I would like to discuss this curious tendency of the Pharisees that Jesus addressed, and see whether you would agree that this tendency still exists among religious groups today.Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
I think there is a tendency among religious groups to go to great lengths to reach out to someone outside the group and bring them into the fold. Once there, among some groups, a convert may have a special protected status that others in the group may resent. However, it's also possible that such a convert is always considered less than the charter members.
Once a part of the group, several things may happen- one of which Jesus describes, which could be rephrased as the convert becoming a zealot of zealots for the group's ideals. Things can go south in other ways for proselytes in a group, but that's one of the possibilities.
A couple of questions.
1. How can this tendency to proselytize and make a zealot out of someone be distinguished from genuine evangelistic and outreach efforts, which are clearly a part of our task as Christians?
2. What is meant by "traveling across sea and land" - is Jesus implying that there such a thing as expending too much effort in reaching out to someone?
3. Is it all about motive? What were the motives of the Pharisees in these proselytization efforts, and how do they compare and contrast with the reasons Christians and churches engage in outreach today?
4. Are certain religious cultures (i.e. the Pharisees) more prone to the sort of problematic proselytization Jesus accused the Pharisees of, or is this a basic human tendency that is seen across many cultural and religious groups?