Holy Leaping Lutherans from St.Louis, Missouri, Batman!

Yesterday provided me with an interesting adventure. After Diplomacy class, I decided to head to a local churce to find a used or damaged copy of the New Testament for use in my Dead Sea Scrolls class (many of the writings in the Dead Sea Scrolls sound scarily similar to those of Paul, or Timothy, etc. and since I am a Jew and don't have any clue who these people are, I figured I should get a copy of the New Testament and have a clue). I didn't feel comfortable purchasing a copy of the New Testament (my brother had 5 or 6, but he was a biblical scholar and had use for them). What would I do with it when I was done with the semester? So I headed to Oviedo's St. Luke Lutheran Church. Whenever I go to the mall, I always see this church. It's a beautiful giant brick building in what was at one point a Slovak community. On the same plot of land, St. Luke's also has a small clinic, childcare center, and Senior center (pretty damn charitable it you ask me).

Anyways, I go into the church office and ask the girl at the desk if she might know if the church has any old, or damaged copies of the New Testament they might be willing to give me for use this semester. The girl says to go into the acutal church and she'll bring me out a copy (why I couldn't just wait outside is beyond me). The inside of the church was HUGE. Beautiful stained glass windows and wood pews. Very pretty. So about 2 minutes later, a young man (probably in his early 30's) walks in a sits down in the pew next to me and introduces himself as the youth pastor. I'm thinking to myself, "So that's how they are going to try and get me to convert! Sic the handsome youth pastor on me! Jesus Christ (literally)!."

The guy hands me a big, hardcover New Testament, a new one (which looks like it's never been touched), to which I say, "You don't have to give me a new one. I would have been happy with an old or damaged copy." He proceeds to say, "No! It's all yours! We love visitors of other faiths! Just promise us you'll do well in your course and come back and see us sometime." He hands me over to an office volunteer who proceeds to hand me every piece of literature ever written about the Lutheran Church. More than I probably ever wanted to know.

Anyways, I left with my New Testament. Jews, by tradition, are not supposed to enter other religion's houses of worship. Just one of those things. But in the past, the only churches I had ever been to were what I guess I would call "tourist churches." The National Cathedral in D.C. and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This was a church-church. And I felt kind of awkward in the way that I knew that behind their niceness was still a "We are here to save you and say we are sorry for killing 6 million of your fellow brethren back in Germany" kind of purpose. And I guess that's not just how I feel walking into a Lutheran church, but even on campus sometimes. About a year ago I was approached by a girl from Campus Crusade who pretty much flat out said she wanted to "save me." I don't want to be "saved"! Let me "save" myself. Considering I don't believe in an eternal barbecue pit known as hell, what good is it anyways?