It happens while I’m sitting near the Janss Steps, deciphering a line of dense English text. Or while I’m hunched over a thick textbook outside of Northern Lights.
They descend like Dementors, sucking the focus out of me with their silent approach. And then they pry: “Can we talk to you about Christianity?”
Proselytizing has its purpose, like converting the masses to acquire lands during the Crusades. But to proselytize on a college campus serves no purpose but to seduce and consequently close the wide-open minds of impressionable, aspiring intellects.
We all came to a university to expand our perceptions and think critically about the world. We also came to find out who we want to be. Those who haven’t established themselves and their beliefs are easily taken advantage of, and are more susceptible to buying into the religious doctrines pushed upon them by proselytizers.
But this is the time for us to explore for ourselves and question everything, including religion. What we really need is time and space to seek out a faith for ourselves. Proselytizers steal this possibility from those who are easily persuaded. While the majority of us are strong enough to brush off the disturbing rants of “Homo sex is sin!” or “Jews shall burn in hell!” of the raging proselytizers on Bruin Walk, it’s harder when the person peddling belief doctrines is a fellow student.
You may be thinking to yourself, “I’ve never been approached by a student proselytizer before!” If so, consider yourself lucky. Within the short year and a few weeks that I’ve been a UCLA student, I’ve been approached a total of four times by student members of Christian groups, all trying to urge me to join their pious posses. I must carry some mark, unbeknownst to me, that screams “AGNOSTIC ““ PLEASE SAVE!” And I know I’m not the only one. Just after I get up and leave my carefully selected study spot to avoid the persistent proselytizers, they move on to a nearby subject; one who usually, in my observations, actually stays to listen to their preaching. What truly worries me is that a student may actually consider converting after having one of these five-minute conversations.
Just as peer pressure works for pushing things like alcohol and marijuana on innocent fellow students, it works all the same for the opiate of the masses: religion. It’s hard to turn down a peer’s persuasions. With turning down a peer, there’s the chance of botching a possible future friendship, or the embarrassment of awkwardly running into them again on campus. Yet with something as fundamentally individual as faith, it’s important to ignore these proselytizers all the same and scrutinize every possibility until we stumble upon our own answers to life’s hardest questions. Accepting the words of a proselytizer as ultimate truth may seem intriguingly easy, but it’s a cop-out of going through the faith-seeking process on your own. I formulated my theory about God through many years of questioning. I started out my life believing that God is some elderly man with a white beard who spends his days sitting on a cloud throne. This belief quickly passed, only to be replaced by many other temporary beliefs. I even considered myself an atheist for a while before realizing that a belief in no God is truly as naive as a belief in God as an old man. The world did not just materialize from nothing. And even if it did, what caused the nothing to become something?
I read religious texts left and right (literally ““ the Torah reads from right to left), making sure to read those of all major persuasions. I talked at length with people of all faiths, but by seeking them out, not by listening to the manipulative speech of pesky proselytizers. They all had positive lessons and theories to contribute, but as beliefs, how could any one in totality be right? How could any one human-derived doctrine trump another?
Thus I resolved to be agnostic, believing that it is impossible to know whether or not God exists, at least for the time being. For, if God made us, who made God? And who made that God? The line of questioning never ends for me. The concept of God is too complex for my mind to grasp, and, in my opinion, no one has cracked the God mystery yet, even the overly-nice student crusaders who are so eager to tell you that their doctrine is truth. Yet my mind is open to discuss all possibilities, and to formulate new theories. And I never intend to convert others to my theories. I wouldn’t want to hinder them from formulating their own.
In a world where everyone has their own theories and beliefs, and we all accept that our own theory is no better than anyone else’s, civil war or conflicts carried out in the name of religion just wouldn’t exist. No one would attempt to press their beliefs on one another. There would be no conflict between the Shiites and Sunnis. No conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics. Everyone would admit that their belief could, in fact, be wrong, and persecution and slandering of religious minority views would be null.
If only this world existed, I wouldn’t have my focus rudely broken by student proselytizers while peacefully going about my own business on campus. I just thank my nondescript higher power that I’m an inquisitive individual, too skeptical to be affected by such proselytizing. I do, however, fear for those who may actually be manipulated by the peer pressure of student proselytizers.
Thus I urge religious student groups to stop their aggressive proselytizing practices. Their signs are all over Bruin Walk. These groups are so accessible. If students decide on their own that they are interested in joining a religious group on campus, they can easily seek one out. As for faith-seeking students, don’t stop your search for truth when a proselytizer offers you one possible answer out of a multitude of religious options. The next time a proselytizer on campus offers you an enticing religious morsel, think twice before you bite into the poison apple, my dear. Seek out the fruits of faith on your own, and I guarantee you the taste will be so much sweeter.