Some jottings about the news- From LRC: Are you talking to a provocateur?
- From Facebook:
Equality, climate change, and gay marriageEvangelization, natural law, and liberty. Not a link. Worth a look: National conservatism. - From RR: Common Core: raising the bar-barians. Nothing new: American public education started as a leftist program to separate kids from natural community (family, church, neighborhood or town) and make them interchangeable cogs in "the Machine," the state, etc. At least 50 years ago it was still more about teaching facts, and natural communities were still strong enough to keep public schools from getting above themselves. When I was a kid the schools started trying to teach "values," as in '70s liberal "values," and I knew it was trouble. "The Cathedral," the religion that grew out of and replaced Protestantism among the ruling class (liberal Tutsi whites, vs. evangelical Hutu whites). The Catholic schools sold out at Vatican II and are waning. ("The spirit of Vatican II," trying to meet the left on its terms, trying to be anti-abortion on human-rights terms, etc., doesn't work.)
- From Theden: The American question. Propositional nation (the Anti-Gnostic: there's no such thing) or Anglo-Saxon Protestant one? The right kind of ecumenism: I'm with Sobran on the benefits of living in an old-school Protestant country.
- From Cracked: A veteran on what he learned in the service and on life after.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Agent provocateurs, and more
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Why "evangelization" as opposed to, say, "family" or "tradition?"
ReplyDeleteAs you've probably gathered from my posts, I am extremely skeptical of "evangelism" at this point, with Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants all tripping over each other in every corner of the world.
I have not seen any hard numbers, but I've been told the contact-to-conversion ratio is in the single digit percentages. That seems to correlate with my experience, and I'm also betting it's something the academic theologians won't touch with a ten-foot pole. I've also read the biggest factor in retention is not the intensity of the conversion experience but the ability to fit in socially.
The biggest bang for the buck would seemingly be to nurture Christian families in the pews, not troll for middle-aged converts. It's not as if nobody knows where to find us.
You're right. That reminds me: I don't think anybody reads their way into Mormonism (converts because of the theology). Some convert either because of marriage like Ann Romney or because they want the rather conservative culture. By the way, I understand Mormon missions don't work; they're just busywork to indoctrinate young Mormons into their culture.
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