marmot Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 A friend's mom went to "The Gospel Coalition" conference and posted it on her FB. I get a lot of the "fundies on facebook" stuff from her. Out of curiosity I took a quick look to see what kind of conference it was. Here is the very first article I saw: "The Idea of Evangelism Makes Me Uncomfortable" I read it and I empathized with the "Christian" speaker in the article. I never felt comfortable sharing Christ with someone. The only time I ever "evangelized" was when I was a counselor at church camp or if a friend was struggling with faith. Never to an unbeliever or someone of another religion. It makes me sick to see the pompous, righteous attitude of the evangelist that I saw in so many others and one of their final statements really ticked me off: Evangelist: Frankly, I think it’s more arrogant to be against evangelism. Whoever says we should just keep our faith to ourselves and not evangelize – they’re really saying we ought to follow their instructions and not King Jesus. That is the height of arrogance, if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GardenerGal Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 The idea of evangelizing was one of the many facets of Christianity that made me question my sincerity of faith. I asked myself, if I really believed in Jesus, in heaven/hell, why aren't I shouting this from the rooftops? Why isn't every one who considers themselves a Christian over in Africa, wherever? Because the doubt was stronger than the belief, and eventually, it won out. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdaddy Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 The idea of evangelizing was one of the many facets of Christianity that made me question my sincerity of faith. I asked myself, if I really believed in Jesus, in heaven/hell, why aren't I shouting this from the rooftops? Why isn't every one who considers themselves a Christian over in Africa, wherever? Because the doubt was stronger than the belief, and eventually, it won out. G23.....G23....... BINGO! Nobody REALLY believes in xianity. But they like to say they do. Pascals wager and all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Positivist Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 So true. I really dislike the pompous arrogance of these guys. Evangelism is a constant thorn in the Christian flesh: we are told everyone is going to Hell unless we cajole them to "get saved", but then we are paralyzed by what GardenerGal said, so we live in constant torment of "I should but I don't!". This, of course, leads to the torment of Jesus saying he will deny us to "the Father" if we deny him to others. My gawd! Now we're all going to hell! Ack! I really don't miss the endless torment of evangelism..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmot Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 The idea of evangelizing was one of the many facets of Christianity that made me question my sincerity of faith. I asked myself, if I really believed in Jesus, in heaven/hell, why aren't I shouting this from the rooftops? Why isn't every one who considers themselves a Christian over in Africa, wherever? Because the doubt was stronger than the belief, and eventually, it won out. This. I felt ashamed of it. I believed it was true and it was the most powerful truth in the world. Yet I couldn't even tell a good friend (or a stranger) about it. Actions speak louder than words! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thought2Much Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I tried very, very hard to get over my fear of evangelism. I even went out and did street evangelism with my church when I was in college. After doing that a few times, I gave up on it. I didn't participate in any kind of evangelism after my junior or senior year of college. I felt guilty about not evangelizing for a long, long time, but at the same time I hated the idea of ever doing it again. I got to the point where I was so embarrassed about my beliefs, even when people asked me about where I went to church or what I believed, I was evasive and tried to change the subject. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaiser01 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Brother love and the traveling salvation show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chikirin Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I felt more guilt from not evangelizing than i did from even sexual sins. 'Oh crap, I didn't mention Jesus in that conversation, God is pissed off at me now' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilith666 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I used to "evangelize" in second grade. I had a non-Xian friend, and I asked her if she believed in God. I said if she didn't believe that X can cleanse us of our sins, then she was going to hell. I really thought that was all you had to tell people, and boom! they were zealots. I was so disappointed when my confrontational approach turned her off. I got self-conscious about it after that and mostly kept Xianity to myself. It's stupid that the churchies encourage young children to try converting others. Do they expect them to be little Billy Grahams? Though most "conversions" of kids from secular families don't last. Oh well, they're only hurting their own cause by creating radicals who beat people with Bibles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaiser01 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 RIght after i had become a atheist my father had us all go around and hand out fliers for the church revival the next week. Of course they didnt know i was a atheist but i did everything in my power to avoid talking to the people. I was always scared of evangelizing and hated it as a kid. I think they propagate themselves because there is a internal security need thats within them to dominate the enviorment around them, as Christians seek to control because if their religion is on top then they are in control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaphod Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I did a little door-knocking with church functions, and it wasn't uncommon for me to invite friends to church, but I was never very comfortable with interpersonal evangelism and the whole "witnessing" thing, even when I was studying to be a missionary. I was in one of those denominations that thought everyone outside of our denomination was going to Hell, which made for awkward conversations with friends about religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike D Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 I never evangelized because, well, lets be real - it's embarrassing! Talking to complete strangers (or even people you know) about a guy dying on a stick 2000 years ago and how it would be in their best interests to claim said stick-man as their personal savior, "or else!", to me was an open invitation to me being loaded into a van and whisked away to the nearest mental hospital as a possible danger to the public at large. Cuckoo, cuckoo! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunaticheathen Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Evangelists always freaked me out, and I never understood the need to convince others of your religion. I suppose that's because I was raised with the idea, passed from grandma, to mom, to me, that religion is personal, and it's rude to bring it up in polite conversation. You also don't talk about who you're voting for. The first time I was witnessed to, I was utterly appalled. I didn't know how to answer, since I was taught to NEVER talk about these things outside of church/family. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 When I was a preteen I tried to get friends to believe who didn't, I ended up scaring a quite a few friends away. Being that I had bipolar, the psychiatrist was concerned because I was so religious, but though I was told to stay away from religion, I still studied it intensely. I went superfundy before leaving the faith. Actually, I was of the mindset that Science would back religion, and didn't get why people tended to avoid science when it came to being creationist and believing the Bible to be 100% accurate. I sought to reconsile the two, and you know how that ended, I studied the Bible ever more intensely and even eventually ended up here. The funny thing was, my grandpa who was an atheist (he was a deist when he talked to relatives about God, but that was simply him "talking to appease"), encouraged me when I was going through my hyperfundy phase. I think he sort of knew what was going on. He also started getting me watching documentaries on science and history. Hmmm..... I did end up figuring out religion, and to be honest, its just looking like language, culturally bound to such an extent that you can reconstruct it in stages as it has evolved through thousands of years at least. Actually, I will have to agree with one theist though, Philo of Alexandria, who stated that the gods (not his though, that's his sacred cow, but I'd include that one too) are nothing more than honored ancestors people ended up saying were gods. Then they were ascribed to be stars, sun, moon, etc.... Evangelizing is also a door opener, because it exposes you to finding out from people that your beliefs are false. Unlike me, some people knew that instinctually, and thus avoided evangelizing, from the fear that their beliefs aren't as secure as they hope they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzy Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 I'm VERY much an introvert and for people like me the order to evangelize is HELL. And my church put a big emphasis on that and on growth (of course, because that meant more money for the leaders). From time to time they blasted the congregation for not being active enough and I felt terribly guilty about my inability to evangelize. Deep down I think I also felt how stupid this whole shit sounds and that if I'm honest to myself I can't really answer their questions, such as: "OK, you claim this and that I should believe, but what's your proof for your claims?" I felt how stupid it is to try to convince someone of something and ask them to change their lifestyles completely based on something that you don't have evidence for. I had to be intellectually dishonest to evangelize and I hated that. I hoped that, like the Bible says, if you pray the Holy Spirit will do the rest and even if the whole thing sounds stupid on an intellectual level, the HS will convince people in their hearts. Of course, that never happened. From the very few occasions I tried to evangelize I never managed to convert anyone. I'm glad about that now. It would suck to know that I helped to trap someone in this crazy cult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akheia Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Me too, Suzy. I don't think I ever converted anybody, but then, I didn't evangelize much really, even when I believed wholeheartedly in that book of lies. I'm actually an excellent public speaker and not at all scared to work a crowd--hell, for a while I was a street and stage performer. But it should have clued me in that I was so reluctant to share this "good news" with anybody. I think I knew that eventually someone would want proof of my religion's claims, and I simply wouldn't have any beyond "I feel it in my heart!" I cannot even imagine the level of duplicity and self-delusion that has to exist in the sorts of people who slide easily into a evangelistic mindset. I've seen it in action in my Evil Ex, the fundie preacher, who loved evangelism; he had a way of just blustering through objections. Strong-willed people thought he was insane. Weak-willed people fell before him in droves. Spelling edit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 I never really understood evangelism... coming from a hardcore Calvinist background which believes people are predestined to heaven or hell, there really is no point. We were never encouraged to evangelize as individuals and I'm sure I'd never have been good at it either because something about the religion always sat weird with me. I never even liked to wear Christian jewelry, t-shirts or share my faith background whatsoever. I remember giving an ex's mom a bible once when she was going through a really hard time... I still kick myself for that. I know that she liked me but I wonder if a little part of her thought I was nuts.... I am embarassed because I think it was so arrogant on my part to assume that I had all the answers. I feel very sad that this time and devotion is demanded by so many different religious sects and Christian denominations.... it seems less about evangelizing and more of a contest or way to prove your sincerity... that's a lot of pressure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norton65ca Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I managed to rationalize this conundrum for some time by quoting to myself the bible verse about "Always be ready, in season and out of season, to give an account to who asks, of the reasons for the hope that lies within you" or whatever. I held to this excuse for remaining silent by assuming that all I needed to do was wait and the good lawd would bring people into my path. It rarely happened in 29 years and even then it usually didn't go all that well. I did do street evangelism back in my early twenties but it was a profoundly awful experience. In one case an argument with a young fellow ended up in shouting about hell and damnation and all of that nonsense. I am so embarrassed in retrospect. Horrible nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThereIsNoGod Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Sigh...i remember passionately trying to explain the christian faith to a number of people....I guess it all made sense to me at one time and it really motivated me to tell people about it. I dunno what the hell really made me so sure of myself. I was suffering from depression and forcing the christian faith to make sense in my own mind was a way of making myself feel better. I think everybody, including a lot of christians thought I was a bit mad with my own personal understanding of christianity. Christians at the churches I went to, didn't know what to make of me. I actually believed that I could explain my "profound discovery" to others. It's all silliness really, but when you are suicidally depressed you need to find something that feels like solid ground, if only for the moment. I guess I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with placing faith in some crazy shit, as long as it makes you feel a little less like killing yourself. But when you're feeling better, don't feel any need to honor what you placed faith in when you were suicidal. Gods and messiahs have less meaning and relevance to people who are mentally well and frankly are more dangerous to such people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaiser01 Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 I think its interesting how Christians are supposed to have this power to reach the lost but most will not even go talk to a "Lost" person, however, others will willingly fly their planes into buildings for their faith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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