Meic pearse biography meaning

Zealots. Fanatics. Terrorists. Religion causes conflict, wars and hatred – it’s a common idea. So how can we remove this great stumbling block when talking about Jesus? This time on PEP Talk we chat about the relationship between war and religion, and what it means for evangelism.

Our Guest

Our guest is Meic Pearse, who taught church history and theology (to Andy Bannister!) at London School of Theology for 10 years and has over 25 years of experience working with the evangelical church in the Balkans. His work with student ministries and individual churches has covered Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and U.S. He is the author of Why the Rest Hates the West and Gods of War. He travels regularly between homes in Croatia and the USA.

Hello, Phil. I hear you’ve got to know this new fellow who has moved into your town lately, and I’ve been wondering what you think about him. He’s an immigrant, a missionary from a Muslim country, here to try to convert Americans to Islam. He certainly seems surprising, in some ways. He knows nothing about Christianity, or about what Christians believe. When someone asked him, he had no idea which country was on the other side of the United States’ northern border. And it was complete news to him that America had begun as a collection of British colonies, which rebelled against British rule and achieved independence in the eighteenth century. He doesn’t speak English, and is certainly taking his sweet time about learning it. But then, as he says (through an interpreter), some people just aren’t good at languages.

In fact, self-deprecation seems to be his long suit. He keeps saying what a dummy he is, how naïve etc.. Though I notice that, when you give him information that will be useful to him, he almost makes a point of forgetting it again right away, as though he didn’t want to be contaminated by it — as if naïveté were a treasured part of his self-image.

And then there’s the strange matter of American names. You can’t have failed to notice. As he explains, there is a custom in his country that all foreign names containing a simple ‘i’ sound have to be pronounced with ‘oo’. It’s not that the ‘i’ sound is difficult for him (there are plenty such names in his own country, for goodness’ sake); it’s just that they have a rule among themselves to pronounce all foreign names this way. So he calls Philadelphia ‘Fooladelphia’, and addresses you as ‘Fool’ — and, in the nicest, humblest possible way, he rather expects you to answer to it. And if you tackle him on this, he does his favorite ‘hurt feelings’ look, and says it’s the custom of his country, a part of his identity. And how could you try to take that away from him?

So what I want to know is this:  What do you

“It is commonly said that if rational argument is so seldom the cause of conviction, philosophical apologists must largely be wasting their shot. The premise is true, but the conclusion does not follow. For though argument does not create conviction, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.” (Austin Farrer)

In the early 1970s Don Richardson (1935-2018) was working as a missionary among the Sawi people of Irian Jaya in Indonesia. He had been very brave in going to live among these tribespeople in the first place, for they were ruthless in killing those they considered a threat. Despite this, he got to learn their language and culture admirably. But when he finally began to explain the gospel stories to them, he hit upon an unexpected snag. As he told them about how Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus, his audience all applauded. In their eyes, this made Judas, not Jesus, the hero!

The reason was this: when the Sawi made war on rival tribes, they would often pretend to make peace, only to lure their enemies into a trap, and then massacre them. The man who could achieve this feat was a hero in the eyes of his tribe. Betrayal of this kind was exactly what Judas had done. Richardson had to think the matter out again!

As he continued to study and talk with the Sawi, he realized that there was one way, in their culture, in which they could make a real peace with their enemies — an armistice that would truly bring conflict to an end. This was brought about by the two warring tribes exchanging a child: each would take a child from its mother and give it to the enemy tribe. Obviously, to give up one’s child entailed great pain and anguish — but it was ‘the only way’ to attain a real peace.

That was it. Richardson now saw what he had to explain to the Sawi. We huma