Evangelizing, Proselytizing, and Conversions

Every day there is news about these subjects and unfortunately much of the news highlights the confusion and erroneous thinking and theology held by many people.

This is a discussion of my stance on the subject.

Evangelizing is the act of proclaiming one’s belief and witness of God. It is never incorrect to evangelize. If a person cannot be honest about their faith in God, in both their words and how they live, what is the point of life on this world at all? I do not care if the Evangelizer is the only person of that faith standing in the midst of a hundred million people of another faith. If the Evangelizer is simply proclaiming the tenets of his or her faith, and also living their faith by going to their hand built church (or mosque) of one person, they are not to be suppressed or harmed. How can anyone say they believe in their God and then suppress the evangelizing of someone who also believes in the same God? Evangelizing should be characterized by a person’s serene desire to express the tenets of their faith in word and deed within a pious life. How does a man or a woman expressing their faith and witness to God harm you in your belief of God? It does not and if anything you should rejoice in the presence of a pious spiritual cousin. Therefore, for example, when a community of Christians reside in the midst of Muslims and have a public spiritual life they should not be harmed and indeed the Qur’an exhorts that they should have a safe place within a Muslim population. If all the Christians are doing is providing charity, being honest about their beliefs, and worshiping in their own church, how is that a harm to you? It is not and in fact it is additional glory to the one God. If anything Muslims should have the pride of good hosts that spiritual “cousins” can abide and worship in your midst. And I will point out that in all fairness I feel this way about different sects within Islam, where Sunni and Shia should reside in harmony and mutual tolerance. And further I was outraged during the many years of the “troubles” in Ireland when Catholics and Protestants warred terror upon each other (and I was all for excommunicating far more people than the Pope ever dreamed of doing himself).

Evangelizing is different than proselytizing and I deeply resent the ignorance that confuses the two. Proselytizing is the attempt to convert someone away from their current faith and within the Abrahamic faiths I oppose it totally. Some Muslims confuse evangelizing with proselytizing. If someone is evangelizing (expressing their faith and living their faith in the public square) they are not to be harmed and they are not contrary to God’s will. Proselytizing is morally wrong within our Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. If a Christian is proselytizing to a Muslim community they are in error, but they should not be harmed because they are still your relative in God’s tribe. How do you harm someone who is your own tribal relative? You do not, but you can denounce them as being sinful and in error for attempting to shake a person away from their faith within the Abrahamic family who believe and worship the one God.

I especially resent non-Catholic Christians who make a bad name for all Christians by proselytizing. But do not feel bad, Muslim brothers and sisters, because these same people will attempt to seduce and erode the faith of Catholics through the publishing and statement of the most outrageous lies before God. So I share your outrage when actual factual proselytizing actually exists, having seen it in its worse abuse within my own house. However my Muslim brothers and sisters must not fear and be scandalized by true evangelizing Christians who are simply expressing in public their belief and witness and not seeking to lure away a pious Muslim believer.

While I am on the subject here is my stance toward Christians who are hostile to Catholics. Such Christians are like Pharisees who would barge into a feast hosted by Jesus Christ. These Christians would criticize Jesus Christ for having a full spread of foods and beverages for his guests. They would lecture Jesus that he is being extravagant by having many fruits and meats to choose from, and that if Jesus Christ were truly “Godly” he would have a simple meal for his guests. This is what hostile and proselytizing “Christians” are like because they seek to pry away from the fullness of the sacramental Church by claiming that the full feast provided by Jesus Christ is false and wrong. The arrogance of such an attitude leaves me speechless sometimes. Can you imagine “Christians” barging into a feast by Jesus Christ and saying he had no right to provide the richness of foods offered to his guests, and that Mary should get out of her chair and eat further down the table? Yet many of these same vitriolic critics of the Catholic Church, the one apostolic church of Jesus Christ, will tout their “prosperity gospel” to justify their cars, homes, planes, vacations and other pleasures. They disgust me.

These types of Christians are those who delude themselves that they have a ticket to heaven, and that their earthly lifestyle can be justified by recruiting others who believe as they do.

They insult the fullness of what Jesus Christ lived, died, and was resurrected to offer to humankind. And so I am sympathetic to Muslims who find that some Christians do not pass the “sniff test” of evangelizing versus proselytizing. However I caution the Muslims to do as I do and shun those proselytizers, denounce them, but do not harm them, for I leave judgment in the hands of God. Know too that as I have previously commented in my blog these types of Christians also view Jews as not targets of proselytizing per se, but stick figures in their pretend rapture and end of times war games.

But having said this, I must again point out to my Muslim brothers and sisters that your faith is strong enough that you need not act as though words and deeds by fools can weaken you. The character of a man or woman who truly puts their faith in the hands of God indicates that you realize that you have no mightier ally than God. You do not need to burn down a church, a clinic, or kill a Christian to “protect” your faith and God. That is an error that if you think about it is actually an insult to God, for you do not believe in his power to reveal the truth of all matters.

For all its flaws the United States does not get enough credit for their citizens not running wild and burning down mosques and killing Muslims after September 11, 2001 except for literally a handful of incidents.

If anything one needs to have pity for fools. When I vacationed in Turkey I was very moved by the sound of the call to prayers and the faith of the people around me. Nothing speaks louder and more proudly for God than true goodness and pious behavior. And nothing pained me more than the recent murders of Christians in Turkey. This is the “turn the other cheek” philosophy of Christianity, which is to let your example of living speak for itself. The deep devotion of Muslims gives one message. But the murderous acts of a handful give a different message. Our God (yes, “our” God, not “your” or “my” God) is so strong and all knowing that he is not harmed by a fool who proselytizes. However it is an offense to God’s charity when not only do people proselytize within God’s own Abrahamic family, but it is also a grave offense to God’s charity when the foolish proselytizer is harmed or killed rather than just shunned. And how much more is it an insult to God when a priest, a Bible printer, or Christian school children are harmed or killed?

Some people point to the Bible or the Qur’an for justification but do not understand the very manifestations of God’s grace that they point to in their selective quotations. In the Qur’an you must remember that this word of God was given to Muslims at the time they were surrounded by pagan polytheistic tribes. Of course God would be angry with Muslims who having rediscovered their Abrahamic faith revert to being infidel unbelievers, which is to say pagans! The firm stance expressed in the Qur’an is to protect against the nascent Muslim faith dissolving into reverts who fully or partially reintroduce pagan ways. I cannot believe how some people have turned the term “infidel” and “unbeliever” against each other in divisive intra Muslim violence and persecution, and also against Christians. The Qur’an is very clear, even having been given to the Muslim people at the time of great strife and risk of the faith disintegrating, that the people of the book and the law are not to be harmed. How can your cousins who believe in the same God be harmed and considered infidels? Just as I see very poor faith formation and education in my own Church I see it in some mosques, madrassahs, and governments (Malaysia about the terminology of the same and one God) also. I am irate and sick of it.

Likewise I have been very angry at what I call “cherry picking” Christians. They are the ones who memorize certain lines of scripture to justify their own interpretations of lifestyle and “salvation,” ignoring the full body of what God revealed in order to “mine” the Bible like it was their personal source of lucre. I do not mind when a Catholic falls away from their faith and goes to a Protestant or non-denominational faith. But I mind the slime that is thrown at the Catholic Church from the same mouths who quote certain expressions of Jesus or St. Paul. A truly charitable person would lend a hand to someone who has faltering faith to bolster their existing faith, not to widen the divide in the person’s heart. For example I have encountered many Protestants or non-denominations who are weak in faith and suffering. Often they are seeking and often they are attracted to “New Age” or eastern belief systems. It would never occur to me to proselytize Catholicism to them even though I know it is the one true apostolic faith of Jesus Christ. If any of them had asked for assistance I would have helped them to rediscover their own Christian faith within their own churches and places of worship. I do not look for conversion potential marks and scores. Every person has their own individual journey to God and the truth. How are you helping a person’s soul if you find someone in pain in their faith and simply look at them as a “mark” for your own scoreboard, and in the process, implying that their church is “wrong” rather than their faith wounded? Even as I have seen the worse scandal of morphed faith in certain non-Catholic churches, you will not find me telling a person that he or she is in the “wrong” church. Even as I celebrate conversions and reversions to the Catholic Church, you will not find me hunting for them. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. If a person is serene in their attendance and faith in a non-Catholic Christian church I am gladdened for them, though I often think about how they are missing out on so much of the feast that Jesus Christ had laid in front of them. But if they have the core faith and do not insult those who are glorified in the fullness of the Catholic faith then it is their choosing to opt for the one beverage, one main meal, and one dessert.

I also am not offended or alarmed if a Christian converts to Islam. No, this is not because the Christian has found the “error” of their ways. Usually a person who does this is someone who has had weak faith and he or she is attracted to the strength of the reconnection with the one God as Abraham and his descendents knew him. Whether Jew, Christian or Muslim a person of weak or no faith needs the support of God and the work of the Holy Spirit within them. How can I be offended or alarmed if the person feels the strength of God the most in Islam rather than Christianity? If the person has become closer to the one true God and found their faith by walking on the path of Islam or the path of Christianity, all I feel is rejoicing that they have found their faith at all. Understanding that Islam was founded during a time of great pagan and polytheistic pressures and that this is a delicate subject, nonetheless I wish for more of a spirit of equanimity when a Muslim converts to Christianity. The harsh penalties for infidels and non believers were intended for those who were polytheistic and pagan and who sought to darken the knowledge of the one true God of Abraham by means of dragging people backwards into their ill informed beliefs.

Let me use this as an example. Suppose that pagan and polytheistic beliefs, as they were in the time of the Prophet (PBUH) could be compared to a particular strain of cold virus that was spread through ignorance of hygiene. The Jews were given by the one true God one way to prevent the spread of the virus (let us say they were taught to wash their hands frequently). The Christians who follow Jesus Christ were given by the one true God another way to avoid the virus (let us say they were given inoculations). The Muslims were given by the one true God a third way to avoid the cold virus, which was to be taught the means by which the virus is transmitted and how to avoid contact with the carriers of the virus. Now, how would God ever want it so that Muslims interpret avoidance of those with the cold virus as meaning that they should oppress and persecute the Christians who received the inoculation from God?

Unbelievers and infidels means unbelievers and infidels, not your very cousins in your own basic faith in the one God through Abraham and his tree branches!

By the way, this example is the heart of the matter regarding Muslim-Christian dialogue. When the Catholic representatives and the Muslim representatives comment there are real differences between the faiths, obviously this is true. When some people imply a pessimistic conclusion based on these differences they are in error. Use the above example to understand this. It would be pointless and stupid to argue based on the fact that one group avoids a cold virus by inoculations and the other group avoids a cold virus by scientific understanding of the vectors of disease spreading in populations. Both groups worship and were enlightened by the same God who loved them sufficiently to give them protective graces in each of their own respective societies and environs. When one understands this one will understand that there is 99 percent overlap in these faiths.

Lest anyone is offended that I compare paganism and polytheism to a cold virus, let me relate this story. Years ago I had many Asian Indians working for me. One day while visiting a group of programmers who reported to one of my managers, the manager, a secular Christian, made a stupid remark about the screen saver of Ganesh on display by one of the programmers. I chastised him and expressed admiration for the screen saver of Ganesh. I value all expressions of genuine piety and would never allow one’s faith to be diminished by a remark of mine or of someone I manage. Yet over the years I have undergone unbelievable persecution and suffering in return at the hands of people with pagan and polytheistic beliefs. This is why I feel comfortable comparing pagans and polytheists to cold viruses in this example, because they do not have in their faith the same warmth and grace to return in kind to one who gives it. The sheer burden of not believing in one God who is in charge and control of all, and who showers humanity with grace, results in a belief system that does not resonate with Christian charity or equality before God as Muslims preach. This is because they believe in an unequal and fragmented universe and they are taught to “work the angles” in order to get “advantage.” They are not reminded, like in the Haj, that all are equal before God. And they do not understand that what they do to their neighbor they are doing to Jesus Christ, like in true Christianity. Yet I do not advocate harming anyone who even seeks to harm believers in the one God because God will fix their sauce at some point. And true evangelism is to consistently trust in God and that injustice in the earthly world will be forgotten when one is rewarded in paradise for one’s faith. Shun those who seek to drag your children into paganism and polytheism, but leave their judgment to God, who knows all and sees all. And do not confuse your quarrel with the pagans and polytheists with quarreling within the Abrahamic family of the one God, which should cease in their intra family persecutions and quarreling at once.