Every time my wife and I drive pass the Holy Spirit Thrift Shop in Gulf Shores, Alabama, one of us cracks a stupid joke. Buy one Holy Spirit get the second half off! Tonight before publicly mocking the poorly named store, I decided to find out what actually happens inside. Sixty seconds later my perspective was enlightened a bit. I discovered it's a ministry that provides necessary clothing and household items for people in need at a very low price. Whaddya know... it actually looks to be a worthy ministry. A blog post that was originally intended to be a mocking of Christian marketing strategies is now a lesson about ignorance.
It's fine if you want to disagree with or insult an idea, but make sure you're actually mocking the idea itself rather than your own distortion of the idea. It's okay if you don't agree with evolution, but the uninformed remark, "If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" only shows your ignorance. If you want to reject Christianity, that's your choice. But first let me tell you what we actually believe before you waste your time arguing your case against a straw-man you've constructed based on a few encounters with Christians or a misguided quote from Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens.
Tonight I took a few minutes to look into the unfortunately named Holy Spirit Thrift Shop. I may still get a laugh out of the name, but now that I know what's actually happening there I'll have a new appreciation for the store the next time I drive by.
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