Turkey Dinner with a Side Order of Jesus

Recently, a guy I once dated popped back into my life unexpectedly. Hard as it will be to believe for some of the folks who once knew me, he was even more extreme a Fundy than I once was, and I hate to say it, but he's become more of an ass than he used to be. (This is perhaps unfair and untrue. I may feel this way because I've become so much more liberal and his conservatism stands out more. By the way, being conservative is fine. This guy is an ass for other reasons, not because he's conservative. There are plenty of wonderful conservatives out there who are most decidedly NOT asses.)

Anyhow, my last posting brought this subject to mind, as did the comments of my Fundy "friend" last week regarding the Emerging Church movement. It's too bad I can't introduce the two of them (my commentator and my ex). They'd hit it off famously. :) The guy I used to date mentioned the Emerging Church and wanted to know if my current church was affiliated with it. I told him I'd never heard the term and that my church was most certainly not a part of it. He then filled me in briefly on what it is these people stand for. Honestly, I still have a pretty vague notion of it all, but one of the things he criticized in the movement is actually something I think they may have right. He spoke of their "humanistic" approach to humanitarian work - namely, the fact that they feed the homeless but don't preach to them over the meal. Call me worldly, but I actually think they might be onto something there.

I talked in my last post about the problem with having an agenda behind forming friendships with non-Christ followers. I should perhaps clarify that in saying that I don't think it's wrong to form relationships with the desire to eventually share Jesus; I just think that loving relationship (being Jesus in the relationship rather than simply preaching Jesus in the relationship) should be our goal. I think this also applies to our humanitarian pursuits. I mean, doesn't it seem a little sketchy to you to use helping a needy person as some sort of manipulative tool to force your religious convictions on them? It kind of reminds me of the time my parents had to sit through a two-hour spiel on timeshares in order to go home with a CD player. All they really wanted and needed was the CD player, but they had to listen to the sales pitch in order to get it. No one likes being in that position, so why is it we force people to listen to our religious sales pitch in order to get a much needed meal and clothes?

I know it sounds like I'm saying that we should just give out the cookies and not share Jesus, but that's not what I'm saying it all. I'm all for sharing Jesus, but I don't think we should force Him on people because they're too needy to do without our help. They're smart enough to see through that kind of bullshit, and frankly I think most of them resent it. It doesn't do our cause any good if people hate us for our message before we ever preach it. We often say that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. This is true. But how much do you think these people sense our care when that care is conditional on them choking down a healthy side order of Jesus with the turkey dinner we've served them, especially when they only ordered the turkey? They might be poor, but that doesn't mean they're too dumb to see our agenda. How about we just let them know we're Christ followers and leave it at that for awhile? How about we just love them and love them and help them and listen to them and love them some more? And maybe, just maybe, when we've given them our unconditional love long enough, they'll come to us for Jesus as well as turkey, toys and blankets.