Hi Phat,
I am not a great believer in the free will defence, there are too many problems with it.
If I am talking to a kid in Juvie, why is it wrong to bring God up?
Because you are exploiting the situation, you have the ideal ‘captive audience’, why don’t you just befriend the kid without bringing your mythology into it?
Look at it this way, the kid obviously needs a friend, you arrive and he begins to trust you because you are a decent enough guy, you earn his trust then you mention Jesus and how wonderful he is, the kid, believing that you are a good guy swallows your propaganda hook line and sinker, you have exploited that child, you have taken advantage of the situation, I personally think it is criminal, but that is just my opinion.
Whenever I do anything for someone else, and there are a great deal many people I have helped, I do it because I want to, they are a fellow human and I want the best for them. But I do not exploit the situation to promulgate my faith, I don’t say to kids that I help (and adults too) that they should embrace atheism and that Christianity is a joke, to me that would be abusing my position and exploiting a vulnerable person, it is disgraceful.
You mean to suggest that we simply tell them to believe in themselves?
Why not? A short sharp metaphorical kick up the backside often works.
They have a broken image.
They can be shown examples where real people have turned their lives around through hard work and counselling.
They have had hurt lives and are unable to trust their male and/or female role models...often their very parents!
Oh great, so you acknowledge that they are desperate fro a friend, they have no one to turn to so in step good old phatboy, earns their trust, I am you friend you know, by the way, have you heard about Jesus, you should be ashamed of yourself. This is pure and simple exploitation of a vulnerable person.
I am not gonna be their Daddy! I can only tell them how my "Daddy" has helped me.
Why? Why do you feel this urge to keep this pathetic self-deluding myth going? By all means give the kids a helping hand, I admire anyone that does that, but once you gain their trust you have a moral obligation not to exploit them.
God is like my Daddy. You may scoff.
Not at all, you have a faith, it is a personal faith, but you exploit others and that sickens me, there should be a law against that.
I will tell you that God is not a sugar Daddy! God is not a Disneyland Dad! God is like a Father who has never let me down.
Of cours ehe hasn’t let you down, you make excuses for him all the time so it isn’t possible for him to let you down.
For inner city kids, the casualties have been high. It is not enough to give them social service programs. It is not enough to think that they can be taught personal empowerment. They need an infusion of love, and of hope.
Love an hope from a 3000 year old Hebrew myth? Love and hope from a guy born 2000 years ago who was a liar and a cheat? Yeah, Jesus was some role model.
My personal faith in a living and loving God. Brian, you may think that it is un necessary to bring up Christianity. For you relating to them, that may be true. If you ever influence any hurt people in life, I hope that you are successful.
I have, and continue to, help people, but I don’t bring my personal beliefs into it, I do not bring down theism when I help others, I talk to them as equals and I do not help them for the reward at the end of it. I help people because they are people, not because a self contradicting collection of ancient texts tells me to.
All that I know is that I and the other YFC volunteers have made a difference in the lives of more than a few kids, and we are honored to have done so.
Oh I bet they are since Christianity and exploitation goes hand in hand, the more innocent minds that Christianity corrupts the better.
Why not be a decent human being and help others because they need help, leave the fairytales at home.
Brian
™ Version 4.2
