What generally happens in the
field of conversion is that certain groups are targeted for
conversion activity. I would like to discriminate between two
different things. One is the change of religion, which people may
opt for, based upon open and friendly discussion, debate, dialogue
and studies. Nothing is wrong with that. But I would discriminate
that from what I would call the "global missionary
business".
The global missionary business
is one of the largest, perhaps even the largest business in the
world. Not only the Catholic Church, but also various Protestant
organizations have set aside billions of dollars to convert
non-Christians to Christianity. They have trained thousands of
workers, have formed various plans of evangelization and conversion
and have targeted certain communities for that particular purpose.
This
multi-national conversion business is like any multi-national
economic business. It is not something that is simply fair and open.
It is not simply a dialogue or a discussion.
So what we see with this missionary business is a
definite strategy for one religion to convert the members of other
religions. This conversion business is not about religious freedom.
It is about one religion triumphing over all the other religions. It
is about making all the members of humanity follow one religion,
giving up and, generally, denigrating the religion they had
previously been following.
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