RonOnTheRock
Member
Being fishers of men, are we only supposed to fish for certain types of fish, or does God want us to go for any and all of them? Okay, I’ll be more direct: Should we even try to win the highly educated atheists? I ask because, the way I see it, American Christians are systematically repelling them. How are we doing that, you might ask? We do it when we choose who to support and thus appoint as Kingdom Ambassadors.
To illustrate my point, try to put yourself in the shoes of an atheist in academia. Imagine that you’ve worked very hard for many years to earn your master’s or even doctorate degree. Most of your peers are generally kind, sincere, educated, intelligent and rather sophisticated. They are witty and fun. Some are even downright lovable. You live in a world where it is quite the norm to be certain that religion and belief in God is common among the majority who are less intelligent that you. This explains why you support a one-world socialist government; otherwise these idiots are going to destroy our delicate environment. Somebody needs to ‘lord’ over the planet!
Then, one day, you start to ponder, “Could the Christians be right?†You’re approaching the fence. (Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling.) You’re curiosity leads you to tune into a Christian channel just to see who these people are, how they think, what they are really like.
If you happen across one of the many preachers which are identified (often self-identified) as a doctor, you’re impressed. You know how much time and dedication goes into earning a PhD. However, it turns out that Dr. Charlatan don’t know about the word “doesn’tâ€, and seems to go out the way to end as many sentences as possible with the word “atâ€. Now, you just want to know what university gives degrees to people who could never have passed your 8th grade English class. Five minutes of googling later, you see that they have an honorary doctorate. Oh Really! To people who’ve actually earned their degrees, honorary doctorates are somewhat like gold medals from the Special Olympics.
Now, even if you are the least arrogant, least condescending, most forgiving atheist at the university, you will notice that Dr. “God don’t care where you been at†has achieved a seemingly high level of ambassadorship by a large Christian following. What does this imply about the audience? And what does this do for your original theory that Christians are generally dorky.
But, you are still willing to forgive all of this, and listen to the message. The preacher is talking about doing your job with professionalism and excellence. But the preacher’s job primarily consists of speaking into a microphone to very large groups of people. It stands to reason that if the preacher would practice what he (or in many cases, SHE) preaches, he’d learn some basic grammar. He couldn’t be doing it on purpose… Even the politians know to use proper English, regardless of the target demographic (with the exception of John Kerry campaigning in an Ohio in 2004, where he purposely said, “can I get me one of them there hunting licensesâ€â€¦ which may have cost him the election.)
The lesson Senator Kerry probably learned is that no one ever appreciates poor grammar. Good grammar is rarely noticed, but poor grammar is noticed negatively by many. When I hear a “don’t†where there should be a “doesn’tâ€, it’s not much different than if the speaker belched into the microphone.
I am a devout Christian, and I certainly don’t want to step on toes (as evidenced by my lack of naming names). But if you are a preacher, then you have a responsibility as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God. When you speak, you’re mind in on parade, and the Kingdom’s creditability is on the line.
To illustrate my point, try to put yourself in the shoes of an atheist in academia. Imagine that you’ve worked very hard for many years to earn your master’s or even doctorate degree. Most of your peers are generally kind, sincere, educated, intelligent and rather sophisticated. They are witty and fun. Some are even downright lovable. You live in a world where it is quite the norm to be certain that religion and belief in God is common among the majority who are less intelligent that you. This explains why you support a one-world socialist government; otherwise these idiots are going to destroy our delicate environment. Somebody needs to ‘lord’ over the planet!
Then, one day, you start to ponder, “Could the Christians be right?†You’re approaching the fence. (Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling.) You’re curiosity leads you to tune into a Christian channel just to see who these people are, how they think, what they are really like.
If you happen across one of the many preachers which are identified (often self-identified) as a doctor, you’re impressed. You know how much time and dedication goes into earning a PhD. However, it turns out that Dr. Charlatan don’t know about the word “doesn’tâ€, and seems to go out the way to end as many sentences as possible with the word “atâ€. Now, you just want to know what university gives degrees to people who could never have passed your 8th grade English class. Five minutes of googling later, you see that they have an honorary doctorate. Oh Really! To people who’ve actually earned their degrees, honorary doctorates are somewhat like gold medals from the Special Olympics.
Now, even if you are the least arrogant, least condescending, most forgiving atheist at the university, you will notice that Dr. “God don’t care where you been at†has achieved a seemingly high level of ambassadorship by a large Christian following. What does this imply about the audience? And what does this do for your original theory that Christians are generally dorky.
But, you are still willing to forgive all of this, and listen to the message. The preacher is talking about doing your job with professionalism and excellence. But the preacher’s job primarily consists of speaking into a microphone to very large groups of people. It stands to reason that if the preacher would practice what he (or in many cases, SHE) preaches, he’d learn some basic grammar. He couldn’t be doing it on purpose… Even the politians know to use proper English, regardless of the target demographic (with the exception of John Kerry campaigning in an Ohio in 2004, where he purposely said, “can I get me one of them there hunting licensesâ€â€¦ which may have cost him the election.)
The lesson Senator Kerry probably learned is that no one ever appreciates poor grammar. Good grammar is rarely noticed, but poor grammar is noticed negatively by many. When I hear a “don’t†where there should be a “doesn’tâ€, it’s not much different than if the speaker belched into the microphone.
I am a devout Christian, and I certainly don’t want to step on toes (as evidenced by my lack of naming names). But if you are a preacher, then you have a responsibility as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God. When you speak, you’re mind in on parade, and the Kingdom’s creditability is on the line.
I am sometimes do not express myself very well. I have found a very good explanation here: