Doing good works for proselytizing purposes is fine. I’ve heard complaints that doing so is somehow selfish (Helping Hands shirts, etc), and people point to Matthew 6:1-4. But there’s also Matthew 5:14-16 “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” I’d say the difference is between seeking attention as an individual vs. gaining attention for the group. Jesus encouraged proselytizing, and, as I see it, Jesus wanted people to follow him, and was okay performing his own good works to gain disciples.

A theme I’m stressing in these posts is that while we tend to talk about the benefit of our proselytizing for converts as the opportunity for the optimum afterlife, I’m arguing for in-life benefits. I talked about this theme in this post, and yes, I like the Dehlin quote.

More recently, I’ve appreciated Britt Hartley’s views: the ex-Mormon atheist spiritual therapist. I particularly liked this one, especially the part where she asks ChatGPT about religious vs. nihilistic paths at the 16 minute 30 second mark, and where she asks at the 17:30 mark, similar to Dehlin, what do we do when secularism can’t do what religion can do?

I mentioned on the post linked to above that while serving as bishop I felt prompted to be thinking about a “secular case for the church.” I’ve found Dehlin’s and Hartley’s quotes helpful in that effort, and I felt like I got a lot of insights from talking to the converts who joined during that time. I would ask them why they joined and what they liked about our church, and I found their answers enlightening. Wanting a place to belong, a church family, wanting to improve and become new people, wanting help in that process, wanting direction, purpose, and progress, etc. Those conversations were some of the most convincing to me that we were doing a good thing in a “secular” sense, since I was/am unaware of “secular” programs that perform these very important functions. Other churches are also important, but as I’ve mentioned in the post I linked to, I think our church does do a very good job at these things. This convinced me that our religious community was offering a real benefit in this life to our converts.

Unfortunately (you know what’s coming) not a lot of the converts stuck around. We did try hard, but retention in the church is a struggle and that’s unfortunate. That’s a whole other topic, but the parable of the sower encourages spreading the seeds even if a lot don’t work out.

So I think that our strong emphasis on proselytizing IS a good thing because I really do believe that being a part of our community is generally quite beneficial (yes, I know it doesn’t work for everyone). Yes, the stress on proselytizing can seem onerous at times, there really can be overbearing and irritating ways to go about it, but I really do believe our community has a lot to offer and making that offer is a good thing.