Conversion Attempts And Hypocrites

[Buggaboo]

I don't know. I was scratching my head about that as well, though I'll be the first to admit I have not read the whole post from start to finish, so the answer may be hidden in there somewhere.

[lawfulevil]

My husband has a collection of obnoxious step-siblings, but the craziest one is his stepsister. I've always said that you should never name a kid something like "Chastity" or "Purity", and this woman is living proof.

She recently turned fundie-grade LDS. She's gone skirts only, won't let her girls play video games anymore (but it's okay for the boy), and she invited missionaries to family Christmas dinner. Nothing says "fun" like "unrelated teenage boys at a family event". She also had a conniption fit that there was caffeinated soda in the fridge where the KIDS COULD HAVE GOTTEN IT OMG. Diet Pepsi is the work of the devil, clearly.

She's super into trying to convert the whole damn family. Christmas presents for EVERYONE were copies of the Book of Mormon. I have this knee-jerk thing against throwing a BOOK in the compost bin, so they're in a box with a bunch of other terrible books. We got two, one for him and one for me.

Naturally, she has one of the top 10 most checkered pasts of anyone I've ever met. (This is actually monumentally impressive, I've known a lot of fucked up people. As an example, one of my college roommates became a drug-addicted hooker while I was still stuck living with her.)

It takes a lot of brandy in my eggnog every year to prevent me from shaking her until her teeth rattle.

[Jezebel]

I haven't had as many overt fuckups try to convert me. But I've had an awful lot of people who suffer from a combination of pervasive anxiety, depression, and learned helplessness try to do so.

They're sad, damaged people who are no less sad or damaged post-conversion. So listening to them tell me about the hope and joy found in Christ--only to turn around and start talking about whatever they're obsessively worrying over these days, and how the "little guy" can never win, and sighing and saying, "What can you do?" after describing their latest problem--would make me laugh if it weren't so pitiable.

And telling me that "all things are possible with faith in Jesus" when your chronic depression is so debilitating you can barely get out of bed in the morning, clean your house, hold down a job or make sure your kids are properly cared for isn't exactly compelling testimony. Surely, Jesus can fix your messed-up brain chemistry without your having to jump through endless hoops to prove you're worthy of it?

[dawbs]

What the hell did that poster mean about ethnic vs non-ethnic?

I'm not the poster in question, so this is free imput, worth precisely what you paid for it...I assumed it was shorthand for 'cultural' or 'raised that way'.

which would mean the poster was saying "It's rare to find someone who is a convert to Christianity--most people in my area who are 'Christian' are because they were raised that way"

[rock_girl]

I had a neighbour who had a fairly horrific past (and wasn't shy about sharing it) which included sexual abuse when she was quite young. She became a very strict Mormon, was involved in some sort of cult that worshipped a beautiful Korean woman, joined the Salvation Army... and then we moved away. I'm guessing by now she's found Islam and is covered head to toe.

The world would be a better place if every religion had a policy of requiring a psych evaluation before accepting converts.

[Jezebel]

I'm not the poster in question, so this is free imput, worth precisely what you paid for it...I assumed it was shorthand for 'cultural' or 'raised that way'.

which would mean the poster was saying "It's rare to find someone who is a convert to Christianity--most people in my area who are 'Christian' are because they were raised that way"

Whereas I assumed that by "ethnic evangelicals" she means evangelical Latin American, Asian, and African churches--the kinds of small congregations you see in immigrant neighborhoods, usually set up in a storefront or strip mall. They usually only evangelize to fellow immigrants, as well as supporting churches and missionaries back home, and they take care of each other as well.

When I lived in San Francisco, there were several such "ethnic evangelical" churches in my predominantly-Latino neighborhood; the one closest to my apartment was mostly Salvadoran, and two of the guys I used to work with on paint crews attended services there. They weren't anything like the fundie god-botherers we snark on here; neither one ever tried to rope me into conversations about "my salvation." I got the picture that church was more about bonding as a Salvadoran immigrant community--as an ad hoc family--than it was about "soul winning."