The Debate Club discussion

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Here is something I posted in another group that I feel may fit here:
I think spreading Gods word is important because it’s in the Bible, but it’s also important to do it at a time when people are not struggling. Now this may sound weird, because God can offer hope in dark times, but it is also a common pathway for abuse.
If God only seems to be an option while you are going through tough times, or is introduced to you during tough times, your judgement is affected and you may not be able to properly decide whether you want that faith. People may look to it as the only option in such desperate times. However if people find faith while at a healthy time in their life, it’s more likely to be long lasting, strong, and healthy. If they find it at a bad time, a relationship with God may become abusive and an attachment instead of faith.
It can be helpful to not focus of spreading Gods word everywhere, but spreading it thoroughly to people who will appreciate and acknowledging it healthily.

Acts 17:30!!!!

ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!!!!!

yeah definitely read the room, and be conscious about HOW your spreading it, not just what you’re spreading. don’t go into a comment section under a post of a different religion and preach about how much ‘better’ christianity is.

Exactly. Like I said, it’s more meaningful if you spread the gospel to people willing to hear it. Atheism is a faith too and it’s to be respected as well as every other faith.
I want to add that a TikTok or YouTube comments section on a video nothing to do with faith is not really spreading the gospel it’s just kind of weird. Hot take, but that’s my opinion, even when I was religious.

Hey Elliana please don’t ‘yell’. (Aka use a bunch of capital letters in your statement)

Tessie wrote: "Hey Elliana please don’t ‘yell’. (Aka use a bunch of capital letters in your statement)"

Ooh whoops sorry heh…heh

just because the bible says to preach everywhere, doesn’t mean you should actually preach everywhere. there’s a time and place. ex: don’t walk into a temple for another religion and start preaching the gospel.

I believe we should try to spread the gospel to everyone we can but we also shouldn't push it. If someone is showing signs of not listening to you or getting annoyed or plain frustrated with you preaching to them then I recommend finishing the message and not trying to push it on them. Repeating the gospel and bashing people over the head with it will just push people away and we just need to plant seeds not see the conversion, God does the rest of the work, but of course if someone shows interest in your message then keep going!

@sydney yeah exactly! people who preach like that are more likely to get someone interested in christ anyways (speaking from experience).

Exactly. I think, personally, that saying Jesus loves you or I hope you see the light, or if you say I’m praying for you after someone says something you don’t agree with, it’s condescending. I talk to a lot of people about faith and for the most part I’m pretty cool about talking about it with people, but if I tell someone I’m queer and they go ‘oh… honey… this verse this verse I’ll be praying for you’
That is not a good way to spread the gospel.
I think it’s really sweet when you’re talking to a religious person and they tell you an uplifting verse you know, or they ask if they can pray for you(emphasis on ASK). I think that’s a great way to indroducs religion to people because it’s uplifting, it’s positive, and it’s not condescending.
For example
“Yeah, I’m about to take my midterms I’m really nervous.”
“Oh wow that sounds stressful- I’m not sure if you’re religious but [uplifting verse] says [what it says] and I believe in you!”
Or alternatively
“Dang that sounds like a lot, don’t mind if I pray for you?”

YES! always ask! there’s a difference between telling someone ‘i’ll pray for you.’ after they tell you something you disagree with, and asking ‘is it alright if i pray for you?’. one reads as condescending and the other ones genuine support.

I love when people ask to pray for me, I hate when they assume they can.
That’s my personal opinion, because if you don’t ask, it feels more like you’re praying to fix me than to help me, if that makes any sense.

Tessie wrote: "I love when people ask to pray for me, I hate when they assume they can.
That’s my personal opinion, because if you don’t ask, it feels more like you’re praying to fix me than to help me, if that ..."

that does make sense, I never looked at it like that. Thank you!

and saying things like that ‘out of love’ reads more like hate than kindness. they do say ‘no hate like Christian love’ for a reason. and the continuous spread of ‘hate the sin not the sinner’ gives off the opposite message as well, especially when talking about things like being queer, supporting certain things, believing in things that christianity doesn’t align with, things that are integral parts of someone’s identity. i’ve just never understood how you can hate part of who someone is while still claiming to ‘love’ that person.

yeah so i have similar thoughts as the others, like i don't mind if you see that christianity helps you and other people but please don't try to push it onto me because i literally don't give a shit. before getting offended, consider how would you feel if i began preaching to you why hinduism is the best and why you should convert and abandon your religion, it'd be pretty fucking annoying, right? 'know your audience' is definitely important, if you try to evangelise and preach gospel to me i'll likely just leave the discussion because i couldn't care less.

it can go pretty far especially if your another regeion due to there urge to preach (i get it you wana share something you find cool i get it XD)
because it gets annoying and as all have said its a good idea to not preach everywhere becaue it can turn people off from even humoring yall

so just feel the vibe is what im saying

Random story, but the other day I was at an indoor water park and my sister had made friends with a boy her age (~12 ish) and I'd gone with them down a few waterslides. And at the top of the slides while waiting in line, the boy randomly asked us if we believed in God. My sister shrugged and I just said "nah" and he looked stunned, looked away and thought about something, then turned back and said, "Well He died for y'all's sins, you should believe in him, or you're gonna go to H-E-L-L." And I was probably kinda rude but I just muttered, "okay cool." and hoped he'd drop it because I was uncomfortable. He just looked horrified and walked away and didn't talk to me or my sister again.

It's okay to tell people about your religion but I feel like in this situation, whatever he was taught about making friends and spreading his religion was too much. I'm still so confused why he'd even bring that up at a water park, after some thought I think it has to do with him wanting to be friends with us but making sure we were Christian, or he was just curious but again, there's a time and place...

And I'm confused why his parents taught him it's okay to just go up to random kids and tell them they're going to go to hell if they don't believe in his god. Like... that's the kind of evangelism I strongly disagree with and I think goes way too far.

What are your thoughts?

Barnette ⋆˙⟡ wrote: "Random story, but the other day I was at an indoor water park and my sister had made friends with a boy her age (~12 ish) and I'd gone with them down a few waterslides. And at the top of the slides..."

yeah ok um so that was ridiculous of him lmao

Barnette ⋆˙⟡ wrote: "Random story, but the other day I was at an indoor water park and my sister had made friends with a boy her age (~12 ish) and I'd gone with them down a few waterslides. And at the top of the slides..."

I think he should get a bit of leniency, he's a young kid and he might not know how to approach people with this kind of thing. I agree it wasn't a good way to spread the message but he is just a young kid after all. I blame it more on the parents for not telling him how to properly do it.

Sydney wrote: "Barnette ⋆˙⟡ wrote: "Random story, but the other day I was at an indoor water park and my sister had made friends with a boy her age (~12 ish) and I'd gone with them down a few waterslides. And at ..."

Fair.

i honestly agree. it's fine to want to spread what you believe is true, which makes sense, but also you can't use that as an excuse for rudeness. this is kinda digressing but a lot of times i hear people use the phrase "facts don't care about feelings" as an excuse and while i get it, it's also true that the person sharing the facts should care about feelings.

should he get leniency because he's young, sure maybe, but i think 12 is an age old enough to know manners and respect, yes it's probably his parents fault for raising him wrong, but by your preteen years people can take accountability. not okay thing to say, can you imagine the response if it was any other religion? to be very honest, christian evangelists and extremists get away with so much because it's normalized, how would people feel if a muslim or wiccan started doing this?

I agree with ashh. It can’t merely be disregarded as the parents fault, nor excused for him being a child.
I think Christian evangelism is very much wrong in cases like this. This is not what the Bible means by spreading the gospel, and if I as an atheist found out someone was Christian and just went ‘whoa- you actually believe in Christian mythology? That’s crazy!’ I would be regarded as disrespectful and rude. But he literally told someone if they don’t believe then they’re going to hell. And consider the fact that he says this to a Hindu or Buddhist person? It’s disregarding their religion.
Regardless of his age it wasn’t just wild or ridiculous, it was disrespectful.

You can be religious. You can practice how you want to. But the second it turns into trying to force others to live the way you do, that’s too far. If I was on a diet and couldn’t have cookies, then that would be fine. What wouldn’t be okay is me telling everyone else that they can’t have cookies, cookies are disgusting, they’re going to hell for eating cookies, trying to ban cookies, etc. you can have your beliefs but don’t let them encroach on other people’s lives. Also stop trying to convert people after they’ve told you that they’re not religious/not interested

exactly what tessie said! imagine a buddhist told you christianity perpetuated violence and hate and you were a terrible person if you stuck with it, the only way to save your soul from guaranteed doom would be to become christian? now wouldn't that be terrible? but this is the kind of stuff christian evangelists preach on a daily basis. there's a big difference between 'let me tell you how my religion helped me' and 'become christian or else'.

none of the three ways of gospel suggest you go out and insult people and proclaim superiority. as i remember there are two versions, one being --

proclamation - preaching the good things about christianity, like through speeches
confrontation - challenging other beliefs and spiritualities, convincing why christianity is better
incarnation - living a lifestyle the way god/jesus would want you to, and showing others how it's good

and the other three are
apologetic - using logical and reasonable debates to defend the faith, using justifiable evidence
testimonial - sharing personal experiences and encouraging empathy
direct - like just inviting them to be christian, had a friends mom invite me to her church once, i laughed and said i appreciated the offer and that was the end of that

now i find my least favorite is confrontational, because people can be disrespectful, however i also believe that true confrontational evangelism is not meant to be bad inherently, it should include parts of apologetic, using real and logical answers instead of just being an asshole about it, it can be really useful. 'why do you believe your religion is better? because i believe christianity is better and here is why' that's how it should be, not whatever twisted form people have been doing nowadays.

i think apologetic evangalism is good, if done well, it shows me that this person really knows what they're talking about, and i like listening to intelligent people, i like hearing what they have to say, and i love the new things i can learn from them.

i really love to see incarnational evangalism, in my opinion everyone who preaches the word of god must live their life exactly as god wants them to, and tied to testimonial i have nothing against hearing how religion has made your life better, religion has made my life better too, but i just really like seeing that people are practicing what they're preaching, that is a sign of a good person, and i really respect that.

I think that it’s ok for Christian’s to try to spread their religion to an extent. If they’re shaming others for not being Christian, not respecting other religions and atheists, or trying to convert people, that’s when it’s too far. Also I don’t really like when people comment on anything sad or someone venting with “god loves you”, “it’s all part of gods plan” or “I’m praying for you” unless the person is also Christian and wants them to. To me, that feels like dismissing the problem and is honestly quite disrespectful. .ive also experienced people telling me “I hope you find Jesus, you need him” after I say I’m not religious. And the worst thing to me is when they find someone is lgbtq, and they say “I’m praying for you, god loves you he can save you” or whatever, that is extremely disrespectful and is still homophobia. That’s just my opinions and I’m not extremely educated on this topic, but that’s what I’ve learned from my experiences

Ophelia ˚࿔ (semi-hiatus) wrote: "I think that it’s ok for Christian’s to try to spread their religion to an extent. If they’re shaming others for not being Christian, not respecting other religions and atheists, or trying to conve..."

Agreed!!

Personally if it's someone close to me, if they say something about God being with me, or a lost loved one being with me in Heaven, or that they're genuinely praying for things to get better for me, or something similar, that is comforting (for me). But hoping I find Jesus or convert or something or dismissing it as part of God's plan is disrespectful in my opinion.