This article was very relevant for me because I identify myself as a born-again Christian, but there was never one discrete moment when I was converted. For most of my life I was what the author describes as "Susceptible", passively listening to sermons, although not fully believing, until Christianity seemed like the one truth in my life. This article made me recount what my conversions story was, and how there are some constants among all conversions to Christianity.
The other reason I found this so interesting was because my Final project is a study on the techniques used by Churches to draw students into their communities. I found this article very relevant because the anthropologist attempting to study the fundamental Baptist Church was actually converted and has a unique perspective towards all of these things. For example he can recollect what specifically about the church and his interactions within it made him convert.
Additionally, he was able to recount some of the rhetorical movements that the Reverend he interacted with used: "equating his present listener with the listeners in his stories, defining the listeners as lost, defining the speaker as saved, transforming his narrative listener into speakers, exhorting his present listener to speak" (171). Because there is a nuanced approach to even the rhetoric that the Reverend uses, and there are various steps that are involved, it will be interesting to see if the people I interview have ever experienced these strategies and exploring how it affected them.
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