Someone put "The Shia Newspaper" in my letterbox a couple of days ago. You can read it online, if you want to see.
Fascinating.
I've seen a number of Evangelical (and Evangelistic) tracts presented as tabloid newspapers. This has much in common. Even down to the whole-page rant about why Darwin was so utterly wrong, and how his "prattle" has evolved... There's also a lot of mumbo-jumbo completely incomprehensible to outsiders.
Indeed, at 32 pages, totally devoid of any form of advertising, it's quite a heavyweight document: the format may be tabloid, but the articles are all longer than those in The Times and its ilk. You can admire the time and effort which has gone into producing and delivering it, but also sincerely doubt it is going to have much of an impact upon those who have received it, like I have, via a random delivery.
It's a salutary reminder, all the clearer for coming from outside my own faith community: sharing the message of Christ and his Kingdom is not easy. Engaging in some worthy activity may make us feel better (and may, by his good grace and some serendipity, advance the kingdom anyway) but eager hard work is not the same thing as effective communication.
[Yes, the self-conscious emerging punchline would say something about a relational gospel, too. You can fill in the details...]
4 comments:
Nice new photo! You have eyes! And a smile! And some gray in that beard... :)
:-) Thanks. It's not quite the perfect photo, but I guess it's good to change from time to time.
With respect,
You just failed to justify your negative attitude to what you describe as outsiders.
It's your responsibility toward yourself to understand the what 'the outsiders' stands for and not to assume that it's you who have the divine truth.
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for the comment. My remarks are probably more dismissive than they need to be, and with hindsight I regret them. In many ways they are more of a criticism of my own faith community than of that which produced the Shia Newspaper.
The "outsiders" in my first paragraph are those who did not produce the publication in question: the Shia community on the one hand; my own Evangelical Christian community on the other.
Far from being dismissive of outsiders, my point is that if we want to produce literature to explain our faith, we must do so in a way that understands their perspective.
We tend to produce materials for the sake of those outside our own group, without taking the care to think about how they would view them. I fear that this newspaper has done exactly the same thing as many Christian tracts do - if, indeed, it was addressed to those outside the Shia community, as I was assuming.
I want to embrace truth wherever it is to be found - whether that is in the writings of inspired prophets of long ago, or in the writings of brilliant scientists like Charles Darwin. I hope I shall always seek after truth, and I'm sorry if I came across as dismissive.
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