How NOT to convert people

[Fantine]

My daughter got this fake $5 bill as a tip while waitressing....can't get the picture to print but it said, "Disappointed? You won't be if you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior."

Some of her FB comments were:

"Worst proselytizing ever!"

"Talk is cheap. So are your customers."

and

"What wouldn't Jesus do?"

Just another indication that the evangelicals in the Bible Belt are sometimes a few cards short of a deck.

 

[Michie]

You shouldn't paint them all in that light. Some are. Some aren't. People in general do stupid things.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

That tip idea was a cheesy, lame attempt at spreading the Word. Wow. That'd tick me off! LOL

 

[Virgil the Roman]

I've seen it before. It's amusing. It makes nifty bookmark and also great fodder to start those burgeoning summer campfires with friends and the like . . .

 

[Brooklyn Knight]

This is as bad as the time we took care of my dad's friend whose Alzheimer's was beginning to get worse.

The things we had to unravel, the things we had to do...from finding out if he was a citizen or if he only had a green card, how much money was he awarded from worker's comp, getting him to a cardiologist to place a pacemaker in him...I mean all our patience was beyond thin, especially when he roomed with us for months. I'm not going to list all the other things we had to do.

One day, my uncle and aunt came over and they discussed with him what he was going to do for us once we sorted everything out.

His reply? "God will reward them."

This coming from the same guy who would give a crisp, new $100 bill whenever he bought a cup of coffee and a newspaper, the same guy who would hand out twenties to people who could answer a question he had.

 

[Dylan Michael]

I found one (20) in a book about shakers once.
I thought to myself.
I already know and love Jesus, can I have a really $20?

 

[MikeK]

My daughter got this fake $5 bill as a tip while waitressing....can't get the picture to print but it said, "Disappointed? You won't be if you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior."

But think of all the souls that were saved with that method!

Nutjobs that make us all look bad.

 

[MikeK]

@ BK - Secret secrets are no fun, secret secrets hurt someone.

 

[isshinwhat]

People used to complain about poor tips associated with the tracts, as well as the comments that they souldn't be working on Sundays (yet they are dining out and creating the need for the waiter to be there). The worst offenders were from a Oneness Pentecostal Church that my in-laws attended. It got so bad that my wife mentioned it to her mother, who in turn mentioned it to her pastor. To his credit, he brought up the importance of a proper witness and relayed the poor tipping as an example during a Sunday service. I don't know the end result. Some of it is cultural, and some if it is people just not knowing how to tip. I had businessmen offer me jobs who tipped terribly. I would have had to have been hard-pressed to work for them with the impression they left.

 

[MikeK]

People used to complain about poor tips associated with the tracts, as well as the comments that they souldn't be working on Sundays (yet they are dining out and creating the need for the waiter to be there). The worst offenders were from a Oneness Pentecostal Church that my in-laws attended. It got so bad that my wife mentioned it to her mother, who in turn mentioned it to her pastor. To his credit, he brought up the importance of a proper witness and relayed the poor tipping as an example during a Sunday service. I don't know the end result. Some of it is cultural, and some if it is people just not knowing how to tip. I had businessmen offer me jobs who tipped terribly. I would have had to have been hard-pressed to work for them with the impression they left.

Ever go Trick-or Treating and recieve a Chick Tract? You better believe that's an egging. That's a whole year of eggings.

...at least the Dungeons and Dragons one was funny.

 

[isshinwhat]

We used to get Chick tracts at work, too. Even got them left on our cars after Mass... I ended up becoming friends with one Baptist minister who, "couldn't believe a young man as knowledgeable," as I was on the Bible could be Catholic. He about flipped when I told him it was that knowledge of the Bible and history that made me convert. He brought the pastor to, "straighten me out," then got even more confused when he found out I really practiced my faith and didn't discount things like the Rosary and Confession. He could not wrap his head around it, but he made a habit of coming in regularly and we became good friends. Life is what you make of it, Chick tracts and all.

 

[Theofane]

How NOT to convert people

This.

This.

This.

And **especially** this.

This continues because the United States allows it, not just passively but actively. That's some misguided law-making!

 

[Cosmic Charlie]

I want to get this clear:

Somebody stiffed your daughter on a tip with a fake bill ?

(I don't care about what was on the bill just that somebody actually used a fake bill as a tip)

 

[Fantine]

Well, they did give her $1 in cash along with the fake five (the tab, I imagine, was $20 to $25).

She thought it was funny (because she's a student and has the "bank of Mom and Dad" to fall back on...)

But there are plenty of servers, hairdressers, pizza delivery people, etc. who need every penny of that income to support their families.

I would like to think that they thought first, and thought, "She looks like she's 16--she doesn't really need the tip" and might have given a real tip to a waitress who was pregnant or old enough to perhaps be supporting herself.

But I bet they wouldn't have.

 

[Gwendolyn]

My favourite is when people leave tracts around for others to find.

I used to collect them. There is a group at the university that leaves them all over the place, in newspapers, in bathrooms, above telephones, in bus shelters. I'd most often find them above telephones and in bus shelters. They were awful, horrifying fire-and-brimstone attempts at sounding mystical and prophetic like the book of Revelation. They always talked about how man should burn for his sins and if you don't want to face an eternity of unbearable torture, you should accept Jesus today.

What a horrible witness. I call it "hit and run" evangelism. Technically you're getting the word out, but there is no person-to-person interaction and you don't touch the heart of the person you're trying to reach. This method requires zero responsibility, though it probably allows the people who leave the tracts to feel like they're little soldiers for Christ or something.

The tracts never did anything for me but make me laugh, even before I got very involved in my faith. They were so awful and so nightmarish that I cannot imagine they would convert anyone.

Besides, believing and going through the motions just because you don't want to be tortured for eternity isn't a good reason to follow God. Aren't we to love Him? How can we come to love Him if we see Him only as the one who inflicts torture if we don't do what He says?

 

[Dylan Michael]

I also used to collect them. I used to go to the library and if you look at the to of the books you can see which books have things hidden in them.

 

[christseeker45]

This.

This.

This.

And **especially** this.

This continues because the United States allows it, not just passively but actively. That's some misguided law-making!

No it's freedom and as abhorrent as they are I would fight for their freedom to do just that.

 

[Brooklyn Knight]

@ BK - Secret secrets are no fun, secret secrets hurt someone.

Please.

Would be understandable if he didn't have a nickel under his name, but he did...a few hundred thousand worth - worker's compensation.

 

[Theofane]

No it's freedom and as abhorrent as they are I would fight for their freedom to do just that.

How far does it have to go before people in power put a stop to it?

The USA is most definitely *NOT* a Christian country, no matter what you say, and the continued existence of WBC is the proof. They incite hatred. Shut them down! Shut them down! Shut them down!

 

[isshinwhat]

How far does it have to go before people in power put a stop to it?

The USA is most definitely *NOT* a Christian country, no matter what you say, and the continued existence of WBC is the proof. They incite hatred. Shut them down! Shut them down! Shut them down!

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Given that Westboro’s speech was at a public place on a matter of public concern, that speech is entitled to “special protection” under the First Amendment. Such speech cannot be restricted simply because it is upsetting or arouses contempt. “If there is a bedrock principle underly- ing the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” Texas v. Johnson, 491 U. S. 397, 414 (1989). Indeed, “the point of all speech protection . . . is to shield just those choices of content that in someone’s eyes are misguided, or even hurtful.” Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc., 515 U. S. 557, 574 (1995).

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-751.pdf