12.15.06
A New-Ager, a Jew, a Catholic, and 2 protestant Pastors went out for dinner…
Sounds like the start of a bad joke, but in reality that’s exactly what happened to me last night. Just down the street from our house there is a new video game store. We’ve gotten to the know the owner and his friends a little bit over the past few months. Last night they invited Josh and I over after the shop closed for pizza and a chance to play the Nintendo Wii (which I hear is pretty awesome).
We headed to the shop around 8. They closed everything up and we went upstairs to their apartment to order pizza. When it arrived, one of the most intense and diverse conversations on “religion” started. A friend of the shop owner was there, and he is in the process of converting to Judaism. He was quite vocal in his opinions on the Messiah, the non-existence of Satan, and how if an “evil” person dies, they are simply reincarnated until they learn how to be good. Waaaah?
Another person is the daughter of the person in charge of Catholic catechism classes here in Ancona. She mentioned that she only went through with confirmation so she could be done with the classes.
The shop owner doesn’t see any point in “religion” and points to how much evil has been done in the name of “God.” He had a pretty pessimistic world view.
Oh … and Josh and I were there. Occasionally the conversation would stop and they would all look at us for our opinions. We had about 10 seconds to form a thought before someone interrupted us to make a counter argument.
It was all mostly polite and civil. But after it went on for over two hours, even I was done talking “religion.” I don’t have a lot of patience for the debate. I’m not sure that I can “prove” (in the scientific sense) my beliefs are correct anymore than they can. I did go home thinking that the way to reach such a diverse group of people is to just be a light. Show people how you are different and then explain to them why. Don’t debate them into some kind of logical submission. Love them into an entirely different Kingdom.
We never did go back downstairs to play Nintendo. Which is OK, since now I have an excuse to go back.
Ryan said,
12.15.06 at 9:58 pm
Wow, that sounds like some kind of evening. I guess that’s what the mission field is about in a developed country. Thanks for sharing your story.