In Defense of Evangelicalism

Most of the boys I knew freshman year are leaving for their missions over the summer. A few boys I knew fall semester are already living and working in Canada and Norway and France.

All of the mission calls pouring in over the last few months put me in mind of a boy I knew in high school, and a conversation we once had where I mentioned my brother--then on his mission in California. "No offense," said this boy, "but I don't agree with evangelicalism."

My first thought was that this boy was fooling himself if he thought he himself didn't evangelize. The word means "to preach the gospel," and while it has a Christian connotation, everyone has their own gospel and most everyone has the desire to spread it. The Mormon missionaries and Jehovah's Witnesses knocking at your door are equivalent to the guy trying to get your signature on his petition to save the polar bears. And while all of these people are seen as rude by some, I think it is not only a right but right to try to make the world a better place by sharing your views.

Of course, we were in Mississippi, heart of the Bible Belt, where "evangelicalism" is the domain of Evangelical Christians with a capital E (Mormons are not Evangelicals though we are famous for our evangelizing.) This boy probably associated evangelicalism with the Man, who, where we grew up, is usually a Southern Baptist, and the Man is by definition close-minded and intolerant. But you can spread your views without attacking those of others, and if you want to have a civil conversation that's exactly what you have to do. I believe in civil conversations--they're good for the soul.

I try to be receptive to the evangelicalism of others just as I would like those others to be receptive to the message of my brothers and friends. That's why I have a slim book on my shelf called "The Perfection of Yoga" by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, which I took from a man on a New York street. Let's all listen to each other. Let's evangelize away.

Not Everything Happens for a Reason...

...and yes, I do believe in God.

It seems strange to me that the same people who believe fervently that God gives man freewill believe that God orchestrates every single event in our lives as part of his apparently intricately-precise plan.

But these two things are inconsistent. If I get fired, is it because God wanted me to have a learning experience? Or is it because my boss exercised his free agency to fire me if he felt like it? It's true that God might have impressed on him, "Fire her," or "Don't fire her," but there's no reason to assume my boss is in tune with the promptings of the Spirit.

While there might not be a reason for everything, there's a reason for Everything. Life as a whole has meaning and purpose, man are that they might have joy, and this holds true even if God doesn't always specifically pick out what college we'll be accepted to or who we'll meet or when the people we love die. I believe that everything, including the random vagaries of human agency, has the potential to lead us to fulfill the overarching divine purpose of our lives.

But we're not going to grow into our purpose if we lie around like dead fish, waiting for God to slap us with Meaning. Life is an active process, where we take whatever is handed to us and, with the help of divine inspiration, turn it into something meaningful, building a path to the Purpose, the glorious Reason for it all.