Religion can be fairly divided into two parts: what you believe, and how you tell other people what you believe.
Sometimes people can pitch really well a belief system that’s actually ridiculous — that’s called a “cult.” And sometimes you can convince all your friends to join you in something that’s actually desirable — it’s probably an iPhone.
But then there’s the other half, when you have a horrible ability to tell people what you believe. Maybe the content is crazy, too, and then the idea usually dies out.
But sometimes the beliefs are well-established, and it’s just the presentation that turns people off — like health care.
Well, I went to the Dove World Outreach Center this Sunday, and I think it’s in the same camp as the health care bill.
See, what the center believes is actually almost orthodox Christianity: God loves you, but everyone is a sinner; and it’s only if you believe in Christ’s saving power that you can go to heaven. That’s what Christianity is, and it’s working pretty well for a lot of people.
So it’s not really the message that’s any different from any other Christian group. It’s the center’s presentation. And I admit, seeing “Islam is of the Devil” signs doesn’t make me want to drink their Kool-Aid. (Literally: They have lunch after the service, and we declined to stay.)
But, as has been reported in the Alligator before, all the sign really means to them is that Islam (along with all other religions) is untrue and divergent from the “correct” way to heaven.
Yep, that’s basically what Christians believe. Most of them just don’t wear shirts to school advertising it, because that’s an insensitive way to bring up a sensitive topic.
This kind of PR disaster is pretty close to how things are going with the health care bill. This whole “health care as a right” thing is a pretty good idea, people say, but no one can figure out how to convey that.
It’s going to cost some people more money, you know. Ouch. And it’s going to mandate people to have health insurance.
Eh, I’m not such a fan. And somehow, all those unsavory aspects have bogged down the entire venture, and no one knows if it’s even going to happen at all.
I know, the Dove World Outreach Center and the health care debate have probably not been considered parallels by many people. And there are differences. But we shouldn’t hate on the Dove World Outreach Center because it needs better marketing.
The center’s members are actually pretty nice people. They’re a little frumpy, and the kids seem overly enthusiastic — and the tilted cross is weird. But they’re pretty nice, pretty biblical people other than their interpersonal philosophy.
My favorite part is that they can take a joke. It turns out that most of them grew up in Germany. (We speculated that perhaps that’s the reason for the focus on Islam — it’s a big deal over there.)Well, it just happens that my roommate and I are learning German.
So I asked them after the service in German if they all came from Germany. “Yeah, most of us,” one woman said back in German. “Why are you studying it?”
“Oh, well, we think Germany is of the devil,” I said casually. My friends tensed up waiting for a stern rebuke.
But they laughed. “Probably,” they said. Inoffensive? Not quite. But in that, I had new hope for the health care bill.
Will Pennman is a English senior.
