From: swoodwar@zeus.calpoly.edu (Swo Odwar)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Evangelizing the rave scene
Date: 12 Jan 93 10:18:43 GMT
Organization: VoidSoft Ink.

While I am not into the rave scene, I am somewhat familiar
with (and sympathetic to) the so-called philosophy at work.


iainw@bnr.ca (Iain (I.) Woolf)  sez:

>
>In article <Jan.6.01.53.01.1993.2785@geneva.rutgers.edu> kelly@minster.york.ac.uk writes:

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>>- what do you see as the issues which need to be confronted in this kind of
>>  work?
>
>I agree that when evangelising to a different culture, we should take
>Christ to that culture and not try and persuade them to conform to
>*our* (not necessarily His) christian sub-culture. HOWEVER! Of
>paramount importance (IMHO) is the removal from their culture of
>anything that is not of God, ie. conflicts with the Word of God.

This is a big problem.  Speaking as a non-christian, I am not
at all sympathetic towards efforts to remove non-Christian
<things> from my 'culture'.  I hear that christian missionaries
prohibited surfing in Tahiti because it was too 'hedonistic'.
This sort of interference is not likely to be appreciated, and
will probably have a negative effect on your evangelism, 
especially if the people are powerful enough to resist.


>To apply this to your example (and something I'm sure you have
>addressed) is the issue of psychedelic (or otherwise) drugs used at
>mainstream/secular/'nonc' raves.

If there is bible verse supporting a prohibition on psychoactive
chemicals, then I would love to hear of it.  Reply via e-mail.


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>>  Hint:a biggy is how to communicate Christ as absolute truth and life in a
>>	world which is rapidly moving towards the conclusion that the only
>>	absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth... 
>
>How about a multimedia presentation or dance track to that very effect
>(or is that a bit too naff?). Eg. "The answer to everything is Christ"
>"Christ is the absolute truth"

That's not going to cut it.

The problem is that christianity is the 'old' message, which
doesn't translate very well into the 'new' frame-of-mind.

Of course, there could be a new world-view called 'christianity'
which maintains some surface resemblences to christianity as we
know it...  But most of it is lost in the translation.


>>	A subQuestion: how to communicate propositional truths without being
>>		verbal?  Can we do it the way the media gets its message
>>		over - by fleeting images and impressions a la MTV? 
>
>I speak purely for myself here, when I say that I often find those
>montages quite confusing. For example, I went to see U2's recent Zoo
>TV tour and was totally baffled by alot of the quick-moving
>words'n'pictures ("Everything you know is a lie"). I hope I'm not just
>stupid or getting old - I don't really want to be either!  :-)

The great thing about montages is that not everything has to have
a definite purpose or message.  It's up to the viewer to add
shape to the presentation according to the 'language' the viewer
uses to make connections between various symbols.  Since there
are a lot of symbols flashing around, there's a lot of potential
for interpretation.


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