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Is It Ethical to Change People’s Minds?
The difference between persuasion and coercion
One thing that bothers me about religion is all the proselytizing. Door-to-door evangelists, preachy billboards, missionaries sent around the world. Hey, I get it, you like what you believe! But I don’t need it rubbed in my face.
In my own day-to-day life I prefer to keep my opinions to myself and respect other people’s autonomy and decision-making processes.
And yet… I also try to write persuasively about my own perspectives, and I hope as many people as possible will read what I have to say.
If I think exposing people to my views will make their lives better, maybe I’m not so different from a missionary. That idea makes me uncomfortable.
Am I a hypocrite? Some of my readers think so.
Maybe my desire to “spread the truth” is a relic of my evangelical upbringing, even though my idea of truth has shifted. Maybe it’s an instinct I was born with, or maybe it’s only a side effect of being a writer. I don’t know the answer.
We all have ideas we believe in, personal truths that would surely transform people’s lives if only they would listen and agree. In our own minds we’re the ones fighting for positive change. But we can’t all be right; some of us are…
