Setting up Shop in the Marketplace of Academia #1

Here's a video of the Lutheran campus pastor at UCLA.

Two to four times a week, he'll set up a table on the UCLA campus with a sign attached to it which says, "Religion is for the weak."  I hope to not misrepresent his approach, but I believe his point with this intro to a conversation is to say that people who are religious acknowledge that they are facing death and their religion is an acknowledgment of a need for a "good" ending after this life besides just death and non-existence.

The breakdown however is that all religions besides Christianity are not free.  In Christianity, salvation is free for us, because Jesus has paid the price and fulfilled God's righteous requirements on our behalf.  Other religions put work on the individual to reach the next "level", rather it be observing the law in Judaism, following the eightfold path in Buddhism, practicing some form of yoga in Hinduism, obeying the five pillars of Islam, or whatever a religion "requires" of its adherents to do.

His goal is always to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  With a lead in such as "Religion is for the weak," Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and other religious adherents generally approach him wanting to defend their religion.  The statement is not, "Religion is for the weak-minded," it's just "Religion is for the weak."  Also some atheists or agnostics approach him because of this sign wanting to know more and I guess they are shocked to find out that he's a Christian who is admitting that he is weak and that he needs God, and that in fact we're all going to die and that we all need Jesus as our Savior.

Here is a sample conversation that he has on Youtube:



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