Savation

Savation

In the essay, "Salvation," a brief two page account of an experience that took place when Langston Hughes was only twelve years old, he shows what can happen when adults don't say what they mean, and the result that often comes from attempting to force people into choosing what we feel is best for them.
    One night near the end of a weeks’ long church revival, the children are invited to be born again. Langston is told to look for Jesus, with descriptions such as seeing "light" used as indicators that Christ has come to save his soul. But Langston sees no such light and does not "see and hear and feel" Jesus in his soul, as he was told he would. After a long night of debating with himself on what to do (under the heated pressure of an entire church pleading for his salvation), he chooses to accept Jesus...without actually feeling any real spiritual awakening in his heart. The essay finishes with Hughes crying in his bed, left with the conclusion that because he had not literally seen a light or Jesus himself, then Jesus must not exist, or if he did, he didn't care to save him.
    But was this the inevitable outcome? Many confusing and unnecessary factors were thrown into the situation which may have made all the difference between a positive religious awakening and no religious awakening at all. Langston says his aunt told him that "when you were saved you saw a light." However, as devout as she surely was, it's probably safe to say that his aunt didn't mean that you literally saw a light. This is a very commonly used metaphor when describing being born again, one used so often that it probably didn't even occur to his aunt that Langston might not be familiar with its meaning. The problem is that Langston took the words to mean that he should look for a literal light: "Still I kept waiting to see Jesus," he says. This here demonstrates the importance of learning to communicate with children, and overcoming our arrogance with regard to our own speech. It...