Unattractive God

The NUS Campus Crusade fiasco erupted because of a few words. Words that, many Christian groups will admit, we hold to. We just don't put them in print.

Which of us Christians, if we truly believe in One God, has not prayed that our loved ones will also come to know Christ? If we don't have that desire for others to know Him, it would mean that all we profess to believe is not actually true. It would mean that our religion is interchangeable and disposable, not very important for anybody's salvation. Not even our own. And it would mean that we are following an unattractive God, who we don't really want anybody else to get to know. But we love God. We love what He has done for us. So we want to share that with others.

Some go about it strongly and forcefully. Some go about it timidly. But the belief is the same.

I can understand why non-believers take offense at the Crusade materials. Belief, no matter how pure its origins, becomes offensive when it erects an Us vs. Them wall. It reads like an exposed battle plan, rather than a message of love.

And I believe that love is its intention. Just that in print, that love did not get communicated. How different it would have been if the flyer had talked about reaching out to comfort Thais stricken by the floods, struggling with property loss and poverty? Instead, it chose to zero in on the solution, which is to bring the implied "true joy" of knowing Christ to them.

Honestly, I feel for the Campus Crusade students (and staff). I do not believe that they were walking around with an air of superiority, looking down on all non-believers as joyless. I believe that they had intentions of love. But it is a problem when that love fails to be communicated, or is perceived to be offensive. Even if the flyer was meant for internal circulation.
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As a student, I was also heavily involved in Campus Crusade. And I was also involved in producing an internal publication. One day I was hiding in a corner of my school, folding these newsletters for distribution, when my professor walked by and found me. She picked one of them up. I was terrified. Religion--especially Christianity--does not generally sit well with art school professors.

She read the whole thing through, with occasional "hmm"s. I tried not to look at her.

Then she said, "This is so surprising. Where I come from (the States), we come to see Christianity as such a negative thing with all the politics... But here there are so many stories about how it is a positive thing in people's lives! It actually... helps people!"

It was a special Testimony Edition, with quotes from many students about what they were thankful for.

So when this NUS thing erupted, I often thought back about the publications I had distributed. They were approved by the university, for sure, but we were just as vulnerable to an internet explosion as anybody else. It was just a blessing that my flyer happened to give a warm impression to my agnostic professor.

What happens then, when it's no longer Testimony Edition, but Evangelism Edition? When we talk about evangelism, will our words be misread as battle plans, or will they be read as loving? Will we unwittingly make God unattractive, or show Him to be the loving God we can't wait to share with others?