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Post by Rodney Farber on Sept 17, 2020 12:54:54 GMT
Why do (mostly) Christians proselytize?
This question is aimed mostly at Scientologists, LDS, and JWs as they devote considerable effort to telling me that my beliefs are stupid. They must think my beliefs are stupid or they wouldn’t be trying to convert me. I invite other proselytizers to chime in on this topic as well. Yes, I realize that there are passages in Matthew that tell you go to spread the word, but why is there a need? If your religion is really the greatest thing since sliced bread, one would think that the masses would be beating a path to your church, Temple, or Kingdom Hall.
Nobody every stopped me on the street and told me the benefits of sex, smart phones, or marshmallows. I learned those by word-of-mouth. There shouldn’t be a need for you to proselytize.
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Sept 17, 2020 12:56:27 GMT
The most obvious answer would be their religion encourages it and it gets results.
The better question is why more don’t do it. I know the answer to that one too.
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Post by clusium on Sept 17, 2020 14:46:11 GMT
Why do (mostly) Christians proselytize? This question is aimed mostly at Scientologists, LDS, and JWs as they devote considerable effort to telling me that my beliefs are stupid. They must think my beliefs are stupid or they wouldn’t be trying to convert me. I invite other proselytizers to chime in on this topic as well. Yes, I realize that there are passages in Matthew that tell you go to spread the word, but why is there a need? If your religion is really the greatest thing since sliced bread, one would think that the masses would be beating a path to your church, Temple, or Kingdom Hall. Nobody every stopped me on the street and told me the benefits of sex, smart phones, or marshmallows. I learned those by word-of-mouth. There shouldn’t be a need for you to proselytize. Scientology is not a Christian religion. Yes, I realize you put in the title of your topic thread "(mostly)" but, the bulk of your post discusses the Christian POV of proselytizing (ie: St. Matthew). BTW, regarding St. Matthew's Gospel; while yes, it does conclude with urging the spreading of the Gospel, in an earlier passage, Christ Condemned the proselytizing techniques of some professed religious people.
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Post by marianne48 on Sept 17, 2020 15:21:39 GMT
This is why far-right Evangelicals complain that the left are more apt to be sympathetic towards Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians but not Christians. I've never had people of non-Christian faiths put down my faith the way these born-again types have; some of them have even laughed about it to my face (I was raised Catholic, which is consideted a "gutter religion" and not Christian by some of these types).
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Post by lowtacks86 on Sept 17, 2020 16:20:14 GMT
"Nobody every stopped me on the street and told me the benefits of sex, smart phones, or marshmallows. I learned those by word-of-mouth"
Well that's not exactly true. While typically their aren't people on street corners doing that, there's tons of advertising on TV/internet/billboards/magazines for sex services, iphones, and junkfood. In fact it's very unlikely you would find out about smart phones through word of mouth alone (Apple and Verizon spends millions on advertising). Now why Christians prolesthyze on street corners when they can reach far more people with Internet and TV (televangelists come to mind) is beyond me.
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Post by clusium on Sept 17, 2020 18:58:21 GMT
"Nobody every stopped me on the street and told me the benefits of sex, smart phones, or marshmallows. I learned those by word-of-mouth" Well that's not exactly true. While typically their aren't people on street corners doing that, there's tons of advertising on TV/internet/billboards/magazines for sex services, iphones, and junkfood. In fact it's very unlikely you would find out about smart phones through word of mouth alone (Apple and Verizon spends millions on advertising). Now why Christians prolesthyze on street corners when they can reach far more people with Internet and TV (televangelists come to mind) is beyond me. Yeah. Same with the afore-mentioned JWs & LDS. Why not just proselytize online, as opposed to going door -to - door?
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Sept 17, 2020 21:39:08 GMT
"Nobody every stopped me on the street and told me the benefits of sex, smart phones, or marshmallows. I learned those by word-of-mouth" Well that's not exactly true. While typically their aren't people on street corners doing that, there's tons of advertising on TV/internet/billboards/magazines for sex services, iphones, and junkfood. In fact it's very unlikely you would find out about smart phones through word of mouth alone (Apple and Verizon spends millions on advertising). Now why Christians prolesthyze on street corners when they can reach far more people with Internet and TV (televangelists come to mind) is beyond me. Yeah. Same with the afore-mentioned JWs & LDS. Why not just proselytize online, as opposed to going door -to - door? They use every avenue. They're calling around my neighborhood now since they can't do door to door during the pandemic. I did see a couple of Mormons knocking on doors the other day. No mask on, but maybe they put it on at the door.
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Sept 17, 2020 22:20:12 GMT
Why do (mostly) Christians proselytize? This question is aimed mostly at Scientologists, LDS, and JWs as they devote considerable effort to telling me that my beliefs are stupid. They must think my beliefs are stupid or they wouldn’t be trying to convert me. I invite other proselytizers to chime in on this topic as well. Yes, I realize that there are passages in Matthew that tell you go to spread the word, but why is there a need? If your religion is really the greatest thing since sliced bread, one would think that the masses would be beating a path to your church, Temple, or Kingdom Hall. Nobody every stopped me on the street and told me the benefits of sex, smart phones, or marshmallows. I learned those by word-of-mouth. There shouldn’t be a need for you to proselytize. Rodney Farber: The Scientologists, LDS, and JWs are cults, and people join cults because they're not getting the answers they want from mainstream religion. And Clusium is right about the Church of Scientology. They are not Christian. People confuse them with the Church of Christian Science (another cult, but it's a Christian cult). If....and I say if because I don't know your mind....if you want to know what Christianity is really about you have to go on kind of a personal odyssey and get the answers yourself, because you're not going to get them from the aforementioned sources.
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Post by clusium on Sept 17, 2020 22:31:25 GMT
Yeah. Same with the afore-mentioned JWs & LDS. Why not just proselytize online, as opposed to going door -to - door? They use every avenue. They're calling around my neighborhood now since they can't do door to door during the pandemic. I did see a couple of Mormons knocking on doors the other day. No mask on, but maybe they put it on at the door. Yeah, since the pandemic, the JWs haven't been around my neighbourhood. Our number is unlisted, so if they have been phoning people, we weren't among them.
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Post by clusium on Sept 17, 2020 22:36:41 GMT
Why do (mostly) Christians proselytize? This question is aimed mostly at Scientologists, LDS, and JWs as they devote considerable effort to telling me that my beliefs are stupid. They must think my beliefs are stupid or they wouldn’t be trying to convert me. I invite other proselytizers to chime in on this topic as well. Yes, I realize that there are passages in Matthew that tell you go to spread the word, but why is there a need? If your religion is really the greatest thing since sliced bread, one would think that the masses would be beating a path to your church, Temple, or Kingdom Hall. Nobody every stopped me on the street and told me the benefits of sex, smart phones, or marshmallows. I learned those by word-of-mouth. There shouldn’t be a need for you to proselytize. Rodney Farber: The Scientologists, LDS, and JWs are cults, and people join cults because they're not getting the answers they want from mainstream religion. And Clusium is right about the Church of Scientology. They are not Christian. People confuse them with the Church of Christian Science (another cult, but it's a Christian cult). If....and I say if because I don't know your mind....if you want to know what Christianity is really about you have to go on kind of a personal odyssey and get the answers yourself, because you're not going to get them from the aforementioned sources. One thing I should have added, regarding LDS & JWs, is that they do not even adhere to official Christian doctrine. They revived the ancient heresy of Arianism for their beliefs. That would be like creating a topic criticizing Muslim practices, & aiming the question mainly to such sects as Druze or NOI, etc.
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Sept 17, 2020 22:58:51 GMT
They use every avenue. They're calling around my neighborhood now since they can't do door to door during the pandemic. I did see a couple of Mormons knocking on doors the other day. No mask on, but maybe they put it on at the door. Yeah, since the pandemic, the JWs haven't been around my neighbourhood. Our number is unlisted, so if they have been phoning people, we weren't among them. What's the point, when a mask covers their game show smile, and the glazed eyes are all you can see?
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Post by phludowin on Sept 18, 2020 9:38:10 GMT
It's not just Christians and Scientologists. Until not long ago, but still before the Corona pandemic, there were Salafists proselytizing on German streets and distributing Qurans. German courts have put a stop to it; but in the city where I live I still see some Muslim advertizers from time to time, standing not far from the Christian advertizers.
Are they less obnoxious than those advertizers for Greenpeace, the Red Cross, or PETA? I don't know, but at least the existence of the environment, the human body and animals can safely be assumed. Unlike the existence of the God of Abraham.
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Post by Arlon10 on Sept 18, 2020 10:38:24 GMT
All people want their views to be held by large numbers of others because of the safety in numbers principle. That is all people within a very small percent margin of error. There are usually those very few people who have rather unique perspectives.
Some attempts to "proselytize" are less professional than others obviously. There are some things that should remain individual choices. Other things, like laws, need to be widely agreed upon. They will not function unless they are widely agreed upon.
Because the majority has been obviously wrong in so many ways lately there is a group that believes it should abandon attempts to involve others in the process. They are obviously severely mentally retarded. They arrived at their opinions by blindly accepting them and have no idea how to convince anyone else of them. They just give up trying. So who made the "first" bad move? That is difficult to say. People who blindly accept what they believe is "science" are rather obviously caught blindly accepting things. People who blindly accept "religious" beliefs can be more difficult to pin down. It might take time to realize they have no skill persuading others.
"Proselytizing" can be very unpopular because so many of the people who try it are not any good at it. What is needed is a more professional approach to the art of persuasion. Only by making serious mistakes is it likely many people will finally realize what is important to be widely agreed upon and what is not.
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Sept 18, 2020 13:34:49 GMT
They use every avenue. They're calling around my neighborhood now since they can't do door to door during the pandemic. I did see a couple of Mormons knocking on doors the other day. No mask on, but maybe they put it on at the door. Yeah, since the pandemic, the JWs haven't been around my neighbourhood. Our number is unlisted, so if they have been phoning people, we weren't among them. Well phone lists have more to do with activity. I haven't had a landline in years, but when we got a call from them my wife and I checked one of the sites, there our numbers were. We both use our phones for work though so any number of people would have it.
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Sept 18, 2020 13:36:46 GMT
Rodney Farber: The Scientologists, LDS, and JWs are cults, and people join cults because they're not getting the answers they want from mainstream religion. And Clusium is right about the Church of Scientology. They are not Christian. People confuse them with the Church of Christian Science (another cult, but it's a Christian cult). If....and I say if because I don't know your mind....if you want to know what Christianity is really about you have to go on kind of a personal odyssey and get the answers yourself, because you're not going to get them from the aforementioned sources. One thing I should have added, regarding LDS & JWs, is that they do not even adhere to official Christian doctrine. They revived the ancient heresy of Arianism for their beliefs. That would be like creating a topic criticizing Muslim practices, & aiming the question mainly to such sects as Druze or NOI, etc. By reviving you mean they believed Jesus when he said he was the son of God.
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Post by clusium on Sept 18, 2020 14:13:55 GMT
One thing I should have added, regarding LDS & JWs, is that they do not even adhere to official Christian doctrine. They revived the ancient heresy of Arianism for their beliefs. That would be like creating a topic criticizing Muslim practices, & aiming the question mainly to such sects as Druze or NOI, etc. By reviving you mean they believed Jesus when he said he was the son of God. No, I meant that they disbelieved Him, regarding His Divinity.
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Post by clusium on Sept 18, 2020 14:14:50 GMT
It's not just Christians and Scientologists. Until not long ago, but still before the Corona pandemic, there were Salafists proselytizing on German streets and distributing Qurans. German courts have put a stop to it; but in the city where I live I still see some Muslim advertizers from time to time, standing not far from the Christian advertizers. Are they less obnoxious than those advertizers for Greenpeace, the Red Cross, or PETA? I don't know, but at least the existence of the environment, the human body and animals can safely be assumed. Unlike the existence of the God of Abraham. Also, ISKCON is pretty active in Europe too. And anyhow, I don't think the Scientology god is even the God of Abraham.
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Post by clusium on Sept 18, 2020 14:26:30 GMT
All people want their views to be held by large numbers of others because of the safety in numbers principle. That is all people within a very small percent margin of error. There are usually those very few people who have rather unique perspectives. Some attempts to "proselytize" are less professional than others obviously. There are some things that should remain individual choices. Other things, like laws, need to be widely agreed upon. They will not function unless they are widely agreed upon. Because the majority has been obviously wrong in so many ways lately there is a group that believes it should abandon attempts to involve others in the process. They are obviously severely mentally retarded. They arrived at their opinions by blindly accepting them and have no idea how to convince anyone else of them. They just give up trying. So who made the "first" bad move? That is difficult to say. People who blindly accept what they believe is "science" are rather obviously caught blindly accepting things. People who blindly accept "religious" beliefs can be more difficult to pin down. It might take time to realize they have no skill persuading others. "Proselytizing" can be very unpopular because so many of the people who try it are not any good at it. What is needed is a more professional approach to the art of persuasion. Only by making serious mistakes is it likely many people will finally realize what is important to be widely agreed upon and what is not. Exactly. Many years ago, when Yahoo.com had message forums, they included message forums for world religions. The bulk of the forums were for Christianity but, they had a few for Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, etc. Nonetheless, despite the fact that Christianity was given way more forums than the other religions, Christians would go to these other message forums to proselytize, which of course, only got the non-christians which these forums were set aside for, ticked off. There was even one individual who spammed the same topic thread on every single message forum in the Religions message forums. However, in addition to the fact that Christians had the majority of the forums, while all the other groups had only a few, most of these clowns couldn't preach the Gospel to save their own lives, never mind their own souls!! The afore-mentioned individual who spammed the same topic thread was one such person.
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Post by thefleetsin on Sept 18, 2020 16:20:20 GMT
farming witches from republican snitches
dorothy had hardly left oz when she ran into a cause that resembled a coven of hookers working a convention of locked jaws when suddenly she realized how dangerous it is to pause when passing by a landfill of circumvented laws spun into a welcome mat of your next to feel our claws.
sjw 09/18/2020 inspired at this very moment in time by the con in consummate evil.
from the 'blitzkrieg series' of poems
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Sept 18, 2020 16:39:45 GMT
By reviving you mean they believed Jesus when he said he was the son of God. No, I meant that they disbelieved Him, regarding His Divinity. Right if he's not God, he's not divine correct?
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