History Main / EasyEvangelism

* In ''Franchise/StarWars Episode IV: Film/ANewHope'', Luke immediately becomes an enthusiastic believer in Obi-Wan's teachings about the Jedi and the Force, even though he only just met the guy that same day ''and'' Obi-Wan has a reputation as being a "crazy old wizard". Obviously this is necessary to move the story along at a fast pace. Luke's "conversion" is arguably justified by the fact that he witnesses Kenobi using the Force, and then is able to feel it himself. It is notable that Han is depicted as being something of a FlatEarthAtheist simply because he does not immediately buy into all of this based solely on Obi-Wan's pedantic ramblings and Luke being able to deflect a few stun shots after hours of practice. Although he comes across as rather less reasonable when the prequels revealed that the rise of the Empire was a much shorter time ago than was apparent in the original trilogy, and Han would have seen the golden age of the Jedi during his childhood. On the other hand, the ratio of non-Force sensitives to Jedi in the Old Republic was apparently ''billions''-to-one! An average person in the galaxy would likely never meet a Jedi during their lifetime or personally witness actual usage of Force powers. This was especially true since the Jedi largely limited their socialization to within their own Order and had little or no contact with their families. Thus it would be very easy for someone to believe that the Jedi were over-hyped and that the Force was just a lot of "simple tricks and nonsense".

* In ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'', the Christian protagonist will explain to a bunch of people about "the truth" -- and, very soon, everyone will be quick to convert. The ease of a ''Chick Tract'' conversion is made even more baffling considering most of the converted have never heard of Jesus before, yet instantly comprehend evangelical terms like "washed in the blood" or "filled with the holy spirit" the moment they're spoken [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant instead of thinking]] they mean "[[BloodBath bathing in human blood]]," or "getting drunk on sacred distilled liquor."

* Used in ''ComicBook/CreatureTech'', but not in the expected way. Sure, one of the main subplots involves an atheist converting to Christianity, but that plays out about as realistically as allowed by a story with a literal alien Jesus. However, late in the story, an invasion of cat-monsters and a one-liner is all it takes to convert Pastor Ong from ActualPacifist to a more pragmatic stance.

* A ''Creator/{{Rius}}'' comic features this: a journalist arrives to the town asking to interview God. He asks several people, including devout believers, but their answers confuse him even more. Then he asks the priest, who redirects him to church doctrine and Literature/TheBible. He answers that he has read all those and what he wants is to directly interview God and ask him questions, like when He was born, what are His favorite activities, and so on. Finally he asks the town atheist, who easily converts him to atheism.
* In the first arc of the ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' comic by Mark Millar, Wolverine joins the X-Men under false pretenses, actually intending to infiltrate and kill Xavier per Magneto's instructions. After meeting Jean Grey and sleeping with her a few times, he tells her that he had intended to kill Xavier but that Xavier had turned him around to the X-Men's way of thinking. This is not another ruse -- apparently, with absolutely no event to give Wolverine such an epiphany, he's suddenly playing for the home team. Given the fact that Charles Xavier, the world's most powerful telepath, is involved, Easy Evangelism seems a lot more plausible. Or he just decided that Jean's [[MostCommonSuperPower personality]] was worth it.

* While most missionaries don't see success come as easily as the ones who went to the tribe that was waiting for brothers to bring them a book with the secret to eternal happiness, Christianity has been known to grow rapidly in places where people genuinely are hearing about Jesus for the first time. Christianity had been in China since before it came into Europe (no kidding - look up the Nestorian Christians) but Christian teachings were largely wiped out from Central Asia and China after the coming of Islam, and Christianity had to be reintroduced in the form of Roman Catholicism with the coming of the Portuguese in the 17th century. It was repressed a couple of times after that, but there are still more Christians in China than there are members of the Communist Party.

* Averted by UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}. While it ''is'' possible to convert to Judaism and many people have done so, it requires at the very least being told "no" by a Rabbi several times (testing your sincerity, seeing if you will return multiple times before the Rabbi accepts your seriousness in wanting to become a Jew; though there are some Rabbis who will turn you away no matter what because of their personal beliefs towards converts/converting), ''before'' the "fun" part begins-learning Hebrew and reading the Torah, as well as learning how to practice the religious rituals and learning what religious restrictions you will be bound to after converting to fully understand Judaism; and only ''then'' can you convert after being put before a Beit Din (Jewish religious court of three Jewish men) to test your knowledge and religious faith, and once the Beit Din gives its okay, you will (if male) get circumcised then finally immerse in the Mikvah (ritual bath) to complete your conversion. Fast learners are said to have done the whole thing in a year, but that does not count the time they spent curious and ''wishing'' to convert.
** Played somewhat straight with born Jews (especially those who were born from a Jewish mother, but grew up without a Jewish upbringing; e.g. whether that person was adopted into a non-Jewish family, or their mother converted to a non-Jewish religion/belief and raised her children without knowledge/practice of their birth religion, or other reasons) in that while there are no Jewish missionaries to convert non-Jews to Judaism, there is a movement called Kiruv (Hebrew: "bringing close") that puts together resources to convince secular and/or non-Orthodox Jews to become practicing Orthodox Jews. These efforts may involve funding of college campus Jewish organizations, trips to Israel, Shabbatons, or something as simple as a Hasid manning a table (or Chabad Lubavitch's "Mitzvah Tanks", [=RVs=] set up as mobile synagogues) trying to convince a passerby (after the Jewish "evangelist" asks, "Are you Jewish?", and getting an affirmative answer) Jewish man to perform the ritual of laying tefillin at the table or giving candles to a Jewish woman and asking her to light them just before sundown Shabbat and pray the Shabbat blessing, in the hopes that the Jewish person is impressed by this gesture and starts their path towards practicing and acting as an Orthodox Jew (however if you say you aren't Jewish, they will wish you well and then continue asking subsequent people who pass by until they find a Jewish person). Interestingly there is ''a lot more effort and resources'' in present day Orthodox Judaism put towards trying to convince non-practicing/non-Orthodox born Jews to practice Judaism fully, than to assist non-Jews (or Jews-by-choice who converted into non-Orthodox sects) who are openly wanting to convert into Orthodox Judaism!

* Averted by UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}. While it ''is'' possible to convert to Judaism and many people have done so, it requires at the very least being told "no" by a Rabbi several times, ''before'' the "fun" part begins-learning Hebrew and reading the Torah, as well as learning how to practice the religious rituals and learning what religious restrictions you will be bound to after converting to fully understand Judaism; and only ''then'' can you convert after being put before a Beit Din (Jewish religious court of three Jewish men) to test your knowledge and religious faith, and once the Beit Din gives its okay, you will (if male) get circumcised then finally immerse in the Mikvah (ritual bath) to complete your conversion. Fast learners are said to have done the whole thing in a year, but that does not count the time they spent curious and ''wishing'' to convert.

** Played somewhat straight with born Jews (especially those who were born from a Jewish mother, but grew up without a Jewish upbringing; e.g. whether that person was adopted into a non-Jewish family, or their mother converted to a non-Jewish religion/belief and raised her children without knowledge/practice of their birth religion, or other reasoning) in that while there are no Jewish missionaries to convert non-Jews to Judaism, there is a movement called Kiruv (Hebrew: "bringing close") that puts together resources to convince secular and/or non-Orthodox Jews to become practicing Orthodox Jews. These efforts may involve funding of college campus Jewish organizations, trips to Israel, Shabbatons, or something as simple as a Hasid manning a table (or Chabad Lubavitch's "Mitzvah Tanks", [=RVs=] set up as mobile synagogues) trying to convince a passerby (after the Jewish "evangelist" asks, "Are you Jewish?", and getting an affirmative answer) Jewish man to perform the ritual of laying tefillin at the table or giving candles to a Jewish woman and asking her to light them just before sundown Shabbat and pray the Shabbat blessing, in the hopes that the Jewish person is impressed by this gesture and starts their path towards practicing and acting as an Orthodox Jew (however if you say you aren't Jewish, they will wish you well and then continue asking subsequent people who pass by until they find a Jewish person). Interestingly there is ''a lot more effort and resources'' in present day Orthodox Judaism put towards trying to convince non-practicing/non-Orthodox born Jews to practice Judaism fully, than to assist non-Jews (or Jews-by-choice who converted into non-Orthodox sects) who are openly wanting to convert into Orthodox Judaism!

** Played somewhat straight with born Jews (especially those who were born from a Jewish mother, but grew up without an Orthodox Jewish upbringing for varied reasons) in that while there are no Jewish missionaries to convert non-Jews to Judaism, there is a movement called Kiruv (Hebrew: "bringing close") that puts together resources to convince secular and/or non-Orthodox Jews to become practicing Orthodox Jews. These efforts may involve funding of college campus Jewish organizations, trips to Israel, Shabbatons, or something as simple as a Hasid manning a table (or Chabad Lubavitch's "Mitzvah Tanks", [=RVs=] set up as mobile synagogues) trying to convince a passerby (after the Jewish "evangelist" asks, "Are you Jewish?", and getting an affirmative answer) Jewish man to perform the ritual of laying tefillin at the table or giving candles to a Jewish woman and asking her to light them just before sundown Shabbat and pray the Shabbat blessing, in the hopes that the Jewish person is impressed by this gesture and starts their path towards practicing and acting as an Orthodox Jew (however if you say you aren't Jewish, they will wish you well and then continue asking subsequent people who pass by until they find a Jewish person). Interestingly there is ''a lot more effort and resources'' in present day Orthodox Judaism put towards trying to convince non-practicing/non-Orthodox born Jews to practice Judaism fully, than to assist non-Jews (or Jews-by-choice who converted into non-Orthodox sects) who are openly wanting to convert into Orthodox Judaism!

** Played somewhat straight with born Jews (especially those who were born from a Jewish mother, but grew up in a secular home) in that while there are no Jewish missionaries to convert non-Jews to Judaism, there is a movement called Kiruv (Hebrew: "bringing close") that puts together resources to convince secular and/or non-Orthodox Jews to become practicing Orthodox Jews. These efforts may involve funding of college campus Jewish organizations, trips to Israel, Shabbatons, or something as simple as a Hasid manning a table (or Chabad Lubavitch's "Mitzvah Tanks", [=RVs=] set up as mobile synagogues) trying to convince a passerby (after the Jewish "evangelist" asks, "Are you Jewish?", and getting an affirmative answer) Jewish man to perform the ritual of laying tefillin at the table or giving candles to a Jewish woman and asking her to light them just before sundown Shabbat and pray the Shabbat blessing, in the hopes that the Jewish person is impressed by this gesture and starts their path towards practicing and acting as an Orthodox Jew (however if you say you aren't Jewish, they will wish you well and then continue asking subsequent people who pass by until they find a Jewish person). Interestingly there is ''a lot more effort and resources'' in present day Orthodox Judaism put towards trying to convince non-practicing/non-Orthodox born Jews to practice Judaism fully, than to assist non-Jews (or Jews-by-choice who converted into non-Orthodox sects) who are openly wanting to convert into Orthodox Judaism!

* Averted by UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}. While it ''is'' possible to convert to Judaism and many people have done so, it requires at the very least being told "no" by a Rabbi several times, ''before'' the "fun" part begins-learning Hebrew and reading the Torah, as well as learning how to practice the religious rituals and learning what religious restrictions you will be bound to after converting to fully understand Judaism, and only ''then'' can you convert after being put before a Beit Din (Jewish religious court of three Jewish men) to test your knowledge and religious faith, and once the Beit Din gives its okay, you will (if male) get circumcised then finally immerse in the Mikvah (ritual bath) to complete your conversion. Fast learners are said to have done the whole thing in a year, but that does not count the time they spent curious and ''wishing'' to convert.