John’s Experience of Being Evangelized

John, in comment #9 on Jerks for Jesus on CatE, shared the following experience of being evangelized by some “guys” on campus:


I didn’t know these “guys,” who were in fact two very pretty young (caucasian) women, and a young man who seemed nice enough initially (but was built like a refrigerator).

The three introduced themselves to my companion and me, and asked a question that you hear frequently on campus, “hi, do you have time for a little conversation?” My friend and I said, “okay, a couple minutes.” And one of the young lovelies asked, “do you know where you’ll go when you die?” I was immediately baffled by the question; for a moment I thought she wondered if I knew whether I was going to be buried or cremated. But I figured it out, and politely, but firmly explained my (atheist’s) belief that when I die, I die. This “conversation” went on for a while, and I got madder and madder because:

(a) it wasn’t a conversation at all; it was pure proselytizing. It was them trying to persuade me that Evolution is bogus, that heaven exists, etc. and

(b) if they were attempting to “save” me, then it was only fair if I got to try to “save” them back? By persuading them that you don’t need to believe in god to be a good person, that Evolution is an incredibly robust theory of why life is like it is, and that there is no credible alternative to it. And other silly things, like Pascal’s Wager came up.

When my friend and I turned out to be able to easily resist the charms of these sweet young things, and perhaps even dent their happy worldview with our rapier wit, well then Young Mr. Refrigerator started scowling and flexing his biceps, sending a message that was a little more Old Testament than New.

The point here is not that I minded someone trying to convert me. But I did mind the fundamental dishonesty of their approach, a “conversation” which was so one-sided.

And, I suppose I should be irritated with the use of sex to sell Jesus, too. Those girls were just lovely. Although they weren’t employing the more explicit tricks involving bare navels, thong underwear, etc., which so brighten our days at the university, … Let us just say that these sirens wore excellently tailored, sheer garments which, had I accepted Jesus that afternoon, might have left me with a significant misunderstanding of the nature of my eventual reward.

July 25th, 2006 · 3 Comments

Categories: Doable Evangelism

3 Comments so far »

  1. Bruce L. said

    am July 25 2006 @ 2:58 pm

    John, your experience causes me great pain. It reminds me of the time when a parishoner of mine called and asked if he and his wife might come over to my house. Based on the call, I expected it to be something about their marriage which was stressed.

    I found out after about 30 minutes of conversation and wondering that they were Amway distributors. I was so angry that they even began to presume that I wanted to hear that.

    How much more respect I would have had for them if they had said, “Can we come and talk to you about Amway?” even though the answer would still have been “no.”

    Courtesy and openness ought to be fundamental ingredients of any human conversation.

  2. Pam Hogeweide said

    am July 25 2006 @ 10:38 pm

    john, you’re a great story teller and i love your writing style.

    “The point here is not that I minded someone trying to convert me. But I did mind the fundamental dishonesty of their approach, a “conversation” which was so one-sided.”

    I love how you put this.

    I am guilty of doing the same thing. In my zeal of wanting to tell people about Jesus I could not hear what they were saying. I had a message to get across. That’s what mattered.

    In hind sight, I now realize that much of the evangelism of my youth was about assuaging my conscience of the guilt. Unfortunately too many sermons from the pulpit trained me to preach but not listen; to lecture but not dialogue.

    I’m older now, wiser, mellowed out, like a fine, red wine. Now I listen. I’ve been humbled. Yes, I’m passionate and absolutely sold over on the beauty of Jesus. But there is nothing beautiful about bulldozing people with street corner sermons.

    Basically, I’ve learned to shut up and listen.

  3. Helen M. said

    am July 26 2006 @ 5:40 am

    John has a further response here on CatE.

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