Eighth-graders grow in faith by critiquing controversial film

Paula Howard, Our Lady of the Greenwood middle school religion teacher, discusses “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” documentary with eighth-grade students on March 14.

By Sean Gallagher

GREENWOOD—A few weeks ago, the makers of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” a documentary that aired on the Discovery Channel on March 4, made a media splash by claiming to have found not only the real tomb of Jesus, but also those of his wife and son.

Various Christian leaders around the world as well as academic authorities in archaeology quickly rallied to dispute their findings.

But they weren’t the only ones. The eighth-grade class at Our Lady of the Greenwood School in Greenwood viewed the documentary, and students are researching and writing papers that question the film’s findings and support the Church’s beliefs regarding Christ and the credibility of the Scriptures.

Their papers will be mailed to the documentary’s director, Simcha Jacobovici; its producer, Charles Pellegrino, who

co-authored with Jacobovici a book on the same topic; filmmaker James Cameron; and executives at the Discovery Channel.

A notable thing about this project is that, according to Paula Howard, Our Lady of the Greenwood’s middle school religion teacher, it was initiated by the students.

Kaelin Dugan, a member of the eight-grade class, had heard about the documentary and asked Howard about it. The teacher chose to show it to the class.

After viewing it, the students expressed their objections to its claims.

“[I was mad] that they were saying all this bad stuff about our faith,” said

eighth-grader Lindsey Sandler, “and saying how everything that they think is right and when they find something, it’s factual, but when we [claim] something, it’s not factual at all and not credible.”

When the students expressed a desire to write letters to the filmmakers, Howard had her class research the topic and craft well-reasoned arguments.

She was confident that they were up to the task.

“They were very much on top of it,” Howard said. “I felt very comfortable in doing it with this group because they’ve had two and a half years of Scripture as well as a lot of dogma and doctrine of the Church.”

Howard has taught middle school religion classes at Our Lady of the Greenwood School for 20 years.

During that time, she developed a method of teaching that follows the archdiocesan curriculum. But instead of following textbooks, Howard has had students delve directly into Scripture for nearly three full years.

Sixth-graders at the school study the Old Testament for the entire year. Seventh-graders take on the New Testament.

In their fall semester, eighth-graders look specifically at the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. And in their spring semester, they tackle Church history up to the time of the Reformation.

With two and a half years of study with Howard under their belts, the eighth-grade class at Our Lady of the Greenwood was well-equipped to counter the documentary’s claims.

“We’ve gone over pretty much everything in our faith,” said eighth-grader Mollie Huber. “And the way [Mrs. Howard] teaches us, we remember everything. And it helps us day to day, especially with this, so we can point out [the errors] ourselves.”

When Howard sends the papers off, she will include a cover letter requesting that those to whom they are addressed will at least acknowledge that they received them.

However, she does not expect the students to receive replies that are as detailed as their papers.

Howard, though, sees a greater purpose in mind for her students.

“They are, in their own way, evangelizing,” she said. “They are very much aware of the fact that these people … are probably not going to listen to them. But they will have spoken.”

In addition to sharing the Gospel and their learning with some leaders in the prevailing culture, the eighth-grade class at Our Lady of the Greenwood School will have also grown in their faith.

“By doing this project, we took a bad situation and we made it into something good because we all got something out of this,” she said. “We learned, and we have a greater appreciation for our faith. And we definitely strengthened our faith as well.” †