A friend of mine, whose family is interracial, mocked on Facebook a printed questionnaire she got from Starbucks headlined “Your Race Relations Reality Check: Where Do You Stand? Use These Conversation Starters With Your Family And Friends.” You were supposed to sort of fill in blanks about how many friends of another race your kids have and then use the answers to talk to your neighbors. Here’s what it looks like:

The whole campaign reminded me so much of this story from 2004, when an American Airlines pilot got on the loudspeaker and asked passengers who were Christian to raise their hands. Then he suggested to the ones who raised their hands that they spend the remainder of the flight trying to convert those who hadn’t. The passengers were so confused by the request that they wondered if the pilot was a terrorist.

Listen, I love few things more than sharing the good news that Jesus has triumphed over sin, death and Satan with others and I hate racism. But there’s a reason why the American Airlines pilot and the Starbucks approaches freak people out! Yes, part of it is that there’s a time and place to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and discuss difficult social problems. But also, these things are highly ineffective when done outside of a personal relationship.