But forgive me if I’m going on a tangent here
and don’t understand you, perhaps you can expand ?.
The example I gave was not in reference to a homosexual, but I believe that such an approach could be used with a homosexual. I feel as though I have a pretty good understanding of human nature, as well as the way poeple change, at least from a secular perspective, as I have worked in the human services field for the past 20 years.
If a person has their heels dug in, so to speak, on whatever issue may be, ‘arguing’ with them IMO doesn’t usually produce positive results. Your experience may be different.
A recent example where I was the recipient was when I went to confession for the first time in 17 years. If the priest showed less love and understanding, and instead choose to lecture me on the things that I already knew were wrong that I did and was therefore confessing as sins…I probably would have had a negative reaction and be’ pushed away’ from Jesus and God, if yo will, rather than being pulled and guided further toward them.
So IMO if someone believes what they are doing is correct, I have found that arguing with them doesn’t usually produce them agreeing with me. A recent real life example is a thread I started, something about LEAP and drug prohibition causing problems and not producing positive results. I found that people were not at all open minded on the issue, not interested in hearing what police who spent 20 years on the job had to say about the negatives of the war on drugs, not open to hearing or even considering that an alternate approach toward trying to successfully address societies drug problem dispite what I feel is overwhelming evidence that the war on drugs causes tons of harm and is not at all effective in getting people off of drugs.
So as a generalization, while one’s motives may be good and pure, changing people’s minds on different issues is quite a challenge when they have believed something for a period of 20 years or so. I have found that they are like the def, blind, and dumb monkey’s. One can not change such a person’s mind on any issue if they are in such a state.
So I was suggesting one possible approach as a way to get a person who ‘has a problem with God’ to open their ears/heart where in the future they may be open to hearing more.
I am in favor of using whatever method(s) are most effective when trying to get a person to change sinful behavior. And I think that people are often clouded by their own views, not paying enough attention to the views of the other person and whether or not their approach/efforts are actually effective.
I think one can stand in front of a gay bar all day and night with a sign saying "homosexual behavior is a sin’ and preaching that message and the net result may be that each and every person who sees the sign and hears the message goes out and has extra homosexual sex out of spite as a reaction to such an approach. The person with the sign might feel better, but the result on the sinners leaves them worse off than they were before.
So I think it’s important to recongize such things. I find that in general, looking for ‘teachable moments’ when a person is open to hearing a message and using that moment to try and get your point across the best you can is in general a much more effective approach when trying to get a person to change their behavior, whatever that behavior might be, rather than just randomly going out and evangelzing at random because one feels the internal need to do so.
Of course I could be completely wrong, as I often am.
God Bless,
Bill
