From the Pit to the Pew: Evangelicals Seek Converts

They stand in “the pit,” handing out flyers that explain exactly why everyone who doesn’t convert is going to hell. Effective message? Just down the steps, the garbage is full of leaflets.

But does that mean the missionary spirit is dead at Harvard?

“There is definitely something to be said for possessing belief in a religion, and if you believe that it’s true in a universal sense it is definitely understandable that you would want to share that with everyone,” says Emily L. Cox ’07, the community officer for Christian Impact. “I just don’t think leafleting is the most effective way to share beliefs, especially Christianity.”

Indeed, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Minister in Memorial Church Peter J. Gomes thinks that leafleting isn’t the way into people’s hearts. “Most students don’t discover religion through the history of the school, or the churches in the square,” he says. “They discover it either through other students or in the course of their studies.”

Jeffrey Kwong ’09, the chair of the Freshman Committee of the Catholic Students Association (CSA), writes in an e-mail that “I believe we are called to be evangelicals. . . I believe there is a duty to unite with separated brethren in Christ and bring them within the Church.” But Sarah M. Kinsella ’07, the CSA’s Vice President of Community Development, stresses that Catholics don’t claim to have all the answers. “I would never claim to judge whether anyone is going to heaven or not,” she says. “God’s business is God’s business.”