Social Experiment

I had some interesting experiences during my quick trip to Seattle this weekend. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I do really like Seattle and hope to return and spend a bit more time exploring.

I’d like to share a couple of the more…let’s just call them socially intriguing experiences. Both of these experiences happened on Sunday. The first took place outside in a sort of public square area; I believe it is referred to as the “retail core.” We were sitting outside, passing some time until we had to make our way to the airport. About ten minutes after we sat down 5 people showed up and set up an easel with a large piece of paper that had some sort of markings that couldn’t really be distinguished as much of anything. These five people consisted of a 40 to 50 year old mustached man, three late teenage boys, and another boy who couldn’t have been more than 11 years of age. All of them wore suits. (I suppose it’s not an important detail, but the suits were in fairly rough shape.)

As I got a closer look I became convinced that I had seen the older gentleman and the youngest on Dateline or some news magazine. I seem to recall the story being about this young child who goes around preaching about the need for humans to be saved by Christ. Well, a few minutes went by and the preaching began. The four boys took turns standing on “stage” and, from what I could tell, shared their story of becoming saved and the importance of it. The resulting message: We will go to hell if not saved by Christ.

My thoughts during all of this, “I have a front row seat to a great social experiment!” I was enthralled with watching the reactions of the passersby. Hundreds passed, none stopped. Many reacted with nervous laughter, others rolled their eyes in annoyance.

There was a part of me that wondered how this man got these young guys to do this. I was uncomfortable with that piece of it; I wanted to some context as to who they were. Were these young, impressionable boys being used by this man, or perhaps a larger organization, to spread their propaganda? Were they truly speaking from the heart, had they been moved and saved by Christ? Or were both true? The possibilities are almost limitless, I suppose.

Well, that was one of the little interesting experiences I had in Seattle. I’m constantly fascinated with the life stories of people, for some reason this one really intrigued me. Perhaps because there is so much mystery surrounding the whole thing.

Oh, it’s time for the wonderful in-flight meal. More later.