Ilgar Ismailov English 101 Sec: 21 9/3/13 Salvation The most remarkable part about the reading was that Langston Hughes felt guilty that he lied about seeing Jesus to everyone at the congregation, and that caused him to lose his belief in Jesus. Hughes was waiting for Jesus, but all this time he couldn’t see him. When all the other young children got saved Hughes felt ashamed that he was holding everything up. Hughes expected salvation to be something else than what it really was. Langston Hughes was just a little boy who actually wanted to see Jesus and didn’t understand the meaning of church.
Hughes regretted his decision, but he did not want to keep everyone else waiting. This illustrates the common issue of Christians claiming to be followers of Christ, yet attending church is the only religious action they perform. The way that the aunt kept telling Hughes to come and be saved provided a coerced feel to her motives. His childlike innocence of expecting Jesus to literally walk into the church accompanied by bright lights led to his confusion as to why members of the congregation went up to the front of the aisle and Westley only going because he was tired of sitting. He took the faith aspects of religion literally, leading to his genuine confusion.
Thomas Thompson 8/25/12 AP English IV G/T Schmidt “Salvation” Essay In Langston Hughes’s “Salvation,” he describes himself being “saved from sin… But not really saved.” He was young, and he wanted to please the adults he respected, so he pretended to be saved. In reality, though, the adults he looked up to were the ones responsible for his loss of faith, and unwillingness to be saved. Hughes’s Aunt Reed told him that, “when you were saved you saw a light… you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul,” but that was not what he experienced. He had heard others describe “being saved” like that as well, so he assumed Jesus was not coming. He had been fed information about what to perceive in an intensely personal situation, but he wasn’t feeling it.
While attending a church revival, his aunt also tried to take metaphors to explain him how is a salvation, she said that "when you were save you saw a light and something happened to you inside and Jesus comes into your life! You could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul", and he believed that Jesus will physically come to save him. At the ceremony in a special meeting to "bring the young lambs into the fold", while all the other children went up to accept Jesus, Langston and another child named Westley remained seated. As the congregation prayed and the priest sang psalms, Westley decides to claim that he has so that the event can continue and went up to the altar, but Langston still sat waiting to see Jesus. The social pressure of the church becomes unbearable, helpless and alone, he struggles against the odds and finally, Langston went to the altar and accepted Jesus.
Hughes was a twelve-year-old boy from Missouri waiting to be saved in his Auntie Reed’s church. He tires of waiting for Jesus to come to him. Finally, after witnessing another student being saved without waiting for Jesus, he, too, stands up, and allows himself to be saved. That night, Hughes, cries, remorseful for lying and not believing that there
“To bring the young lambs to the fold.” It was not said as a literal statement more so comparing the kids to lambs and the fold to salvation. Langston’s aunt tells him to go to Jesus she did not mean it in the sense that he really was going to see him in flesh. The aunt also says “Langston why don’t you come? Why don’t you come and be saved? Oh lamb of God!
I believed one of the reasons why I chose to run from church at an older age was because of the parenting styles of my parents. However, knowing the Bible says to train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are older they will not depart from it. It is true, I am now at a place where I love the Word of Christ and cannot put the Bible down. Now that I am in a place in my life where I seek God daily through prayer and Scripture, I try to understand more connotations to Scripture. Keith Ferrin’s book, Falling in Love with God’s Word, in a very short time, has made me open my eyes for a better connotation with scripture.
Romaine Smith Susan Doody ENG 11-4118 March 5, 2013 Response essay 3 The Testing of One’s Faith In Langston Hughes essay, “Salvation,” Hughes tells a story of how he was forced into receiving Christ by his peers, relatives and preacher. Hughes illustrates himself as a little boy, whose decision one morning, reflect the human races instinctive tendency to conform and in a sense, obey. He describes how that morning at church, vicariously, he was pressured to go up to the altar and be saved by seeing the light of god. In his essay, Hughes shows us how making a decision can be difficult with the force of peer pressure, a state of disillusion and a moment of regret. Benefit or Burden?
He tells the story of how his older brother, Billy, whose memory was one of his greatest assets, drew a blank when it came his turn to recite a Biblical passage on Easter Sunday. Ruth refused to take the incident lightly, beating her son for his forgetfulness. The source of this book's title appears in this chapter when James remembers asking his mother a question about race. He asked, "What color is God's spirit?" and Ruth replied, "It doesn't have a color….
I had chosen this picture not only because of the art it portray but because growing up I had to go to Sunday school and learn about god and what not. And I have been around pictures and sculptures of Jesus and very rarely am Jesus portrayed as a child. After some research this picture actually depicts “Our Lady of Mt. Carmel” which is another name for Virgin Mary. The art work is actually pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.