Evangelism Options

[yummy_delight]

A good friend of mine and I recently got into a heated debate about evangelism. We're both Christians, but we have very different ideas about evangelism. When my friend started getting really involved in church a few years ago, he also became a rampant evangelist. He believes that by bringing more people into the church he is not only saving them from eternal damnation, but also doing his duty as a Christian. He has often quoted Charles Spurgeon, saying "Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter," essentially stating that you can't truly be Christian without evangelizing non believers.

I, however, don't like the idea of evangelism at all. Although I'm a devout Catholic, I dislike the idea of evangelism because I don't believe that anybody, myself included, has the right to force his or her beliefs on someone else. I think that everybody has a right to be whatever the religion they choose. Perhaps it's because I have a different idea about God than other people. I don't think that God sends honestly good people to Hell just because they don't believe in him. There are such things as Christian people who are hypocritical, paying lip service to God at church on Sundays, and still go about causing harm to other people. In my opinion, these people are less deserving of heaven than the good-hearted people whose only "fault" is that they don't believe in God. I think that my duty as a Christian is to be a good person and have a positive impact on the world, which doesn't necessarily mean that I HAVE to be an evangelist.

I'd just like to know what everyone else's opinion is on this, not merely from a Christian standpoint, but from another religion's or atheist's perspective as well. Do you approve of evangelism? Are you an evangelist? Do you think that evangelism is a necessary requirement for all good Christians?

[Ington]

They bother me. A lot.

Why, you ask? Because they seem to always find me in a crowd.

A week ago, while I was sitting with my girlfriend in Dunkin Donuts, enjoying a nice mocha drink, two asian women (one seemed like the mother of the other) came up to us and gave us little Christian pamphlets. I myself am Jewish, and my girlfriend is a Buddhist. They started to explain each page of the pamphlets to us in horrible, broken Engrishe, and I interrupted by saying "I'm sorry, I'm Jewish." However, my girlfriend felt bad and didn't want to interrupt. They huddled around her and kept talking, so I said, "She's Buddhist." They looked at me like they didn't understand what I meant. They kept explaining to her the meanings of special words and whatnot, and I told them to leave us alone. I f**king hate that.

Once, a Jehova's Witness rang my doorbell for 30 minutes straight. I, honestly, was about to come out and nail 'I AM NOT F*CKING CONVERTING' on my door.