West Port Experiment

I’m beginning a new series of occasional posts on my ‘parish’ outreach efforts in R.I., mostly vignettes from door-to-door district visitation. If you would, please pray for these efforts. New England truly has ‘rocky soil’ spiritually – but we know that stones stand no chance before Jesus. More at ‘Reformed Parish Mission‘ page.

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Last Friday I was doing outreach in my neighborhood in Warwick, R.I. A number of doors remained closed, one after the other. Some days are busy, some are slow. Nearing the end of my time, I approached a house with a car in the driveway – plastered with secular, left-leaning bumper stickers. You know the type. Would this be a clash of two very different fundamentalists?

Not surprisingly, the fellow who came to the door fit the bill. He sported an armful of tats, his head shaved on the sides with a shock of purple hair flowing down, and a black shirt with pro-science imagery. We talked for a good while, his two children occasionally interrupting. He told me he was a science teacher in a middle school and was an atheist. A former Roman Catholic, he had given up on religion, though he didn’t tell me why.

John (not his real name) was rather polite. Kind of nice, for a strident atheist! After some discussion, I engaged him about whether there is any transcendent value or worth to human beings. Something that justifies our shared belief that we should treat them with dignity. We cut down trees for our benefit and harvest wheat for our consumption. Why wouldn’t we do that with humans? What makes some matter more valuable than other forms?

We eventually wrapped things up after I shared a verse with him summarizing the Gospel, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9). May the Fisher of men save one of Darwin’s footed fish!