proselytizing and evangelizing

UPDATED:  my letter to malaysiakini ‘nobody can proselytize to you if you are strong’ sent this morning, appeared in malaysiakini this afternoon. what i wrote there more or less same as this post – minus of course the long-winded part about other christians trying to proselytize to me. click here to read the letter.

ORIGINAL POST

Proselytizing intrudes into the person’s spiritual life and pushes him to convert. Muslims in their own countries often proselytize Catholics, who are forced to renounce their faith or suffer severe consequences, even death. Many centuries ago too many misinformed Catholics proselytized Jews. Catholic teaching, based on free will, firmly rejects such activities.

Evangelizing witnesses to the faith and allows the person to decide for himself whether to come forward. Jesus of Nazareth spoke to the people wherever they gathered to hear Him. Each individual was free to stay or go, believe or not, and be responsible to God alone for his decision. Jesus told us, Jn 20:21 “As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” Catholics are to evangelize as Jesus did, by gently inviting Jews to become interested in God’s glory through His Messiah.

taken from second exodus.

proselytize – to induce someone to convert to one’s own religious faith.

christians do not proselytize but evangelize. evangelize doesn’t mean going around with a bible in one hand and calling "convert if you want to be save" and preaching away like mad. well… ok maybe to some extremists christians they did that, but evangelizing, as it was defined "witness to the faith" is simply living our faith as an example in which itself will attract people. for example, i am in the society of st vincent de paul, a society where we help the less fortunate and needy people, regardless of race and religion. when we help them, they were grateful to us saying things like "the christian very good people because they help us a lot" – that is living our faith, that is evangelizing itself without us really realising it.

if anything, catholics is the denomination that is poorest at evangelizing (that’s why we usually get lecture from our priest!), and yet here, there are people who think we are trying to proselytize…. and worst… just by letting people read the word ‘allah’ in our catholic publication.

it’s true.. and a fact, catholics are not so passionate and good at evangelizing. it is the other denominations, especially jehovah witness that usually go all out to evangelize people. why, i myself, though a catholic, had been approached by other christians to convert to their denomination!

i remember when i was 13 years old in school, a school mate, who is from the protestant church, invited me to join their church house gathering after school, and i used to oblige and attended her church gathering once a week… and yet here i am still a catholic.

i remember about 20 years ago, when i was working in beach street, one of the most popular commercial area in penang, a couple of people from the jehovah witness church used to drop in my office and preached to me about accepting jesus if i want to be saved. though i told them i am a catholic and already accepted jesus, yet they were persistent preaching to me to lure me to their church. i listened, i gladly took their brochures to read… and yet i am still a catholic today.

the point is if your faith is strong, why are you so scared of people proselytizing or evangelizing  to you? you listen, you read… but you’ll still remain rooted firmly to your own faith if you believe in your own faith strongly. if you listen and read, then get confused, this means your own faith is shaky.

remember the definition of proselytizing right in the beginning? it intrudes into one’s spiritual life and forces one to convert. tell me, if you happen to read a publication not of your faith, is that intruding into your life? and how does just you reading it, forces you to convert?

i always think that it is kind of silly that there is a law in our country that prohibits non muslim to proselytize to muslim. isn’t religion suppose to be a personal thing? why do we need a law then? isn’t this so telling of the government not trusting their own muslim brethrens? thank god there is no law that says no proselytizing to the christians… i would be very offended if there is! oh yeah, also of course this case of the banning of the word allah from the government is also very much ‘telling’!!