How best to evangelize to nonbelievers: Cultural persuasion in American and Chinese Indonesian evangelical Christian discourse on relational evangelism

ABSTRACT

In this analysis, I present a cross-cultural comparison of U.S. mainstream evangelical and Chinese Indonesian Evangelical Christian (CIEC) discourse on best ways to implement a popular evangelical Christian practice known as “relational evangelism.” My aim in conducting this comparison is two-fold: (a) to demonstrate how religion and ethnicity intersect in the communicative act of persuasion and (b) to unveil how these persuasive acts reflect differing cultural premises of personhood and relations. As each group attempts to persuade their members to share their faith with non-Christians in their lives, they reveal culture-specific limits of what counts as reasonable action.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious communication
• cultural persuasion
• evangelical
• cultural identity
• Chinese Indonesian

Notes on contributor

Sunny Lie (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts at Amherst) is Assistant Professor of Communication at California State Polytechnic University Pomona (Calpoly Pomona). Her research interests include culture and communication, and the relationship between religious communication and ethnic identity.