Compassion??Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 5:41 pmMuslims, yes; Christians, on the average, absolutely not. There's actually no more generally compassionate and empathetic group of people on the planet. And you can see that much from the fact that they are the overwhelming contributors to charity and the public good. And if you know Christian theology, you know that Jesus was hated because of his association with the tax-collectors, prostitutes and lowlifes of his day. Far from lacking compassion, He said, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost," i.e. the "non-theists" and those otherwise very far from God.Veritas Aequitas wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 7:40 am Just as some atheists who lacked empathy for theists, theists [some] like Christians [and Muslims] in the desperate grip to God do not have empathy for non-theists as human beings. {eta}
Well, maybe that's how it happened; maybe the boy was overzealous and became unkind. Maybe.I just had a personal bad encounter from some Christians; one son of my relative coerced his father [terminal, bed-ridden and skeletal] into declaring his faith for Christ; the father in his weakened state agreed due to the son's persistence; but later he told the other children he does not accept Christ; the father died a week later and the other children [all except one are Christians] gave him a non-Christian burial.
This is spiritual terrorism!
But now, try to look at it the other way. One son of your relatives was the only person who had concern for his father's soul. He might have stayed silent and saved himself the conflict with your other relatives. He might have let the older man go to Hell. But he did not. He risked his own situation, pled with his father to choose an eternal destiny with God, even at the last minute, when the old man had no other prospect in view but death; and the father refused. How tragic! Who, in that situation, was really deficient in empathy: the boy, or the other relatives?
That's not terrorism. It's compassion.
Btw, most of his other relatives are already Christians as converted by the very zealous fundamentalistic son [using the usual threat of ending in eternal hell].
Having spoken to the father, I can sensed he was subjected to terrible stress from the persistent threats by the zealous son in addition to his already terminal, bed-ridden and skeletal state.
You are supporting spiritual terrorism in this case.
In such a particular case you are without a moral-compass, re morality-proper of generic human nature.
Is it written in the Gospels [not the OT] that a Christian is duty bound to convert even those in the most weakened near-death state?
Discuss??
Views??