The ol' bait and switch!

[WanderingStar]

Ah, October, I love you so much. Halloween, Columbus Day sales, and our parish fair (I'm from Louisiana). I can't wait to go tomorrow. One thing the fair always reminds me of is an interesting sermon my dad and I accidentally attended there years ago. We saw a sign advertising a presentation about dinosaurs, and the "presentation" was inside this trailer that looked like it could hold up to twenty people at once, including the presenter. Needless to say, being about seven years old at the time I was very interested in dinosaurs and wanted to see the presentation. We got in there...the presenter spoke for maybe five minutes about dinosaurs, then suddenly segued into a discussion about Jesus and the Bible. None of which I remember anything about, but I'm certain he also denounced evolution as well, and at the end encouraged us all to invite Jesus into our hearts (on our own time, he didn't invite anyone up to the front to pray along with him). As you could imagine, I was very disappointed, not just from the lack of dinosaur discussion, but any of the religious discussion went over my head.

I brought this up to my dad since the fair is coming up again and he and I had a good laugh about it. He was pretty disappointed with what it turned out to be too. Anytime we go, we still see that silly trailer offering the same "presentation", we just have the better sense not to go in. I'm a Christian (and was at the time), so I wasn't offended by the religious discussion that ensued, but I was pretty annoyed, I had went in to learn about dinosaurs. If I wanted to go to church, then I'd be at church on Sunday morning.

Has anyone else ever been duped like this?

[Swamptribe]

My husband was invited to a 'party' once, which turned out to be an Amway presentation. I wanted to leave, but he refused because he felt it would be rude. I pointed out it was rude to lie to us about the event in the first place. We still ended up sitting through the entire thing.

[jockosmom]

Also got invited to a "party" that was an Amway pitch. Another time got invited to a "home-cooked meal" which was a pitch for SaladMaster pans. When will I ever learn? :roll:

[Kitty]

There is nothing that pisses this atheist (former Christian) off more than "Christian" bait-and-switching.

Last Church made us kids watch this stupid video featuring this dude who'd go "I really like , but there's one thing I don't like" or something to that effect, and move on to another dinosaur, again and again. He finally ended with this spiel about how fossils were planted by Satan to trick us all. I was probably 10 or 11 at the time and thought it was bullshit... of course I'd already been sold on evolution.

Now that I'm in college, Campus Crusade for Christ now calls itself "Cru", advertises fun-looking events on campus while NEVER saying they're sponsoring those events, in an attempt to trick everyone into coming to the event. And on Facebook there's these wall-of-text statuses that are all about this one girl only dodging a rapist because she prayed before going through a bad neighborhood alone, and the rapist saw two men protecting her that she couldn't see (the men are God and Jesus, geddit?) but it's titled "LOVE vs. SEX".

Don't get me started on those "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs that I run into on the radio.

I don't see why Christian proselytizers can't be fucking honest about what they're doing. Isn't lying a sin?

Edited to correct a generalization.

[bananacat]

They don't call them Liars for Jesus for nothing. They've earned that title fair and square. Even the most "innocent" type of evangalizing relies on deception. All the Duggars have to pretend that everything in their lives is perfect and they are happy about everything, because then people want to be happy like them and will ask them how they can be, which the Duggars or any other evangalizer can use as a convenient segue to tell them about their cult.

[Guest Anonymous]

Oh my gosh, this happened recently in my town. Someone wrote a letter to our city newspaper complaining about this very thing. In the parking lot of the mall this church set up a huge tent and trailers and on the outside of it it just said something like "virtual reality in 3D". So when people went to check it out they thought they were maybe seeing a cool display of whatever or something neat in 3D but really it was a church who did show you a 3D short movie but then proceeded to lure people into this other part of the tent and try to talk to you about their church and get you to join. What's really bad is that they charged people to get into the tent.

I would demand my money back. Glad I found out about it before I took my daughter down there, we were thinking about it because it looked like a pretty cool thing, especially the way they had it set up outside.

[EmmieJ]

I recall perhaps five years ago in a neighboring town, a church put on a haunted house for Halloween. However, it wasn't on their church grounds. Instead they rented (or it was donated to them) a space at an empty store front. So it wasn't clear that this was sponsored by a church, but just looked like a regular haunted house for the kids. As you might guess, it was not stocked with the standard ghouls and goblins, but pictures of aborted fetuses, and a lot of hell fire and damnation stuff. There was a huge uproar with letters to the editor and "I'm sorry if you were offended" responses from the church. That's the most vivid bait and switch I recall personally. I think this church might still put on its version of a haunted house, but they seem to stick to having it in their church parking lot now.

[Mompom]

There is nothing that pisses this atheist (former Christian) off more than "Christian" bait-and-switching.

Last Church made us kids watch this stupid video featuring this dude who'd go "I really like , but there's one thing I don't like" or something to that effect, and move on to another dinosaur, again and again. He finally ended with this spiel about how fossils were planted by Satan to trick us all. I was probably 10 or 11 at the time and thought it was bullshit... of course I'd already been sold on evolution.

Now that I'm in college, Campus Crusade for Christ now calls itself "Cru", advertises fun-looking events on campus while NEVER saying they're sponsoring those events, in an attempt to trick everyone into coming to the event. And on Facebook there's these wall-of-text statuses that are all about this one girl only dodging a rapist because she prayed before going through a bad neighborhood alone, and the rapist saw two men protecting her that she couldn't see (the men are God and Jesus, geddit?) but it's titled "LOVE vs. SEX".

Don't get me started on those "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs that I run into on the radio.

I don't see why Christian proselytizers can't be fucking honest about what they're doing. Isn't lying a sin?

Edited to correct a generalization.

You hit the nail on the head. It's so deceptive! Back in my college days the Crusade bait and switch techniques were "Would you like to take a survey" and a meeting called Men are From Mars and Women are From Venus. That makes it sound so innocent and then BAM, you are being "witnessed" to. Sadly, I participated in this quite a lot, but I really feel like the victim looking back. While everyone else was partying on the beach, we were being made to walk up and down the beach taking surveys and handing out tracts. I managed to be "sick" for a lot of spring break and sat in my room for 3 days. How horrible. I really hate that I never had a normal spring break experience and never had a normal college party experience. Gosh, I didn't even have a beer until I was like 26 or thereabouts. But yeah, even then I felt guilty about the bait and switch, but also felt that the greater good was more important than my feelings (you know, in fundie land, your feelings are NEVER to be trusted, ever).

Edited to add: I know I sound like I'm feeling sorry for myself, and I guess I kind of am. But yeah, sometimes the people doing the "baiting and switching" are just the tools. They have no idea what they are getting into or how good life can be outside "the movement". I have some sympathy for them because they think they are snatching people from the "pits of hell". FACEPALM. And eyeroll. And pretty much any other pathetic, pitying thing you could throw in there.

[kunoichi66]

I had a friend invite me to a small home meeting about a trip she was going on with her church,* and when I got there and read the booklet she handed me, I found out that they were going on a proselytising mission to an Islamic country, and they had special orders to befriend men, because they were the heads of the household, and if you could convert the men, the rest of the family would follow them into Christ.

They were also running a day care thing where they would teach the children bible stories (except of course they hid that they were bible stories).

The whole thing makes me mad to think about even today!

*this is how it was explained to me.

[Guest Anonymous]

I had a friend invite me to a small home meeting about a trip she was going on with her church,* and when I got there and read the booklet she handed me, I found out that they were going on a proselytising mission to an Islamic country, and they had special orders to befriend men, because they were the heads of the household, and if you could convert the men, the rest of the family would follow them into Christ.

They were also running a day care thing where they would teach the children bible stories (except of course they hid that they were bible stories).

The whole thing makes me mad to think about even today!

*this is how it was explained to me.

Did they explain to any of the people they were recruiting to proselytize in a Muslim country, that if any of them were caught they would be jailed at best, and executed at worst?

[Trynn]

Did they explain to any of the people they were recruiting to proselytize in a Muslim country, that if any of them were caught they would be jailed at best, and executed at worst?

Some of them might not have cared. They would have viewed it as persecution, seen themselves as martyrs.

[kunoichi66]

Trynn and SnarkyJan - nobody mentioned it. The only reason I found out that the group were going to proselytise in the country was by reading the booklet.

I still wish that I had walked out....

[flojo]

Edited to add: I know I sound like I'm feeling sorry for myself, and I guess I kind of am. But yeah, sometimes the people doing the "baiting and switching" are just the tools. They have no idea what they are getting into or how good life can be outside "the movement". I have some sympathy for them because they think they are snatching people from the "pits of hell". FACEPALM. And eyeroll. And pretty much any other pathetic, pitying thing you could throw in there.

I know how you feel. The few times I was expected to do it I HATED trackting. HATED it.

[ilovetchotchkes]

This happened to my sister once.

In middle school she was friends with a girl who invited her over to her pastor's house for a "pizza party".

All kids there were then lectured about how they were to spread the message of Jesus and the gospel and if they had ANY friends who had not gotten onto their knees and asked Jesus to come into their heart as their personal savior, they were going to hell. And even if they didn't believe this- they made some crazy ass metaphor about having 2 glasses. One with water and one with poison that looked, smelled and tasted just like water. You could drink the poison and believe you were drinking water, but you'd die if you were wrong.

My sister (G-d I love her) informed them, that she'd rather spend eternity in Hell with her Jewish friends than a minute in heaven with them. She was PISSED when she came home.

Another time, when we were trick or treating around our neighborhood, someone slipped tracts in with the candy. My dad was PISSED. I distinctly remember him waving them around screaming "WHO THE F**K GAVE THIS TO YOU!?!?! WHO THE HELL DOES THIS!?!?!?" (he wasn't mad at us, he HATES evangelism)

[Guest Anonymous]

This happened to my sister once.

In middle school she was friends with a girl who invited her over to her pastor's house for a "pizza party".

All kids there were then lectured about how they were to spread the message of Jesus and the gospel and if they had ANY friends who had not gotten onto their knees and asked Jesus to come into their heart as their personal savior, they were going to hell. And even if they didn't believe this- they made some crazy ass metaphor about having 2 glasses. One with water and one with poison that looked, smelled and tasted just like water. You could drink the poison and believe you were drinking water, but you'd die if you were wrong.

My sister (G-d I love her) informed them, that she'd rather spend eternity in Hell with her Jewish friends than a minute in heaven with them. She was PISSED when she came home.

Another time, when we were trick or treating around our neighborhood, someone slipped tracts in with the candy. My dad was PISSED. I distinctly remember him waving them around screaming "WHO THE F**K GAVE THIS TO YOU!?!?! WHO THE HELL DOES THIS!?!?!?" (he wasn't mad at us, he HATES evangelism)

Your dad and sister both deserve to be cloned.

[kunoichi66]

My family and I were going to fill shoeboxes with small presents - I'm not sure what to call them, but basically, we were to take a shoebox, and put in shampoo, a comb, some toys and a few other things, and then send it off to a charity, who would then take it to a country which had suffered a natural disaster, so that the children there could have a little present. (This was around Christmas time).

Dad found out that the charity was going to put christian tracts and calenders in to the boxes, so he stopped us doing it.

[Beeks]

When my older brother was about 5 my mom signed him up for a "baseball camp." At the end he came home and told her all about how he went up on stage and got saved. Turns out it was a baptist-run camp and while it did involve baseball, it was more about saving souls.

[lizzy]

Ah, October, I love you so much. Halloween, Columbus Day sales, and our parish fair (I'm from Louisiana). I can't wait to go tomorrow. One thing the fair always reminds me of is an interesting sermon my dad and I accidentally attended there years ago. We saw a sign advertising a presentation about dinosaurs, and the "presentation" was inside this trailer that looked like it could hold up to twenty people at once, including the presenter. Needless to say, being about seven years old at the time I was very interested in dinosaurs and wanted to see the presentation. We got in there...the presenter spoke for maybe five minutes about dinosaurs, then suddenly segued into a discussion about Jesus and the Bible. None of which I remember anything about, but I'm certain he also denounced evolution as well, and at the end encouraged us all to invite Jesus into our hearts (on our own time, he didn't invite anyone up to the front to pray along with him). As you could imagine, I was very disappointed, not just from the lack of dinosaur discussion, but any of the religious discussion went over my head.

I brought this up to my dad since the fair is coming up again and he and I had a good laugh about it. He was pretty disappointed with what it turned out to be too. Anytime we go, we still see that silly trailer offering the same "presentation", we just have the better sense not to go in. I'm a Christian (and was at the time), so I wasn't offended by the religious discussion that ensued, but I was pretty annoyed, I had went in to learn about dinosaurs. If I wanted to go to church, then I'd be at church on Sunday morning.

Has anyone else ever been duped like this?

A similar thing happened to me this past summer. My husband and I went down to a local street fair they have on Tuesday nights. A booth was advertising a quick "IQ Test", so I thought I'd give it a shot just for fun. It had some trick trivia questions, like how many months have 28 days, or how many animals did Moses take on the ark. About two thirds down the list was "Name the 10 Commandments." When I turned in my "test" I got a lecture on the 10 Commandments.

Way to spoil a fun summer evening.....