Gotta love them Jesus-freaks
Apr. 17th, 2002 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aribWhile waiting at the bus stop with my boss this morning, (she and I occasionally end up on the same bus) we were both approached by missionaries. First they spoke to her, then me.
The approaches they take towards a lapsed Catholic, and an Orthodox Jew are quite different.
They appealed to her obvious fear of going to hell, and my obvious desire to be Born Again.
(Yes, I'm being sarcastic...)
I was too tired to be anything but unfailingly polite.
Stubborn as all get-out, and annoyingly unwilling to acknowledge their view as the One True Way, but unfailingly polite, all the same.
If I'd been more awake, or in a bad mood I probably would've ripped their arguements apart, I was too busy waiting for the caffeine to kick in.
Still, it was fun pointing out to them that, in their opinion, anything I said was an opinion, when everything they said was, of course, The Word Of God.
"So, you're telling me that my religion, which is older than yours by several millenia, and is, in fact, the root religion of Christianity, is wrong?" I said, again, as politely as possible.
"Yes, exactly!" They (yes, there were two of 'em) replied, hoping to make some headway.
"and you learned this in the Bible?"
"Yeah"
and here's where I got 'em...
I reached into my workbag, and pulled out my siddur (prayer book) which also has most of the Tanach (aka Old Testament) in it.
"Okay, where?"
"Oh, but we can't read Hebrew..."
"So, you can't even read the language it was written in? How do you know you haven't been reading a mistranslation all your life?"
"Well, we don't really, but we can assume..."
"You can assume that a translation of a translation of a translation of something is as accurate as the original? Really?"
"Well, when you put it that way..."
"Exactly, now there's my bus, if you'll excuse me. Have a great day, and God bless..."
My boss nearly applauded.
and all this before the morning Dunkachino. Oy.
The approaches they take towards a lapsed Catholic, and an Orthodox Jew are quite different.
They appealed to her obvious fear of going to hell, and my obvious desire to be Born Again.
(Yes, I'm being sarcastic...)
I was too tired to be anything but unfailingly polite.
Stubborn as all get-out, and annoyingly unwilling to acknowledge their view as the One True Way, but unfailingly polite, all the same.
If I'd been more awake, or in a bad mood I probably would've ripped their arguements apart, I was too busy waiting for the caffeine to kick in.
Still, it was fun pointing out to them that, in their opinion, anything I said was an opinion, when everything they said was, of course, The Word Of God.
"So, you're telling me that my religion, which is older than yours by several millenia, and is, in fact, the root religion of Christianity, is wrong?" I said, again, as politely as possible.
"Yes, exactly!" They (yes, there were two of 'em) replied, hoping to make some headway.
"and you learned this in the Bible?"
"Yeah"
and here's where I got 'em...
I reached into my workbag, and pulled out my siddur (prayer book) which also has most of the Tanach (aka Old Testament) in it.
"Okay, where?"
"Oh, but we can't read Hebrew..."
"So, you can't even read the language it was written in? How do you know you haven't been reading a mistranslation all your life?"
"Well, we don't really, but we can assume..."
"You can assume that a translation of a translation of a translation of something is as accurate as the original? Really?"
"Well, when you put it that way..."
"Exactly, now there's my bus, if you'll excuse me. Have a great day, and God bless..."
My boss nearly applauded.
and all this before the morning Dunkachino. Oy.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2002-04-17 04:14 pm (UTC)One thing that struck me about the KJV was that it actually wasn't a bad translation for its day, but among other factors many of the words in it have changed meaning in non-obvious, misleading ways. Unfortunately, I'm not sufficiently motivated to find examples for you. *smile*
Anyway. I think you deflected the missionaries without denigrating Christianity, and I just thought I should tell you that. :) *hug*
A.