Last week, as I stood on the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and Plaza Street, waiting for my wife to meet me, an old African American woman approached me. She was dressed in black, and in her hand was a small black book, open in her left hand. With her right hand she pointed to the text that promised me health and healing. I don’t remember what she said at first to engage me in conversation, but it was soon clear to me that she hoped that I would become an observant Christian, born again.
I immediately disabused her of the notion that I was a Christian, lapsed or otherwise. I told her I was Jewish. This information only encouraged her for, she said, Christianity perfected the Jewish religion. She went on to describe the Temple sacrifices of bulls, rams, goats, turtle doves, fine white flour, and oil, and then she told me that in the year 29 those sacrifices had become unnecessary. As a result, she said, the priests were unable to continue the sacrifices. "Yes,” I said, “after the Romans destroyed the Temple." No, she was not talking about the Romans’ destruction of the Temple in the year 70, but about the year 29, the year of the crucifixion.
“Isn’t it good,” she asked, “that we no longer sacrifice bulls, rams, goats, turtle doves, fine white flour and oil?” I agreed that it was good. The Almighty had a covenant with the Jews, she said, but the Jews broke it. To myself, I agreed she was right, not about the author of that contract but about the Jews’ not having lived up to it. She then reached into a commodious bag, which she had placed on the sidewalk, pulled out a bible, and opened it to Jeremiah, who, she claimed, predicted the coming of the Messiah, a prophecy she believes has been fulfilled. When I told her that she was wasting her time with me, she pointed to a passage from the Book of Daniel that Christians interpret as predicting the advent of Jesus.
I asked her how she would feel if I tried to convert her to Judaism, but I was beating my gums in vain just as she was beating hers, neither of us listening to the other. Finally, she gave up. She had met a hard nut and if she had failed to crack it, she had at least done her best. As we parted, we smiled to one another and wished each other good luck.
But I was a hypocrite. I didn’t take kindly to her attempt to convert me. In Wednesday’s post I wrote that the Hebrew scriptures’ injunction to destroy the Canaanite places of worship and their idols would, if carried out, have destroyed Canaanite identity, which was tantamount to soul murder. I was thinking about this when along comes an old lady who tries to murder my soul. Maybe she was an angel in disguise, sent by the Lord in one last-ditch effort to save me, but somehow I doubt it.
This was not the first attempt to convert me to Christianity. The earliest, I think, was by a high school girlfriend. She never discussed her beliefs with me but she invited me to accompany her to a church service. Curious, I willingly went with her, not once but several times, but the attempt, if that’s what is was, died there.
Then there was the missionary in Addis Ababa, where my family and I were living more than 40 years ago. I don’t remember how I met him or why I invited him to dinner, but he abused our hospitality by staying on well beyond the normal time allotted a dinner guest in a futile attempt to save us. He was serving in the deep countryside, and maybe he longed for conversation with native speakers of English. Who knows? But if he displayed as little tact with the Oromo tribes that he hoped to convert as he did with us, he could not have been very successful.
The old lady who stopped to talk to me on the street meant well. She hoped to save me from an eternity of hellfire. Missionaries in general mean well. Some serve heroically in desolate and dangerous lands, building and operating clinics, hospitals, and schools. But nonetheless they are killers, destroyers of the cultures in which they work and murderers of the souls of those they attempt to convert.
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I agree with you. The trial to convert is a bad behaviour. In Italy it does not happen. Just seldom Witnesses of Jesua try to give you their paper but very gently. Even the missionaries have changed. They try to convince by their exaple more than by words in africa. anyway I respect more emergency who takes care of anyone without asking who it is. Wally
ReplyDelete"killer" is too strong a word. If you meet a Chistian fanatic you can not say all Christians are fanatic. In Italy My mom is in a Catholic nursery home run by nuns. Our relation is excellent although they never saw me in the church and they know my married separated partner. They even voted for my left wing major. I explained to them the gay rights and the rights of the unmarried couples. They respect me as I take care of mom. Never tried to convert me. Wally
ReplyDeleteI hope I didn't give the impression that I think all Christians are killers but I do think that those from any religion who try to convert nonbelievers are killers of the soul.
ReplyDeleteOr not. There are those who don't know their hunger is for the soul and who are granted the gift of soul when they encounter one who believes. Now I don't think the clumsy missionaries you describe are likely to convert anyone.
ReplyDeleteIn my case my own movement from agnostic Unitarian to believer came from an unexpected direct encounter with the Divine in a garden, but was also influenced by people who lived out their faith, even if it differed from mine.
During the time I spent in a Christian pew I spent several years in online encounters with a young Hassid who could be considered a missionary for his view of the truth, a view that was both ahistorical and to me, rigid (although he was considered a screaming radical in his community.) But our polemics sent both of us to texts and deepened my understanding of what I believe and I am grateful for the experience. (I'd be curious if it deepened his understanding but he probably couldn't admit it if it did.)
I also had great conversations with our J. Witness babysitter, She had joined the Witnesses because her Baptist church told her to have faith and the Witnesses told her to study, albeit from their distinctively translated Bible. I, in my arrogance, had never considered that intellectual curiosity might motivate such a conversion. She had all kinds of international experiences through her church that would not have been available to a poorly educated African American woman of advanced age and low income. And she had great discussions with Moonies and people of other persuasions. She knew how to listen which many street proselytizers do not and I am a better person because of her.
These days I merely say I have a good relationship with God and suggest that there are many who don't that they might speak with, unless they seem interesting enough to converse with. Still today's clumsy missionaries are potentially able to grow.
Interestingly Christianity occurred at a brief time of Jewish proselytization. I haven't sourced the numbers authoritatively but I was told about 10% of those in the Roman Empire were practicing Judaism while only a third of those were actually Jewish. That with Paul's expectation of the imminent end of the world may have set the tone for missionaries (although he died before his Jewish sect became a full-fledged Grekified religion.) Outreach didn't end well for the Jews and they dropped it.
As for soul killing, that happens when power and rigid belief are co-mingled. If you must profess belief in something alien in order to get a meal or an education, that is an entirely different equation than whether you desire to converse with a person about religion, despite their level of listening and respect.