My theory is that proselytizing, as well as being controlling around the behaviors of people outside the religion, is the inevitable result of belief in corporate guilt. If you believe god will judge the innocent along with the guilty, punishing a whole family, tribe, denomination or nation for insufficient piety or even merely being overly tolerant of unbelief, then you will become anxious if society outside your religion is overly non-conformant. It reflects on you for "condoning sin" or not being sufficiently resistant to it and shaming toward it.
Combine this with conspiracy theories about "principalities and powers" working behind the scenes to undermine good conduct and righteous order, and you are keen to keep your numbers up and to do your best to cow the rest of society into fearing to make free choices that color outside YOUR lines. Weirdly, this tends to focus on sexual behavior, but also on certain other things at times, like doing business on Sunday.
Busybodies are concerned about their own perceived self-interest, just like everyone else.
There's this lady in our neighborhood who is a gossip, but it's easy to see that her need to know what everyone else is up to, reflects her anxiety. She feels more in control if she knows, and is seen as the central repository for, everyone's personal business. This is also in play for proselytizing Christians. In other words it can just be unconscious, free-floating anxiety so far as they are aware, that they're relieving. But its root, in my view, is this notion of corporate guilt and punishment.
Combine this with conspiracy theories about "principalities and powers" working behind the scenes to undermine good conduct and righteous order, and you are keen to keep your numbers up and to do your best to cow the rest of society into fearing to make free choices that color outside YOUR lines. Weirdly, this tends to focus on sexual behavior, but also on certain other things at times, like doing business on Sunday.
Busybodies are concerned about their own perceived self-interest, just like everyone else.
There's this lady in our neighborhood who is a gossip, but it's easy to see that her need to know what everyone else is up to, reflects her anxiety. She feels more in control if she knows, and is seen as the central repository for, everyone's personal business. This is also in play for proselytizing Christians. In other words it can just be unconscious, free-floating anxiety so far as they are aware, that they're relieving. But its root, in my view, is this notion of corporate guilt and punishment.
