I can’t think of any other faith besides Christianity that actively and aggressively recruits people outside the faith the way Christianity and it’s various sub-divisions does. Are there any?
Scientology qualifies, I believe.
I also have heard that Islam has been rather aggressive about recruiting folks at certain times and circumstances.
Maybe you should be more specific. Christianity is more of a category of faith. The sub-divisions that you mention may be more or less aggressive.
(Most) Catholics don’t aggressively recruit people into their religion.
Some Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on my door at 8:00 on a Saturday morning a few times a year.
Catholics and Jehovah’s Witnesses are both Christians but the beliefs have a lot of differences. The common factor is that they believe in Christ.
Mormons. I would consider Mormons Christians. myself, but as I’ve noted on this Board before, a lot of Christians don’t. They have an incredibly active missionary program, of course.
I haven’t seen them in ages, but the Hare Krishnas were very active when they started, and kept it up for many years.
Mormons are Christians? Are they any more a Christian Sect than Christians & Muslims are a Jewish Sect? It seems like the whole Book of the Mormon things makes them separate.
Please note, I am not being snarky, I am generally confused by including the LDS church and other Mormons as Christians. I am not religious, I am just seeking clarification.
Jim
Islam comes immediately to mind. As for Christianity aggressively recruiting these days, cite?
The Buddhist temple near my old place used to put out fliers inviting people to participate in services, and given that I doubt there were many people in the neighborhood that were practicing Buddhist, I think that counts as proselytizing.
You’ve never had a Jehovah’s witness knock on your door?
Are you joking?
Maryknoll Catholic Missionaries
Catholic Missionary Union of England and Wales
Conservative Christian Missions
The Evangelical Alliance Missions
Dozens more can be found with minimal googling.
How about missions in Third World countries? That used to be the way the Catholics converted African souls, although from what I’ve heard recently they’ve put less emphasis on proselytizing and more on medical help.
Does Islam have an equivalent to the Catholic mission in poorer countries?
Islam.
The Moonies are another classic example.
Buddhists do also, but are fairly low key.
That, evidently, is the feeling that most of the folks I’ve encountered have, as well.
But they base their religion on not merely the Bible, but they use the King James version (although Joseph Smith released some of his own translation of the Bible). They accept a great many of the interpretations of Christianity that many of the mainstream Protestant religions do (albeit with their own odd twists). Overall, they accept bigger pieces of Mainstream Christianity than Christians accept of mainstream Judaism.
Of course, they accept the Book of Mormon, the Doctrines and Covenants, the pearl of Great Price, and the treachings of Josepg Smiyth and the other LDS leaders as well, which sets them farther from Mainstream Christianity, so it clearly has blossomed into something Else. Classification is an organic disclipline, without rigid guidelines – it’s what you feel and what the vast majority feels. Does Mormonism merit a big branch of its own, or does it reside on the “Christian” branch? YMMV.
Mormons definitely consider themselves to be Christians. The majority of Christians do not consider themselves to be Jews. As to what people outside Mormonism say about it, that’s been discussed in many other threads.
Back in my college days ('80s), I was subjected to aggressive proselytizing by Protestants, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhists, Hare Krishnas and Scientologists, but never by Catholics or Jews that I can remember.
These days, no missionaries come to my door. I’ve occasionaly been politely offered Christian literature on the street, but that’s about it. I don’t know whether times have changed that much or I don’t look like such a juicy target these days.
If we expand “proselytizing” somewhat to include not only organized, institutional efforts but also “peer pressure,” I get that all the time from Christians. I don’t have many close associates who are followers of other faiths, so I can’t say how they would compare.
There’s a very active Buddhist monk missionary just out the main entrance to Dong Daegu Station in South Korea. I stop and listen for a while because he’s a very good guitarist.
What Exit?: Yes, we Mormons are Christians. Actually, the name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints*. We also use the Holy Bible (the Protestant canon). The Book of Mormon is not “the Mormon Bible,” it’s another volume of Scripture for us in addition to the Bible.
In Seoul, there is a respectably-sized mosque which used to have an active proselytizing program (about 30 years ago). I don’t know the current status of that.
The “Jews for Jesus” people are always passing out literature at colleges around here.
That’s pretty specifically a protestant phenomenon, actually.
Yeah, I realized after I posted that that they probably don’t count as far as the OP goes because they’re certainly not an actual Jewish religion, but a Protestant group aimed at converting people from Judaism to Christianity.
How are any of those aggressive? I don’t see any ‘convert or die’ or ‘non-Christians must die’ stuff there.
“Aggressive” in the sense of specifically targeting non-members of your faith and actively working to advertise (in various ways) and promote the benefits of your faith, in order to bring new adherents into your faith.
I didn’t read the OP that way, and astro confirms he did not mean it that way. Any actively proselytizing religion would qualify.
Most major religions that have spread from their area of origin are proselytizing, including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and certain sects of Hinduism. Judaism is very much an exception, having spread mainly through migration of adherents rather than conversion.
As far as I know, only the extremist Islamic terrorists offer the choice of conversion or death in 2008.
On the flip side sort of an agrressive “anti-conversion” in that it aggressively stops people from leaving : a big recent question in India in response to the conversion of lower caste Hindus to Christianity and, to a lesser extent to Islam and Buddhism. The Hindu fundamentalist parties have long worked to create a law to ban conversions. cite cite cite