conversation with an eritrean guy

I had a really interesting conversation the other day here on campus with a guy from eritrea whose name I can’t remember (partially because it was a foreign name). He was a really nice guy. We ended up walking along the same direction, and I said,

“Good afternoon”. And he said

“Good afternoon, how are you?”

Benjamin: I’m okay. The gray, heavy weather gets me down a little”

Eritrean guy: Oh really? I feel happy in spite of the weather. Jesus is my lord and saviour–so I feel happy all the time.

B: (somewhat bemused, and somewhat triggered, and therefore kind of gearing up for a potentially fascinating conversation) really? what do you mean when you say Jesus is your lord and savior? How does that make you happy?

E: Well, he died for my sins, so I can go to heaven when I die. Everybody needs Jesus as their savior so they can go to heaven.

B: okay–that sounds kewl. But what has Jesus done for you here?

E: well–he died for my sins.

B: yeah–but what has he done for you here? Has he helped you in any particular way? like for instance, I get in arguments with my wife sometimes. Has jesus helped in relationships with your spouse, your friends?

E: well–yes of course we are humans, which means that we get into fights and arguments. that’s okay–it’s part of life. We work through that stuff. But Jesus (as before)

B: (bull dog now with bone in mouth–won’t be put off =) Yes–great. But has your life changed since you met Jesus? Are you any different now from how were you before (thinking to self: come on, come on–tell me a goddamned story already–I’m setting it up for you here!!!!)

E: oh yes!!! I used to be a drunkard, and a (goes on to describe person who is a general loser). Yes Jesus changed me a lot. Don’t you want to be a christian too?

B: well it’s really interesting and great that you had that experience. I’ve had almost the opposite experience. Back when I was a Christian and knew Jesus, I was a pretty horrible person. Now that I’m not a christian anymore, I’m a much nicer person–I treat other people and myself better. Isn’t it intriguing that we have had such opposite experiences?

E: Well, I’m very happy to be here in a christian nation, and be able to love Jesus and that he has forgiven my sins

B: (alas, a new trigger) Why do you call this a christian nation? what do you mean when you say christian? didn’t Jesus say to love your enemies? But we kill our enemies.

E: Yes–but you must of course defend yourself!

B: well–at one level I agree with you. but then I’m not a christian. you call yourself a christian, and yet you condone killing your enemies? How’s that?

(this next bit is mega fascinating to me)

E: well–I don’t really like to talk about politics. But you know, back home in eritrea–this is how Christians believe–that we must not kill our enemies. The fighting has been going on a long time with ethiopia, and the government requires everyone to serve in the army, but the christians refuse. and many of them are imprisoned or killed because of this. So when I came to this country, I joined a little Eritrean church (points in general direction of church building). and about 80% of the people in this church have this different view now that since america is a christian nation, that it is okay for them to condone killing enemies in defense of america. So I have been swayed by this 80%, and my thinking has changed. But perhaps you are right.

B: (thinking to self: wow!! I’m stoked I got in this conversation. How fascinating is that???) So what do you mean when you say Jesus died for you?

E: well, you see, he was killed on a cross for your sins and my sins, so we could go to heaven. He did not sin–but you, and me, and all of us–we sinned–we deserved to be on that cross–and he took our place.

B: yes, yes. But what is this “Sin”? I mean you know what a cross is, right? It’s a roman execution by torture device. Our closest equivalent might be an electric chair combined with a cia black site. So you are saying that you deserve to be tortured to death? what for? what have you done that’s so awful that you should be tortured to death? What is this “sin” you are talking about?

E: well, it doesn’t have to be about what I personally did. It’s in our blood. Adam sinned, and that sin came down to me in my blood.

B: So you are saying you are convinced that you and me and everybody ought to be tortured to death because some guy thousands of years ago didn’t exactly follow what god said?

E: yes–we deserve to die for our sins, but Jesus came to save us.

B: okay–I don’t get that. I can’t really believe that you believe that. I gotta get to class. Great talking to ya. Later!

All of which to say, among other things, that people get taught and buy into what seems to me to be a really shockingly cruel, horrible theology–but there seems to be a huge disconnect somewhere between their theology and their actual real world experience as a human being.

BICBW

OA'ing an evangelist

Jim, April, Helen, and company at Off-the-Map run a website called Ordinary Attempts, in which they tell stories of otherliness. They are thinking "evangelism", but some of us who aren't christians still like the idea of doing free attention giveaways. From their explanation page:

Our culture’s equivalent of a cup of cold water is attention. OAs are free attention giveaways.

God counts, notices and works with our smallest efforts (including praying behind peoples back or even noticing them) to carry people along toward himself.

OA s have been borrowed by others who don’t care about the evangelism but simply want to participate in free attention giveaways and intentional acts of kindness in order to make the world a better place or someone’s day a bit brighter. We welcome this practice as well and don’t see any conflict of interest regardless of what motivates people to OA – it is better than not OAing.

So I got published over there last week with a story of my OA'ing an evangelist. Here it is:

So today I got to OA a fairly strange character named Brother Jed. He was sitting in a chair in red square on the UW campus, or standing near his chair, and in a well projected, well carrying voice he was … preaching, for lack of a better word. Some of the things he was saying sounded kind of nice, like maybe god cared about the smallish groups of students who would stop to listen a while. Other things he was saying were completely off, IMNSHO, like god is gonna send homosexuals and perverts and sinners to hell, and the point of sex within marriage must mainly be procreation, etc. etc.

I sat and listened to students mocking him, or haranguing him, or asking him pointed questions, and him responding in his loudish voice, often with what seemed to me rather outrageous responses. And I wrote him off fairly quickly. “What a quack,” I thought. But after I left, I thought to myself “That must get tiring, and he probably has lots of fascinating stories, and I wonder if he can speak at a normal volume level?” so I went back and sat down to take some notes for a little while with the idea of blogging about it and maybe connecting with him. And then he wrapped up.

So I said “Hey, can I buy you a drink?” and he said “sure”. so I got him a soft drink and we sat down and talked for 20 minutes, at normal volume levels. He preaches like that 5 hours a day on collge and university campuses all over the country all year round, and has been doing thus for 32 years. And he has a wife, and 5 daughters, and one is in the army as a chaplain’s assistant, but not in Iraq. And he used to be a history prof at a university, and then he left to go study under a guru in India, but along the way he got distracted into living in a hippie commune in Morroco.

And one day at the Hippie Commune in Morocco, in the evening, they were watching the sunset and chanting, and he looked behind him and saw the full moon rising as the sun was setting. And he thought “Wow! Someone must have created that”. Which led him to start reading the Bible, become a Christian, give up on India, return to the U.S., and start his 32 year old preaching career.

All that for a simple soft drink and a brief invitation. I was stoked. He seems like a fairly nice guy when he’s not doing the preaching thing.