I've seen quite a bit of spite directed at evangelicals on this blog and from liberals/radicals/other left-wingers. While much of it is probably deserved, I think that there are some fundamental misunderstandings about evangelicals, missionaries, and the like.
I am a deist scientist raised in a Southern Baptist family. I went to church and learned about the Bible. I went to the world's largest church camp-- Fall's Creek-- numerous times, and I was generally pretty taken in. However, I am a free thinker, and as I thought about it and learned about it, I came to realize that evangelical Christianity is pretty wrong. However, I cannot help but to respect evangelical Christians, and I think that you should, too.
Fundamentally, evangelicals believe that John 3:16 sums up their faith:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
There are other verses that articulate this sentiment more, of course, and there is a lot of discussion about the ins and outs of the whole thing, but that's it, as is often said by evangelicals, "in a nutshell."
Evangelicals believe that believing in Christ is the only path to heaven and that all others lead to hell. I think (and hope) that they are wrong, but it's what they believe. I can't definitively prove them otherwise.
If you are an evangelical, you look around the world and see a great multitude of people who have not accepted Christ as their "lord and savior." This observation is a horrifying call to action. These people are going to hell, and you must do something about it. Failure to do so leads to their eternal suffering and damnation.
Therefore, evangelicals prostheletize. They go around telling people the "Good News." (The "Good News" is pretty old-- 2000 years-- unless you accept that the earth is 2 to 3 million times that old. They don't, so it should be the "Good... oh, bloody hell, it's really pretty damned old.") The churches create missionary organizations that go about the world and the country spreading the gospel and doing good works. Really, they do good works. Going around and telling people that they're going to hell is only a small part of what they actually do. Before the Peace Corps, there were missionaries building public works and acting as peace-makers.
When you hear about missionaries and preachers telling people that they're going to hell unless they accept Christ, many of you probably snear. You probably get a bit peaved. I really don't think that such a response is actually appropriate at all. They believe in this ultimate good that is trying to save people from fiery eternal damnation, and they're doing something about it. I think that such actions are fairly commendable. They have a right to free speach, and that involves convincing people that your ideas are right (even when they're wrong.) I have a right to go door to door and tell everyone to vote for Democrats, the Theory of Evolution is the truth, and that Santa Clause doesn't exist. I think that it would be obnoxious, but I could do it, and you would probably find that commendable, even if a bit odd.
A fundamental tenet of Christianity, according to Jesus, is that you are to go and spread the word. Muslims believe something similar, and even communists use practices like that. Why not?
What offends you? The strict, absolutist belief in Christ as Savior? The methods used to spread the Gospel? Their belief that you're going to hell? Their meddling in good government?
I'm with you on some of those things. I think that we have to fight the evangelical Christians when they push their stupid legislation. I think that we should be keeping state-sanctioned prayer out of public schools. We should be protecting gay people from their more extreme hateful members. I don't, however, think that we should be attacking their missionary ethic.
Instead, accept that someone is trying to convince you of a particular belief and do likewise. Once you get a conversation going, you will often find them to be good and decent people, as misguided as they are. Respect them. Talk to them reasonably about why they're wrong, and you're right. That's how it's supposed to work.
Oh, and arrest them when they do something illegal. No one is above the law.