speakers circle

I got out of class early today and had 30 minutes to kill until my next class. Given that both classes are in the arts and sciences building I decided to see if there were any crazies in speakers circle. Of course there was one, so despite my natural hesitation to sit down and listen to a bible beater I figured it would be a good learning experience. And it was a learning experience but not necessarily a good one. Unfortunately it wasn't brother jed or some of the other ones who yell that all college students are going to hell. This guy seemed more subdued. He was wearing a lab coat (I don't know why) and sitting in a fold up chair. I sat on a front row, or circle rather, step and listened to the guy. He was crazy in a somewhat subtle way because he wasn't like the others who just stand there and yell. I honestly think he drove me crazier than the others because for one thing all his facts about christianity/the church/the bible were completely wrong. Granted, it's obvious that he is a Christian but it's also obvious that he has never sat by himself and thought of the fundamentals that give Christianity a sound base. Secondly he was a horrible arguer/defender. When kids would argue with him he would always go back to the same two or three points that made no sense. When I started listening he had already been there for a bit so I don't know exactly what his reasoning was in this, but he would always revert to charity and said something along the lines of the fact that non christians can't do charity. I was just as confused as you are now. I guess the thing that bothered me the most was that he was saying things that were completely false. The loud crazies are always yelling that everyone is going to go to hell if they don't believe, and although yelling at college kids is not right the way to state this fact, it is infact true. When this guy was trying to defend christianity he said things that were blatently untrue.
Of all the untrue things he said there was one thing in particular that made me want to walk up to him and smack him in the face. He said that God created stuff like having a headache, getting sick, and just feeling physical pain. I was so close to yelling out that what he said was false but I'm not comfortable enough with my own debating skills to do it. The bible clearly says that everything God creates is good. He didn't create suffering, it's a result of the fall.
I guess what I learned more than anything from listening to this guy miss represent Christianity is to look at my own belief. I want to go back to the fundamentals and make sure I know fully why I believe what I believe it. I want to be able to defend/explain my faith to people. There were so many kids challenging what the guy had to say. In my mind I was answering them and to be honest with you even though I had answers for most of them. I realized that I haven't looked into my own faith deep enough to be able to explain Christianity for what it truely is. Aside from now wanting to understand God better than before I learned patience. Patience when dealing with people like the guy in speakers circle. If I had time I would have loved to talk to him one on one outside of the hostility of speakers circle. Who knows maybe one of these days I'll set aside time to talk to one of the crazies face to face and see why they are the way that they are.