What's missing?

U R? Or perhaps not! Maybe what is missing is tact and the ability to demonstrate and not force religion on those that may not have had previous experience of it.

There are several ways of going about spreading the news of Christianity — small posters stuck up in kitchens, telling the world that they are all fools if they do not believe in God is just one way of doing it. I may be wrong but I think most people would tend to agree that the appearance round the university of aggressive signs does not go very far in persuading people that Christians are supposed to be loving, welcoming people who do not exclude those with other beliefs, or no beliefs at all. It goes beyond university confines, though. Evangelical churches display signs such as “Jesus is alive — worship him now”; — a fair enough comment for believers to read, but perhaps a little demanding for those who have not got a confirmed faith.

From my own experiences I can say that I have been put off religion in the past by signs that make it all sound so simple when I was aware that Christianity must have more depth to it than “Jesus died for us, therefore we will worship him.” It is easy for those of no faith to be confused by “Jesus lives” — because, to be frank, he doesn’t. At least not in the way human, animal and plant life does. To be happy to follow a faith, a greater depth of personal understanding must be reached.

The simplistic nature of a quirky catchphrase means that it is all too easy to disagree with. To be told that “The fool says in his heart there is no God" if you are someone who has found the concept of a God too bizarre to believe in is not going to help your cause. Just because it has been said in the Bible, it does not follow that taken out of context and splashed across a kitchen wall it will be effective in persuading people that Christianity is for them. The more common reaction is to say “how dare they call me a fool — I’m not going to touch their God with a bargepole!”

The other issue that this raises is; why is everyone so desperate to force his or her beliefs on others? Ultimately people have to discover their own faith; they have to want to do it and it has to be meaningful to them. It is unlikely that signs spotted are ever going to have a positive effect on the nonbeliever. Surely the only way to persuade others that Christianity might provide them with an alternative perspective on life is to advertise meetings which discuss issues relevant to them; give them the option of attending and then leave them to make the decision not to attend. Constant bombardment can only have the effect of repelling people and irritating them.

There is, of course, the small hope that by hitting enough people with slogans and advertisement some small percentage may be affected in a positive way and either be emotionally effected by the signs, or intrigued enough to find out what it's all about. However, this must be weighed against the number of people who may ultimately be dissuaded from the church by such comments. I may be wrong — perhaps the idea of these signs is more effective than I have noticed and it has to be said that the people putting them up are clearly committed to their faith. Such perpetual execution of the horrendous task of trawling through every kitchen on campus must persuade some readers that there might be something in this ‘religion thing’.

Emma Tatnall

Do you agree with Emma? Write to us at editor@christis.org.uk.