Why do fundies want to convert everyone?

[fakepigtails73]

Their god is a cruel monster who has no problem casting millions of his creations into eternal torture. They want to teach those billions the correct rituals so that they can appease their abusive father-figure and spend eternity in a slightly less awful place, where they will get to be servants to a petty, angry, vengeful god and spend eternity with a bunch of self-righteous blowhards.

:evil:

Hence why I think that the scariest christians are the Puritans of the Dominionist (Theonomy) variety. Their plan for our countries is akin to "The Handmaid's Tale" with a touch of talibanism. No laughter, no fun, no (real) joy.

[emmiedahl]

I also have another theory, that particularly applies to Mormons but really affects all Evangelicals. Trying to convert complete strangers and failing increases the group cohesion. Two young Mormon boys go knocking on doors, only to get yelled at or ignored time and time again. It reinforces their view that the outside world is hostile and unwelcoming, and they can only really rely on their own group. And this works times a hundred when a group of young Mormons go to some foreign country where they don't even speak the language to do "missions work". They all go through this hardship together and they only have each other. It's a similar experience when Jana and John David (?) went on that trip to somewhere in Asia. Someone thought tofu was the weirdest thing ever, which shows how sheltered they were so they wouldn't handle that experience the same way as some other teens would.

The LDS missionaries are taught the language before they go. They have quotas, and they are severely reprimanded if they do not reach them. Which sucks because not many people are buying what they sell.

[Buzzard]

I have no idea if this was what Roddenberry had in mind, but they totally remind me of the Borg. Resistance is futile...

[Shoobydoo]

It's been a long time since I read the preachier books, but didn't the Narnia version of this debate boil down to "every good action, regardless of whose name it's done in, is done for Aslan" and vice versa. So knowledge of the god figure in question was irrelevant, it was all based on how you behave. I always thought that was a system that could actually work without being horrifically unfair. Unless I'm remembering all that wrong, I was pretty young the last time I read one that wasn't The Silver Chair or Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

[JesusFightClub]

It's been a long time since I read the preachier books, but didn't the Narnia version of this debate boil down to "every good action, regardless of whose name it's done in, is done for Aslan" and vice versa. So knowledge of the god figure in question was irrelevant, it was all based on how you behave. I always thought that was a system that could actually work without being horrifically unfair. Unless I'm remembering all that wrong, I was pretty young the last time I read one that wasn't The Silver Chair or Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

That's from The Last Battle, easily the wankiest of the Narnia books (and it has some stiff, er, competition). There are worrying undertones there, too (there was *one* good person who believed in Tash? Just one?) but the whole book could have been subtitled "Muslims are Bastards".