#12699 If Jesus Was Jewish, Why Are We Christian? Annulments, Yoga - Jimmy Akin
Catholic Answers Live
Catholic Answers
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
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Summary
“If Jesus was Jewish, why are we Christian?” This question opens a discussion on the roots of Christianity and its relationship to Judaism. The episode also addresses the necessity of seeking truth in a diverse worldview, the implications of practicing yoga or transcendental meditation for Catholics, and the annulment process for converts.
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Questions Covered:
- 02:20 – If Jesus was Jewish, why are we Christian?
- 12:50 – What is a succinct way to argue for the necessity of finding the truest thing? I see some non-Catholic friends happy that I’ve found a cohesive worldview, but they don’t see any reason why they should investigate such a thing.
- 20:30 – Is it objective grave matter for Catholics to practice yoga or transcendental meditation?
- 33:30 – Why do converts seeking annulments from marriages before their conversion have to go through that process? It seems like a barrier to evangelization — “Hey, you should be Catholic. But you might never be able to receive communion if you aren’t granted an annulment from a marriage you had before you were even Catholic.”
- 44:55 – Do you think the story about the woman with seven husbands that the Sadducees questioned Jesus about is the story of Tobit?
- 50:12 – I am theologically not committed. I see that Christianity seems evidence based, but I don’t feel drawn to it. Any thoughts?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent. |
| 0:05.2 | When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers. |
| 0:11.5 | Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Welcome to Catholic Answers Live. My name is Edgar Lujano. filling in for Sy Kellett today. |
| 0:35.6 | It's a pleasure to be with you all and to end this wonderful week off. Today, as per usual, and a great way to end the week, we have the one and only Jimmy Aiken with us, and we're going to be covering an Ask Me Anything. So if you have any question for Jimmy about Catholicism, ask me anything, Catholicism. You're more than welcome to give us a call. We already |
| 0:54.4 | have a few people on the line. You can reach us at 888-3187884 to ask Jimmy a question. Jimmy, welcome to |
| 1:03.7 | the show. Hey, thank you very much. Glad to be here and welcome back to the hosting chair, Edgar. |
| 1:09.6 | Thank you. It's always nice to sit in the chair. |
| 1:12.6 | You know, just when I think I have it down and I think I can, you know, I'm getting used to it. |
| 1:17.6 | When I sit back in my screening chair and I see side deal with a call that needs a little more navigating, |
| 1:25.6 | I sometimes think, yeah, I could never do his job full time. |
| 1:29.5 | Just I get a little bit of that. |
| 1:32.0 | Well, don't sell yourself short. |
| 1:33.5 | You clearly have been picking up some tips. |
| 1:37.7 | You just referred to a call that needs some extra navigating. |
| 1:40.7 | And that's exactly the kind of diplomatic answer that you need to give when you're on the |
| 1:44.9 | air. That or I'm just afraid of the backlash when I get back into the screener's chair, one or the |
| 1:49.6 | other. Well, being afraid of the backlash is half the battle. There you go. Perfect. Well, let's |
| 1:58.6 | start off with the question for you. So I used to teach, I used to teach high school theology. And one of the first questions that I would get from a lot of my students, some of them who were not Catholic, some of them who weren't really exposed with to Christianity very much. When they discovered that Jesus was Jewish, grew up in a Jewish household, they |
| 2:20.1 | always asked me. Yeah, who knew? Yeah, who would have thought, right? Yeah, they always ask, |
| 2:24.8 | well, if Jesus was Jewish and you follow Jesus, then why should I become Catholic? It doesn't make |
| 2:30.1 | any sense to me. So what would be a response to that? Well, we're asking about social groups |
| 2:38.2 | and the labels that apply to them. And there are two labels in particular that we need to talk |
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