Thursday, September 23, 2004

Friend of the World...

So this week is the career fair, which means all the undergrads are getting dressed up in suits and giving out hopeful resumes to potential employers.

For some reason, it also meant the need for a family of street preachers to descend upon the center part of campus.

As I'm walking to class, here is the first sign I see:

Find Jesus
Not a Job
A friend of the world
Is an enemy of God!

Well that pissed me off.

Then I read,

Find Jesus
or PERISH.

Then, I hear what they're saying. Something about how the university is brainwashing us and how we're not learning how to really get by in life, how we're not concentrating on what matters, like finding Jesus. Then he presumptously informs us that all of us are going to burn in hell if we don't repent. I wish I had a videotape.

So students start laughing and making jokes, "Oh, well I guess I'm going to hell, what about you?"

As I continue down the street, I see more of them, with more signs, yelling more things and offending more people.

Finally, I reach my building and walk into class in a small rage. Why does anyone think this is a good idea? Where in the world did they get the notion that a friend of the world is an enemy of god? I mean, I suppose I knew what they meant by this, but what did Jesus DO his entire life? He came for those who needed him most, for the world....he befriended the world.

And, what's all this hell talk anyway? I mean, are those fear appeals really in all honesty supposed to work? Do they believe in their heart of hearts that by telling everyone that they are going to hell, that they will be converted and find god to be a loving god? Fear only gets you so far, people. And, plus, I don't even know if I believe in hell. I certainly don't believe it's a way to introduce people to the kingdom of god.

I have heard street preachers before, but for some reason, yesterday made me especially mad. For one, who are you to assume that because I am a university student that I'm destined for hell? So I should drop out of school where they brainwash me about unimportant things and then do what...? Become a street preacher? Wouldn't that be comical - a world full of street preachers?

Plus, didn't they think that maybe a few people ARE Christians already? And yet they just ASSUME that we are all sinful, sex-crazed, alcohol-drinking, flippant people. Even if we ARE people like that, so what? Might we still have a place in god's heart? Might we be on a journey of our own, even if no one else can see it? Who are they to judge?

So I talk to my friend once I get to class, and ask her, "Do they really think they are going to convert people with those tactics? I don't want to have anything to do with their god."

And she says that in one Christian church she went to, they told her that if she didn't tell everyone that she came across about Jesus and they went to hell, that she was going to go to hell too because she was responsible for them. Whoa. I never heard that before...and it shocked me. More fear appeals. What a life to lead, frantically trying to save your own ass by convincing other people they were on the road to hell.

So, why am I writing this all? I guess I'm just ranting. But also, it really makes me upset more than anything. I don't want to be associated with their god. In theory, I like to think I'm pretty tolerant of all the types of followers of Jesus. But, when I come across people like that, I have a really hard time being understanding of them.

I wanted to go up to one of them and have a conversation. Ask them something that challenged their paradigm and made them think. I just couldn't think of what that question would be.

What would you say to one of them if you could?


1 Comments:

At September 23, 2004 at 12:02 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd say...sinners have much more fun.

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home