Q: I have an odd question about having heretical books in my personal library (the Book of Mormon, the Quran, etc.). I usually collect them and read them to debunk them or to get a good laugh at the absurdity of them. But recently I’ve been wondering whether it’s OK for me to have them, considering they teach the opposite to what the Church teaches. — Erick

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC:

If you are reading these books in order to understand their viewpoints and to better refute them, then there is no problem in principle.

This presumes, of course, that these books don’t weaken your own faith or give the impression to other people that you are abandoning the Church.

You’d also want to be careful in case there are young people in your family who might stumble around the books and absorb faulty ideas from them.

That said, it’s not advisable to publicly ridicule the books since that could cause a person to start mocking the believers of the texts.

Lots of people in the world are trying to find answers as best they can, and even defective texts can give them some piece of the truth to guide them.

Ideally, you want to use your knowledge of the Book of Mormon and the Quran to present the message of Jesus in a more convincing and effective way.

This takes a spirit of humility and a lot of prayer. Our faith is a gift of God, and he wants us to share it. We should never look down on those who haven’t received the same gift — or at least haven’t received it yet.

There are lots of apologetics resources regarding Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

The key is to channel your interest in those religious texts in a positive way for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.