The Barefoot Evangelist

I’ve noticed a lot of talk lately about religion being the biggest problem in the world, and about faith routinely being spread through violence. There are ever present memes on social media talking about the brutality of Christianity and how it was spread through force (false, by the way, the only time force was used as a majority “evangelical” practice was during the Age of Exploration when early European and eventually North American missionaries used force and violence against indigenous populations. Not something to be proud of, but we need to put it in historic context).

The thing is faith cannot be spread through force. Fear and faith are not connected in that manner. We cannot threaten people to believe or else.

Several years ago I met a family from Syria, recent arrivals who had been Muslim in Syria for generations. However, as soon as they got to Canada, the girls took off their scarves and started reclaiming their ancient family tradition of being Christian. Several generations later, but the family still remembered who they were originally.

Faith is trust, even in the unknown. And when it comes to spreading our faith, we do it by how we live.

The reason there is such a strong backlash against Christianity in the western world is not that people have lost interest in Jesus, it is that those claiming to be Christian are not living according to Jesus’ teachings.

If we want to spread our faith, ‘make believers of all people’ as the Gospels ask, we cannot force anyone else to do it. We have to live it and give others the space to be curious. Then when they ask questions, that is the time to talk about what we believe and why.