Talking about God

09/08/13 17:58

This summer we had another group from Let’s Start Talking. They offered free conversation in English with native speakers. They were three women from Texas and their English was pretty good. Anyway… they set up private sessions with people for 45-50 minutes. Half the time is used on small talk and half the time they read from the LST workbook using the Gospel of Luke in simple English as a basis for further conversation. Many people are afraid when they hear the Bible is used. Several did not take part because of that.

So my question is: why are people so afraid of talking about God and the Bible. The questions were not theological but simple about what they think and what Luke wrote.

On the other hand Ramadan has just ended. Ramadan is the Islam month of fasting. Muslims have no fear to talk about God, especially at this time. My experience is that Muslims feel quite natural when talking about God and Islam.

So why the difference? I read an interview with a man from the Mid-East and he said that the difference between Europe and the Mid-East was that in the Mid-East God is openly talked about and sex is private; while in Europe sex is open and God is private.

What is even more strange is that in many churches among Christians we have a problem talking about spiritual things. Men will talk about sports and computers and cars but you can kill a conversation if you bring up the spiritual. So why is that?

So I guess if Christians are afraid to talk about the Bible and spiritual it should be of no surprise that non-believers are afraid too. But I think we should start talking about God a natural part of our lives.

Randy and Katy Smelser

Americans living in Germany but citizens of heaven

Talking about God