On the way to the train station that I go to to get to work, there is a church nearby. It's a baptist church (which seems invariably to mean that it's a depressing-looking broken-down cowshed) and it's tucked away down a side street. Every now and then there is a little old lady who stands on the confluence of the main street that leads to the station and that side street, and she seems to have taken it into her head to convert passers-by with dreary pamphlets about religion.
Today was one of those days.
Normally when this happens, I ignore her. I don't want what she's selling. But today, she stopped me, and not being in much of a rush, I let her. She seemed flustered, poor thing, that someone actually ceased to perambulate. She tried to save my soul.
She presented me with a badly-thought-out, badly-rehearsed, utterly predictable speech about how modern life was drawing me to Satan, and that that was a bad thing because I would surely burn in hell as a result unless I admitted Christ into my heart on the spot.
I'm not used to being proselytised at, nor preached to: it's rare in Glasgow for someone to harangue you in the street. I didn't have a snappy answer, or anything snarky or clever to say. I listened to her.
This was my response:
I giggled. I was (accidentally) substituting the phase 'Fairy King' for the word 'God'. It made what she said silly, and no less daft. I asked her for evidence of how God was going to save something that doesn't exist (my soul) from something that doesn't exist (Satan and Hell). She said 'Oh, you're one of those'. I left at that juncture, though I remembered to have the manners to wish her a nice day.
I highly doubt that I made any dent in her belief. I am no ambassador of reason, and I didn't have time for the good questions. Anyone who will stand in the cold to wave pamphlets at strangers is likely to be of the mindset that unshakable faith inhabits.
It wasn't the most classy of theist/atheist conversations, but it provided the impetus for this cartoon, which turned out better than expected.
So, um..thanks be to God and the odd lady that was his messenger?
Today was one of those days.
Normally when this happens, I ignore her. I don't want what she's selling. But today, she stopped me, and not being in much of a rush, I let her. She seemed flustered, poor thing, that someone actually ceased to perambulate. She tried to save my soul.
She presented me with a badly-thought-out, badly-rehearsed, utterly predictable speech about how modern life was drawing me to Satan, and that that was a bad thing because I would surely burn in hell as a result unless I admitted Christ into my heart on the spot.
I'm not used to being proselytised at, nor preached to: it's rare in Glasgow for someone to harangue you in the street. I didn't have a snappy answer, or anything snarky or clever to say. I listened to her.
This was my response:
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| Sometimes I draw cartoons to express things that amuse me |
I highly doubt that I made any dent in her belief. I am no ambassador of reason, and I didn't have time for the good questions. Anyone who will stand in the cold to wave pamphlets at strangers is likely to be of the mindset that unshakable faith inhabits.
It wasn't the most classy of theist/atheist conversations, but it provided the impetus for this cartoon, which turned out better than expected.
So, um..thanks be to God and the odd lady that was his messenger?
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