Dealing with a problem you didn't know you had

Simon Robinson's latest on poor church advertising has taken me back to a visit to London last summer.

A Draytonesque character in an anorak was shouting at people in Oxford St, as they do. And he pushed a flyer in my hand. It was, as often, full of purple print and King James quotations. And in the middle of the verbiage were, referring to Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection and the redemptive benefits thereof* the words "and having dealt with the sin problem..."

"The sin problem." A problem with a theological term most people don't understand or know what it is. You may think your life lacks meaning - you may think you don't always live up to the aims you set yourself - you may wonder sometimes why you're never really happy with the things you achieve. And in all that, unless you have a certain amount of Christian education or indoctrination, you're never going to say to yourself "oo I seem to have a sin problem". And I'm not saying everyone is even like that - there are no doubt out there happy, contented, fulfilled atheists who never knew they had any kind of problem apart from the fact that their happy, contented and fulfilled lives will end one day. And given that such atheists will generally be left-brained, optimistic sorts, they've probably resolved themselves to that as well. How relieved must someone who has no concept of sin be, to discover that "the sin problem" has been dealt with? Not very relieved at all. It's a bit like when Radion brought out its new powder to stop sweaty smells when ironing. Didn't know that I had any such problem. Not least because I let the Pilgrims do the ironing - it's good for their souls.

In fact the only kind of people that might be drawn to a leaflet setting out the solution to the "sin problem" would be.. erm... Christians.In other words, my fundamentalist friend was handing out leaflets designed to appeal to people who had, to some degree or another, Christian faith already. I don't suppose he realised, when he set out for Oxford St that day, that he was targeting Christians with his evangelistic mission. But sure enough he was. After all, nobody else would have understood his leaflet.

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* wording with ironic intent