Michelle Newcomb
Religious Studies – Primal Religions
Assigned
Bruchko’s Perception of God
When I got to class a few days ago, I started a conversation with a fellow student. After reading most of Bruchko I was still really confused as to what exacty he was doing down there (I’ve never had a serious religious experience and couldn’t comprehend what would compel someone to go through all that he went through and not want to come home). What could compel anyone to go through all that and still want to preach the word of God?
The conversation progressed until we both reached the conclusion that it wasn’t about converting people and it wasn’t about bringing people to see “the light of God”. His mission was simple to share a wonderful experience with as many people as possible. Once I understood this, that Bruchko wasn’t there for himself – unlike the other missionaries, he wasn’t there to convert for the sake of the native’s damned souls and he wasn’t there to convert to save his own – he was there to share something. What scared the missionaries already there was that they had never had this experience and thus lacked the confidence to go out and preach in a positive way. Their tactics (like many of their kind) was to scare natives (with the threat of a hellish afterlife) into practicing, acting, dressing etc… the same way they do – Bruchko simply asked that they grow closer to Jesus.
After this conversation (and realization) I was able to enjoy Bruchko much more, after understanding what was going on.
No comments:
Post a Comment