Religious extremists do a lot of evil things. Here's one I didn't know about: missionary dating. Here's a description of it from ExChristian.net.

Missionary dating is a term used in evangelical Christian circles to describe a tactic certain believers use to win new converts.
It involves a believer becoming romantically involved with a nonbeliever, with conversion of the nonbeliever being a priority goal for the believer. A quick Google search of the term returns well over 100,000 hits on the subject. Peruse a sampling of them, and you'll find that the majority of sites addressing the topic are Christian sites discussing why missionary dating is a bad idea... for Christians.

Interestingly enough, I have yet to come across a page or site that has anything to say about the impact of missionary dating on its non-Christian victims. There's plenty out there about the damage missionary dating can do to Christians who do it (it can cause backsliding, violation of one's own convictions, doubts, stress, and so on), but nothing on what it's like for someone on the receiving end. No word or thought anywhere, no suggestion that any Christian has ever paused for a moment to consider how a nonbeliever might feel, or what they might think, when they discover that their loved one has been dating for Jesus.

The post goes on to say how it feels from the perspective of one of the victims of one of these scams, though any thinking person with empathy should be able to figure out how awful it is. I'm trying to figure out if this borders on or surpasses the way emotional abuse is defined in domestic violence educational materials. Either way, there just isn't any excuse for it.

As religion slowly fades out from this society, religious extremists are getting more desperate and vicious in their efforts to preserve their failed faiths. Some of them will stop at nothing, morals and ethics aren't even a consideration to them.

Photo: SanFranAnnie