Using toy drives to proselytize to needy families

[valsa]

I'm guessing she's done the convert-via-toy thing before.

[julie paradox]

Well, bollocks. I thought we were ok with Operation Christmas Child because they say something like "where it is culturally appropriate, we also share the good news about Christ in a child-friendly way."

I suppose it's my own fault, but it never occurred to me that their definitions of culturally appropriate and child-friendly would be so radically different from mine.

[Sola]

It is.

As is yours.

[Guest Anonymous]

I wonder why this topic, of all things, got her fundie panties all in a wad.

I guess she was jealous of the (negative) attention Lucky was getting. She has turned up at the tail end of a few threads. Doesn't seem to have much original shit to stir.

Poor 4M - our troll without a cause. :lol:

[luckylibrarian]

What a stupid troll, too. She wanted to know what dirt we had on the SBC so she wouldn't have to research it herself. Because starting a thread on a forum is so much easier than Googling for thirty seconds. [eyeroll]

[Mela99]

I dunno about all this, man. I'm Catholic and the idea makes me itchy. I think Jesus did tell people to preach the gospel -- and he calls certain people to do that, and they become nuns and priests, whatever.

I'd love it if a Jewish group started giving out Hanukkah gifts to Christians and telling them that Jesus himself was Jewish and there is no hell.

[B5SnowDog]

Me too.

Well, have fun with it. Though how you can have fun without alcohol and/or dancing is beyond me.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I dunno about all this, man. I'm Catholic and the idea makes me itchy. I think Jesus did tell people to preach the gospel -- and he calls certain people to do that, and they become nuns and priests, whatever.

I'd love it if a Jewish group started giving out Hanukkah gifts to Christians and telling them that Jesus himself was Jewish and there is no hell.

I would also love this because the ensuing wailing and gnashing of teeth would be EPIC.

[Irishy]

I've had an eye opening (for him) chat with our school principal and they are not doing Samaritans purse next year. Showed him the pics of the tracts. So one small victory here.

[formergothardite]

I think this thread has shown that when you become one of those sort of Christians, the ones that look at a poor child and just see an opportunity to try spread your religion, it sucks all the compassion out of you. You stop really caring about people and start only caring about yourself and your own feelings. Not all Christians do this, but that brand of Christianity sure creates self-centered, uncaring people.

[emmiedahl]

I read through the seven pages of this that appeared while I was cooking, eating, and recovering from Thanksgiving here in the States.

All I can say is: Why can't Christians be as good as other people? The OP is not Christian and she is buying gifts for a child just because she cares about children getting a nice gift. And then M^4 feels she has a moral high road when churches use *other people's* gifts to proselytize. So on one hand you have an atheist giving without asking for anything in return, and on the other hand you have a Christian (maybe giving) while using any gifts as an excuse to spread her viewpoint.

One of my favorite Biblical passages is that you can tell a tree by the fruit that it bears. Christianity bears such nasty, rotten fruit, while atheism seems to bear such lovely and selfless acts. And I say this as a theist.

[pomology]

I dunno about all this, man. I'm Catholic and the idea makes me itchy. I think Jesus did tell people to preach the gospel -- and he calls certain people to do that, and they become nuns and priests, whatever.

I'd love it if a Jewish group started giving out Hanukkah gifts to Christians and telling them that Jesus himself was Jewish and there is no hell.

The problem is that Jews don't tend to be assholes like that the one who are tend to be so wrapped up in their own insular communities and spend all their spare time studying the Talmud that they don't have time and energy and enough exposure to the real world to come up with dick moves like that.

[nokidsmom]

The really sick thing that I realized since being here at FJ - it's I don't think that fundies/missionaries do charity work to feel good about themselves or to gain people for the Christian army. I think they do it 'cause they think if they give charity to "heathens" while handing out graphic comic tracts "preaching" the gospel, it'll give them more tickets to get their souls close to Heaven, which is what Martin Luther thought was sick (I forget what those tickets were called). They probably think that every time they proselytize the saving a soul for Jesus, which makes them close to Heaven because they're not like those heathens who aren't their brand of Christianity and don't proselytize themsleves, thinking that they're better than people who don't believe in their particular brand of Christianity because they're not in the group and haven't started (yet) to prosleytize their new tracts' beliefs. You should give to give, be nice to be nice, and care just to care, not do it for some spiritual award that your cult promises you.

Regarding the bolded, they were called indulgences.

[HOTW]

In my town we have the Arctic League which raises money every year and distributes presents to needy families without any strings attached. They need to meet the financial requirements but it is open to all and on Xmas monring hundreds of volunteers line up to take bags to take to the homes listed on the bags. It is a much better cause IMM than the Salvatian Army who like s to preach to those in neeed(as anyone who has attended their Hoilday Food Kitchen can attest!

[snarktastic]

Mela99 wrote:

I dunno about all this, man. I'm Catholic and the idea makes me itchy. I think Jesus did tell people to preach the gospel -- and he calls certain people to do that, and they become nuns and priests, whatever.

I'd love it if a Jewish group started giving out Hanukkah gifts to Christians and telling them that Jesus himself was Jewish and there is no hell.

I would also love this because the ensuing wailing and gnashing of teeth would be EPIC.

OH YEAH! Maybe us evil European atheists could send out missions to Christian American - tell the little Christian children of Tennessee that Dawkins loves them and happiness comes from following the true word of Hitchins - bwahaaaaaa!

[mirele]

OH YEAH! Maybe us evil European atheists could send out missions to Christian American - tell the little Christian children of Tennessee that Dawkins loves them and happiness comes from following the true word of Hitchins - bwahaaaaaa!

You don't even have to go that far, just hand them books about dinos and galaxies, with the real age of the earth, the solar system and the universe--and watch the fundies go ballistic. Witness what happened earlier this week when a US Senator (Marco Rubio, potential presidential candidate) evaded a question on the age of the earth, because it might hurt his future chances among the ignorant and butthurt.

[Witsec7]

experiencedd - I'm a pastor at a non-denominational church that is loosely affiliated with the Foursquare Gospel, the founder of which was a woman. She may or may not have gone nuts later on in life, though, so I'm not sure if that's something to brag about. haha

Former- if I were to talk to children about the gospel, I'd present it in a non-threatening way. I'd never tell a child horrific, gory detail about Jesus' crucifixion, nor would I tell them they're a black-hearted sinner dangling above the pits of a fiery hell. That's not the way the gospel was presented to me and not the way I'd present it to anyone else.

Amy Semple was a grifter and a con artist, the only reason you call her a minister is because you drank the kool aid.

[Artemis]

How is Amy Semple any different from any other celebrity who pimps for a religion? (Ted Haggard?)

She was a shady character who managed to con a lot of people into believing in her.

[JaChelle Sugar]

Ugh, proseletizing to children. On one hand I understand the fundies logic, sorta (he who puts family before me isn't worthy of me, which is why to many parent's choose dogma over there kids) but man, how can anyone teach kids this gory stuff. Especially the scarier religiouso types, fire and brimstone and the end of the world is nigh. Or hardcore 3-percenter Calvinists.

As an adult I do NOT like being proselitized too. Do not like it. Don't want to be given a tract. Just now, a woman came up to me as I was minding my own business scanning the library shelves, and asked me 'excuse me, do you know the Lord Jesus? I encourage you to give him a try.'

She seemed like a nice, soft-spoken lady but man I want to be left alone at the library. I was minding my own, don't want to be randomly proselitized to out of the blue. Or, at all really. I want to say, in the nicest way to her, wtf lady?!

[lilith]

Ugh, proseletizing to children. On one hand I understand the fundies logic, sorta (he who puts family before me isn't worthy of me, which is why to many parent's choose dogma over there kids) but man, how can anyone teach kids this gory stuff. Especially the scarier religiouso types, fire and brimstone and the end of the world is nigh. Or hardcore 3-percenter Calvinists.

As an adult I do NOT like being proselitized too. Do not like it. Don't want to be given a tract. Just now, a woman came up to me as I was minding my own business scanning the library shelves, and asked me 'excuse me, do you know the Lord Jesus? I encourage you to give him a try.'

She seemed like a nice, soft-spoken lady but man I want to be left alone at the library. I was minding my own, don't want to be randomly proselitized to out of the blue. Or, at all really. I want to say, in the nicest way to her, wtf lady?!

That's creepy. The whole "do you know Jesus? I encourage you to give him a try" reminds me of the company reps who hang out in supermarkets trying to convince people to change the brand of laundry liquid they use.

[Kitty]

Damn, I'm really late to the thread, and don't have much to say that hasn't already been said.

Though I totally came in thinking this was the thread about Kendull participating in a toy drive while denying her own children presents on Christmas.

[Kitty]

That's creepy. The whole "do you know Jesus? I encourage you to give him a try" reminds me of the company reps who hang out in supermarkets trying to convince people to change the brand of laundry liquid they use.

Yeah, they are weird. Like, you live in a country that's 75% Christian, EVERYONE has heard of Jesus at some point and knows the basics about his role in Christianity. The exceptions are young children... oh, of course, that's what the toy drives are for.

I usually tell these types that I was in fact born and raised SBC, went to fundie-lite churches and have already tried Jesus, but it just didn't work out very well.

[pomology]

Do people really ask you to "try" Jesus? Because that makes him sound like a drug and makes these people come off as incredibly sketch.

[lilith]

Do people really ask you to "try" Jesus? Because that makes him sound like a drug and makes these people come off as incredibly sketch.

Lol, shows what a sheltered housewife I have become - you think of drugs dealers, I think of laundry detergent salesmen!

[pomology]

Lol, shows what a sheltered housewife I have become - you think of drugs dealers, I think of laundry detergent salesmen!

I have no idea why it sounds that way to me, but it does. It's not like I've ever been approached by a drug dealer. Or a laundry detergent salesman, come to think of it. But I think drug dealers are more prevalent in popular culture.