Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Getting new voters in the Right camp
Just finished reading Hugh Hewitt's book. I enjoyed it and agreed with most of it. At the same time, I was reading “Going Public with your Faith” by Peel and Larimore. The similarities between the evangelism process and the political conversion process are phenomenal. You might enjoy their book.
They use an agricultural metaphor—prepare the soil, plant, harvest, then multiply. You have to build trusting relationships first in both processes, otherwise why would people listen to you? Then there is the intellectual conversion, and finally an emotional leap of commitment. That emotional leap is probably just as difficult for going from Democrat to Republican as from Atheist to Christian—it requires totally realigning your whole view of yourself, your friends, and the world. Your exhortations to be gentle with people as they make the change compare to Bill and Walt’s encouragement to “not harden the soil” so eventually you or someone else can make the sale.
They use an agricultural metaphor—prepare the soil, plant, harvest, then multiply. You have to build trusting relationships first in both processes, otherwise why would people listen to you? Then there is the intellectual conversion, and finally an emotional leap of commitment. That emotional leap is probably just as difficult for going from Democrat to Republican as from Atheist to Christian—it requires totally realigning your whole view of yourself, your friends, and the world. Your exhortations to be gentle with people as they make the change compare to Bill and Walt’s encouragement to “not harden the soil” so eventually you or someone else can make the sale.
# posted by Unknown @ 2:35 PM 
