I think I got more hotheaded than I should have been with our friend Tom the evangelist — not that he’s right.

I’m a Christian. So I believe when you die, you face consequences — heaven and hell. There’s a good chance hell is a dangerous place, so I don’t want people I care about (everyone) to go there.

The first thing I thought of when I saw Tom was his bad reputation on campus. Tom came to an intellectual campus with emotional arguments to save people. But I have a problem with his method. He doesn’t have much credibility with non-Christians on campus, so I’m afraid his attitude would make people want to “go to hell.”

Second, he’s always talking doctrine and dogma, things that have nothing to do with salvation, heaven and hell. So when I saw him debating various applications of Christianity, like women in the church (all at the same time), I got irritated. He wasn’t debating points that are fundamental to Christianity, he was debating sideline, controversial points whose interpretations tend to be culturally influenced. So I started to gripe at him.

If you were there, you saw me reading the chapter of the Bible he was interpreting and trying to get him to see this is not a woman’s only job. But I forgot a few things. For one, he values his daughter’s work, which is singing for God — that isn’t motherhood. For another, he values motherhood as equivalent to being a pastor — a very holy and difficult job. As my best friend said when I told her that, “That’s cool in its own right.” When I talked to him about whether my music ministry at my church would be something valuable to him, he agreed. And if I do have a good point to argue, I’d rather have a man who seems credible to argue the point.

I just hope people don’t miss the whole point — that if there is a God, it might be pretty important, and no matter what we argue, if we’re wrong, we’re wrong.

Elizabeth DeVilder

Sophomore

Psychology