A man with a beard tried to convert me.
No, it wasn’t the nice man or the nice lady who greeted me inside Peterborough Cathedral, but the stern man outside.
Inside the Cathedral they took my money so I could walk round the empty building taking photographs and then they explained they relied on donations so could I make one when I left. Then they gave me an informative sheet telling me when what was built and who was buried where. But there was nothing about conversion and one sensed that even ‘religion’ might be a dirty word. After all, this was a Cathedral. They had buildings and history and culture and the middle-classes to worry about - no time for evangelism. Leave that to the passionate evangelicals and working-classes.
And so they did. And I met him outside. An intense man from the Open-air Mission. He thrust a leaflet into my hand and I scurried away in search of Caffe Nero.
Giving out tracts is the evangelical equivalent of off-line religious spamming. It is much more wasteful and costly than proper spamming as the millions of tracts have to be printed and physically distributed. Still the odd one or two in a million who are gullible enough to be persuaded by the message make it worthwhile for the faithful. The coffers fill up and sincere, zealous men stand on street corners and thrust paper at passers-by.
I could have screwed it up but I thought I would at least examine what he hoped would persuade me to change my life and (again) follow Jesus. I sat with my Americano and panini and read ‘What do you think about the CROSS?’
From my general knowledge and from the picture on the cover I knew that the unequal cross with the longer central spar was one of the means the Romans (and others) used for tortuous execution. However, in this tract, the cross was a sign of something wrong, a sign of love, a sign of treasure, and an indication of decision. Clearly they were not talking about the cross on the picture. I was unimpressed by the flight into fantasy and wasn’t going to change my life because of it. They needed to do better than that.
I suppose they were trying. Their trump card was, “The Bible teaches …” They clearly thought it was the trump card. The bible was quoted throughout, and herein lies the problem. The authors assume the bible to be true and authoritative and appear unaware of at least 200 years of scholarship about the text, its various different versions, its human authorship, its contradictions, and about it not being what religious zealots or ostriches have claimed for it.
If the tract had shown any awareness of that, it would be worth reading, and it would be a discussion worth having.
On holidays? Good i-post.
Yes, the assumption that “the Bible says so and so it is” makes the argument so primitive, doesn’t it. I wonder if they’re ever moving away from that.
I don’t think Christianity is ever going to die, but maybe there is another Martin-Luther like reformation coming that will make the faith palatable to the skeptic generations to come. Maybe in the future, the Bible will be seen differently, so the faith can survive.
Giving out tracts is the evangelical equivalent of off-line religious spamming.
I never thought of it that way before, but it fits.
I remember using the old Four Spiritual Laws tracts. The way we did it, we actually read it with people and talked with them about it. We didn’t just hand them out by the bucketful. I learned recently that The Four Spiritual Laws have been superseded by the 4 Points.
Next time we meet could we finally have a good old discussion on religion. We tend to skirt around it when we meet. Always plently more things to talk about. But I am ready to have a serious discussion with you about this.
I want to really listen to what you have to say. Not that I don’t listen to you, just looking at things from a tighter, deeper angle.
I would like that please!:-)
I often read the leaflets that these people thrust into my hand and try to empty my head and just read it and see how it makes me think or feel. Generally they are so horribly contrived and engage in such awfully obvious sales pitch talk that I can’t get to the end and end up feeling very cross and rather patronised.
But like all cold-calling type sales pitches, it must work occasionally or they wouldn’t bother. I guess if a person is very lonely or at a low ebb then it might seem like something that would provide comfort or a focus. I don’t know. I can’t imagine I would ever turn to religion - I prefer to turn to alcohol in my hour(s) of need.