Should we criticize people who evangelize?

Me and my friends were hanging out in the Terraces when this older Korean man approached us. We thought he might be a lost tourist who needed directions so we listened. The next thing he said was, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" That's not the kind of question you pose to a complete stranger so we were shocked. We answered, "Yes, of course!" He wasn't convinced though and continued to talk to us about reading the Bible and believing in Jesus and all that stuff. To cut him off, I had to fake a phone call and rush my friends away from the situation.

This instance made me think about people who try to evangelize other people to their religion. On one hand, I commend these kinds of people who go out to evangelize and spread their religion. I personally believe that if you think your religion is true and can lead to a happier life, you should most definitely share it with people.

I do understand, however, how many people find this kind of evangelization annoying. I have many Facebook friends who say they're atheist who complain about people trying to convert them. For this, I like to reiterate the point that a prominent atheist, Christopher Hitchens made once. He said that you truly believe that hell exists and you, as a Christian, do nothing to inform people of that, he wonders how much you hate non-believers to withhold that sort of information.

Imagine if you will, if I knew of a cure for cancer and I willingly chose not to divulge that information to anyone. You'd wonder how much of an evil person I am for not telling other people about his wonderful cure!

The same goes for evangelists who truly believe in their cause and want as many people to know about their religion as possible. Now, don't get me wrong. I still think some of them are very annoying. But I appreciate their effort as it shows me that this person cares for me enough that they want to make sure I don't end up in hell.

To my atheist friends, I'd ask you not be annoyed by (well) annoying evangelists. Everyone gets them whether they're Christian or not. Just know that the intention is almost always good and if you really don't want to listen to it for the 100th time, let them down calmly.

Now, should we criticize them? If we do engage them, we should criticize their points. Otherwise, we should still be thankful they're trying to evangelize.