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What wouldn't Jesus do? Bully dissenters


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Mike Morefield
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By Mike Morefield
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
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Last week, a group of "open-air" preachers came to the UA Mall to proselytize to anyone who would listen. Carrying signs that claimed Muslims, homosexuals and baby-killing women would go to hell, they spouted fundamentalist Christian rhetoric and erroneously quoted the Bible. Quite a large crowd formed each day for the men, but people gathered not with the intention of learning how to save themselves but to laugh at and argue with the preachers.

Herein lies a major problem: Fire-and-brimstone evangelists reduce Christianity to a mockery, and in so doing pay a great disservice to their religion. Instead of aiding the Christian faith, they are causing it irreparable harm.

That's not to say that evangelism isn't fraught with good intentions. The Christian faith has strong roots in an evangelist tradition, but the world has changed. Evangelism's original purpose was to spread the "good news" of Christianity to those who knew nothing of it. Through it, missionaries carried the message of Christianity to the New World and Africa.

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Americans pride themselves on their differences, finding niches in communities and creating a stronger society because of it.
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But the strong-armed tactics of modern evangelism fail when confronted with a more educated populace. This is no longer 1730s Massachusetts, when the Great Awakening catalyzed a societal transformation. We are smarter now than to follow bullies - and that's exactly what such evangelists are.

What did the preachers on the Mall feel they would accomplish by telling Muslims and Jews that they would burn in hell? "I am qualified to judge every one of you," Bible Jim, the men's self-proclaimed leader, shouted; the irony of his hubris and conceit was probably lost on him.

To add injury to insult, so to speak, it appears that the long-term impact of evangelism-based religions may be limited. Once-burgeoning religions such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses are now more frequently objects of derision than of praise. According to Mormon David Stewart, who authored a 2002 study on the Latter-day Saints, the growth of the LDS population has been declining since 1989.

At present, evangelical Protestantism is one of the fastest-growing sects of Christianity. However, if history is any indication, the aggressive recruitment that tends to convert in the short term may repulse in the long term. It remains to be seen whether the new evangelism will go the way of the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons - rapid growth followed by significant decline within the span of a generation.

We live in a country that prides itself on diversity. The U.S. has long touted its reputation as a global melting pot of ideas, race and religion. Americans pride themselves on their differences, finding niches in communities and creating a stronger society because of it.

Preachers like Bible Jim believe the country would be a better place if it were populated by a homogenous group of God-fearing clones. If his dream were to become a reality, it would represent a grave step backward in our societal development.

Fire-and-brimstone preachers such as those who wandered onto our campus are exemplars of nothing more than bigotry and wasted pride. Instead of helping the religion to which they have devoted their lives, they are destroying it. They are killing Christianity - or at the least its image - by alienating non-Christians and Christians alike. They may feel as if they are helping, but for the good of Christianity, they should just stop.

Mike Morefield is a political science senior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.



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