A Day at the Races

Sports Illustrated has an interesting article about the role that religion - specifically evangelical Protestant Christianity - plays in NASCAR racing. Somewhat inspired by a driver whose car advertises the Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ, this quote stands out:

"It's a chance to get the word out," Labonte, who grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, said about the ad on his car. "Someone who is curious about Jesus and has never been saved sees the race and says, 'Hmmm, I'd like to see what that's about.' ... Maybe we can change their minds."

To me, this seems no different than high school jocks using pep rallies to thank Jesus for helping them win the big game, as happened often back at Union in good old Tulsa. But, unlike those jocks, Labonte (the driver) seems to be after something else: evangelicizing a member of the audience because that person is looking at his car.

I hate to make a generalization, but working strictly by percentages, it's very likely that most - the majority - of NASCAR fans are probably already believing Christians. Not only that, but they would tend to fall into the more evangelical kind of Protestantism that Labonte sells.

This is something that has always confused me about evangelicals - why are they witnessing to people who already believe as they do? I realize that, even though the audience may be Christian they may not have been "saved" as Labonte would use the term (hell, find me three evangelical Protestants who use the term "saved" in the same way), but by and large he's going to be preaching to the converted.

If he was really concerned about saving the nonbelievers, shouldn't he paint his car and drive it through, say, Afghanistan? Or Iran? I'm sure they would welcome his message of faith in those countries.