Quote:
Originally Posted by FlorenceArt
...I understand that it's quite common in the U.S. to ask a person what religion they are, even a relative stranger. In France, it would be very rude. Religion is considered a private matter, although it's not rare for someone to mention what religion they are, but it's not something you would ask, at least not before you have known someone for some time.
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Certain religious traditions in our country hold that "witnessing" is a duty incumbent upon all believers. They define witnessing as actively speaking to others about the "good news" of salvation. They feel that way because of Bible passages like the 15th and 16 verses of Mark chapter 16 which depict Jesus as saying, "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned." (It would do no good to tell them that modern Bible scholars believe those verses were not part of the original manuscript.)
When I was younger, Baptists in particular would have nights of "witnessing" where they would send people door-to-door to speak with people about their faith. You don't see that so much anymore, but Jehovah's Witnesses still show up on a regular basis in our neighborhood on Saturday mornings knocking on doors in an effort to lead the unconverted to salvation.
Whenever I'm approached, I always try to be respectful and not reactively argumentative. I'd be lying to say I've always been this way in the past, but these days I try to keep in mind that from their perspective, they're trying to save me from an eternity of torments or, in the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses, total annihilation.