Re: your Oct. 31 article, "Evangelists target spiritually cold New England":
Even though Christian evangelicals are on the move in America, this article speaks of how disinterested many citizens of the Northeast are when it comes to matters of faith, and how dismissive they have been in their response to evangelicals who are roaming the area trying to enlist more followers of the faith.
One would almost be sympathetic to missionary Joe Souza's lament -- "It's like, you found a cure for cancer and you want to give it away and nobody wants it" -- were it not for the preposterous notion that finding a "faith" compares to warding off a killer disease like cancer.
That message being touted to an educated, content population makes one wonder why some of our evangelical friends don't realize that the fervor can be off-putting rather than appealing to those who are not interested.
I am reminded of the few years I lived in a small town wherein, with clockwork regularity, evangelicals would knock on my door and wish to engage in conversations of "faith." Given I have no quarrel with anyone's religious beliefs, I was always polite to those who were "on their mission" to convert and would engage in those discussions. After a few years, I found that a tedious and counterproductive exercise.
During my growing-up years, an individual's religious beliefs were held as a personal matter, not to be proclaimed like someone who has just won the lottery. I therefore am not interested in anyone's religious stance, and have come to resent the "in your face" declarations of the ubiquitous proselytizers we have today.
I do wish our evangelical friends would consider a less vociferous path to obtaining converts. They might find greater success merely living by the "rule" rather than shouting it.
In the meantime, my faith is nobody's business but my own.
-- Sylvia Lewis Gunning, Thousand Oaks