The Propriety of Evangelism

It's no secret that I don't approve of religion. It is a system of lies that people tell themselves and others about the world, and these lies obscure their view of reality. Much as I would like to see religion eradicated, though, I know that in a free society, this is not likely to ever happen. This is because private beliefs are not something to be policed, and beyond my disapproval of religion, I disapprove far more of forcing belief (or disbelief) on the unwilling.

It is when one's private beliefs start to spill out into one's public actions that religion becomes a cause for real concern. Many religions require their adherents to evangelize and spread their religion. Is this a violation of the rights of those they accost? In the United States, we have the right to freedom of religion. But do we have the right to freedom from religion?

I would submit that we do, and that evangelism is sometimes in violation of this right to freedom of and from religion.

Basically, to quote a sentiment that has already been seen all over the internet, religion is like a penis.

It's fine to have one (or not), and it's fine to be proud of it. It is not quite proper to be waving it about willy-nilly in public, and it is definitely not acceptable to shove it down anyone's throat.

Let me tell you of one day in which I crossed paths with two evangelists.

The first evangelist was speaking on the mall of Old Dominion University, which I attended at the time. Perhaps "speaking" is not the proper word. He was spewing forth his venomous, hate-filled bile about how every one of us there was a sinner, and was going to hell. He was cursing us for living sin-filled lives of debauchery and was even more outspoken in his belief that homosexuals were destined to damnation.

I had some time on my hands, and because what he was doing disgusted me, I went up to talk to him. He thought, at first, that I was threatening him (I had thought there was a fencing demo that day, and so had my épée sheathed on my back, and he apparently thought I was going to run him through with it), but after I set the scary practice blade a little ways away, I was able to engage in a kind of dialogue with him.

This conversation consisted mainly of him yelling things that didn't make sense, and/or quoting selectively from the Bible. Having a bit of grounding in scripture myself, I asked him why he had shaved that day, whether his clothes were of mixed fibers, and if he liked shellfish or bacon -- all these being outlawed in Leviticus, from which he was quoting quite a lot. He sputtered more nonsense, decided to ignore my rational questions, and decided to prove God's existence to me.

Using the banana argument. Which was laughable.

After a bit, there was a crowd of jeering students keeping watch over my épée, and another atheist up with me, toying with the poor deluded fellow who could not admit that he hadn't a leg to stand on. A little later, the campus police arrived and escorted the evangelist off the campus for, I assume, causing a ruckus and generally being insulting.

As I was headed off the lawn, a guy approached me, and asked if he could walk with me. He had that look about him that suggested a partner and two bicycles weren't far off, but I figured that I could always just walk into a lady's room in the student center if he wouldn't go away.

Sure enough, he introduced himself as a Mormon missionary after a moment, and asked if I’d like to hear more about his religion. I said, “No, thank you, I’m actually an atheist.”

He said, “Oh, alright then,” and walked me back to my dorm, with never another word said about religion.

Now, I know that this might not be exactly representative of the way most Mormon missionaries operate. To be honest, I never found them terribly offensive, but that might be because of how my mother handled them on their frequent visits. They would ask about our religious affiliation, my mother would explain that we were Catholic and had no interest in converting; they would ask if there was anything they could do to help out anyways, and my mother would reply that she could use some help cleaning the outside of the windows. I have very few memories of anyone in our family ever having to clean the windows.

That said, I'd prefer that the Mormon missionary hadn't bothered me about his religion that day, but I would not curtail is option to do so. He offered to tell me about it, I refused, and he respected my refusal. It was handled with dignity and professionalism. I have no objections to this approach to evangelism.

The other man, to my mind, was violating the rights of everyone who passed by when he condemned them for fornication, or for promoting homosexuality, or for just not being his specific flavor of Christian. He shoved his "religion penis" down the metaphorical throats of everyone there, with no regard to whether we wanted to swallow it. He was asked many times, even many times politely, to stop or to leave. He refused. This kind of evangelism is not acceptable. It should be considered what it is -- hate speech -- and those who practice it ought to be prosecuted.

If we live in a country where freedom of religion is a right, we have to understand that this right gives us freedom from many religions, and, if we choose, freedom from all religions.