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Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Christianity the only religion that actively converts and recruits?

Roc Kit wrote:

...Mother Theresa, whatever else you might think about her, never attempted any conversions in Calcutta - it was all about her getting her own self closer to Jesus...

... Seems kind of selfish

davic3 wrote:

I have a part time job in a restaurant that I have been at what seems like forever. At least once every couple of weeks there are different christian people inviting me to join their church. This has happened regularly for years. Why is it that only christian churches seem to be on such an intense recruitment drive.  It just strikes me as odd that they feel such an obligation to get people to join. Is there a quota that outsiders don't know about? Perhaps it's a smug we got it right and every other religion is wrong attitude. I only say this because I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been told that I cannot be saved unless I accept Jesus as my personal savior. Also I don't want to seem as anti religious, because that is clearly not the case. I go to church almost every Sunday and I try to be true to my catholic upbringing, I just don't feel the need to convert everyone I meet. Afterall that is something people should decide for themselves.

It's like a pyramid scheme. Their preacher tells them they will go to Hell if they don't witness to people, and they in turn tell you that you will go to Hell if you don't go to church. When you go to church, though, if you are gullible, you will start to blindly witness to people. So it's a little less pyramid-y than a pyramid scheme, but with a similar level of brain washing.

At my parttime job (a Best Buy salesperson), I will get at least once a month some Quixtar guy come and try to recruit me, and it's the EXACT SAME lines each time. It's really weird, but if you ask them, they will say they aren't reading any lines (but it's obvious they've been coached somehow). Even when a good friend from high school pitched it to me, he used the same repeated lines... weird. It's somewhat inexplicable, but someone has been doing their psychology homework.

Oh, you exhibitionist, you!

midgetcop wrote:

Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Christianity the only religion that actively converts and recruits?

Depends on where you live. At my old neighborhood, where I spent my childhood. The Buddhidts would send you a chain-letter. They'd preach and ask you to do some charity to a Buddhist temple and forward the letter to 10 (or so) other people or you'd have bad luck.

Last edited by mahakali (2005-04-05 11:09 pm)

davic3 wrote:

Roc Kit wrote:
The issue here is davic3.  Clearly, davic3 is hot to Christians."


if that's true then they are kinker than I ever imagined

Dude. You have no idea.

davic3 wrote:

Donovan Osaya wrote:

davic3 wrote:

Roc Kit wrote:
The issue here is davic3.  Clearly, davic3 is hot to Christians."


if that's true then they are kinker than I ever imagined

Dude. You have no idea.

Details then, who knows if its hot enough maybe I'll go and give the place a look see 

Well, okay. I'm into kink. Might want to step back there, son.

Roc Kit wrote:

Many branches of Islam actively convert and recruit.  So does militant atheism.  And Amway.  Zen Buddhists converts by discouraging people from converting... And there are branches of Christianity that leave the proselytizing to God - Mother Theresa, whatever else you might think about her, never attempted any conversions in Calcutta - it was all about her getting her own self closer to Jesus...

Actually, I believe she felt separated from God all those years, so that theory is out. iirc, she felt called by God to go there and help those in need.

How unbelievable that a Christian go to a nation and just help people, without pushing to convert them huh?

Roc Kit wrote:

The very best kind of selfish.  God can do anything and everything without your help, so what profit to gain the whole world at the expense of your own soul, even assuming your plan for the world is a total Salvation-A-Rama?

the path to salvation involves a higher BULLDADA:

binky wrote:

mo' ron wrote:

davic3 wrote:

I have a part time job in a restaurant that I have been at what seems like forever. At least once every couple of weeks there are different christian people inviting me to join their church. This has happened regularly for years. Why is it that only christian churches seem to be on such an intense recruitment drive.  It just strikes me as odd that they feel such an obligation to get people to join. Is there a quota that outsiders don't know about? Perhaps it's a smug we got it right and every other religion is wrong attitude. I only say this because I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been told that I cannot be saved unless I accept Jesus as my personal savior. Also I don't want to seem as anti religious, because that is clearly not the case. I go to church almost every Sunday and I try to be true to my catholic upbringing, I just don't feel the need to convert everyone I meet. Afterall that is something people should decide for themselves.

It's like a pyramid scheme. Their preacher tells them they will go to Hell if they don't witness to people, and they in turn tell you that you will go to Hell if you don't go to church. When you go to church, though, if you are gullible, you will start to blindly witness to people. So it's a little less pyramid-y than a pyramid scheme, but with a similar level of brain washing.

At my parttime job (a Best Buy salesperson), I will get at least once a month some Quixtar guy come and try to recruit me, and it's the EXACT SAME lines each time. It's really weird, but if you ask them, they will say they aren't reading any lines (but it's obvious they've been coached somehow). Even when a good friend from high school pitched it to me, he used the same repeated lines... weird. It's somewhat inexplicable, but someone has been doing their psychology homework.

excuse me, but unless you are a JeHOVAh's witness or Mormon, no self-respecting Christian has ever preached one will go to Hell if he or she doesn't witness to anyone else.  I agree that many churches and denominations put pressure on members to share their faith with others, and some approaches are very off-putting while other ways are healthier.

As for being spiritually reborn, Jesus taught about that in the Gospel of John, where religious officials questioned his teaching about being born again. They said to the effect, "What are you talking about? I can't go climb back into my mother's womb." Jesus taught about a choice to be spirtually reborn by the Spirit. One cannont be born a Christian, nor have it passed down from parents. Being baptized doesn't make you a Christian/saved.  It is a choice of allowing the Spirit's saving power in the life of a person.  We can ask and allow Him to birth new life in us.

While some have never actually said I will go to hell, I have been told that this what I must do to be saved. Of course this is the same thing just sounds nicer. Of course my question is what if your wrong? What if the way I am doing is just fine. Afterall I am sure that ther are decent good people in some remote corner of the globe who never heard of Christianity. Is god going to automatically send them to hell simply because they never knew or were told they had to convert.

SpacemanSpiff wrote:

I'd be more willing to look at your theology for that one. It doesn't make sense.  How can you be a Christian (that is to say a follower of Christ) if you don't know who Christ is?  'll agree that children are inherently accepted by God (that is to say if they die, off to heaven with them) but to say you can be born Christian just because you have Christian parents is insane...

Not really...

To clarify, the Christian Sacrament of Baptism (Hebrews 6:2; Mark 7:4) is employed  to signify "the sacramental washing, by which the soul of newborn is cleansed from original sin at the same time that water is poured upon the body." However, a child of two Christian parents, from the moment of conception, based on the Canons on Baptism decreed by the Council of Trent (Sess. VII, De Baptismo), is considered Christian. This is clarified in Acts 2:38: "Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins; and you shall receive the Holy Ghost. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, whomsoever the Lord our God shall call."

In earlier generations of the Catholic faith, many Catholic theologians declared that infants dying without baptism were excluded from the beatific vision due to the pain of original sin, yet these babies were still considered Christian; they had not yet received the baptism from original sin, but as a unborn child of two Christian parents, the child was certainly Christian. Baptism not only washes away sin, it also remits the punishment of sin. Baptism for other purposes and the many variants; i.e., blood baptism, adult baptism, etc. have differing purposes and the definition of Christian changes thereto, however, for this instance; i.e., an unborn child, infant child, or just born child of two Christian parents, the child is indeed Christian.

Should you have time, I suggest the following source:
On Baptism:
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm
or here:
Infant Baptism:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Infant_Baptism.asp

Last edited by Camp David (2005-04-06 7:42 am)

davic3 wrote:

I have a part time job in a restaurant that I have been at what seems like forever. At least once every couple of weeks there are different christian people inviting me to join their church. This has happened regularly for years. Why is it that only christian churches seem to be on such an intense recruitment drive.  It just strikes me as odd that they feel such an obligation to get people to join. Is there a quota that outsiders don't know about? Perhaps it's a smug we got it right and every other religion is wrong attitude. I only say this because I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been told that I cannot be saved unless I accept Jesus as my personal savior. Also I don't want to seem as anti religious, because that is clearly not the case. I go to church almost every Sunday and I try to be true to my catholic upbringing, I just don't feel the need to convert everyone I meet. Afterall that is something people should decide for themselves.

yeah, only the individual can choose to live and follow the christian lifestyle or not.  no one can force you into doing otherwise.  it's your own decision.

i've never asked a random person to go to church -- i just think it can be much more of a turn-off for them to want to go on their own if you pressure them into it.  i only ask those who i get comfortable with, or if the conversation about the subject comes up.  but yeah, too much pressure isn't the way to go.

MrJ in OZ wrote:

I rather think he would be a nice guy and you can damn near do what you want as long as its not killin and whatnot.

ehh...  we can all think of the way we think God should be, but the bottom line is that he's the God written of in the Bible and what he's laid out for us is what's expected.  life isn't about getting what you want, it's about giving what God wants.  what's 70+/- years compared to eternity, ya know.