Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 29, 2024, 5:54 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Public evangelist conversations
#1
Public evangelist conversations
I want to write a scene with a conversation between an atheist and a Christian evangelist on a college campus. I figured there would be lots of Youtube recordings of such interactions, but I only found conveniently-edited clips by an evangelist channel. Can anyone direct me to a written or recorded account of how proselytizers start conversations with passers-by and what their strategies to try to convert them are?
Reply
#2
RE: Public evangelist conversations
Try searching counter-apologetics.
  
“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” — Confucius
                                      
Reply
#3
RE: Public evangelist conversations
Try searching "Street epistemology" on YouTube.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
Reply
#4
RE: Public evangelist conversations
Go to your local college campus and simply walk around with your 'Satan Is My Brah' t-shirt.  I'm sure it won't be long until you have all the research you need.

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
Reply
#5
RE: Public evangelist conversations
I attended the University of Iowa back in the late 1980s, ultimately, earning a MBA. Lots of campus preachers back then, but when I return to Iowa City, I have never seen any. Ditto for my town of Cedar Rapids, IA, where I have lived now for 30 years. Back in the 90s, street preachers would be downtown, screaming at people. Haven't seen (or, heard) any of those for at least 15 years. And, so, anecdotally, it seems like this phenomenon is dying out.
Reply
#6
RE: Public evangelist conversations
(November 18, 2020 at 12:15 am)Sayetsu Wrote: I want to write a scene with a conversation between an atheist and a Christian evangelist on a college campus. I figured there would be lots of Youtube recordings of such interactions, but I only found conveniently-edited clips by an evangelist channel. Can anyone direct me to a written or recorded account of how proselytizers start conversations with passers-by and what their strategies to try to convert them are?

Those already exist. They're  called "debates". You might find one or 1,000 of those on YouTube between atheists and Christian evangelists, among other shit.
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard P. Feynman
Reply
#7
RE: Public evangelist conversations
Try Questioning Evangelism, Randy Newman.

Quote:A revolutionary look at sharing Christ with unbelievers by using the probing, provocative, and penetrating method Jesus used to engage others in personal dialogue and caring interaction.
A much-needed look at sharing Christ with unbelievers, based not on the techniques of guerrilla hard-sell tactics, but on engaging questions and caring interaction. Filled with humor and stories, this book provides a challenging yet encouraging look at evangelism in our world today. This volume argues that asking questions and starting meaningful conversations is a far better method for sharing faith than prepared lectures or statements. It gives advice on what people need to hear in response to the world around them.

Author was raised Jewish and has a unique, rabbinical outlook on evangelism
Encouraging and useful
Easy-to-read, conversational style
Study guide at the end to aid in teaching and discussion
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Reply
#8
RE: Public evangelist conversations
(November 18, 2020 at 8:54 am)Jehanne Wrote: I attended the University of Iowa back in the late 1980s, ultimately, earning a MBA.  Lots of campus preachers back then, but when I return to Iowa City, I have never seen any.  Ditto for my town of Cedar Rapids, IA, where I have lived now for 30 years.  Back in the 90s, street preachers would be downtown, screaming at people.  Haven't seen (or, heard) any of those for at least 15 years.  And, so, anecdotally, it seems like this phenomenon is dying out.

We had Brother Jim and Sister Cindy on our campus.  They called us fornicators.  That hurt.  Some of us weren't so lucky.

Here they are on the Brother Jed Campus Ministry site
Reply
#9
RE: Public evangelist conversations
Yeah, that's the dumb way to do it. It's a matter f personal taste and whatever the plot is supposed to be, but I think that a thoughtful scene with a non-garbage evangelist might be better - and if the author is an atheist, they have all the material they need for the other half.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Reply
#10
RE: Public evangelist conversations
CE - "Hey, have you heard the good news ? It's all right here in the bible free for anyone to read."

A - "That book doesn't contain any news. And rarely does it contain anything good. I would consider it more like poison to the human brain. If you believe what is written on those pages, you might want to seek medical attention right away."

CE - "This book was written by god."
A -"Written by men. Altered by men, some 50,000 times. No original texts. Large portions of it, we don't know who the authors are and the central figure doesn't seem to appear in any other historical accounts of the time. It's fiction."

CE -"Written by men who were inspired by god."
A -"Inspired by their own imagination and some inspired by mushrooms or drunken debauchery."

CE-"How dare you utter such blasphemy."
A -"How dare you follow such evil and try to pass it along to others like a deadly virus."

CE -"This is a good book. There is nothing evil about it."
A-"Genocide, torture, killing children, slavery."

I could go on and on....this kind of conversation is not difficult to write.
Insanity - Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Funny conversations tor 16 3428 April 14, 2014 at 10:45 am
Last Post: RobbyPants
  Christopher Hitchens - Last Public Appearance Woody68 0 1346 April 21, 2013 at 12:28 pm
Last Post: Woody68
  Australian High Court rules against public school chaplains Justtristo 24 9216 July 14, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Last Post: Polaris



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)