The Greatest Cop-Out Ever

English: St Annes Nursing Home (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Suppose I wanted to do something bad, something with which I know a great many people will disagree. This thing I want to do will lead many people to conclude that I am a truly despicable person. Some will go so far as to call me evil. And to be honest, I'd probably reach the same conclusion about someone else if they were to do what I want to do. But this isn't about someone else wanting to do it; it is about me wanting to do it, and that makes it okay.

I want to go into nursing homes and bring people to Jesus. I want to prey upon the sick, the lonely, and the desperate. I'll be sure to keep a tally of how many I manage to convert, and this will provide an incredible boost to my self-image and my status within my evangelical fundamentalist church. I've been looking for a way to wrack up several of those magic Jesus points, and this will do the trick nicely.

I know this sounds awful, but you really can't criticize me. You see, I have the single greatest cop-out ever invented. Are you ready? Jesus! I'm only doing it for Jesus.

I really wish I was making this up, but I'm not. You can find the story at Religion News Service, and its a real stomach-turner. The kicker is that when the nursing home evangelists were asked about the ethics of trying to convert what amounts to a captive audience, including people who may be suffering from dementia, here's the answer:

To those who question their mission, Gonyon said the ministry answers to a higher power.

“We have no response to those who are critics other than obeying Jesus and the Great Commission to preach the gospel regardless of the physical condition of the hearer,” he said. “Eternity will answer their questions!”

Greatest cop-out ever.

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