At my university a couple weeks ago, we had a guest speaker come in who was a holocaust survivor. He is a pblished author who had written about his life and his struggle to overcome the hardships he endured and witnessed. After 45 minutes of a very moving portrayal of his ealier years, he opened up the discussion for questions and comments.
There was a girl in the back who seemed very eager to speak, and the words that tumbled out of her mouth were,
“Do you think your struggles would have been easier if you would have accepted Christ as your savior?”
Turning around in disbelief, I tried to comprehend what was going through this girl’s mind. Several people muttered to her that the man was Jewish, and loudly she exclaimed, “So what.”
The man was gracious in his answer, explaining that as a person of Jewish faith, he had long before accepted his belief in God as something to help him through it all.
Am I wrong for thinking this girl was an idiot? I still can’t believe someone would have asked this.
She is a hero should be given the Nobel peace prize. Her theory should pave a way to peace in Ireland. If the Irish Catholics simply become Protestants we’re all good (or vica versa). I love sarcasm.
This is an example of a perculiar attitude among some Christians. They think that everyone KNOWS that Christianity is the right religion, but non-Christians won’t accept it because they are evil, prideful, have something against God, etc. Strange belief, especially with so much evidence to the contrary.
Also, as mayberrydan pointed out, this is an example of the “everything is better if you are a Christian” belief that some Christian ascrib to. Again, with ample evidence to the contrary, I don’t know how this belief persists. And I am really clueless how this belief can be reconciled with the persecution complex that many of the same people possess.
that is the most disrespectful thing i have ever heard. i can’t believe how far some christians can go in their zeal to make their beliefs known. it’s so disappointing to see people reject christianity without any knowledge of it because of the stupidity of people like this. but when hearing about this idiotic bitch, i don’t blame them.
I think the problem here is more one of ignorance than of intentional disrespect. As Dr. Lao alluded to, many Christians have tunnel-vision when it comes to their religion, and have no cultural contextuality in which to base other faiths.
She was probably raised in a very sheltered environment, and just doesn’t know any better. This wouldn’t excuse her behavior in any way, but perhaps explain it. It is similar to a stereotypical Dumb American complaining about the lack of amenities abroad. They have been conditioned by their environment to take everything for granted. I would think that by the time a person got to university, she would have this sort of thing figured out. Sadly, that is not the case.
I have to agree with manhattan, this girl is way beyond an idiot.
Everytime I think I’ve heard it all and can’t possibly be shocked again by how ignorant people can be, along comes someone like this girl to prove me wrong.
You were not wrong in thinking this girl an idiot.
Personally I would have thought of a number of more adjectives for her.
Insensitive. Moronic. Ignorant. Narrow-minded.
There seems to be an implied statement in her question, that because the speaker had not accepted Christ as his savior, he made his own life more difficult for himself. In other words, what happened to him was at least partly his own fault. Give me a fucking break.
And the fact that she responded “So what?” to the persons telling her that the speaker was Jewish indicates to me that she simply viewed the speaker’s cultural background as totally irrelevant. Apparently for her, only Christian culture has any relevancy.
It’s smug folks like her that turned me off of going to church.
Fucking hell. What a disgraceful thing to say. What a slap in the face for a man who has just explained that he was proscecuted for his faith.
Evil or dumb, I really don’t know what to call it. All I know is that I probably would not have been able to keep myself from calling her every name in the book. My goodness.
Is this girl an idiot? Maybe. Sadly misguided? Almost certainly. Evil? I seriously doubt it.
What she said was very inappropriate, but to call her evil is a little much I think. Evil would have been calling him a liar because the Holocaust never happened. I think she just made a lame attempt at witnessing to him. All she accomplished was making an ass of herself in front of a large crowd of students and faculty. Sounds like the speaker handled her ignorance with great class and poise. People like her give Christians a bad name.
Hey, she coulda done like my Jewish friend’s freshman roommate and said that she still respected the speaker, even though his people had killed her Lord and Savior.
Lesse, I believe that once I am baptized and “accept Christ as my personal savior” I can engage in any behavior I like and I’m still going to heaven.
I also believe that the earth is 6,000 years old and that fossils are “God’s little jokes”.
I further believe that God allowed all the natural world to behave in one manner, but then “planted” humans here fully developed and devoid of any evolutionary process.
To top that all off, I believe that whatever my personal sect of Christianity is, it is the “one true” faith and everyone can only get to heaven by following it’s tenets.
That stupid fucking idiot is off the scale. I’m very jaded these days but that just made my blood boil. I would have let loose a string of profanity on her like she had never heard. Her ears would still be burning.
Maybe that ignorant little gnat would care to read some of the later works of Martin Luther. Words of a Christian hero used to justify the carnage. GAH!
I know that she doesn’t represent the typical believer in Christ. I really do. People like her make it so hard to be tolerant of that particular philosophy but to not be tolerant would be the greater evil.
I kind of like the speaker’s reaction: gracious, and I imagine, kindly in a grandfatherly sort of way–tolerating a four-year old child who has just learned to talk but hasn’t learned what not to say.
Reminds me of the lady who, upon finding out I’m LDS, asked me what I believed and when I began to answer she responded with: “No, you don’t. You worship Satan.”
Well, the OP’s schoolmate is of the same low caliber. She evidently also missed the fact that the speaker described some of the horrors he witnessed. A couple of Christian priests were killed in the camps, IIRC. Don’t you imagine they, at least, had accepted Christ?
I appreciate your compassion for her and you giving her the benefit of the doubt, but I’m sticking by my characterization.
NO ONE is that stupid. At least not without actively choosing stupidity as one’s course in life.
No, she is an evil agent, brainwashed by other evil agents alleging to do God’s work.
I almost wish there were a God to judge her. I imagine that if there were a just God, one would have to save an awful lot of orphans and puppies from burning buildings to overcome this one.
Did this chick really think that “real Christians” weren’t persecuted in Nazi Germany? Let me guess, it was the Jew’s own fault. :rolleyes:
Evil misguided bitch. I would have slapped her for being so disrespectful. My friend’s dad is a survivor, when he was 8, he came home one day and his whole village was empty. he ended up in at least two camps before the end of the war, and every single member of his family was murdered. He can barely speak of it, even to his own family.
A perfect example of a born again Christian’s all too common urge to witness providing the poorest testimony of all for Christ. What a zealous theocentric waste of skin.