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Flies on The Wall

Posted on September 17th, 2010 by Staks

I get into a lot of conversations with a lot of fundamentalist believers. Even though I love these conversations it sometimes seems like I am having a conversation with a wall. We have all had these types of conversations. But sometimes we forget that there might be flies on that wall and they might benefit from the conversation too.

I have a few really good examples of this. The most recent was at my 9/11 Birthday barbecue. I was having a conversation with my Christian friend and became very much aware that there were other Christians who were more mainstream listening to our conversation. At some point, I switched my focus. While I was still conversing with my Christian friend who takes the Bible very seriously, I was steering the conversation to better benefit those listening to us rather than to the person I was conversing with.

Another great example of this was a few months ago when the Jehovah’s Witnesses came to my door. After conversing with two of the younger women, an older woman came in and we were debating a bit. The thing was that I focused my conversation with the older woman to appeal more to our audience (the younger women).

Both of those fly on the wall conversations I was aware of and played into, but there are many instances in which we might not be aware of who else is listening to our conversations with the religious or who else is reading an online message board. So even if you think you are talking to a wall, don’t forget about the flies.