arthurchappell
writer, poet, historian,
I see quite a lot of street evangelists in my home city. I have spoken with some of them. In some ways I can admire them. It takes a lot of guts to stand in the street yelling into a microphone in front of strangers (who mostly ignore them or heckle them) and some of the young speakers are quite articulate. It's a shame so much passion and genuine creative talent isn't being used to write books or speak on secular political issues. It seems a terrible waste.
Biblical quotes abound, often randomly inserted but the emphasis is generally on personal experiences on their own road to Damascus moment of epiphany.
The evangelists tend to follow quite a formulaic pattern of discourse. They tell their own conversion stories. They are usually lapsed believers who have become born again. They either went through pain, misery and suffering and then turned it round on conversion, or they lived a decadent, bohemian reckless lifestyle, found it empty, and then found God. Suddenly their lives turned around. It's like using washing powder A for years and suddenly finding the amazing Washing powder B that works better. The same sales pitch applies.
I don't doubt the truth of their life stories. I do think it was just finding any change in direction that spun things round. I only recently developed an obsession with photographing pubs and writing aboutthat, drawing me into a whole new circle of friends and modest adventures. The conversion can be to anything in a literal take on the saying, 'a change is as good as a rest'. Converts to Satanism or barn dancing could tell the same stories. It isn't what is embraced, but the sense of transformation brought about by redirecting your life, habits, practices, beliefs, main focus points and principles. We are made by what preoccupies us so in developing a preoccupation with religion, the convert is changed, and may genuinely feel a better person for it. The problem is that they attribute the change to the external focus of their new awakening. To say God fixed them would be like me saying pubs love me and want me to take photos of them. The change comes from me.
The ex-alcoholic or ex-junkie who kicked the habit and says God saved them is putting himself down - he saved himself, not God, not even the medics, and councillors, though they helped (unlike God). The change came from the self, the same self finding the guts and creative energy to speak out, - though many evangelists claim and believe God is talking through them. It is actually tragic yet fascinating.
Biblical quotes abound, often randomly inserted but the emphasis is generally on personal experiences on their own road to Damascus moment of epiphany.
The evangelists tend to follow quite a formulaic pattern of discourse. They tell their own conversion stories. They are usually lapsed believers who have become born again. They either went through pain, misery and suffering and then turned it round on conversion, or they lived a decadent, bohemian reckless lifestyle, found it empty, and then found God. Suddenly their lives turned around. It's like using washing powder A for years and suddenly finding the amazing Washing powder B that works better. The same sales pitch applies.
I don't doubt the truth of their life stories. I do think it was just finding any change in direction that spun things round. I only recently developed an obsession with photographing pubs and writing aboutthat, drawing me into a whole new circle of friends and modest adventures. The conversion can be to anything in a literal take on the saying, 'a change is as good as a rest'. Converts to Satanism or barn dancing could tell the same stories. It isn't what is embraced, but the sense of transformation brought about by redirecting your life, habits, practices, beliefs, main focus points and principles. We are made by what preoccupies us so in developing a preoccupation with religion, the convert is changed, and may genuinely feel a better person for it. The problem is that they attribute the change to the external focus of their new awakening. To say God fixed them would be like me saying pubs love me and want me to take photos of them. The change comes from me.
The ex-alcoholic or ex-junkie who kicked the habit and says God saved them is putting himself down - he saved himself, not God, not even the medics, and councillors, though they helped (unlike God). The change came from the self, the same self finding the guts and creative energy to speak out, - though many evangelists claim and believe God is talking through them. It is actually tragic yet fascinating.
