Today I had lunch with one of my college students, home on break. I asked her if I could share this hilarious story with you, and she said OK.
She attends a conservative Christian college, and has struggled occasionally with the theology there. She is considering ordained ministry, and this is not a welcome career path for women according to some of her peers and professors.
She's been checking out the Christian fellowship groups on campus, and told me she attended a couple gatherings of Campus Crusade for Christ*. I asked her how she like it, and she told me that at one of the sessions, the theme was decision-making according to God's will. The leaders would propose different scenarios and ask for feedback - "what would you do?"
One scenario: A villain captures you and another individual. He hangs the other person over a pool of alligators, and says he will let the person be eaten by them unless you have sex with him. What do you do?
My student told me that the responses centered on whether or not the other prisoner was a Christian. If he/she was a Christian, it would be safe to deny the villain sex, apparently, because the other person would be 'saved' and it would be OK for them to be eaten by alligators, rather than having sex outside of marriage with a villain. But, if they were not a Christian, you must either 1) risk having sex with the villain to save the other person from eternal judgment or 2) try to witness to them before they died, so you could still avoid having sex.
Hm.
*I'm not suggesting that the scenario described is something that happens at all CCC gatherings. That's just where she was.
Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, "Picnic and a Boat Ride," John 6:1-21 (Proper 12B, Ordinary 17B)
Sermon 7/28/24 John 6:1-21 Picnic and a Boat Ride Our gospel lesson today is a text that’s probably familiar to most of you, at least some...
12 comments:
You have got to be kidding me. I can't believe this. First of all, I think it is a stupid hypothetical, but okay, let's say that it is real.
Did I understand from the example that it is okay to allow a person who is saved to be eaten by the alligators and go to heaven, but if the person is an infadel, then you should have sex with the villian and hope to save the person later, or to save them at the last minute if you refuse to have sex?
Let us suppose that I go along with this game? Where does it end? What if I transpose the question? What if the person hanging over the alligators was a Christian and I decide not to have sex with the villianess. If the idea is that is okay, because they are saved, I say that is flawed Christianity. What if that person would have witnessed to hundreds of lost souls and won them to Christ? What if that person would have become the next Billy Graham or Apostle Paul, but, I allow them to die smugly thinging that is okay since they will be in heaven since they are saved? Okay, you may say, that person wouldn't have been. What if they had only won one soul to Christ who only won one, who then became the next BG or AP? What about all the "lost" infadels that person would have saved by his/her testamony, that will now be damned to Hell because I would not save my friend. You can transpose this question a million different ways if we try to step into the timeless viewpoint of God.
I think I now have a headache?
This whole thing is just so wrong on so many levels that it's mid-boggling .... and, yet, sadly enough it doesn't surprise me at all. None of the colleges I attended (and, as you know, I attended a LOT) had CCC but I went to a couple of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Brothers And Sisters In Christ meetings with friends over the years and it sounds like they could be interchangeable. Of course, at the one BASIC group I knew the most they would undoubtedly have throw in the disclaimer that the person hanging over the alligator could also be Jewish and you wouldn't have to have sex with the villain because they have "that whole ancient loophole of being God's chosen people."
And what if the person hanging doesn't speak your language? Spout your beliefs to them all you want and you'd just sound like Charlie Brown's teacher to them. It really makes me wonder sometimes whether all of our foolishness gives God a big headache or a big laugh ...
I am speechless.
Yuck.
Must try that one out on my members. Trouble is some already doubt my sanity.
I believe it. It's just stupid enough to come out of the lips of a freshman student taking Philosophy 110.
Did anyone answer that they should pull out a sword and cut the ear off the villian?
How about lifting your head to Heaven and praying "Abba, Father, with you all things are possible. Take these alligaters away from me. Yet, not my will but yours."
Was having sex with the alligators a possible solution?
And then there's finally one more solution. Seducing the villian and turning him/her into a newly saved Christian.
I just don't see what's so hard about all this decision making stuff. :)
It sounds like something that would have happened at the CCC gatherings at my university, back in the day; I was singularly unimpressed with this group, especially after being ambushed by one of its members one morning at 7:30 am, on my way to class -- the guy literally leapt out of the library shrubbery to ask me about the state of my salvation. All I can say is that he is very, very lucky I was still half-asleep at the moment of his pounce, or else he'd have become the very first fundamentalist castrato. But, anyway -- they say they're non-/inter-denominational, but that's a lie -- if you're not a fundie, if you don't belong to the correct denomination in their point of view, your theology and opinions aren't welcome, and they're going to try to "convert" you. So that you'll give the right answer during the "alligator" hypothetical. [barf]
Good post Beth - very thought provoking... see my response on my blog.
Wow. That is absolutely disgusting. I actually work for Campus Crusade in Canada and I'm glad you put a little note that this is not something that always happens - I can tell you that I would be horrified if something like that was happening at our meetings. How is that a beneficial or useful situation to discuss?
*barf* indeed!
That actually makes me quite sad that people's time is being wasted with useless questions like that.
Excuse me while I'm sick.
:( stupid, stupid, stupid.
yeah I have a headache too!
It amazes me why anyone would try scare tactics on college kids, but they do. Many of my former Sunday School students come back from college with similar stories. These I can reasure that Christ is love, and God wants us to be happy. Many never talk to me and are driven from God by these stunts. That is the main reason I started my blog-http://alumnibiblestudy.blogspot.com . I may not be able to be with each of my former students, but because of the internet I can always be there for instruction and support.
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