Have you ever received a weird nebulous invitation where you feel socially like you probably ought to go to the thing, but you really wish it was a bit more clear?

And then you get to the thing and you feel a little bit bait and switch.

Like, I don't know.

I thought we were doing something else.

And I find that if you get bait and switched into a thing,

you kind of don't tend to jump in with both feet and really take ownership of that

event or that club or whatever.

It always feels a little bit dirty and gross.

And I would argue that that's the exact same thing with Christianity. I find that if somebody gets

roped into Christianity with kind of an always be closing, high pressure, don't mention the bad

stuff, highlight all the good stuff sales pitch.

It tends to not play out very well for them when they actually go to church because people

will feel a little bit cheated or manipulated into the thing.

And of course, sometimes people grow past it and they see the

beauty of it but in general I think this principle is true what you win

someone with to your thing in this case Christianity is what you win someone too.

So if you use the force of government, the force of law, if you use physical force or violence

in olden days when that was a valid way to try to

convert people to different religions. If you use dirty cheap manipulation, if you

use emotional gimmicks, if you use social pressure from other people, then well you might

get somebody to sign up through those pressures, but they're not going to flip around

and then exhibit these noble, beautiful virtues as they

...