Mysterious evangelism
I received a mysterious package in the mail today. Which is fine, I enjoy getting packages, it’s like Christmas. Anyway, it was mysterious because though there was a return address, it had no name, and inside there was no note, only 2 books. One was marked “Read First” and the other “Read Second.” But the books themselves gave away the sender.
The one marked “Read First” was Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman, the second was Paradoxy: Coming to Grips with the Contradictions of Jesus by Tom Taylor. I’m pretty sure they were sent by my grandmother. Ever since I’ve ‘come out’ to my family about my atheism, they’ve had some problems with it.
My whole family is fairly liberal and well studied in the Bible, however, my grandmother still thinks I’m in some sort of phase. And most of them think that as I experience more of life, more mysterious things will happen which will make me believe in God. These aren’t the first religious books I’ve received from my family. Mostly they come from my aunt and my grandmother.
I study religion so I have no problem with books like Misquoting Jesus; books on religion might be the largest section of my personal library. But, I can’t help but feel slightly disrespected by the whole affair. Though I’m sure my family means well, no one has really bothered to actually talk to me about my beliefs, or lack thereof, other to say that they have seen miracles. That somehow seeing or experiencing something unexplained will magically make me believe in the absurdities of the Bible. I think the conversations I relish (going over evidence, discussing, etc.), they find threatening. That’s my hypothesis anyway.
I started Paradoxy tonight. So far it speaks of a man (the author) who had a crisis of faith in his twenties that God helped him through (paradoxy indeed), which led him to later become a pastor. We’ll see how it develops. It’s the kind of book I would probably never pick up on my own, but I want to make sure that no one in my family (or elsewhere) can accuse me of not having an open mind.