Christian Missionary Work in India: A Controversial Debate

[chound]

WHy do christians preach a lot! There are actually 2 channels in India specially for that purpose and other channels too have half hour programmes for that.

Okay preaching is not wrong but they give money to people to convert them to Christianity!

 

[Pengwuino]

who'se giving them money? Like, the members of the church? I give money with the idea that it will be spent maintaning and continuing the church.

I think these little TV preachers are kinda... ehh, out there.

 

[chound]

Anyway why do christians like to convert other faith members to their own so much? What do they get by that?

 

[iansmith]

WHy do christians preach a lot! There are actually 2 channels in India specially for that purpose and other channels too have half hour programmes for that.
Okay preaching is not wrong but they give money to people to convert them to Christianity!

Preaching is one way to communicate the content of the bible and its set of values, morales and ideologies. So by preaching your sending the message to your own group of people and to people that are interrested to receive the message. It is used as an advertisement campaign.

The money is given to the "church" in order to help maintain the church, as a fund for those in need and give the priest or the preacher a certain salaries. So by joining the christianity community you have a certain "responsibility" toward their religious community. Unfortunately, mismanagement of the funds occurs often and more so with preachers that appear on TV.

This is a simplified explanation because different christian group will have different opions and have additional reasons.

Anyway why do christians like to convert other faith members to their own so much? What do they get by that?

In a very simplified explanation, the christians see themself as the chosen ones (like many other religious groups) and by converting people they help the non-christian accept God and Jesus and these non-christian people will be saved from Hell. It is view as a good action.

 

[chound]

I think u have misunderstood the part about money, In backward areas of India, Christians give money to nonchristians sometimes force non christians to convert

 

[Astronuc]

Anyway why do christians like to convert other faith members to their own so much? What do they get by that?

chound, it is not universally true that 'christians' like to convert members of other faiths. However, there are those 'christians' who evangelize and prosyletize, and quite aggressively, with the intent to convert others. I personally disagree with this practice, and IMO, it violates basic principles of christianity as I learned it. So, like any other religion, one will find a spectrum of christian practices, and sometimes views on chrisitanity are diametrically opposed.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Really active "preaching" is not limited to India. I lived on a reservation for 20 years- Santo Domigo Reservation, It is tribal land belonging to the Keres-speaking Santo Domingo people - in New Mexico, USA.

There is a LOT of activity from the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). One guy has a house that was fully paid for by the LDS Church, with the stipluation that Church members could use his house for "meetings" - whatever that entails - with prospective converts.

 

[Phobos]

I daresay that every religion preaches and/or tries to convert others to some degree...it's just that some Christian churches have tons of money and can afford to use the mass media. But why so much? Perhaps this is associated with the Christian belief of having access to the Absolute Truth.

 

[loseyourname]

chound, it is not universally true that 'christians' like to convert members of other faiths. However, there are those 'christians' who evangelize and prosyletize, and quite aggressively, with the intent to convert others. I personally disagree with this practice, and IMO, it violates basic principles of christianity as I learned it.

How does evangelism violate any principle of Christianity? Christ spent his adult life converting people, and told his apostles to do the same after he died.

 

[GCT]

and note that often you shouldn't generalize to the "Christian church" the group is very diverse.

From my early church experiences, it's the members themselves that are sensitive to such issues and some churches who are, say less intelligent, on their methods of finance are often subject to great dissent within the congregation and exploitation by the media.

 

[Astronuc]

How does evangelism violate any principle of Christianity? Christ spent his adult life converting people, and told his apostles to do the same after he died.

Converted to what? There was no Christianity then. Certainly Christ did not convert people to worship himself, which is what Christian evangelists tend to do!

The problem here is that this is headed into a religious discussion, which is expressly forbidden, or at least discouraged on PF. Certainly, my opinions conflict with Christian evangelists and fundamentalists.

from PF Global Guidelines

Discussions that assert the a priori truth or falsity of religious dogmas and belief systems, or value judgments stemming from such religious belief systems, will not be tolerated. As a rule of thumb, some topics pertaining to religion might be permissible if they are discussed in such a way so as to remain neutral on the truth of, or value judgments stemming from, religious belief systems.

I am not sure how to avoid what could be interpreted as a value judgement about 'Christianity'.

However, historically, it would be useful to look at -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecumenical_council
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Constantinople
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Ephesus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Chalcedon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Council_of_Nicaea (seventh ecumenical council of Christianity)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgate

The big problem is what was included in what is now the Bible (Old + New Testaments), how it was translated, and what was excluded. Even now, translations modify the meaning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I_(emperor) - Constantine made Christianity a 'State' (Imperial) religion, which I am sure Jesus never intended.

I would like to reiterate GCT's point - there are many flavors of Christianity, i.e. it is a rather amorphous religion, and while many groups evangelize, many others do not, and of those groups which evangelize, some are aggressive and others are not.

 

[loseyourname]

You're right. There is no way to discuss this without discussing the specifics of Christian doctrine. For another board . . .