For Christian missionaries, the 10/40 Window is the biggest target for their outreaches. The 10/40 Window stretches from the 10th to the 40th parallel, meaning it covers Spain, most of the Muslim world and a splotch of Asia. Within this area, most of the population has not heard of Christ, making them ripe for the picking.
The second biggest target tends to be secular Europe. You hear about it all the time. Thousands of dollars each year are raised towards preaching the Gospel in countries like Sweden, where upwards of 70 percent of the population hasn’t even heard of Christ.
These both sound like noble pursuits but in doing so, you are missing one of the biggest populations of non-Christians. These people are self-identifying and numerous. College campuses are littered with their kind, trudging about their lives, unaware of the fearlessness that the prospect of eternal life after death will give them. No longer will you fear crossing the street once you accept Jesus.
Known as fence-sitters, cowards and the confused, they prefer a more neutral title: Agnostics.
These are the ones we should be trying to win over to the flock. Atheists will never surrender — too confident in the power of science and other witchcraft to notice the one-way ticket to Hell tucked in their pockets. They are truly gone, so let’s forget them and concentrate on the ones we can still reach: the ones who have yet to commit.
Agnostics are ripe, and this is where Agnostics Anonymous comes in. Or, Out with Doubt, as that is a much better name. Doubt is the absence of certainty. Remove doubt, add certainty, and you have stability, and who doesn’t want a little stability in their lives? Stability that only Jesus’s love can bring, or as we like to call it, “The Good News.”
Like all missionaries, we use holy language to describe what we do. We do not do “Missionary Work”. Not anymore. Currently, we “Spread the Good News,” which sounds a lot more altruistic than “Missionary Work” or simply “Converting.”
“Convert” is an ugly, impersonal and scientific verb. You convert measurement units. You do not convert people. Frankly, a person is much more than a measurement unit. They are autonomous, free-thinking beings who deserve to be molded into whatever we desire, so no, you do not “convert” anyone.
You “Spread the Good News” so “The Lost” can make “The Choice to Accept Jesus.”
But on a personal note, I don’t care much for that wording. Isn’t “good” a subjective quality? Should it not be up to me to decide whether this “News” that is being “Shared” is good or not, in relation to my life? What is good for you might be bad for me, and I imagine there exist certain people who would decide that “The Good News” you’re “Sharing” is detrimental to their way of life.
Some people like their autonomy, it seems. The sheep. The poor, stray sheep.
Back to Out with Doubt. You may run into trouble with atheists. Not all agnostics are potential Believers. We suspect that most agnostics are in fact atheists too afraid to admit their Satanic leanings. In this case, after hearing “The Good News,” they will not stray from the flock. They’re probably not even aware that something exists outside of their flock, so content in their own beliefs that they dismiss alternative possibilities (like Intelligent Design) without so much as a huff of consideration. The sheep. The poor, stray sheep. And unfortunately they will remain stray. It’s best to “Share the Good News,” leave (lest they tempt you with their trickery), and leave the rest up to The Lord.
It is imperative to understand that many agnostics fear death and the uncertainties surrounding it.
How will Out with Doubt tackle this issue?
Let us begin with the word “afterlife.” Bad. Terrible, in fact. What comes after life? Death. Can someone be alive if they’re dead? No. So can someone continue living “after life”? No. Therefore the word “afterlife” is completely meaningless unless it refers to death. But not life. You cannot say “Live in the afterlife.” It does not work.
“Cheating” might be one way to describe it, but we need a more solid definition and, here at Out with Doubt, we have done just that.
Continuation of Life. Use this term and your hook is complete. “Only by accepting The Good News that we are Sharing can you experience a Continuation of Life in which at an unknown date and time you will be transported to an eternal paradise where you will live happily ever after with fun Believers like us.”
That’s a wrap. With these tools in hand, Out with Doubt will succeed in reining in the huge agnostic demographic that has thus far eluded our clutches.
— Travis Lee is a senior in French. He can be reached at [email protected].
