Is Prosyletizing a Sin? (Part 2)

In my last post on this topic, I related a sad story about a kid I used to babysit thinking he was going to Hell because he didn't listen to me, his babysitter, and I said this: emotionally and psychologically harming someone is a sin.

Before I go further on that, I should define the other word I'm using here the way I understand it. Proselytizing, to me, is when someone tries to convince someone else to convert to their beliefs. It differs from evangelism^[1] in that evangelism is more about simply spreading information about one's religion.^[2]

Now, there's a lot of ways one can go about that, but the fact is, an awful lot of Christians do it by what I can only call scare tactics. It's this behavior that makes me think that maybe, at least the way I usually see it done, proselytizing might be as much of a sin as any other you could name.

I'm not against the idea of people trying to lead people to Christ. But this isn't leading I'm talking about. This is pushing.

This is people saying to you, "Are you saved?" Saved from what? "Suffering eternal torment in the fiery pit of Hell!"^[3] This is preachers giving fire and brimstone sermons, screaming about how this is how you'll suffer if you're not Right With God! This is tracts left around showing what happens to people who don't Say the Magic Words. This is people who corner a person they don't even know, pushing them to declare for Christ or listen to why they should, because Christ is Coming Back Real Soon Now (and He is Pissed!).

This is a little kid, no more than five, sobbing and terrified he's going to Hell because he didn't brush his teeth and go to bed when he was supposed to.

If I asked someone: Is it right to scare someone into doing what you want them to do? To threaten them with horrible consequences if they don't? I imagine they'd say no.^[4] Yet that's exactly what is done all the time, in churches and out, by people who are trying to get others to become Christians.

How can that be right?

Some people say the ends justify the means. This is the most important decision anyone can ever make. That since it's about saving souls, any tactic is fine, as long as it works.

I could almost sympathize with that. Almost. I mean, I don't think there's really eternal torment in Hell waiting for anyone who didn't profess belief in Christ before they died, but if I were absolutely convinced there were, I could see wanting to do anything to keep someone from that.

But I still run up against a few problems with it.

The first one is this: Who says it works? I can think of an awful lot of people who have explicitly said one of the reasons they aren't a Christian (and in some cases, one of the reasons they're not a believer of any type) is because they were driven away by that sort of thing. It was certainly on my list, in my years of not being sure what to believe. Isn't driving someone away from Christ because they couldn't, for instance, reconcile a loving God with these threats of eternal torment... isn't that pretty much the biggest sin you could commit in God's eyes? (And if Hell exists as portrayed by these folks, it's also a sin even by my usual definition, cuz, eternal torment? Yeah, that's pretty harmful.)

Secondly: even if it does get people to say they believe... do they mean it? Do they believe because they've been convinced of The Truth? Or do they say they believe, try to make themselves believe, because they fear the consequences? Maybe that doesn't matter to some people, the ones who think that if you just Say the Magic Words you get to go to Heaven (and who are unfortunately the most prone to this type of proselytizing). I don't know. But I think it would matter to God... and it definitely matters to the person in question, leaving them plagued with doubts and worry the rest of their life.

But most importantly, I come back again to that poor little kid I babysat for. Assuming he's still alive, he's long since grown, old enough now to have kids of his own, but in my mind he's always going to be that little crying kid, terrified he would go to Hell. Maybe he's gotten over it, but really I can't imagine it didn't have any lasting effect on what he believes, how he lives his life, what faith he's teaching those putative kids of his... if anything at all, as it wouldn't surprise me if he rebelled against what he was taught.

And even if that isn't true, even if he's a staunch, devout Christian, when he was that scared little boy, he was hurting pretty bad.

Jesus had something to say about hurting little kids, too. I'm pretty sure it was important. Too bad no one ever seems to think about that when they're telling kids how they'll end up in Hell.

[1] (although can be used in conjunction with it)
[2] Or at least it should be... but that's another topic.
[3] And if you read my earlier posts you already know what I think about Hell anyhow...
[4] If they didn't, I would be leaving PDQ.