Examining The True Nature Of Christian Proselytizing

In a "Stoicism" group on Facebook,

someone posted this:

Even though I agree with the sentiments expressed, 
this is not the meme or quote I would have chosen.

There are better ways to express those concerns.  

Oh well.
It's what someone else chose.
So here we are.
--

Among the many replies, a Christian responded with:
"evangelizing is part of practicing our religion."
--

To summarize my initial reply:

Stop making it our business.
Stop making it our problem. 
 And then we'll stop having anything to say about it.

 OR 
keep getting into our faces (and our lives) with it;
planting flags;
marking turf;
laying claim to literally everyone 
in the name of a King Pin who is merely a fictitious puppet-figure for your own criminal enterprise. 

--

In reply to me,
someone else asked me:

"Disrespectful to have a conversation about God and Jesus? Do you realize someone is always trying to win someone over to something? Am I to be offended or put out by it?
Don’t tell me you’ve never had anyone besides Christians try to convince you of something."


------------------------

My thoughts about that:

I welcome it, when anyone respectfully enters the arena of contesting ideas.

And yet, 
when it comes to Christian evangelizers and "the message", ...
 what they are doing 
is something entirely different.


Zappa, I, and countless others
have grown tired of trying to discuss things with people who  
are not *really* trying to "discuss" anything.

They are here to:

* Dispense veiled threats,
 
* boast of (baseless) moral superiority,

and
* share the "good news" that:
Most people who have ever existed will end up in a Hell forever, for reasons that have fuckall to do with their moral character, 

 while
* the "messenger" looks forward to eternity as:
 someone literally never-again able to have an unapproved thought, feeling, impulse, or action. 
 
Sweet Dreams Are Made OF This; apparently. 

As they see it,
everyone else is here to bow before them and humbly receive and embrace that message; 
"or else".

When they step up on that soapbox,
they aren't here to discuss anything.

"I speak.
You listen.
 If you have any questions, it had better be because you're impressed and want to learn more about your God. Otherwise, you are wronging me, being "hateful", and rebelling against your God". 

---
As Greydon Square put it (to them), 
"You're a conquered mind
trying to conquer other minds". 

Notice:
 Trying to conquer other minds 
is not a gesture of respect for those minds.

 This should not be a hard concept to grasp.

------------------

Several years ago,
the current Catholic Pope publicly agreed with the gist of the point Zappa was making.
[note: he didn't mention Zappa. He only mentioned the same issue of proselytizing]

He admonished all Catholics to please stop doing the intrusive sort of evangelizing
which fundamentalist Protestants and some old-school Catholics were known for.

He recognized that it just pushes people away from the entire domain of Christian faith.

It's not a respectful thing to do. 

 NOR are they showing how it's relevant to Stoicism (because it's not). 

No.
What's coming out of their mouth is a very different and dark spirit. 

But they're saying it in bite-sized chunks of veiled salesman language;
 so that any listener's
abusive-bullshit-detector 
doesn't go off. 

What is that massage, really?

1. That we should all be seeking VALIDATION outside of ourselves;
 from a larger-than-than life Super-Parent.

2. We should all be wanting to EVADE personal accountability for our transgressions against others in this life, 
by scapegoating our shit onto an innocent martyr.
 - Directly from the playbook of clinical narcissists, except re-branded as religious "spirituality". 

3. [And this is where it gets really interesting] 

This is all coming from a mysterious BOSS of unlimited power.

He wants you to know what a worthless piece of shit you are.

 BUT he seems your amazing potential.

You are so saturated with a yucky "sin" disease
that he can neither "dwell" with you,
nor even look upon you.

As you are now,
you're not even worthy of the air you breathe.

In fact, what you deserve is to be discarded in an inescapable HELL forever (as defined by whichever sect the "messenger" has been "educated" by). 

However, 
He's willing to "forgive you" for being:
 not enough (as you are). 

But in order for THAT to happen,
you must prove worthy of that pardon, 
by sufficiently "glorifying" his ego. 
 
THAT is the amazing potential he sees in you.

Thus, he sent me with this "friendly warning".

He will kill you and/or torture you forever, unless you:
 humbly listen to me (and others like me),
and
try really hard to believe me (and others like me),
and then
surrender to us as a moral authority over ever facet of your journey and your identity.

 But don't worry.
We can wait until later,
to talk about the money we need from you.

And then we can start morally obligating your political votes, and start brainwashing your children (in the name of "free will"), to serve our interests.

 Let's get you signed up first.".

And if you look at the rest of the "message", ...

Most Christian evangelizers (nearly all; because the nicer-versions don't usually evangelize) want you to start having a serious morally-them objection to LGBT, and thus: to LGBT rights.

(long list of other bullshit has been deleted from this blog, in an effort to avoid TL;DR)

They also want you to know how
"evil",
and un-respectably "foolish" all non-theists are;

-along with all pagans, and even all "so-called Christians" in the "wrong" sects,
and everyone who has sex outside of marriage,
etc..

They also want everyone to "know" that this world is literally not worth trying to save, because "prophecy" is about to be fulfilled, and it's all going to be destroyed by God anyways.

Also, don't worry about global climate change, because "God" won't let this world get wrecked until it's time for that.

It's not just "dark".
It's direct a threat to humanity's survival.
And they feel quite literally entitled
to be that threat.

It's not just "talking".

In fact, the very IDEA of them speaking with you or I ~as equals~ is distasteful to them.

They are entitled to speak down to us as a moral authority OVER us.

Why?
Because they are the mouth-piece of The Creator Of The Universe (in their delusional mind). 

So if you or I question them, then:

 We are questioning our God.

If we doubt them, we are doubting our God.

If we find fault with anything they say from that soapbox, we are finding fault with our God.

It's all just extreme clinical narcissism, with a religious pretense.

-Which is why they also willfully and habitually gaslight, every moment they're up there.

Even the general nature of the unequal social dynamic, between:
 them as an "authority"
over
all outsiders
(and just because they feel entitled to it) 
is itself a dysfunctional social paradigm.

Calling that a "disrespect" is putting it mildly. 

So many people recognize that, about the way those people talk to and about "the world".

In fact, even the phrase "the world" is, itself, a derogatory expression; meant to demonizing literally everyone who isn't one of them.

Clued-in people 
respond badly to that abuse.

Only impressively oblivious people say "What abuse?" and then shift that guilt over to critics. 

Several years ago,
the Pope realized (at least, to some extent) 
how shitty that is.

And so,
the Pope encouraged Catholics to be a "witness" in a healthier way; without the intrusive antagonism.

- To simply be virtuose and relatable people. So that people would see that, admire it, and draw closer.

Let people be so impressed that they start asking about why you're so at-peace, happy, and living such a blessed life.

And then Catholics can credit their walk with God.

Otherwise, 
people respond badly to it.

And honestly, they should respond very negatively to it.

Because one thing the Pope was never going to admit was that the entire sales pitch is literally a mafia-type Protection Racket.

It's legalized racketeering.

---
"Nice soul ya got there.
It would be ... a shame
if something bad happened to it".
---

If Christianity had not existed until *after* human civilization developed strongly clarified and strongly enforced laws against that behavior,...

Christian "outreach" would never have been legalized.

It would not fall under Free Speech; the same as all other forms of extorsion do not qualify as protected speech.

But because Christianity was here and common before human civilization advanced that far,

and
because they are so thoroughly self-weaponized with a radically skewed persecution complex,

and
because they are so ever-ready to play that card, and then to amplify it with dangerously entitled religious rhetoric,

and since the morally-themed "calling" to commit extorsion is inseparable from from their ideology,

it was "grandfathered in" with full legal exemption.

So now,
here were are.

We're still trying to advance further,
as the anchor of religious fundamentalism slows chafes, and sometimes even drags us violently backward down the mountain;
the mountain which pagans, deists, atheists, and even progressive-Christians are trying to climb, towards our great potential.

We'd be SO much further ahead by now,
if so many wonderfully "righteous" saboteurs weren't fighting us every step of the way;

while their utterly clueless, politically-correct defenders get angry in their DEFENSE,
 every time we publicly rebuke those public behaviors.