This post was inspired by the post Sexual Purity: What They Said vs. What We Learned. That post is about how the lessons about sex learned by children of Evangelical parents don’t necessarily match the intentions of their parents. If that sounds like an odd idea to you, then go back and read that post before you continue on mine.
That post got me thinking of the other things said by my parents and other religious influences — including my former pastor, my homeschool texts, and various media from Focus on the Family.
They said: You are valuable because God loves you.
They said: God has a wonderful plan for your life.
They said: The “fruit of the spirit” are signs of the Holy Spirit.
They said: You must stand up for what you believe.
When I asked how you can know you are filled with the Holy Spirit, they said: Because God’s spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. I asked what that means and got basically the same Bible verse repeated back.
They said: We’re not trying to proselytize.
They said: The most important thing about a person is what they believe about Jesus.
They said: God is speaking if you will listen.
They said: Don’t worry about hell.
They said: Only people who believe in Jesus go to Heaven, regardless of what they have done, good or bad.
They said: We should emphasize God’s love, not hell, when witnessing for Christ.
Well done.
They said: You always have to forgive others, as Jesus forgave you, and this is part of salvation.
I heard: Let people walk all over you. Also, if you can’t stop being angry about how you were mistreated, you will burn in Hell.
“They said: We’re not trying to proselytize.
I heard: As Evangelicals our end game is always to try to ’save’ you, but we think you will not listen to us if we tell you that.”
That would explain why the evangelical proselytizer told me they weren’t trying to convert me, even when we both knew that’s exactly what they were trying to do.
Woah, the one on forgiveness. I totally forgot that one. Thanks for filling it in.