We are very grateful that part of our training equips us to be very honest on the street, so that if we really don’t know the answers to some questions, we can say that, but then ideally encourage the enquirer to ask his / her minister, or go on an Alpha course etc. Here are some of the questions we’ve been asked recently:

Some months ago we were patrolling along Union Street, when a Marine who was a medic
approached us and asked some deep questions about our faith and how we could believe in a God who would allow death and suffering to occur. He had served in Afghanistan and had cradled Afghan children in his arms and had to watch them die. In addition, he also had shot and killed Afghan armed insurgents who were about to shoot him.

He explained that he was at one time a Christian, but because of what he had witnessed he had lost his faith and was interested to know our views, We tried to explain to him that God knew about his experiences, and that in the Bible believers like David killed thousands of their enemies without affecting their salvation. This and other answers seemed to quieten him down and he said that he would like to talk to us again.

Two students approached and started to ask us questions. What began with You Christians) are against incest aren’t you, so how do you explain that according to the Bible we are all descended from Adam & Eve?, quickly developed into the realisation that here were two ladies who were definitely ‘seekers’! One had previously had a faith, but following the
death of a close friend in a car accident had ‘lost’ it – and was asking why does God let bad things happen? We explored God-given freewill, not God-dictated control (very carefully using the analogy of ‘who was driving the car – God or man? ). Towards the end of the 50 minute conversation she also wanted to know what Heaven and Hell are like.

Another marine asked us if he believed and shot a man who was going to kill him would he still go to Heaven? If the man I shot had been told he would go to Heaven if he was killed and Allah is the same god as God, would he also go to Heaven?

Tough, tough, tough!