How to plant seeds of faith with strangers
I have an article in the latest issue of OSV Newsweekly about how to evangelize total strangers:
You are sitting at your son’s soccer game, enjoying the crisp weather and your boy’s joy for the game. Then you hear someone nearby say “Catholic Church,” then “divorce”; suddenly the hair on your neck stands on end and your body tenses.
You realize that two parents next to you are criticizing the Church; they notice you looking at them and ask, “What do you think?”
Now that we live in a post-Christian world, every one of us encounters situations like this. The Catholic Church teaches certain precepts that are simply unacceptable — antithetical, even — to the modern ethos. Standing by those precepts, we open ourselves to criticism and even attack. Furthermore — and sadly — there are scandals surrounding some Church figures that open Catholics up for easy condemnation.
So what are Catholics to do? How do we respond? What are our obligations in these situations?
Eric, thank you very much for this excellent post.
A friendly quibble: I can understand why certain non-Christians might use the term post-Christian (if Jesus was a worldly-wise wisdom teacher, but other teachers have eclipsed him, or intellectuals have decided he was wrong, then we are past him…). And I even understand why Christians might be tempted to use the term, or fall into using it because it is so common – if what you mean is that our culture, once more firmly built upon Christian virtues and faith in our Creator, has abandoned or become hostile to a Biblical worldview to a staggering degree. But… truthfully, we cannot be post-Christian, can we? Christ still reigns. Therefore, there must be a better way of saying this, that doesn’t sound like we think that Christ is a thing of the past, or merely a philosopher whose following has waned.
Otherwise, an excellent post. Thank you.
[...] By Eric Sammons [...]
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