The Christian Advocate

On pursuing a deeply-rooted, others-focused faith that actually means something. Someone once told me that they were thankful for scary, hell-oriented conversion methods because that's what worked for them. They were scared into becoming a Christian thanks to the threat of hell. At the time, I wasn't sure what to think. Did the ends really justify the means? After all, the people around me seem to think no amount of temporary pain, fear, or trauma mattered if it meant escaping hell. I was beginning to see things differently. But at the time, I concluded that while this was a valid exception, it should not be the norm. Now I see these scare tactics for what they are: a tool for compliance into a self-centered faith, and one that does not look like Jesus' example. I know this brand of faith well. In fact, I was taught the corresponding evangelistic technique that goes with it:  The Way of the Master, as popularized by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. This technique, which claim...