Are you a good person?
Yesterday a co-worker showed me a business card that was left on the retail floor of the store we work at. It was yellow in color with plain black text, obviously printed at home and contained a curious question, Are you a good person? The card also had a character of a man’s head on it wearing a bow tie and a link to The Good Person Test.
I’m all for guerilla marketing, but leaving a business card like this in a retail store is pretty tacky, from what I’ve been told, this has happened several times. Intrigued by it, I fell into the trap and went to the website.
The website starts off fairly harmless and asks questions that you answer. If you are honest, you’ll start to see some really nice bible quotes to your yes or no answers. Half way through the test, the website is telling me,
By your own admission and the standard of God’s law, the Ten Commandments, you are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, murderous, adulterer at heart.
And you have to face God on judgment day!
Wow. OK, clearly I am dealing with some bible toting person who is out to set the record straight on what he or she feels is the black and white issues of life. A half dozen more questions into the test and what seems to be endless quoting of the bible, I am taken to a page for questions and comments as well as a link to a bible study coarse which goes to a local Baptist church. This seems pretty out there for a church to back this sort of site, especially since there is no other advertising of anything church related on it, with the exception of what appears to be a church / god movie press release.
More troublesome, there is no solid contact information other then a form to fill out. No email address, phone number or name associated with the site. Being the clever people my co-worker and I are, we looked up the whois information on the site. If you are as interested as we were to who runs the site, you can find out here.
I’m not a religious person, being American I have that choice to make, on my own. Being a grown man in my late 20’s I have had more than enough opportunity to look into several forms of religion and have chose none, as a fellow American, I expect others to respect that choice. Likewise, I respect anyone who has chosen a religion that they feel suits their life, makes them feel complete or gives them the hope that they need. Do not however think that you have the right to force your choices, morals or opinions down my throat, our founding fathers fought for the right to believe in what they wanted to, I respect and honor that. While I do enjoy casual debate about God, religion and other similar subjects among close friends, it is not something I will accept or respect from a total stranger, much less one hiding behind a website that is trying to judge me.
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Comments
Trish
Nice job!!
christy
amen.
Brickballoon
I noticed your blog because of your comments about the Good Person Test. I have to agree that leaving a card on the floor of a store is not necessarily a good idea because that is littering. However, other than that may I ask a question?
Imagine you happen to be walking in a city early on a Sunday morning. There’s not much going on and there is just about no traffic. A new high rise is under construction and as you look at the construction site you notice a number of trucks that have the words “Acme Elevator Testing Co.” on them. The building is mostly just a steel structure, the walls have not been put on and you can see the elevator shaft with the elvator at the top. Just as you look the elevator starts down… this must be part of the test.
But then you notice two small children playing in the sand at the bottom of the elvator shaft. A quick glance around reveals no adults around. The kids are alone and completely oblivious to the danger they are in.
What do you do?
Do you ignore what you see? After all they aren’t your kids. And they are having a good time. You wouldn’t want to interrupt their good time. And it’s really none of your business.
OR… would you run over yelling, “Get out of there. You are in danger!!!” and pull the kids away from the elevator shaft?
This is what they people who left the tract were trying to do. They are trying to warn people about the mortal danger they are facing. It is a very loving thing to do. Yes, maybe they could have done a better job, but at least they spoke up and tried to provide a warning.
There is another version of the Good Peson Test at http://www.911christ.com. This one is plainly put online by Mission to America, an organization that is not related to any church. As with the one you saw, the purpose is not to recruit members for a church. The purpose is to warn you about what you face.
Mike Panic
Brickballoon, Thank you for the response and nice little story you shared. You are clearly missing the point of the original article and your argument that they were trying to warn me of mortal danger is not valid in my eyes. Why would they 1) assume that I was not already a child of God and 2) not take the time to talk to me directly, but rather try to slip something by me. That is sneaky and I don’t like sneaky people.
Your choice of words is also really nice, It is a very loving thing to do. Then again, why not take the time to get to know me to find out what I’m all about. My family and friends love me, they know me, how can you or anyone else do a loving thing for me by not even taking the time to talk to me face to face, rather you leave a calling card in a place of business.
Let’s explore this a bit further. In some cultures, when a wild animal is killed, the heart is given, still beating to the person who most deserves it during the hunt, this is a sign of respect. What if I showed up at your doorstep with a bleeding heart?
In some cultures, an eye for an eye is a very real way of life. Since someone littered on me, do I now have the right to litter on them? Can I take a shit in your living room and justify it by saying it was a loving thing to do, because that is how my family and friends show each other love?
For those wondering, missiontoamerica.org’s contact info can be found here; it’s a warm and fuzzy sight about Christ and all that good stuff. You do realize that more than half of the world’s population believes that Christ was only a profit, don’t you?
Since you were nice enough to fill out the URL portion of the comments, I see you also represent or support mtainfo.com, those interested can see the contact information here.
Since you also linked to 911christ.com, those wanting information can find it here. It appears to be another site intended on bringing awareness through guilt, something I’ve noticed Christians doing for sometime now. Yay.
What annoys me, and perhaps what you didn’t grasp in the original article, was the door knocking, either covertly or out in the open, that invades my space and my personal life. I’m not pushing my thoughts and beliefs down your throat or asking you to take any test to see how you fit into my ideal world, don’t do it to me. By all means, run your website, you have a great layout and tons of content, but don’t proactively go out soliciting other people with slight of hand in order to get awareness. There are many more legitimate ways to run a business, and let’s face it, churches are businesses. Everyone who works for them makes money, in the end, the more people that come, the more money that is made, the more you have to spend on pamphlets and gas to drive to my house and try to tell me that I’m going to hell for not bringing Jesus into my life.
As an American, I have the choice. That means I can choose, at my own free will what I will and won’t follow. You and your followers have every right to advertise, proclaim and announce what it is you believe in and I will not only respect that, I will fight for your rights to stand on a soap box and scream it. That said, you must also be willing to understand and respect my privacy, my rights to not have to deal with solicitors and not wanting to take tests in order to have my eyes opened up to what you think reality is.
You must also respect my right to write these types of opinionated articles and rebuttals. I honestly hope you will read this and we can continue on with this discussion, here.
christy
well said, mike. brickballon, do you really think we need some warning? who are you to tell me that i am a good person or not? do you know god personally? how do you know what she/he/it thinks of me? i personally do not follow any religion, it seems to just cause problems. i do not force my beliefs on anyone & would appreciate if the “bible followers” would not either.
Adrienne
Personally, I live my life according to the principles of karma. I don’t question what people do, I only know if I myself would act in the same way or not. Of course, I judge at times, but mostly due to a lack of understanding of the actions of others (e.g. why murder someone? why cheat on your husband?). But this is irrelevant to the issues at hand.
That being said, those who choose not to believe in organized religion commit the same crimes as “bible thumpers” by questioning the systems and actions of those who do believe.
The war between believers and atheists can be (note: I didn’t say “is”… it can be) equally illogical and vitriolic on both sides. I find the best way to deal with the entire religion debate is to disengage, because, along with any other ethos that does not involve irrefutable fact, it is nearly impossible to convince another to abandon their beliefs. That being said, I have no desire to force my system on others, nor do I have the desire to have other beliefs forced on me. Maybe one would consider it too passive, but I choose to stay out of it because seldom does one find a resolution in said arguments.
Mike, the point of your article was well-stated (although you need to spell check your comments, haha
). Brickballoon, thank you for positing your comment in an eloquent manner. Christy, I think you might be overstating the issue – no one “forced” their beliefs on Mike (he could have chosen to say “fuck it” and leave the card be). Yes, it was guerilla marketing, but it’s no different than the “Now What?” campaign or shit that Nike does on TV or, fuck, the way the so-called “War on Terror” is presented. This type of advertising intrusion happens daily, but because most of the intrusions involve matters of economics and commerce and not a system of religious beliefs, we are not offended. However… isn’t it equally offensive that companies think they can tell us what’s cool to wear or listen to? It’s not buying into a belief system, but these things still serve to stratify and divide us as a society and can be equally detrimental to reaching a common understanding as people.
Now if everyone would just live and let live, we’ll be just fine. Oh, and it’s my birthday, woo hoo!!
Lauren
As much as I agree with all of this issues involving the freedom of speech they are almost besides the point. There is something I would like Brickballoon to consider, should he/she read these comments. The Bible is believed to be the word of God, yes, but it was written by people. Contained therein are terrible, violent things that put to shame the accusations you make about people who do not believe in the bible (warning them of the danger they are in by not believing). Basically, a person of “true” faith, one who adheres strictly to the bible (or Torah, or Koran in this case) is by nature a violent and hateful person capable of heinous crimes justified by his or her “true” faith. I realize a number of people admit that these violent “fundamentalists” are often said to not be “true” Christians. How is the truth determined in matters of faith? By what process do you decide which parts of the text are currently accurate? I argue to you sir that your faith, however well intended is providing the breeding ground for a violent hateful culture far worse than the one you envision without your God and your Bible. If you truly want to save the world, denounce your religion and your God and listen to the voice of reason in your head. If there is a God it his gift of critical thinking that will be your salvation and it would do us all good if you decided to use it.
Mike Panic
Well put Lauren. I think the original point of this article wasn’t so much about what is and is not right, but about pushing those beliefs onto others. Brickballoon skipped right past the issue that was at hand with his / her comment, leaving a card on the floor of a store is not necessarily a good idea and has us all spinning now on the whole religion aspect, good debate, not the point of this article.
kenny p
I believe that the most important lesson in all of this is that God does the judging, not us. Anyone who judges another is playing God themselves, therefore blasphemizing the whole thing and will probably end up in hell. I’m just kidding about the hell part. Maybe. I don’t know that it is a bad thing to leave things like this around that refer one to delve deeper into their understanding of oneself. Mike P’s point of leaving it in a place of business: if there is a no-solicitation rule in place, then there is a violation of business conduct and ethics. If not, then whoever left it is just a judgmental sheep.
I feel like a lot of people get upset when asked to face “themselves” through religious means. I think this is mostly due to the traditional-Christian (and other) methods of using guilt and power to control the masses. True spirituality is something that completely trancends the ego and most practicing “Christians” do not understand that the judging is to be left for God. One may state: “Only God can judge me,” but in the same breathe that person will bash ones who choose not to listen to an hour of hipocritical fairy tales every Sunday.
The point of Religion is to celebrate God with love, not to fight over God with judgment and control. Man’s fear and greed has corrupt religion to a superficial charade of wafers, juice, reindeer and Cadbury cream eggs. These are all fun and delicious traditions, especially the reindeer, but the point is love.
For thousands of years the human race has been fighting over religion, and look at us today. Isn’t it time we started loving over religion?