WOW.
Thats what come to mind when i read this. WOW. How true this is of so many churches? We want people to be saved, but we don't explain the reality of salvation to them. Hughes's essay was very moving, and although written some time ago, applicable to present day.
The last sentence of the essay was disturbing and intriguing. Immediately I searched on the internet to see if he ever found Christ. Unfortunately I came across his poem, "Goodbye Christ". In this poem he tells Christ goodbye, he tells him that He has done enough damage and to just leave, we don't need Him anymore.
I wonder if Christ would have been presented to Him differently that night, how different his writing would have been. Maybe he would have written poetry about how segregation, slavery and war broke God's heart instead of telling Christ He had done enough damage, and just to leave. It is a shame Langston Hughes never discovered how much he and Christ had in common; they both hated the evils of this world, they both fought for a revolution and they both impact this world long after they were gone.
We have to be careful how we present Christ to others, one bad experience can ruin it all.
What a shame.
Jillian
3 comments:
I believe that a lot of Christians mistaken an emotional experience or a human decision making point to be salvation. I have heard so many terrible sermons and teachings that proclaim: "Come to the altar" or Say the sinner's prayer" and you'll get saved. People are so confused. Many hold a view that people humans have whatever it takes to initiate salvation. I don't believe this at all. I believe that humans are spiritually dead and must wait for God to create faith in a person. Then the person can make a choice to cooperate with that faith or not. People don't just decide to get saved. So many people are lied to and they don't experience certain things like they are told, and thus they stop believing in Jesus. People who actually have a twisted salvation message can actually lead people astray. Many people come to an altar have an emotional experience and then live like hell the rest of their lives. What is wrong with this picture. It's not about coming to an altar and saying the sinners prayer or even repenting, but being changed in nature...truly becoming a new creation.
I was not at all surprised by this essay. It is disappointing and yet a very true representation of many churches today. Revivals such as the one Langston experienced only indicate numbers and not saved souls. The thing that really surprised me was the ending though. The final paragraph displays Langston's conscience and how moved he was because he lied in church. For a boy going on thirteen years old, Langston seems to care quite a bit about the fact that he lied to so many people. This causes me to wonder along with Jillian that if the Gospel had been presented to him in another way, in ANY other way, I am convinced he would have seen Jesus. It also makes me wonder if this preacher had the blood of Langston Hughes on his hands because like Elijah said, he made the receiving of salvation into an intensely emotional experience. We understand the part of scripture that tells us to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, but we tend to forget that we also must BELIEVE in our hearts as well. This essay reminds me of my dissatisfaction with the world today and also the urgency of Christ's message.
This is a sad story. First he is misinformed or misunderstood from his aunt's description, and then he sat with a bunch of kids that were all expected to come forward. It just does not work that way! People come in their own (or God's) timing, and need to have the meaning of salvation thoroughly explained to them. He truely got a raw deal. :-(
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