Don’t force your religion on me! - Part 1

This wild cry is thrown up for different reasons by different people. Sometimes even by Christians, in the form of “we should not force Christianity on them.” I am going to try to address the various reasonings behind this apparent outrage.

EVANGELISM (in the US)

Christian:

You can’t force a person to believe something. You can’t force someone to want something. If people don’t want to change, they won’t. It’s as simple as that.

[...]

If you don’t want [Christianity], I can’t convince you to believe it, and I won’t try.

[...]

[Coming to Christ] isn’t a command. It’s not an ultimatum.

It’s an offer.

I hope you take it. But if you don’t want it, don’t take it.

I can’t force you to, and I hope others respect your distance, too.

This was written by a Christian friend of mine. Now, notice how persuasion and force are made equals. My friend is not writing against holding a gun to someone’s head and telling them to convert. What is being contrasted is an ultimatum and an offer. The ultimatum in view is likely summarized by everyone’s favorite phrase, “turn or burn!’ Whereas, the offer seems to be a rather passive thing in which the Christian lives his life never trying to spread the gospel except by going about their business and telling others that Christianity worked for them (without, of coarse, insinuating that the unbeliever is in need of the same). Actively seeking out people to talk to them about the gospel in a persuasive manner is painted as forcing them into Christianity!

This is reminiscent of something typically attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words.” While we ought to live our lives in a manner that reflects the Gospel (Phil 1:27), it is always necessary to use words and unbiblical not to do so. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we ought to persuade and beg men to be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:11,20). Paul reasoned with Jew and Gentile alike in a variety of places (Acts 17). I can hardly imagine Paul being run out of a number of cities because he went in and told some people that “If you don’t want Christianity, I can’t convince you to believe it, and I won’t try.”

There is the matter of people being pressured into false conversion, but that hardly seems sufficient cause to do away with evangelism! Perhaps, instead, we ought to reconsider some of the unbiblical ideas that easily lead to false conversions.

Unregenerate:

There are plenty of non-Christians who abhor the idea of evangelism or “trying to force your religion on others.” Notice that in this instance, jut like the Christian in the previous section, the unbeliever mistakes force and persuasion as being identical. The typical objection given is that you cannot tell a that they are wrong and you are right. This is usually for a couple of reasons:

1. Religion is a private matter.
2. Who are you (the evangelist) to say that they (the unregenerate) believe like you?

1. Religion is a private matter. It shouldn’t matter to anyone else what someone believes.

Is religion really a private matter? Not according to the Christian world-view. Man is sinful and accountable to God. The Christian is commanded to spread the Gospel out of love for God, fear of God, and love for others.

Anyone telling the Christian that religion is private and that the Christian ought not try to “force” others to believe Christian beliefs is holding a double-standard. This person is telling the Christian that Christianity (which is supposedly private) is wrong concerning this matter (trying to “force” the Christian to give up his belief).

2. Who are you (the evangelist) to say that they (the unregenerate) should believe like you?

This questions the authority by which the Christian makes his claims by appealing to some sort of equality of beliefs. This inherently assumes the belief in the equality of beliefs is superior to the belief in an inequality of beliefs. One cannot argue for all beliefs being equal without touting that belief as being superior.

Or perhaps this person is questioning the authority by which the Christian evangelizes by taking the “humble” approach of epistemological uncertainty. No one can know anything about metaphysics. This idea already assumes many things about metaphysics: that people exist, that there is knowledge of metaphysics, and that something prevents people from accessing that knowledge. If person A says he knows nothing of ultimate reality, how can person A tell person B that person B knows nothing of ultimate reality (such knowledge as could only come about by person A actually having knowledge of ultimate reality).

All of the objections that I know about concerning that hateful act of forcing others to believe like you known as evangelism are self-defeating. They ultimately always commit the very thing they are arguing against.