Secretive ballots II

As I was growing up among the fundies, the youth group would occasionally be led out to do door-to-door evangelism. It's like cold-calling for Jesus. As Annie Dillard said, this sort of thing makes sense given its premises, but it was excruciating for all involved.

I came to realize that such conversations were appropriate only within the context of relationship. Outside of that context, there's little possibility for give and take, for listening as well as talking, and what happens isn't really a conversation at all, but a well-intentioned form of verbal assault.

(The door-to-door event I remember most painfully was Campus Crusade's "Evangelism Explosion." Two of those four words are revealing.)

A danger of this kind of guerrilla evangelism was that it encouraged us to treat people as means, not as ends. Not only did these conversations not take place within the context of relationship, but they weren't intended to create such a context unless it occurred entirely on our terms.

This history as a recovering fundie is part of what makes me leery about the kind of door-to-door GOTV efforts I'm now engaged in. What I like about the approach of this effort is that it's not just cold-calling. I'm only knocking on doors within my precinct, talking to my neighbors (I've got 18 names in my own building), and mainly to those who are already registered with my party.

I wrote below, in a post titled "Secretive Ballots," about the need for a "civic conversation" and for "getting together to decide how we are going to live together as a country." This is the sort of thing one writes after rewatching Mr. Smith over the weekend, followed by Bravo's West Wing marathon Mondays. (I'd just seen the one where Ainsley Hayes convinces Sam to change his position on some piece of regulation. The look on Emily Procter's face at the end of that episode is priceless.)

But this conversation needn't be anything grandiose or Capraesque, with a Snuffy Walden score swelling in the background. All it really means is that in a healthy democracy we -- as neighbors, friends, citizens, coworkers -- need to be able to hash out our opinions and our differences. We need to be able to discuss with one another where we stand and why. The notion that discussing politics is improper in polite conversation can undermine the health of our democracy just as the notion that it's impolite to discuss religion or money (or pretty much anything else of consequence) cheapens the rest of our lives together and apart.

Admittedly, door-to-door canvassing isn't really a forum for this kind of conversation. (Its worthy goal is something else.)

I ran into my old flatmates on Tuesday night. Rich is an unlikely entrepreneur. He started his business, in part, because of a book: The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community, by Ray Oldenburg. Here's the Amazon description: "The Great Good Place argues that 'third places' -- where people can gather, put aside the concerns of work and home, and hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation -- are the heart of a community's social vitality and the grassroots of democracy."

Rich's Gryphon Cafe is just such a third place. In a sense, the blogosphere can be as well (although without the yummy pastries and live music).

Door-to-door, I appreciate and respect people's reluctance about sharing with me, a stranger, how they intend to vote. But I do hope that in other contexts -- in the relationships afforded by the "hangouts at the heart of a community" -- this reticence gives way to the kind of conversation that is necessary not just for democracy, but for life.

Comments

[Patrick]

None of those things are impolite to talk about if they aren't a matter of prying. Sometimes the questioner simply doesn't know they might be prying, and a few don't care. It's just a matter of trying not to precipitate and anticipate when you don't know.

But that's less it than we don't have all that much democracy any more. Your friend Perlstein wrote a fine piece this week which includes the second time I've heard about "coups" and a permanent Republican government in charge (the other had to do with plans that have already been put in place to cancel the election in case of catastrophe); and how a lot of Evangelicals don't care that much about democracy.

The dialogue should only be with like-minded or undecided. It's a waste of energy to talk to a hardcore Bush freak. They're already deaf, dumb and blind at this point and will have to be rehabilitated at some later point, if ever.

Well, that's a good recovery you've done. I'm sorry you had to go through it and there's a table on 14th Street for a few weeks now where they are assaulting people, including me, in the name of Jesus. Just kids, having their youth wasted. You were lucky.

[michael]

Since you mentioned the West Wing, Fred; thought y'all might appreciate this funny campaign"commercial" by Bradley Whitford.[note: link direct to Quicktime movie--not dialup friendly]

Patrick, I pray our democracy is recoverable, though these days I'm not overly confident. But these guys give me hope that one day real democracy can come to the USA; and point the way to how.

m

[Mabus]

On the contrary, Patrick, I was a hard-core Bush freak until maybe a month and a half ago. I am seriously conservative on social issues and uncertain on economics, but I have decided I would rather have a competent liberal in office than a clueless conservative. If nothing else, the former might motivate "cultural conservatives" a bit more. Besides, except for the supposed benefits of his "faith-based rhetoric", which does not inspire me in the least (pun intended), Dubya seems to be doing a lot more for his moneyed corporate supporters than for his supposed religious allies. It's about time evangelicals recognize that if they absolutely tie their vote to one party, that party will take them for granted.

To your tents, oh Israel! What portion have we in the House of Bush?

[dwight ozard]

Fred, you missed something "growing up fundy" and I'm disappointed--but then again, you are just young emough to not have been around to see the start of things....

"Evangelism Explosion" was not started by Bill Bright's Campus Crusade For Christ. It was started by Southern Florida's own crusader for "Christian America" Dr. James Kennedy. It was a text in our "Personal Evangelism" course in Bible College (it being the first semester, first year prerequesite for "Impersonal Evangelism.")

Get it together Fred--I'm about to spend a month with nurses who need to know what would happen if they were to be hit by a bus after my shift.

[emjaybee]

Fred,I remember those awful evangelizing trips too. Harassing people door to door--even when they were nice to me--just never felt right. I mean, what did I know about their walk with God or lack therof? I was 16, for cryin' out loud. I knew zip about bupkis.

Depending on what you're asking them now, I don't know if gotv work is quite as intrusive--it doesn't require pretending you understand the state of someone's soul, just their political leanings.

And dwight--well, if they get hit by a bus, they'll be in God's loving hands, whether they've said some magic words or not. Give God some credit, why doncha.

[Beth]

what did I know about their walk with God or lack therof?

This touches on exactly what I didn't like about those evangalizing visits from the other side of the door. Not just that they didn't didn't know anything about my spirituality, but that they didn't even seem to care. I was just their audience, someone to talk at.

I was once visiting a friend who was heavily into the hemp movement, when an evangilizing Christian showed up at the door. He started going on about the wonders of Jesus while my friend listened politely. When he finally paused to take a breath, my friend started going on about the wonders of hemp. The evangalist listened politely until my friend paused, then he started on again about the wonders of Jesus. It was obvious that neither of them was even listening to what the other was saying. They were only interested in their own spiel. I left after about 20 minutes, and for all I know they're still at it.

Nobody likes commercials, whether they appear on your tv or show up at your front door. If all you want to do is evangalize, whether about Jesus, or hemp, or Kerry, I'm not interested. But if you're willing to listen as well as talk, if you'll at least consider the possibility that you don't have all the answers, and treat me not as a project, but as a human being, well then, let's talk.

[in medias res]

would you post the source for the Annie Dillard quote about cold calling for Jesus? thanks. very much enjoying your commentary and passing lots of it around.

[James]

You might be interested to check out Steve Collins' writings on Church As Third Place.

http://www.btinternet.com/~smallritual/section5/thirdplace.html

[carla]

A couple of evangelizing stories:
1. Mother of a friend of a friend, about 25 years ago, answers the door early one AM, cigarette dangling, in a bathrobe, and, after the evangelizers start their spiel, says "We don't believe in god in this house" and slams the door in their faces. The friend of a friend apparently reported a look of horror and dismay on the evangelizers' faces.
2. Probably about 50 years ago, some evangelizers (don't know what sect) came knocking (not sure whose door, but my dad was involved), and were then drawn into a discussion that included my dad, who challenged them on a number of bible stories (Jonah, I believe, figured in this) and asked whether they believed this or that thing was literally true. This is a story told occasionally in my family (rarely, these days), and it was before I was born, so I don't know the details that well, but I suspect the doorknockers were more than a little taken aback to find someone who knew his Bible & didn't believe it, especially in my small town, especially 50 years ago.

I relate these stories because I actually feel bad for teenagers drawn into the evangelizing thing, whether they be mormons or crusaders or whomever, even as they annoy the $#*! out of me.