Didn't know where to post this

[Poco]

Hey ipwnuathalo, thank you for all that Christian charity you’re spreading around here, pal!

Been havin’ a rough time lately? We’ll pray for you.

 

[ipwnuathalo]

Just calling a spade a spade, brutha man. Feelin the need for a little false charity? I can hook you up with that too, if you like. Oh wait, I’m not a liar, sorry, forgot for a minute.

 

[Leela]

I don’t think yelling on street corners would help the Catholic cause, but I do agree with you in that people don’t talk about their religion very much. Based on polls, people think it is very important that others believe in religion, but people seem to be very uncomfortable about talking about what they specifically believe with anyone who may not agree with them. I suppose the response that another gave about prayer rather than evangelism makes sense considerring Jesus says that we know a tree by its fruits and will know a Christian by their love. Evangelism then takes the form of spreading the love rather than spreading beliefs. The idea is that if Catholics spread the love then belief will take care of itself. I agree to an extent. It’s not that I think people will come to believe that all the Catholic doctrine is true, but I think with a spread he love approach to evangelism, people exposed to love will be more inclined to believe things that are consistent with love and less inclined to believe things that are inconsistent with love. In spreading the love, Catholic doctrine will be at an advantage to whatever extent it helps us love and perhaps be at a disadvantage to whatever extent it gets in the way. Personally, I think that it too often gets in the way, but others have had a different experience with it.

 

[rwinner]

Good question! Well, first, you have to be aware of the context in which you are in. In the U.S. or Europe, where Christianity is the majority religion, you have to be aware that in one sense you are preaching to the choir and in another sense, where people are not Christians, you may be producing antagonism in your hearers which will result in less souls being open to the message of Christ, not more. That is not the result you want! Another problem is that many of those you are trying to ‘convert’ are going to be Protestants. Due to the long history of tension between Catholics and Protestants, and further, the Catholic recognition of the legitimacy of the Protestant conversion and baptism, ‘conversion’ of Protestants to Catholicism, while desirable, may not be necessary. Now, if you were in a non-Western country, a country where Christianity is not a majority belief, or where Christians are oppressed, this is different. Here, door to door or one-on-one evangelization may be the right approach. By far, the greatest act of evangelization must be the example of your conduct of life. Nothing speaks louder than actions. Jesus preached to many thousands of people, but by far his greatest work of evangelization was his sacrificial suffering and death. HTH!