a parent can give to a child than a firm grounding in the Faith. Like our Evangelical brethren trained in the knowledge and skills to attack the Catholic Faith, this new product serves to help young and old alike to be able to defend their Catholic Faith against such attacks.

Tim Drake is the managing editor of Catholic.net and the author of There We Stood, Here We Stand: 11 Lutherans Rediscover their Catholic Roots.