Proselytism aims to gain followers for a cause.
Proselytism is the intention of adding proselytes , according to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) . A proselyte, for its part, is a subject who joins a certain group or partiality.
Proselytism, therefore, is the set of activities that an organization or a person carries out with the aim of gaining followers for its cause . The most common use of the concept appears in the field of politics .
Candidates and proselytism
All candidates who aspire to be elected by the people to access public office proselytize. Political campaigns that take place before an election, in fact, constitute acts of proselytism.
The candidate will be able to tour the neighborhoods to talk to people, record advertisements for radio and television, pose for posters that are posted on public roads and participate in debates with other politicians, for example, with the aim of showing his proposals and convincing to the people of the convenience of voting for him.
One of the clichés of proselytizing is taking photos holding children in your arms and kissing them during the campaign. With this type of actions, the candidates seek to show themselves close to the people and show off their sensitivity.
Candidates who aspire to be elected by the people to occupy public office proselytize before the elections.
A negative connotation
Although the word proselytism does not carry any negative connotation in itself, in the case of politicians' actions to convince voters to choose their party, many use it with a certainly derogatory and disqualifying tone . This is because the most common thing is that, throughout a political campaign, candidates try to deceive the people to get more votes, tell them what they want to hear, promise them those reforms that they have been pursuing for a long time even though they do not plan to carry them out. once in power .
Such a strategy is far from the hard and constant work that should characterize proselytism in its search for people who are interested in a cause. Of course, any effort to attract the attention of others can be taken as an act of manipulation, which prevents spontaneous discovery and decisions free of external influences. The line between demagogy and the legitimate dissemination of an idea or a series of principles is so thin that it is often difficult to understand which of the two sides of the coin we are dealing with.
As if this ambiguity were not enough to cast doubt on any manifestation of proselytism, the tastes and ideas of each person play an undeniable role when judging the attitudes of those who publicly profess their convictions. In other words, it often happens that the same scene is described by one group as a legitimate act and by another as pure demagoguery. The way of being and thinking of each human being can be so different, so particular, that it is practically impossible to obtain a unanimous opinion from a group of people .
Proselytism in religion
Proselytism also appears in religion . Many religious communities have as their premise the conversion of people to their doctrine, under the belief that their faith is one that respects God 's commands. Evangelization is an example of proselytism developed by the Catholic Church since ancient times , which consists of spreading the word of God to convert non-believers or adherents of other religions.
It is worth mentioning that the authorities of the Catholic Church do not agree with the fact that evangelization is considered a form of proselytism; Pope Francis once pointed out that this is not a series of actions that seek to confuse and convince non-believers to join their religion, but to "attract those who have distanced themselves with their own testimony ."