Fascinating story on NPR about a young Brown University student who went undercover at Liberty University in order to better understand Evangelical Christians.
The article is full of amazing insight and irony. One of my favorite observations by the author was this:
"Roose, the product of the "ultimate, secular, liberal upbringing," got the idea to go undercover after meeting a group of Liberty students while a freshman at Brown. "I had never really come into contact with conservative Christian culture," he says. "It became clear very quickly that we had almost no way to communicate with each other."
How can it be that we have no way to communicate with other human beings? Why do they have to learn our Christianese and participate in our brand of Christian consumerism before they can understand us?
Can you imagine a first century pagan having to do all of this just to find a way to communicate with followers of Jesus in Jerusalem?
This is part of why I want to destroy the Christian Subculture. It puts us on an island away from the people we are commanded to love and serve.
Read the full article (and the insightful comments below it)
HERE
2 comments:
This is such an interesting post. I couldn't agree more. I was raised in the south and went to very traditional churches growing up. I believe that for the most part, many of the people in those churches had the best of intentions and wholeheartedly wanted to reach the lost but so many of the times they were going about it the wrong way. I have lived in California with my husband and three children now for seven years and we go to a church called RockHarbor. The pastors and elders of our church here go out of their way to try and eliminate those barriers that keep Christians from reaching the lost so many times. It has been so refreshing to be able to rest in what I know think is the way Jesus intended for believers to reach the world. That is, where they are and on the same level as they are without looking down on them and without holding out as if we were better than they. I feel blessed for being able to have a greater understanding in this area. I appreciate your post. I look forward to more!
Gina
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