So last week here at the beautiful University of Nevada, I witnessed what could only be described as a religious hate protest [U of N Article]. Seen by some as evangelism, a group of traveling religious folk gathered outside the student union to protest certain social groups, claiming that hell will be their only answer.
Forgive me for being blunt, but what the hell were they thinking? Quite literally, Christ taught many things in his brief stay on this planet, but upon further study of his life, rarely did he tell a person that they were to be damned to hell. In quite the opposite manner, he didn't give many answers to life, but invoked questions that pierce to the deepest of each man's soul. By no means am I disagreeing that Christ is the only way, merely pointing out that evangelism with love seems to be the most effective and prominent way to spread the story of Christ. Rather than invoking anger and laughter in most students, the group could have been more effective by shutting it and pouring out the love of Christ in a brutal world that needs Him.
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Ah idiots. You gotta love em. All cute & stupid & what not. The problem here is one of time. You see, to actually love someone and talk with them, and encourage them, and strengthen them, and help them, and treat them as men and women who are sons and daughters of the most high God actually takes a lot of time. When you are traveling through from city to city, you don't have that much time so you do the next best thing: The shotgun evangelism approach. You just fire it straight out there with no care for people, no attitude of humility, no love, no awe of how each person has been wonderfully and fearfully made. You just yell and you hope that it gets through to their rotten hearts and then you pack up your stuff and move on to the next town. Meanwhile, we who live in Reno get to pick up the pieces and it sets us back a few years with those "sinners". Now we get to explain that those people don't represent us and blah blah blah; but the "sinners" will really think otherwise. So, traveling religious folks here's my advice to you: 1. Get a life. Go get a girlfriend or boyfriend and have some fun. 2. Go yell at your mom or dad or cousin or brother or sister who isn't saved. Oh, you wouldn't do that to them? Then why would you do it to someone else? 3. Go back to your fundamentalist, legalistic, no rock music listening, no holding hands in the hallway, no smoking, no drinking, always uptight, and usually white neighborhood and yell at each other; it'll be fun. 4. Try reading Scripture every now and again rather than just listening to Orel Roberts & Jimmy Swaggert & Pat Robertson. 5. Don't come back to Reno because I'm tired of picking up your pieces. Shattered lives, destroyed relationships, hurt people, and jokes that will be told about Christians for the next few years. 6. Try thinking for yourself now and again. It will hurt for a short time, but I promise that in the long run it will feel great. Just like exercise - oh by the way, most of you fundamentalists who are yelling at homo's and smokers etc. etc. are about 50-60 pounds overweight. That's a sin too, you can find it in Scripture. So, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to leave others alone. Love in Christ, Dawson Lange.
i was pretty upset about this as well. i just wanted to scream at all of them...
but i did enjoy the retaliation posters...as one said something like...
"i've been yelled at, condemed, preached at, and all i got was this lousy poster."
I was reminded that Jesus' strongest words of rebuke were for the religous. The sinners he partied with.
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