Mormons, iPads and a New Way
I sent a tweet out on Saturday that said:
I saw two, young Mormon missionaries were canvassing the neighborhood. They had just left my neighbor Perry’s house, so I knew the Wise clan was up shortly.
Sure enough, we heard a knock on the door. I was all set to ignore the gentle knock, happy to remain in nestled inside while those two poor boys sweltered in the heat. “I don’t want to deal with this,” I said to myself. As is usually the case in our house, my wife seemed to be able to read my thoughts when she encouraged me, “I think you should open the door.”
So I did.
I opened the door to two young men standing before me. Sweaty from the Iowa humidity, they were decked out in classic Mormon attire: White shirt, black tie, black pants, black shoes. The older boy did all the speaking. I was informed that the younger one, Michael, was “in training” to be a “mini-missionary” for the Mormon church. “This,” I thought, “is going to be good.”
Having just graduated from Bethel Seminary, I must confess that my original intent in this conversation was to make their teenage heads spin with the historical inaccuracies of the Mormon tradition. Joseph Smith, Moroni, 400 B.C. to 600 A.D., the Book of Mormon, modern-day prophets … Yeah. I was prepared to make mincemeat out of all of them. After all, the Mormon church is doctrinally funky on so many levels, right? I was simply doing my service in upholding the truth of God’s eternal word. “Child’s play,” I thought, “these two won’t know what hit them!”
Classic. Nothing says the love of Christ like shattering the minds of two young ones. I’m sure that’s exactly what Jesus would have done. Berated, belittled and shamed two young men with a sincere conviction to share what they believe to be the truth. I’m sure that’s exactly how Jesus would have handled it.
iPads Are Changing the World
We were five minutes into our conversation when things took a drastic shift. See, I got an iPad as one of my graduation gifts. That iPad happened to be sitting out on the kitchen counter during my conversation with my Mormon friends. One of the boys saw it while we were talking and briefly shifted out of his rehearsed, memorized speech to exclaim, “Cool! Is that an iPad? Awesome! Can I see it?” In one second, we went from talking about the historical accuracy of the Book of Mormon to the battery life on my iPad.
Awesome.
After this brief interruption, the thought hit me: “These are kids. Just kids. They’ll probably go home tonight and play XBox with their friends. Don’t be so hard on them. They’re learning, just like you. Grace, grace, grace …”
Sure, we may have a vastly different understanding of the Bible.
We may not see eye-to-eye on how God moves in the world today.
We may even have a fundamental disagreement on the role of Jesus–even who he was as a person.
But since when did belittling someone cause them to change their mind? I would venture to guess very rarely. Yet this is the posture that I went into our conversation with. Not exactly a stellar evangelistic method, if you ask me.
A New Way
As the conversation progressed, I became more inquisitive than commanding. After all, they had taken the time to listen to me, why shouldn’t I do the same? I asked questions where I was unclear and the young men answered as best they could. I challenged (gently) where I thought they had some misunderstandings (for instance, we talked about Ephesians 5 and Paul’s directive to not get drunk on wine, but on the Holy Spirit. The Bible never says to not drink, just not get drunk. Huge difference). Overall, it was an enjoyable conversation.
As we were finishing up, one of the boys asked me if I wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. I politely said, “no” and shook their hands as they left the house. I blessed them as they left and meant it with all sincerity. They were good kids, even if we have profoundly different ideas on what faith looks like.
I thought to myself, “If I can do this with Mormons, can I do this with Muslims? Jews? Atheists? Wiccans? Buddhists? If not, why not?” I discovered, first hand, that you can disagree with someone on a faith level and still like them as a human being. A radical concept, but one that I believe is imperative for any follower of Jesus to adopt. Does it mean we agree with their beliefs? No. But it does mean we treat them with the respect due to an Image Bearer of God.
Have you ever had an experience like this? One where you saw past your own limited perspective and looked into the face of another human being, realizing that you’re not that different? What was it like? How did it change you?
I've had some similar encounters with people and friends of other faiths. The first instinct is very similar to what you experienced, point out how wrong they are and then correct them, the problem with that is that it puts them on the defensive and their instinct is to dig their heels in further. Recently, I have come to know some Iraqi refugees via a church based relief organization, they know that I am a Christian and they occasionally ask questions, I answer them as best I can but I don't belabor point or try to convert them on the spot. My “gut feeling” (if you want to call it that, I think it was the Holy Spirit) was “let your life be the witness”, so that's what I do. I try to be a friend, I don't belittle their beliefs, I answer questions, and I support them as best I would expect a true friend to support me.
Whether or not this will lead to them coming to know the Lord is anyone's guess, if they later come to know Him, then I hope that I will be one of many signposts along that path. Until then, I will be a friend, pray for them like I do all of my other friends, and simply be there for them. Sometimes that can be a much stronger witness to anyone than words which point out to them about how wrong they are in their currently held beliefs.
The more I discover about other religions, the more I find out that the basics are the same. Sure, names may be different, details differ, etc. But the fundamental belief in there being a higher power responsible for creation, that we should be good to other people and treat them with respect, and many other powerful ideas are the same across religion. If we focused on the 90% that is similar instead of the 10% that's different, we would be a much happier, more peaceful world.
You're right, they are kids; often transplanted to a place that least resembles what they know of as home, and often cut off from television and other media.
Asking questions is definitely the way to go. It was the hallmark of Jesus' ministry style. And you can still steer the direction of the conversation.
'I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours'
Plant them seeds brother!
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”
-1John 4:8
Wow. Is that how the whole missionary thing rolls? I guess I had no idea! That one kid said he was from San Diego … Quite a bit different than Des Moines!
Um … What? Is that a quote from somewhere?
It's a Stephen Roberts quote. The point is that given the tens of thousands of gods people have historically worshiped, the difference between yourself and an atheist is statistically insignificant.
You don't believe in Amun, Anubis, Anuket, Apep, Apis, Aten, Atum, Bastet, Bat, Bes, Geb, Hapy, Hathor, Heka, Heqet, Horus, Isis, and so on – all of which we agree do not exist. It's only your acceptance of the single deity Yahweh which sets us apart.
great post Justin. I appreciate the part where you actually opened the door. I have to confess that I so often don't want to deal, so I try to be as divisive as possible. Like when I opened the door to the Jehovah's Witnesses and started discussing all kinds of doctrine…yeah, they didn't come back. hmm.
Nic, thanks but believe me, I didn't WANT to open the door. My wife was the voice of Jesus in that moment……
well done man, I would have been tempted to chase them away
Trust me, Mr. Phil, I was VERY tempted. My wife was the voice of reason in that matter!
well done man, I would have been tempted to chase them away
At the end of the day we have to remember that each and every person we cross paths with is a person, created in His image. If we could keep that one thing at the forefront of our minds it wouldn’t matter what faith someone professed just like it wouldn’t matter if they liked chocolate over vanilla. We are all on a journey of learning together and the more that we work on loving each other where we are at, the sooner that Christ will be revealed.
A slightly more irreverent look at visits from Mormons.
http://bit.ly/c8nKLF