Satanic Evangelism)

I think the most important question when one starts criticizing another’s faith is, “why are you doing this?” What compels one to just start going off with all the things they see as wrong in another religion? To disparage something that they know others hold as sacred?

The answer that I always hear is the same: “I’m trying to help you to see what that you’ve been misguided, so you can be saved. I’m doing this because I love you.”

Which is about as sensible as when a man strikes his wife and says he does so because of how much he loves her. Berating people for their sincerely held beliefs and insulting that which they hold sacred is abusive. It is not loving. It is not caring. It comes from a desire to tear down and not to build up. It does not seek to save. It seeks to condemn. It is not Christian. It is devilish.

Dabbling in the Dark)

I know this, because I participated in it on my mission. Back in 2009 I left on a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On that mission, I often came across evangelists from other faiths, and I am sorry to say that we would occasionally get into lively sparring sessions on why we believed in our church…and why they shouldn’t believe in theirs. “Bible bashing” is the common term.

Now, when we were trained as missionaries, the potential for these Bible bashes came up, and the guidance we were given for what to do in such situations was always consistent and clear: “just don’t.” Don’t look for scriptures to prove the other side wrong. Don’t criticize or demoralize. Don’t try to win. Just don’t.

Unfortunately, pride and ego are very strong, and at times I did enter into these verbal mud-wrestling matches. And from that experience, I can attest to the motives and the feelings that are behind the dismantling of another person’s faith. It is not love, it is not charity, and it is not a desire to help them. It is cruelty. It is wanting to beat them, to make them lose. It is hoping for their damnation and rubbing their faces in it.

It is evil, pure and simple, and I repent that I ever participated in it to any degree.

The Pleasure of Domination)

The instruction of our missionary trainers was absolutely correct. No one should ever descend into Bible bashing another person’s faith.

Does that mean to never discuss spiritual differences and never respond to attacks against your faith? No. I do think there is a place for defending oneself and clarifying one’s position. I do think one ought to correct the record when his faith is misrepresented in public forums. I do think there can even be value in structured and civil debate. But if one cannot see the difference between these and disparaging and insulting another’s faith, then they cannot see the difference between righteous defense and devilish destruction. Or he is willfully ignoring the distinction because he still wants the pleasure of breaking what another has.

Because, at the end of the day, insulting someone else’s beliefs does feel “good.” It feels powerful and addicting. It rewards the carnal sensibilities within. It both satisfies and deepens one’s hunger for contention.

A person who ridicules another for their sincere beliefs does not want to save that person. He wants to dominate that person and feel superior to them. He is lashing out from a place of insecurity. I know this because I sadly experimented with those behaviors myself. I know the genuine darkness that I felt in my heart when I gave in to this temptation, and now I recognize that same darkness in those who disparage my faith. I know the ill will that it is behind it, so I do not excuse it. Not in myself and not in them.

Not only is this sort of theological bullying evil, it is also ineffective. If a person actually did sincerely wish to save a brother or a sister, then this would never be the method that they should use. We’ll take a look at what that better method would look like next time, and even consider the example of a skeptic of the LDS faith who uses it correctly.