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My personal experience of evangelism

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  • #31
    Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
    Not true. The message that everyone benefits if they love one another is not in the least problematic for atheists. It is not exclusively a Christian message.
    Abigail wrote. "Jesus who in turn teaches us how to love others...." You obviously have failed to learn the "how" since you never fail to not show love in your posts. This aside from your dishonesty.
    Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

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    • #32
      Originally posted by Jedidiah View Post
      So to avoid this you post . . . v
      As CP and others have correctly pointed out, there is bad evangelism and good evangelism. My experience was more of the 'bad' type. However, in my life there have been a few times when I have been deeply impressed by the good character and depth of some Christians. These people have made Christianity attractive without telling me I'm a sinner and that I need Jesus. Through their actions they have been more effective evangelisers than any 'soul winners'.

      And CP, this thread is not an 'attack' on you, but rather my attempt to show why I find evangelism problematic. There have been some good contributions from Christian and non-Christian alike.

      Comment


      • #33
        Originally posted by pancreasman View Post
        As CP and others have correctly pointed out, there is bad evangelism and good evangelism. My experience was more of the 'bad' type. However, in my life there have been a few times when I have been deeply impressed by the good character and depth of some Christians. These people have made Christianity attractive without telling me I'm a sinner and that I need Jesus. Through their actions they have been more effective evangelisers than any 'soul winners'.
        Yet, interestingly enough, these "good character and depth" Christians don't seem to have brought you back to the faith.

        And CP, this thread is not an 'attack' on you, but rather my attempt to show why I find evangelism problematic. There have been some good contributions from Christian and non-Christian alike.
        And my thread was not an 'attack' on Sam.
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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        • #34
          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
          Yet, interestingly enough, these "good character and depth" Christians don't seem to have brought you back to the faith.



          And my thread was not an 'attack' on Sam.
          They brought me closer than the bossy types. I can't be a Christian because of what I do and don't believe, but some people confirm for me at least that being a Christian with integrity and depth is possible. Mind you so is not being a Christian.

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          • #35
            Originally posted by pancreasman View Post
            They brought me closer than the bossy types. I can't be a Christian because of what I do and don't believe, but some people confirm for me at least that being a Christian with integrity and depth is possible.
            That would be the "them", as opposed to the "us", as in me, eh? (I'm kidding, Pman - for reasons unbeknownst to me, I really like you. )

            Mind you so is not being a Christian.
            That must be Aussie - can you parse it for me?
            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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            • #36
              Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
              That would be the "them", as opposed to the "us", as in me, eh? (I'm kidding, Pman - for reasons unbeknownst to me, I really like you. )



              That must be Aussie - can you parse it for me?
              What I mean is that although some Christians are attractive exemplars of their faith, I find them to be no more numerous than exemplary Buddhists, atheists, Hindus, and so on. I think it has more to do with spiritual development (see my other thread about this) than it does to the actual content of any particular faith.

              I hope you notice that all of this is framed in terms of my personal experience and opinion and I'm not asserting any universal truths here.

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              • #37
                Originally posted by pancreasman View Post
                What I mean is that although some Christians are attractive exemplars of their faith, I find them to be no more numerous than exemplary Buddhists, atheists, Hindus, and so on. I think it has more to do with spiritual development (see my other thread about this) than it does to the actual content of any particular faith.

                I hope you notice that all of this is framed in terms of my personal experience and opinion and I'm not asserting any universal truths here.
                Gotcha. Thanks.
                The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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                • #38
                  Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                  Reminds me of a conversation with my increasingly-more-conservative Christian parents a year or so ago. They'd had a speaker at their church who had started an organisation working with poor people who were in debt, helping them sort out their finances. "That's the sort of Christianity you'd approve-of right?" they said to me, and indeed it was, as they made what the guy was doing sound like a really great idea that was truly making a meaningful impact to people's lives.

                  My response was along the lines of "that sounds wonderful, could it be scaled-up to happen throughout the country? You could probably get government funding for that sort of thing" but I suspected that this all sounded too-good to be true, because call me a skeptic, but over the years I've been sufficiently disillusioned about Christians and them helping people. Sure enough, at Christmas I overheard my parents telling the same story to their religious relatives and they included a lot more bits to the story than what they'd told me, and sure enough, the motivations of the guy doing this were primarily about evangelism. Helping poor people out of debt was apparently a useful tool for winning souls for Christ.
                  Note how Starlight's Christian parents seek moral approval from their godless dirtbag son, as if Starlight's morality is anything more than degenerate abomination. They should be on their knees begging the rest of us forgiveness for hoisting this jackass on us.

                  Moderated By: DesertBerean

                  Moderators have decided to restore the comment.

                  ***If you wish to take issue with this notice DO NOT do so in this thread.***
                  Contact the forum moderator or an administrator in Private Message or email instead. If you feel you must publicly complain or whine, please take it to the Padded Room unless told otherwise.

                  Last edited by DesertBerean; 05-01-2015, 12:31 PM.
                  "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Isaiah 3:12

                  There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.

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                  • #39
                    Mind you Cp the only one who will actually bring anyone back is God. Pman needs to do the searching of which I believe he is and God needs to make the calling you know the one you just can't ignore. BTW Pman I read Nick's post in deeper waters on how he feels about the idea of Christianity as a relationship. Read it. Its compelling and spoke very loudly to me about something that weighed heavily on me as a teenager.
                    A happy family is but an earlier heaven.
                    George Bernard Shaw

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                    • #40
                      Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                      Yeah, note that I was writing my "Coffee Tent" post before I saw this one. I don't think we could have been any more subtle - we were just handing out free coffee, not expecting anything other than maybe helping people stay awake to arrive safely at their destination.
                      Excellent. Expressing works with subtlety without hiding your religious identity seems like the best approach in making an impact.

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                      • #41
                        The only ones who have contacted me in an evangelical manner in the past couple decades have been Mormons. They knock on my door, and they always show up in pairs and in their spiffy outfits, and I politely decline to talk with them about their religion. A Jehovah's Witness called me on the phone, and we had a running conversation once a week for more than a month, but she didn't actually seem to be trying to draw me in. We just talked about various topics in Christianity, not noticeably related to her offshoot of it, and she eventually stopped calling.

                        My grandparents (RIP) were convinced that Jesus would return in their lifetimes, and they were concerned that not nearly enough people had been "saved". I can sympathize with that point of view, although you'd think people would notice that every generation for the past couple thousand years has included many people who believed that Jesus will return in their lifetimes, and it hasn't happened yet. There are many Christians who honestly want to rescue people from imminent doom, and that leads a good portion of them to evangelize. So if I encounter evangelical types, I give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they're just trying to help me (rather than earning brownie points in their church). I'll smile and politely send them on their way, possibly thanking them for their concern if appropriate.
                        Middle-of-the-road swing voter. Feel free to sway my opinion.

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                        • #42
                          Originally posted by Jedidiah View Post
                          Abigail wrote. "Jesus who in turn teaches us how to love others...." You obviously have failed to learn the "how" since you never fail to not show love in your posts. This aside from your dishonesty.
                          Actually I find this more a problem with your postings then firstfloor.
                          Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
                          Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
                          But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

                          go with the flow the river knows . . .

                          Frank

                          I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

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                          • #43
                            Now, now, if you can, keep it exploratory rather than accusatory.

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                            • #44
                              Originally posted by Yttrium View Post
                              The only ones who have contacted me in an evangelical manner in the past couple decades have been Mormons. They knock on my door, and they always show up in pairs and in their spiffy outfits, and I politely decline to talk with them about their religion.
                              Send them to my house. I LOVE talking to Mormons!
                              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                                Send them to my house. I LOVE talking to Mormons!
                                Mormons and JW's are very low on my list of effective evangelisers. They rely on rote learning and are unprepared for a knowledgeable response. It's easy to throw them for a loop.

                                I maintain effective evangelism has to be rooted in a mature spirituality with a genuine (and I mean genuine) interest in and compassion for the other person's experience.

                                Comment

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