Comments on: The bait and switch.

By: hermit

hermit — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:50:53 +0000

Mark Salomon (lead singer of Stavesacre) writes about experiences like this in his book “Simplicity”. Often, in the middle of an “outreach” show, the pastor or youth pastor or whatever would jump onstage right after a song and disrupt the flow of the concert to deliver a message or an altar call. This would disrupt the rapport established between band and audience, and Mark felt like they had been used to trick people into coming. Very good book, btw, many similarities to this site (without the humor).

By: Alleycat

Alleycat — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:39:23 +0000

At least they didn’t serve soup and call it the “Souper Bowl.”

By: Alleycat

Alleycat — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:34:22 +0000

Not just humorous quirks and issues, but serious ones as well that absolutely NEED to be addressed. The church, in its attempts to attract people to Christ, tends to chase people away from Christ. Your friend is right. Model Jesus like he’s your hero, don’t try and sell him like he’s a used Honda.

By: Alleycat

Alleycat — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:22:24 +0000

Hey! I like that show!

By: Chloe

Chloe — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 05:11:24 +0000

So pandora radio just pulled a bait and switch. Mind you as a Christian I don’t mind but I find it rather strange that I’ve been listening to Taylor swift and then all of a sudden I’m listening to hallelujah (your love makes me sing). Then you’re back to rascal flatts. Interesting.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 05:20:29 +0000

I went to a wedding like this once. Apparently Episcopalian weddings (at least, the ones held at my husband’s old church) are short, as we were told, but they do the wedding and then an entire service. Or rather, they throw the wedding in midway through the service. I still would have come, most likely, but it was not a nice surprise.

“Plus, since they were from Texas, they were attractive. (I can’t prove it, but I think 87% of people from Texas are attractive.)”
Born Texan here, and I can tell you it’s true. Heck, just come to Texas sometime and you will find that you have gotten more attractive since driving over the state line.

By: gav

gav — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:13:12 +0000

btw that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk about your faith in a natural way. but it does mean not doing the kneejerk thing of “oh here are some obvious targets!!! fire away!!!” when you happen to hang out with non-Christians.
it is a real cringe-inducer to realize there are western Christians out there who would tell you that you “personally left a bunch of Hindus in hell.” like these brown-skinned people are hopeless naifs who’ve never heard of Jesus or wouldn’t be capable of thinking through the message of Christianity with their own brains. makes me want to take a bath.

By: gav

gav — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:05:05 +0000

as someone who was raised Hindu, thanks for NOT automatically using a social encounter with Indians as an opportunity to proselytize. here’s why:

you start to feel really, really used by western Christians. you realize that too many of them are hanging out with you, laughing at your jokes, etc. not because they originally genuinely liked YOU but because they saw you as a generic soul target.

you start to see western Christians as that guy at the bar who’s nice to lonely girls to manipulate them into bed. you start thinking western Christians are kind of heartless, they’re only nice to the brown people to manipulate them into church.

you start believing, there is never any kind of unconditional love or friendship with western Christians because at the end of the day, they don’t see you as a whole complicated flesh-and-blood who HAS serious thoughts about religion, socioeconomics, culture, why you’ve been a Hindu/Muslim/Buddhist/Christian/Jew/Sikh/Jain/whatever.

you start believing they always see you simply as that poor little exotic to bring out of benighted darkness, that poor little exotic who’s never seriously heard about or talked about Jesus, that poor little exotic who needs to be led by the hand to the westerner’s superior wellspring of Christian philosophy.

yeah, plus, there is some resentment in India at western Christianity because so many missionary Christians have used unethically manipulative or bait-and-switch tactics to seek conversions. the fact that sometimes conversions have both religiously and culturally destructive consequences is another source of resentment.

plus plus it’s frustrating and embarrassing to many of India’s 30-40 million Christians to repeatedly meet up with western Christians who witness AT them like poor little exotics. even if it’s not meant as condescending, the zillionth time, you start to read it that way.

By: @holytwiglets

@holytwiglets — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:50:07 +0000

We had a Hallowe'en party at our church this year, about 25 children we had never met and about 15 adults were there sitting around the room and a couple of people had a go at me for not suddenly pulling out the Bible and preaching the gospel.

By: Line of Cars

Line of Cars — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 14:36:18 +0000

But what about the guilty feeling if you just do something genuinely nice and don't somehow verbally share the entire gospel story and offer the altar call at the end? Am I the only person who gets that guilty feeling? Like Monday night, I was playing guitar at this thing, hanging out with a bunch of Indian sailors who were cussing up a storm and playing pool. I was only nice to them. I talked to them. We joked. But I never "bridged the gap". I went home feeling guilty like I had personally left a bunch of Hindus in hell.

I'm not advocating the bait and switch, by the way. I'm advocating people not convincing me that I'm garbage for not doing it.