Okay, so I mentioned an upcoming experience with a Christian Mission.
First, let me state that I am not a Christian. I, for the most part, abhor ardent or fanatical religiosity of nearly all types.
So each year in March I volunteer to take undergraduate students on an alternative spring break (ASB), community service trip. This year I wasn't going to go; but a chaperone had to drop out and I was called in as a reserve.
I agreed to go and was then informed that I was being sent (along with 12 undergrads) to Greenville, SC to work with a Christian mission. What the fuck! But I've decided to challenge myself, see if I can truly approach this with an open mind. We aren't going down to help spread the word of God and bring lost sheep back to the shepherdwell at least not directly.
We are supposed to be working in a soup kitchen/food pantry, painting houses and visiting shut-ins and the elderly. All fine and good but what will the underlying expectation be? Do such groups do 'good works' without the evangelizing?
Well, I'm about to find out. 'Embrace otherness' that's what I always say. After all, we live in a country that elected GWB on a base of Christian Evangelicals so I might as well find out what it's all about. I doubt I'll be in any great danger. I'll just have to learn how to keep my mouth shut and avoid being overly opinionated for a few days. Nothing wrong with that
First, let me state that I am not a Christian. I, for the most part, abhor ardent or fanatical religiosity of nearly all types.
So each year in March I volunteer to take undergraduate students on an alternative spring break (ASB), community service trip. This year I wasn't going to go; but a chaperone had to drop out and I was called in as a reserve.
I agreed to go and was then informed that I was being sent (along with 12 undergrads) to Greenville, SC to work with a Christian mission. What the fuck! But I've decided to challenge myself, see if I can truly approach this with an open mind. We aren't going down to help spread the word of God and bring lost sheep back to the shepherdwell at least not directly.
We are supposed to be working in a soup kitchen/food pantry, painting houses and visiting shut-ins and the elderly. All fine and good but what will the underlying expectation be? Do such groups do 'good works' without the evangelizing?
Well, I'm about to find out. 'Embrace otherness' that's what I always say. After all, we live in a country that elected GWB on a base of Christian Evangelicals so I might as well find out what it's all about. I doubt I'll be in any great danger. I'll just have to learn how to keep my mouth shut and avoid being overly opinionated for a few days. Nothing wrong with that