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Langston Hughes creates a past experience into a true to life drama of guilt, deception, and grief, in "Salvation." He reveals the story of how he was forced into receiving Christ by his peers, relatives, and preacher. Helpless and alone, he struggles against overwhelming odds. After a long-winded sermon the children of the congregation are asked to come forward and accept Jesus.
Instead of moving forward, Langston waits for the Lord to come to him. When nothing happens, Langston goes forward anyway just to please his aunt and the church. In the end be is not only grief-stricken, but has Lost all belief in God.
Group pressure forced Langston into doing something that was totally against his good judgment. When Langston's friend Westley went forward the pressure increased twofold. Not only was he exposed to the persuasion of the church, but he realized that if Westley did it, it might be admissable. A similar situation might be Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
When Adam saw that Eve had taken of the fruit and was unharmed, he too ate of the tree of knowledge. Westley certainly hadn't been struck dead, so why not give in to save further trouble? If he didn't get saved everyone would turn against him. In a sense the congregation became his God because they pushed him into going to the platform.
The author gains the respect of the reader by telling the story from his point of view and in his own voice. He tells the story truthfully as accurately as he can remember it.
The highly vivid descriptions of the church, the preacher, and his aunt, help keep the momentum of the story rolling. Langston provides the main character an audience and the reader a bit of human excitement. He recreates the true drama of facing an opposing force without any outside help.
Although Langston Hughes believed in the reality of Jesus, he was deceivingly forced into doing something completely against his will. He fooled everyone by making an insincere decision. His emotions and feelings come out in the end of the story. Langston could hear himself thinking during the ordeal and he knew that he was alone. His final decision was based on what was sufficient for the congregation, not himself.
"Salvation" is an awesome portrayal of what true salvation is all about. It is a heart decision, not just walking down an aisle. It was Keith Green, the Gospel Artist, who once said: "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, anymore than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger." Endquote!
It is my sincere desire that those who don't know the Lord who read "Salvation" may understand what it really says in I John 1:9: If we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we shall be saved."
Notice, confession is from belief in the heart, not out of peer pressure or submission to what everyone else wants you to do. I sincerely believe "Salvation" by Langston Hughes makes those who have merely walked down an aisle, not because they wanted to find Jesus, think twice.
When one truly finds Christ, it'll be from the heart, not from anything else...
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