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There was a programme on Channel 4 recently called 'Revelations: How to Find God' which followed a group of agnostics on an Alpha course in Oxford.
The whole thing made me spectacularly uncomfortable and I feel like I have to write about it. The idea of the Alpha course is - of course - to convert people who have joined up hoping that Christianity might offer some kind of support. Conversion is achieved in a series of 10 weekly meetings, where people are fed and chat about Jesus, religion and the scripture, and a weekend retreat where they are invited to speak in tongues (which obviously mostly appears to be babbling random syllables with a beautific expression). This approach manages to recruit one in eight of the people starting the course.
one of the small groups of eight where the chats take place was the focus, with four of the group being followed to the end.
Evangelical Christianity makes my skin crawl. I can't quite express the discomfort I was feeling when the participant who should have been best protected from the concept of 'god' as a psychology student at Corpus Christie - statistics show that there is a negative correlation between level of education and belief in god - was pretty much converted by a note from one of the Christians running the course saying that she had been praying for him and that this is not the time to be passive. It was horrifying to see.

I really wish I could explain how uncomfortable this kind of thing makes me (and probably Richard Dawkins)... suffice to say that it is too hot a day for spending an hour tensed up in discomfort.

Anyway, I'd really like to hear from you on this one - any comments are appreciated