Rushianbeing

I don't know if this forum is the proper place for this topic, so please feel free to move...

Forgive me if this topic has been beat to death already, but I'm sort of new here.
What has infuriated me most about the religious types around here since I moved to this burg has been their blatant hypocrisy. For example, my best friend is unfortunatly a born-again southern baptismo. I go to her church on occasion, when I go down to Knoxville to visit her. She has not witnessed to me even once, although I suspect that she tricked me into attending a youth revival on purpose last fall-she told me she wanted me to come see a play her group was putting on at church, and I ended up being very obviously the object of the yelling and screaming you-must-repent preachers, who were all looking directly at me the whole time. ANYWAY, that's neither here nor there-I have a postgrad degree in cultural anthropology, and I usually just look at visiting her church as doing a field study. I actually find it quite fun and interesting at times.

The infuriating part is this: ALL I have EVER HEARD her preacher talk (scream, cry) about during sermons is saving souls. They even have a huge banner behind the pulpit that reads, in HUGE red letters, "OUR #1 PRIORITY IS SOULS". And on every door that leads out from the church, there is a sign posted that says "You are now entering the mission zone".

But her preacher has NEVER said one word to me. He very obviously recognizes me as a foreign object in his church, but he has never spoken to me. Never. Not once. I have witnessed him each and every time go up to EVERYONE ELSE in the church after his sermons are done and shake their hands and bullshit with them, but he's never come near me.

And to further illustrate the hypocrisy of this congregation, I consented to go to a bible study group one Monday night with my friend, which consisted of about 20 people. And not one of them spoke to me all night. No one even came up to me to say hello!! No, not one word!! NOTHING!!! Nada! It was like I was vapor.

So much for going out there and getting souls!!!

To my friend's credit, their silence made her so mad that she referred to them in the car later as "motherfuckers", which is most un-christian of her. But then again, isn't she required to witness to me, also? So why isn't she?

My husband's family is S. B. and equally hypocritical, judgmental and scary. When we went to his uncle's house on Mother's Day to have post-church dinner with the entire extended family, we were witness to a most disturbing display: My husband's nephew, a little boy of four, is a spoiled-rotten brat who owns an arsenal of toy guns, of all shapes and sizes, literally about 40 or 50 of them. He was running all over the house shooting at people all morning, but not just play shooting-he was walking up to all of us, putting the barrel of whatever gun he was using at the time to our TEMPLES, and pulling the trigger. Then he would gleefully jump around and tell us we were dead, and move on to the next. He killed us all at close-range multiple times. But suddenly, before the meal was to start, all activity stopped, the party gathered around this little monster, and listened raptly as he recited the Lord's Prayer. When he was done, they clapped like he'd just cured cancer. Then it was back to killing.

Most of the religious people here are Southern Baptist like my friend's congregation and my husband's family, and I'm honestly not sure what exactly it is they believe in!! I certainly cannot tell from their confusing antics. So if someone can enlighten me, please do!!


Or if this is just too silly to even bother with, I understand that too!

Pyrrho

Well, this is a first for me. I have never heard people complaining that people were not trying to convert them. The usual complaint is that people are trying to convert them.

For what it is worth, they may have judged you to be "not ready" to be approached for your conversion. And, from what you have said, I'd say that if they thought that, they were probably right. Do you think they would have succeeded in "saving your soul" if they had tried? If not, then what would be the point in speaking with you?

As for the toy gun, they probably just regard that as play, not as anything real to be concerned about. I am not saying that they are right to think that, but it is certainly more than just possible that they believe that. (I don't wish to get into a discussion of whether people should be concerned about children playing with toy guns.)


Most of the topics that people discuss are too silly to bother with, but, since people are silly, they discuss them anyway. But in your particular case, I don't think any reasonable person would regard your post as a particularly silly topic.

Biff the unclean

Isn't there a Seinfeld episode where George becomes upset because a religious cult who brain washers people as they are cleaning their carpets go after his boss and not him?

Rushianbeing

Why thank you Pyrrho!
I must clarify: I am CERTAINLY NOT complaining that I am not being witnessed to. I prefer it thusly. I just find it amazing that these people don't recognize their own very blatant hypocrisy in screaming about getting souls, but not actually trying to do it, right down to the preacher.
I have been to my friend's church I'd say about five times in the last year and a half, and I honestly have never heard a sermon on a topic other than bringing warm bodies into the church. And there I sit, a total stranger, I am RIGHT THERE for the picking-why don't they practice what they preach and try it? It's just amusing, that's all.
And no, they certainly wouldn't have been successful if they had.

And Biff...I don't remember that episode, but I do remember the one where Elaine gets mad because Putty isn't concerned enough that she's going to burn in hell for all of eternity. Elaine understands where I'm coming from!

BadBadBad

Money. What about the money?

Pyrrho

But you did hear the preacher speak to the whole congregation. That was his attempt at getting you 'into the fold'. You probably showed no signs of any real interest in converting, so any further speaking with you would be a waste of time. I think you are being overly hard on them to say that they must be hypocritical for not speaking with you individually about these things.

If something cannot be done, or cannot be done now, then there is no point in trying to do it now. Whether one wants it or not is irrelevant, and the failure to attempt something does not indicate that one does not want it. If, for example, you wanted to fly without the aid of any devices, the fact that you don't leap off of a tall building would not make you a hypocrite. You may very well believe that you would fail, and therefore you don't make the attempt.

Please don't misunderstand me; I think the Southern Baptist religion is really obnoxious. But I think you are being overly hard on them in this particular case.

brighid

Rushianbeing,

Consider it a compliment that these people view you with contempt and aren't falling over themselves in an attempt to win your soul for Jeeessuuuuusss! You obviously don't give off the insecure, in need of love bombing, easily manipulated vibe. If you did they would be all over you like bees on honey.

If you really want to rattle their cages wear a pentagram and some seriously, vampy outfit with a lacked up bodice, clevage up to your chin, and some thigh high, high healed CFM boots. And if they have one of those holy water fountains have a little bit of dry ice in your hand, drop it in and as the water smokes, scream ... "it burns, it burns!" But I am an evil bitch and you might not enjoy that as much as I would!

Brighid

Pyrrho

I think your dry ice idea is very funny. The trouble is, most, if not all, Southern Baptists do not have holy water. I think they would regard that as a bit of popery, and therefore as anathema.

spacedOut

Here's my take:

I believe that most people belonging to a Christian church are there for the social and support aspects. They know that evangelism is a key theme in Christianity, but they also realize that actually doing it is much more difficult than just talking about it. That's one reason why sponsoring missionaries is so big. Congregations will go to great effort and expense to set up a children's home in South America, but never even think about getting involved in a local child advocacy group. It's much easier to write a check on Sunday than it is to really get your hands dirty.

I believe another reason there is so little evangelism in churches today is that most Christians have no idea why they believe what they believe, other than the fact they were brought up that way. Talking to a stranger is hard enough. Trying to convince that stranger that he/she is eternally lost and needs an ancient, invisible "saviour" is a little more than most people want to take on. It's much more comfortable to hang with people that have the same supernatural beliefs as you.

I had a similar experience with a Southern Baptist preacher a few months ago. I attended a church that was holding a series of lessons dealing with Christian Evidences. There wasn't much to the series as the preacher obviously pulled heavily from the Josh McDowell material. Anyway, after each lesson I e-mailed the pastor thanking him for the lesson and requesting clarification on the issues that I felt he sort of glossed over. He responded to the first couple of e-mails promising to get back with me, but that was all I heard from him.

It would seem that I would have been the perfect target for an evangelistic pastor. I was gracious and polite and was genuinely searching for the truth. However, the pastor apparently thought it too much trouble to deal with someone who had intellectual questions regarding the Christian faith. Granted, I'm sure it was much easier for him to minister to his own "flock" of like-minded believers, but the experience just enforced my belief that most Christians today are not serious about evangelism.

brighid

Damn!! I guess it's just the Catholic left in me ... what about at the Baptismal? Would that work? She could asked to be baptized and come in that outfit, with dry ice in hand ... now that would be funny! However, in Tenessee I would worry about the rednecks in the congregation having a loaded gun in the back of their pick up and shooting her in the parking lot screaming,"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!"

It's just not something I would do in my neighborhood, but it would be fun to do that in someone elses!

Brighid