Glad to be Canadian: Like I Was Jesus

by Rachel Aviv

Okay, so the article clearly says that the Child Evangelism Fellowship is at work proselytizing to little kids in 158 countries, but I still felt that this article helped to add a little to my sense of geographical superiority.

Aviv spent time last summer with the young evangelists of the CEF, as they ran camp-like activities for children in poor Connecticut neighbourhoods, with the express purpose of 'saving' kids as young as six years old. They have a few tools, such as the EvangeCube, designed to help them in this purpose, and they have lengthy discussions about how to simplify the basic tenets of Christianity into statements consisting of single-syllable words.

Aviv questions, of course, whether or not the children have any real understanding of what is going on when they work through their ABC's (A: Admit you are a sinner; B: Believe that Jesus went on the cross and died for your sins; C: Choose to accept Him). The proof, as provided by missionary-free follow-up visits she conducted, is that the efforts are largely wasted, or at least, not as valued as the young missionaries seem to think.

What always amazes me about stories like this is how many people seem to be willing to dive into a project that effectively replaces a person's system of belief with another, because the volunteers assume they know better. I suppose this article makes me 'Glad to be Canadian' because it's a world view I almost automatically associate with Americans.