The Young, Feeble-minded, Uneducated.

[Llwellyn]

I was just watching one of the "Way of the Master" evangelism videos, and I noticed how one of the people who was being addressed by Ray Comfort in the "candid witnessing" clips seemed to be feeble-minded. He looked fine and spoke well, but the way he emotionally reacted to the questions made me believe that he was likely autistic or imbecilic.

 

The video is here, and the feeble-minded fellow is the one in red:

 

This creepy old man should be trying to dialogue with someone as old as him and not a child.

 

Of course, we should expect this, given that Christianity is a mind-virus designed to ensare the minds of weak-minded people. Have you ever seen an evangelist go to a Mensa convention? Or a faculty meeting at a local university? Of course not -- they go where dullards gather: shopping malls and outdoor carnivals.

[Llwellyn]

By the way, my parents are missionaries in Africa, witnessing to people with many strikes against them: primitive, tribal people who are uneducated, illiterate, poor, unintelligent, and who feel culturally and socially backwards in comparison with others. Those people don't have a chance.

[pandora]

I only watched the video for a minute or so, but I don't think he seemed feeble-minded in any way. He just seemed amused by the whole ordeal, if you ask me...

 

I do think it was horribly manipulative, though. He reminded me of how I would act if I weren't in the mood for an argument. Nod and smile, nod and smile.

[The Sage Nabooru]

I remember a discussion on a Japanese board discussing missionaries. One ardent Japanese Christian living in Japan spoke with his mirror image in America about how his church was trying the same old subversive conversion techniques as many other in Japan and Asia in general: Offer "English language classes", only use the Bible as a textbook. Rope 'em in thinking they're getting an education instead of a prayer meeting.

 

Now I think that's some of the dirtiest bullshit I've ever heard of, and I was shocked that this guy just brought it up like it was the most acceptable action a person could take. (Anything to save souls, right?) But I wasn't a member of the board and I didn't feel like making myself one just to yell at him. It's not like the Japanese aren't wise to this shit, at any rate.

[webmdave]

I remember a discussion on a Japanese board discussing missionaries. One ardent Japanese Christian living in Japan spoke with his mirror image in America about how his church was trying the same old subversive conversion techniques as many other in Japan and Asia in general: Offer "English language classes", only use the Bible as a textbook. Rope 'em in thinking they're getting an education instead of a prayer meeting.

 

Hi,

 

Former English language classes evangelist in Japan, that's me.

 

And, now that I'm out of all that rubbish, I have to agree that it's a disengenuous approach. They way they capture the locals is by offering the "classes" at a discounted price from the going rate for lessons. However, the "classes" I taught were held in a church, so the "students" likely had an idea of what was going on. They just liked the price.

[robbie]

I wish people like that would try to evangelise to me in the streets. I'd put up waaaaaaay more of a fight than that.

[Purple]

I wish people like that would try to evangelise to me in the streets. I'd put up waaaaaaay more of a fight than that.

 

 

Oh I bet they get people who have way better answers, but the vid of those people never sees the light of day, or the light of a comp screen. Just like taste tests in a grocery store, the only ones that make it into a commercial are ones where peopel think the product people sold is DELICIOUS!

[robbie]

Oh I bet they get people who have way better answers, but the vid of those people never sees the light of day, or the light of a comp screen. Just like taste tests in a grocery store, the only ones that make it into a commercial are ones where peopel think the product people sold is DELICIOUS!

 

True.

 

But all my friends complain about Jehovah's Witnesses coming to the door, and we never seem to get any. I'd really enjoy that...invite them in, sit them down, get them a cup of tea, rip their faith to shreds, offer them some biscuits and send them on their way with a copy of The Humanist Manifesto.

[The Sage Nabooru]

And, now that I'm out of all that rubbish, I have to agree that it's a disengenuous approach. They way they capture the locals is by offering the "classes" at a discounted price from the going rate for lessons. However, the "classes" I taught were held in a church, so the "students" likely had an idea of what was going on. They just liked the price.

 

I think the Japanese have a unique sense of "what the fuck ever" when it comes to Christian missionizing. For example, Christian (or Christian-style) weddings are very popular in Japan right now, so a lot of young Japanese brides want their weddings to take place in a church with a white dress for the whole beautiful princess fairytale we've fed them after the War (after convincing them that kimonos were ugly and too much trouble). A lot of those churches make the bride, groom, or both take Bible classes, perhaps even formally join the church, before they'll let them get married there. Doesn't make a damn bit of difference.

[Llwellyn]

I only watched the video for a minute or so, but I don't think he seemed feeble-minded in any way.

Watch it to the end to see him really snap at the bait with as much intelligence as a catfish. The Christian message presents a negligent, vicious, and unwise deity, and only feeble-minded people fail to recognize this and fail to criticize it.

[pandora]

I watched it again, and I disagree. I think he was just humoring him. Sometimes you just don't have the energy to argue back, you know? I bet he was more concerned with getting back to business, drinking beer and flirting with girls.

[Thurisaz]

Oh I bet they get people who have way better answers, but the vid of those people never sees the light of day, or the light of a comp screen. Just like taste tests in a grocery store, the only ones that make it into a commercial are ones where peopel think the product people sold is DELICIOUS!

 

Alternatively, a vid of a freethinker handing the morontheists their own arses on a silver plate might appear... just "slightly altered" of course.

Like those babblical cretinists once did with their vid of a Dawkins interview. I trust you all know the story.

[Thurisaz]

But all my friends complain about Jehovah's Witnesses coming to the door, and we never seem to get any. I'd really enjoy that...invite them in, sit them down, get them a cup of tea, rip their faith to shreds, offer them some biscuits and send them on their way with a copy of The Humanist Manifesto.

 

Eh, I've done that already. Sadly, "my" (German) JWs didn't put up much of a fight at all. Damn lukewarm German believers

[godlessgrrl]

I've noticed that evangelicals will target vulnerable people of all sorts, whether it's an economic vulnerability, an emotional one, a psychological one, or what have you. Kind of like hard-sell salespeople, really. FBX was like that, though he never targeted poverty-stricken people in third world countries that I know of.

 

Something that I noted about FBX and his friends, too, was that they assumed people were vulnerable. I think there was a lot of conscious selective targeting going on, but I also think they went overboard with it too, maybe the same way that a lot of hardcore Xians assume that everybody has a "God-shaped hole", regardless of whether or not their prospective con actually does need what they're selling.

 

I wonder how common that is, that assumption.

[Thurisaz]

I've noticed that evangelicals will target vulnerable people of all sorts, whether it's an economic vulnerability, an emotional one, a psychological one, or what have you. Kind of like hard-sell salespeople, really.

 

Word sister!

Tell that to my wife who in effect lost a close relative. That one got approached by jehoover's witlesses right after the funeral of a loved one. Was the only one of the whole family they ever got. What does that tell us about targeting the vulnerable?

[godlessgrrl]

Word sister!

Tell that to my wife who in effect lost a close relative. That one got approached by jehoover's witlesses right after the funeral of a loved one. Was the only one of the whole family they ever got. What does that tell us about targeting the vulnerable?

 

Yeah. No kidding there.

 

I've probably noted elsewhere that one of the things FBX admired about the Xian women around him was "how STRONG they are!" <emphasis always on the word "strong"> He liked to remind me how "strong" Xian women were, usually in implied contrast to myself.

 

Never mind that I'd survived an alcoholic family, sexual assault, a miserable marriage, years of suicidal depression, domestic violence, plenty of painful relationships, the deaths of close loved ones, economic difficulty, and a divorce (not to mention the mindfuck that is Xianitiy); apparently I wasn't as "strong" as they were.

 

I wonder, too, if going through something hard and painful makes people forget that they're strong, even if they stand up again when it's over. Certainly in the middle of disaster, human vulnerability is right there, lying right out in the open... but all the things I've been through, none of them killed me. I always stood up again, even if something brought me to my knees.

 

But then, knowing I can survive stuff kind of makes me wonder: why the hell would I need Biblegod? I did all this surviving myself, not because of him.

 

Maybe some people just aren't very good at realizing what they're really capable of.