I’ve never met anyone who joined a religion because someone came to their door one day.
…Yeah…I have. I know liberal Christians don’t like to think about this and all, but some Christians do prey on people who are at an emotionally weak point in their lives. My grandmother (not the Catholic one) converted to some form of Protestantism (not sure which specifically) after my granddad died because he killed himself and at that point in time you couldn’t even be buried in a Catholic cemetery if you’d committed suicide. The church ladies had been trying to convert the local Mexican population for years so after Granddad died they all went over at once and made sure she knew how welcomed she’d be with them.
Now, this was a woman who had just had her entire life turned upside down. She hadn’t even had a chance to talk to her own priest yet. Within hours of her husband dying she was descended upon by a bunch of women whose goal for decades had been to convert the Mexicans. And, because my grandmother was obviously emotionally unprepared to deal with the potential arguments, they managed to get her to give up the religion she’d been raised in.
We like to act like only cults prey on the weak and alone. In reality every religion that believes in proselytising does on some level or another. If your church opens their soup kitchen or food pantry only to people who are willing to say a prayer or listen to a sermon, they are preying on people. If your congregation only sends aid to missions or sister churches in foreign countries, they are preying on people. The vast majority of what we consider “Christian charity” is in reality a form of religious coercion. They are targeting people who have no other options and pretending that somehow they’re being altruistic.
