8/9/2019 Essay Outline - Erika Gardiner

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July 19, 2010

Essay Outline

Thesis:

• In the movie Saint Ralph and the book Hey Nostradamus, Mike McGowanand Doug Coupland both show that faith accepted on one’s own isstronger than if it is forced on by family beliefs. People have to fullybelieve in what they trust as facts to obtain the peacefulness onlyacquirable through belief. If their faithfulness is meek their beliefs caneasily be manipulated.

Argument 1:

• Cheryl, from Hey Nostradamus! came to GOD by choice when she firststarted high school. Through her faith she was at peace while lookingdown over the world. Even after being murdered, at a young age, in a

school shooting at her school, she found confidence in her belief and inGOD – she felt no need to be afraid

o Cheryl didn’t know where she was, in heaven or ‘limbo,’ but she

seemed content in waiting. She should be angry listening to theprayers of people going out to the murderers but she isn’t, she feelsbad for them, in her own way, too.

o She contemplates and states: “people who’d discovered religion

had… gained calmness, confidence and a look of purpose, but…they’d lost a…willingness to connect with unconverted souls. Thereason these people are afraid to connect is that their faith is notstrong enough and could easily be swayed because they have

‘discovered’ this religion rather than coming to a belief.

Argument 2:

• Another good example of someone with a strong faith is the young priest,Father George Hibbert, from the movie Saint Ralph. The strength of Father George Hibbert’s belief presents itself well. He is teaching a groupof boys about religion hoping that they will accept it as well as he did whenhe needed something to confine in.

o Father George Hibbert’s dreams of being an Olympic runner were

crushed because of an injury he suffered not long before theOlympics. This injury changed him, but he never swayed from

GOD, if anything he became closer in faith and realizes that thisdream of his was not meant to be.

o Father George Hibbert is very open to discussion and questions

about faith, that should be expected teaching at a religious school.Father George Hibbert is the best example of showing howconfidence in faith leads to peacefulness as he never gets angry,and he is accepting to ideas and opinions that may not agree withhis 100%.

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Argument 3:

• Jason, from Hey Nostradamus! , is a good example of how forced faithallows people to sway and find ways around this religion. Jason’s father,Reg, created his own religion when he was a child because he felt that his

family’s religion wasn’t strong enough. Reg forced religion onto his twosons and wife throughout their whole family lives. Jason accepts someparts of his father’s religion and lives by them, but leaves him withoutstrong enough faith towards GOD when he needs him the most

o After the death of Cheryl, his wife at 17, Jason turns away from

GOD. This act turns the Youth Alive! junkies he used to consider friends, and his father, against him. Both people tried to build hisfaith, trying to shape him to be like his older brother, Kent.

o Some of Jason’s morals are those of a ‘good Christian boy’ but he

is so messed up from his past that he doesn’t even know if therereally is a GOD. After he loses Cheryl he loses everything and

becomes a sad, lonely, drunk drug addict, who is, in no way,peaceful at heart.