Posted by Lionel Boyd Johnson.
Sorry I'm late. I suck.
Anyway, this month it's Ray Comfort again (he'll probably show up next month, too) for the GM 2:8.
In case you're too lazy to watch a one and a half minute video, the GM 2:8 is an iPhone app that let's you preach in Ray-Comfort-style witnessing in another language. Here's a tutorial:
If you're reading this, you probably know Ray Comforts method of converting by fear by getting you to admit that you've ever lied or stolen, then implying that you're going to hell, and then offering that he has the only way out. Well, the GM does the same thing in many languages, so that you too can scare people, even when they don't speak English.
Why does this app exist? The church has been sending out missionaries to do this very thing for centuries, and the Bible is available in almost any language in the civilized world. Well, Ray Comfort rejects Catholicism, but the real reason that the Bible alone isn't good enough is because Ray Comfort doesn't need or really even want the Bible. Ray Comfort uses the authority of the Bible way more than he uses the Bible itself. If there was only the Ten Commandments, and the story of Jesus, Ray Comfort's preaching wouldn't change. The Bible is only useful as a vessel for the Commandments and Jesus where Comfort can claim that they are absolutely true and beyond scrutiny. Ray Comfort is selling his own brand of preaching that is separate from organized church, and where the church is doing what it does to try to take over the world, Comfort is spewing a different message, and in order to spread that message across languages, he has to resort to technology and computers, because the church's message is not good enough.
It's important to realize that Ray Comfort is not bringing people to Christianity, he's trying to bring them to evangelism, a specific sect of Christianity. This makes him no better than any other religious fanatic, that it's not good enough to believe in Jesus or to try to live righteously; you have to believe exactly what he believes in exactly the same way, and intimidate others into believing it too.
Why is this app good for Ray Comfort? Comfort should like the GM because it cannot be asked questions. It's a simple program, it has some recorded messages stored away, and it plays them when you hit the right button. It doesn't understand any of the languages, and it can't listen or respond. In a nutshell, it just says, "You're fucked, but I can help you." Ray Comfort likes this because it spares him the trouble of answering questions. He doesn't have to try to convince you that his speech is true, he doesn't have to listen to questions like, "How do you know what God wants," "What if the Bible wasn't written by God," or, "Why would Jesus condemn sexual attraction," and he doesn't have to hear himself being corrected. It becomes easier for him to wander around, playing his recording to anyone who'll listen, and keep playing it to whoever is buying into it.
Personally, I find this offensive, and here's why. Picture you're sitting at the beach, minding your own business, and someone confronts you.
"Pardon, monsieur, avez-vous un peu de temps?"
"Sorry, I don't understand," you say politely.
"Ah, une minute, s'il vous plaît."
He brings out his iPhone, "Have you accepted Jesus into your life," it asks in an artificial voice.
I can't testify to the patience of anyone else, but if it were me, I would punch him, really hard. And then again until he was on the ground. Then I would keep punching him over and over until the police were called to pull me off him and over to the jail.
But don't let my reaction sway you.
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