You started the witnessing thread in GD. If you witness, you are automatically setting yourself up as an expert, or at least someone well-grounded in his faith. Don’t do it unless you can take the shots.
No, I realized that there was no God, and I needed to stop fooling myself. Christians tend to be less educated and more bigoted than freethinkers, or at least in my experience, they are. I’ll say it again: I don’t believe Jesus rose from the grave, and I don’t think God exists.
Let’s make a deal. I won’t bust you on your spelling and grammar if you promise to stop preaching about Jesus.
What do you have against shoddily built Korean cars that break down constantly? Besides, when I was living in Seoul, having a Hyundai Grandeur was considered a sign of finacial status. (seriously!)
Witnessing is best done with your life.
People who act like Jesus would want them to.
People who don’t “preach”, yet get the message across.
People who don’t believe they and their church are the ONLY right ones, everyone else is wrong somewhat.
That is seriously snobby.
And whats with the derogatory Jeezer?
I am a christian, non denominational.
I’ve gone back and re-read my initial response to Wildest Bill where I said:
After reading it again, I didn’t even follow it. That’s been gnawing at me.
But here is another view point on what I was trying to say. This make just as little sense, but fuck it, I just thought of it and I’m sitting in front of my computer, so here goes…
When having a discussion or argument about Christianity, and said Christian cites the Bible, it seems as though he just cannot comprehend that I consider the Bible as a collection of parables not be taken literally, but rather as a sort of guide book.
So, If I’m confronted with … “Jesus sure did get mad when he freaked out on those peddlers.”
I may as well come back with , “Yeah well that tortoise sure kicked the crap out of the hare in that race.”
It’s a non-sequitur as far as I’m considered.
On the other hand, if someone says, “The Bible teaches us that we ought to turn the other cheek” That’s fine with me. Just don’t cite the Bible as an historical record. 'Cause it ain’t.
Recently, while I was visiting my next door neighbor, two Mormon missionaries came to her door. She answered the door and was going to tell them to get lost, but I told her, “I’ll invite them over to my house.”
While this may sound a little strange, I like to meet people who are different from me, so I invited these two young men to sit in my backyard around the picnic table and talk to me.
Up front I told them I am agnostic and pretty happy with my belief system (or lack thereof). We discussed the Bible and the Book of Mormon (I have my own copy from a time in my life when I belonged to a Mormon off-shoot), and I asked them about their families and where they come from.
I introduced them to my family and all the pets, and they talked sports with my s.o. for a while, and then left. I have seen them a couple of times since; once by chance and once by appointment.
What I tell these guys is, although they are not going to convert me, they are witnessing for their church just by being nice people. I don’t know if all Mormon missionaries are like this, but these two sure are nice.
My point in relating this is that these guys are doing what they have been raised to believe is right. They are also pretty intelligent and were open to talking about other things besides religion.
The fundies that do the “I must save souls” threads are losing ground for their cause by their method. The poster vanilla put it rather succinctly by saying “Witnessing is best done with your life.”
It’s all well and good to make new friends, but if you met these guys and they were specifically on their mission, they ain’t hanging around you because they like your cats - their ultimate goal is, by either convincing you verbally or by showing you the way by their own actions, seeing you accept Mormonism into your life. That’s the whole point of a mission, n’est-ce pas?
Of course, you’re right about that, but I think in a way I am trying to do a little witnessing too. Just because I am a liberal agnostic and a mother in my forties, I guess I want to give them a different slant on what it means to be an agnostic.
My brother tells me that these Mormon missions almost NEVER convert anyone. Do Mormons have a reputation for being as annoying as some of the other brands of door-to-door sellers of religion? These two have not been annoying to me.
