Salvation - By Langston Hughes
Read the following essay and write your reader's response in the comment box below. Your response should be between 100 and 150 words.
Please include a word count.Remember to use the questions in the column to the right to help guide you.
http://www.spiritwatch.org/firelangsave.htm
This blog is due TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11th.
I think this text is very informative and thought provoking. It really shows how people can be pressured into things that they are clearly not ready to do. By not getting up and being saved Langston Hughes was trying to say that he wasn't ready for this, but no one cared. He says in the text that he was only twelve years old. Children of this age are still very immature and easily swayed in to doing what others tell them is the right thing to do. Everyone was telling him what he should feel, but he couldn't understand why he wasn't feeling those feelings. When the boy was not struck down for lying, Langston decided that he could just lie too, and he felt awful about it. He felt like everything he had been taught had been a lie. He was lost and confused, and was only twelve. Word count: 149
ReplyDeleteIn Salvation it just proves that some people accept Christ just so they looked good on the out side but really they aren’t. However, I hate it when people try to get you to have Jesus in your life, you can’t just accept and forget. When you are ready that is when you will finally see Jesus and accept him your heart. Not having people all around telling you to when you’re not ready. Christ works in so many ways and he knows when you are ready he will find you. But when you don’t he still tries to help you find the right way because he loves everyone. word count-109
ReplyDeleteThe way Langston Hughes feels about Jesus, is what everyone who belongs to church has felt at one moment in time in his or her life. Hughes had the whole entire church trying to persuade him to see Jesus and come to him. He sat there because he did not want to lie and say he had seen something he really did not see. After awhile he just stood up, because he was scared of what was going to happen to him if he did not stand and say he has come to Jesus. This happens with everyone, they do things just because they do not want to be the odd one out. Everyone in the world, will do anything they can to just fit in. Even if they do not believe in what they are doing at all, that is why Hughes did what he did in the story. (WC-150)
ReplyDeleteIn this article I believe that this kid was super excited for this day when they had their children revival. He was so excited to see Jesus a person who has been a figure in his life and had wanted to see him in person for forever. He thinks he should feel Jesus during this revival but in reality he has been seeing him since he was born. Not through his eyes but through feelings and church. I think that it was awesome that the whole crowd erupted as he stood. This shows how much they care about the youth in there church.
ReplyDeleteWC(103)
ReplyDeleteIn this piece the author tells of a young boy who is trying to become a member of the church. He will have to be saved by Christ and will know when Christ calls out to him. When the other kids walk to be saved aka go up to the front he is the last to remain seated for he has not heard or recieved anything from Christ. He waits and waits and still no sign. He eventually lies and claims he has been saved but regrets this moment dearly for he lied not only to his aunt but to the church as well. I feel that he should remain patient and accept that he has not heard Jesus call out to him for when the time is right Christ will call. Lying is never an option.
ReplyDeleteWords:137
I think that it was wrong for both Langston Hughes and the other boy sitting on the bench to stand up and say that they saw Jesus and were converted when they really did not. They should have waited until they were fully ready. Sometimes god makes us wait for things and that is what he was doing to both of these boys. He was testing them and they both failed. He lied so he wouldn't feel like an outcast in front of the entire congregation of the church. This shows how worldly peer pressure can affect your decisions and make you do things you are not ready for. (Word Count: 111)
ReplyDeleteI personally have no religious views. I am an agnostic so unfortunately I cannot sympathize with Huhges. However, I do know the pressure that people put on accepting Jesus Christ. I used to constantly have people try and convert me to Christianity once they heard that I had no religion. Hughes was faced with a difficult choice. He was in a room full of friends and family who all wanted him to take Jesus. It makes me question if they were truly interested in the children finding god or if they wanted the show. How many more of those children truly took Jesus? Twelve years old is still a young age to comprehend the complexities of religion and many probably did it because they were pressured to. Word Count - 127
ReplyDeleteIn the text “Salvation”, Langston shows how much pressure most churches put on their members, especially the young ones. We just read an article on how impressionable the young mind is, and this drives the point home. As someone who shares in an atheistic view, I find this horrible. Langston was so distraught with guilt that he could not stop crying because he felt as if he had failed every member of the church. This shows how insensitive the church was to the experience, and how upset the church would have been if Langston had not “been saved.” I wouldn’t be surprised if a large number of members of any given church have lied and said they have been saved in order to keep up their social image. (129)
ReplyDeleteI feel like Langston should have waited for the time to be right before accepting Christ. He is feeling nothing different than many many other children. I’m sure almost every kid that goes to church on a regular basis has been pressured into accepting Christ. But, you can’t accept him when everybody else is ready for you too, you accept him when you are ready too. When you are ready and aren’t under pressure, that is when you do. He shouldn’t have lied about seeing him but he knows he did wrong and I’m sure he learned from it. He isn’t the only one that has done that, and he won’t be the last one.
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 115
In this passage, the author presents his side of a situation that happens in one way or another for many people. Many people at one time or another have to choose to go to God: by repenting, baptizing, or picking a religion that makes them closer to God. In this passage, the author went to be saved by God only out of self-preservation. The author was trying to preserve his ideals in the beginning, by not going with all the other children when they "saw God", in the end however he wanted to preserve his reputation. He preserved his reputation by saying he saw God and not standing alone when he appeared to be the only one not going to be "saved" by God.
ReplyDeleteWord count: 125
I follow a similar route as Hughes. I am merely confused. I have gone to church an abundance of times. I basically follow what everyone else does. I try to believe what people tell me to believe. Hughes lived between 1902-1967. Throughout that generation, science and new beliefs have progressed. During Hughes time I can imagine that all the new science and creations of planets and organisms made it hard to believe in some religion. In my generation, even more has been learned, creating more disbelief against some religion. I think it is sad that people are merging away from religion because religion is what everyone is told to believe. Now it seems that a vast majority of people have no religion. It’s crazy how science has changed people’s views. I don’t know what to believe. (136)
ReplyDeleteI feel like Langston did the thing that most kids his age would have done in that situation and I have sympathy for him because of that. I mean I don't believe anyone should lie, especially in a church, but everyone does it whether they admit it or not. I blame the other people more than I blame him though because he was put on the spot and was under an immense amount of pressure. But I think that he should have waited until he truly accepted Christ before saying he did, even if it meant having people look down on you. What you think about yourself is way more important than what others think about you.
ReplyDeleteWC: 117