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I generally am not enthusiastic about street preachers or door to door missionaries: they are usually providing a POV I find not very helpful
I generally assume, however, that the activity is acceptable, though the message not to my taste. I assume this because, from time to time, I have proselytized myself. As a practical matter, essentially all my proselytizing has taken the form of completely secular action on topics which can be understood in purely secular terms. I have distributed leaflets to strangers on public streets; I have organized teach-ins and movie discussions; I have made extensive phone calls to people who I was told were sympathetic to action on a related issue, when I wanted action on an emerging issue; I have gone door-to-door distributing literature for political candidates and so on
People differ widely in what they consider intrusive. A certain number of people are always interested in issues and are glad for whatever information. Whatever the issue is, many people are simply uninterested, and many simply show neither interest nor irritation if one reads the lack of interest correctly and does not press the matter.
Finally, there are the people who are irritated. It is not a homogeneous group. Some people become quite irritated by materials they find thumbtacked to public bulletin board (which exist primarily so that one can thumbtack stuff there); some do not like strangers offering handouts on the street; if you turn your back, some will try to steal (and throw away) your entire literature pile from the table; some dislike having people come to the door; some dislike being called at home, though they themselves gave you their phone number for that purpose
Some irritation is clearly dishonest: I once stood on a traffic island at a stop light, offering literature to stopped drivers, very carefully avoiding all intrusive behaviors such as touching cars, knocking on windows, doing anything that might distract drivers while the light was green; and a number of entirely dishonest anonymous complaints to the police resulted, claiming that I was forcing cars to stop by jumping into the travel lanes or throwing trash into cars if they did not accept my literature et cetera
Now -- is it really impermissible to attempt to sway the emotions and opinions of strangers regarding important issues?
I assume the technique used must respect other people's persons and properties, of course: I am not asking about people who try to shove leaflets into your pants pocket or down the front of your blouse; I am not asking about strangers who ring the doorbell even though you have a no trespassing sign in the drive or people who call you again after you ask them not to call
But is it wrong to walk door to door and ask people to take a stand against torture? Is it wrong to call up people to ask them to take action to stop the war in Iraq -- and if they are sympathetic, ask them to provide the names and phone numbers of several friends who should also get the phone call? Is it wrong to offer people leaflets as they pass on the sidewalk and to offer to discuss some important issue with them. These are all forms of proselytizing, aren't they? Perhaps one even has a moral obligation to engage in such proselytizing
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