Why so many pushy Christians?

Question

I'm so frustrated with people trying so hard to evangelize through Yahoo! Answers. While I understand it's a great opportunity, can't it be done in a more rational way than emotional? It's the pushy Christians that give Christianity a bad name. Just curious.

(and yes, I am a Christian).

Wow, I didn't mean Christianity was totally rational, I meant that people aren't thinking before they type their answers to some of these questions. They're responding with their emotion and anger that someone doesn't agree with them, and not thinking, "is this going to turn people off of Christianity." I believe that Christianity can be reasoned to a degree, but I agree that some fundamental aspects of Christianity are unreasonable--as in, unable to be reasoned.

Answer 1

I'm a Christian, too. It's hard to tell people about Jesus without scaring them off, but I don't think we should be rude about sharing our faith. Jesus told us to go out into all the nations and preach the gospel, but a lot of people forget that that have to preach it with love. It's hard. None of us are perfect and we live in a world full of sinners who need Jesus! Also, hypocrisy is a big thing. You know, people get fed up with people telling them how to live- finding the speck in your brother's eye when you have a log in your own. The best thing we can do is first Love God, and love others. If we act like Jesus acted, then we won't have any excuse. Some people are going to be offended anyway, but don't let them discourage you. Stay strong in the faith and pray for your enemies. I hope this helped and that I wan't too "pushy"! God Bless!

Answer 2

Religion is emotional, and Christians do get pushy, most out of concern, some out of their own insecurity in their faith. I try to not be pushy, but to simply answer/ask a question with love and concern. I may not always come across this way, but everyone interprets an answer differently, what I see as concern, someone else may see as pushy. I think that as a Christian we have a responsibility to tell others of Gods plan, and his love for all of us. But, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. We all need to pray before we answer or ask any question, and we need to know there will always be those who aren't open to what we say, so be it. I am not personally threatened by any other religion, or person on answers or anywhere else. I have my beliefs and my faith and I am sustained by this. God Bless!!

Answer 3

I agree to some extent, we are pushy. We have a very serious matter at heart. The eternal destiny of people. I think it´s better to be found a little pushy at times than to neglect the salvation of people and be found burying your talent for fear of being called fanatic, pushy and so on (i´ve been called a lot worse than that, even by other Christians). So, i´m glad that you´ve seen the opinions of other Christians here and that may help you form a better opinion for yourself. God love and bless you and all the participants here!!!

Answer 4

The psychology of religious conversion is an interesting study in human behavior. Human's tend to be egocentric and self centered. I've seen that many who tend to proselytize tend to be more emotionallyand spiritually immature then people who've been faithful followers of a faith for there lifetime. The emotional immaturity and egocentricity tend to give these proselytizing the proverbial "mission from God" complex. They think their conversion is:

A. something they need to share and

B. Something only they can tell others about, and

C. They are the only ones that have experienced it.



I was raised in a devout Lutheran family, and as I age I see religions of all shapes and forms seem to have a "holier then though attitude".. I adopted about 20 years ago, what Aldous Huxley coined as agnosticism. My Philosophy of Religion professor in college and I call reverent agnosticism. I am a faithful deist, I don't try to proselytize, nor do I adopt any particular flavor of religious dogma. I am in fact more in line with adopted spiritual paths (as in the Buddhist paths to enlightenment) without the hooey of buddhism.

We are all spiritual beings, we are small parts of the big whole. From my view "C"hristians (assume they have a superior conversion experience to their faith then others).. The scripture they read discusses being "born again" and "spreading the gospel.. " While they tend to think people want to hear what they have to say, the tactless nature of a proselytizing egocentric "C"hristian turns people off what ever message that person is trying to communicate, albeit is message of peace and brotherhood.

Also, in this vein one must consider the other world religions and the muslim faith adopt similar if not more violent approachs to conversion methods.

Religion is for those who fear hell, spirituality is for those who have been there.

In terms of religions I tend to be a "c"hristian in practices but I don't buy any one particular dogmatic diatribe..

Answer 5

Several reasons why -- 1) very few people actually make a habit out of thinking. It's much easier to spout off emotionally concerning some hotbed issue. 2) Very few are familiar with the "standard, rule" by which our opinions are measured, evaluated. That standard is the Bible, and what we always say at our church is, "You shouldn't go by what the Bible says, but by what the Bible teaches." (People can pick and choose and make the Bible "say" whatever they want it to say.) 3) A third reason is kinda good -- people mostly do have a sense that truth matters, and while they may go about presenting that truth the wrong way, they are showing that it's worth talking about.

Answer 6

I agree. I doubt if anyone is going to suddenly convert to Christianity just because of statements on Yahoo Answers. Some of these people are way too pushy.

Answer 7

I don't know the answer to that.. I ask that myself sometimes... for a religion that preaches acceptance, love, caring, compassion, understanding and non judgement.. we sure are pushy, uncaring, non-understanding and judgemental of people of other religions.

I personally am not. I know that there are millions of people in the world that do not believe what I believe. I also know that just because I believe something doesn't make it right to someone else. I believe in freedom, and people should have the freedom to believe what they will .. and not be pressured, pushed or bullied into believing something else.

Answer 8

It seems to me that most Christians who are trying so hard to evangelize/proselytize are the ones who disregard the validity of the prophets and holy books sent to other peoples in the world.

Christ said, "Follow me, and I will take you to the Father." Well, seems that most folks stopped listening at "follow me", and so they worship Christ without actually following him to the Father.

The Father, God, Yahweh, Allah, Great Spirit, Tahoma.....he's greater than any church-shaped box any human tries to shove him into, yes? So this God has sent prophets to every group of people on earth, oppressed peoples/tribes who need a message of hope from a higher power, but because humans are basically greedy, wars are begun in the name of God to protect "the right way to heaven". It's all nonsense, in my opinion........God is bigger than all this, and if you read Baghavad Gita, Buddhist scriptures, Quuran, and the bible you will find they are all compatible if you read the messages of hope and peace. It is only when the angry diatribes are read and followed to the letter as "God's Command" that wars and death ensue.

It is my opinion that the people reading the latter are the ones trying so hard to proselytize and "save" people on sites like this. Please forgive my going overboard a tad. Thank you.

Answer 9

I'm curious as to why you haven't used the adjective "pushy" to describe some of the atheists on this board.

Quite a few of them are very "pushy" about their atheism -- not to mention intolerant of any beliefs that don't coincide with theirs.

Yet the Christians are being singled out for the "pushy" label, while the atheists are being given a pass. Why is that?

Answer 10

I agree, this is not the place to evangelize, it's for asking and answering, which I try to do to the best of my ability. Glad actually to see a question like this from a fellow Christian :)