"every religion in the world has grown via proselytization. i just haven't come across all of them, yet.
i was going to make a list of recent ones i have come across when i realized that everyone i come across is pushing their own religion, including myself." - tetrapod.sapien
Well said, Tetra.
"Some Christians make a distinction between proselytism (illegitimate) and evangelism (legitimate)." -blondie
Interesting statement, that. I personally tend to link the term evangelism with televangelism, and thus view it as LESS legitimate. At least those who proselytize are usually sincere.
Another one for your list would be the Worldwide Church of God, though now defunct and split into many splinter sects. I was a member of this group as a child, and though we didn't go door-to-door, I do recall having a room full of cardboard display stands and boxes of 'The Plain Truth' magazines; my family would fold and assemble the displays and then go around to various local stores asking permission to set them up, then refill the mags as needed on a regular basis.
Also, I've seen Nation of Islam (I think, they were rather shy of actually talking to me because I'm white, I guess; at any rate it was some well dressed black men) guys standing on street corners selling bean pies and newspapers of some sort to stopped cars at red lights. Heh...funny story about that comes to mind; one of them approached my car once, presumably because he saw my wife, who is black, and thought I was too until he reached my side of the car. I tried to ask him what he was doing or if I could read the newspaper he'd been offering to other people, but once he saw me he started walking away and wouldn't talk to me. I've often joked about it since then, and wondered just what those papers had to say; did he think I would be offended by the content because it was somehow racist, or if he just figured it would be a waste of time because I was an infidel or something of the sort...??
