Agressive Proselytizing-a Defense Mechanism

How many people do you think get brought into a Religion as adults with the words "Do it or you'll burn in hell!"  I would wager few, if any are lured in by this type of ranting.

So why do it?  Who are they convincing?  Aren't they just wasting their time? 

The truth is, they don't want you to accept it.  They may call you a fool, hell-bound or even lash out at you, but in reality-though they often do not realize that their methods are designed as such-they push people away.

People like Fred Phelps do not want acceptance, they want rejection.  It is no secret that it is easier to make someone hate you, than it is to make them love you.  Consider also how such individuals take pride in being one of the few who will make it to the promised land, or escape the wrath of God.  If theirs was a much more pleasant message, they'd gain a much larger following-even with their beliefs.

Yet gaining many converts only diminishes the reason they do this in the first place.  By your rejection, you're "proving" to them that their beliefs were right.  After all, their doctrine or leader said there would be "mockers and blasphemers".  When you attack them, you only reaffirm their beliefs-you do nothing but strengthen their conviction.

Though Adolf Hitler gained a massive following, his statement about this mindset reveals a lot about the nature of fanaticism-

"Any man who is not attacked in the Jewish newspapers, not slandered and vilified, is no decent German and no true National Socialist. The best yardstick for the value of his attitude, for the sincerity of his conviction, and the force of his will is the hostility he receives from the mortal enemy of our people." - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

To Hitler, like Phelps or any other such leader, hostility cannot derail them, and in fact adds fuel to the fires of their hatred.  In Hitler's case, even the defeat of the Third Reich has done little to end the appeal of Nazism.  To it's adherents, the fact that it is attacked is only evidence that their enemies fear them, and are in a conspiracy-a global one-to destroy them and rule as they see fit.

Whenever Phelps is publicly attacked or ridiculed, he is overjoyed-because this only reaffirms to his followers that he was right-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e647x8xFKTs

So Aggressive Proselytizing is essentially this-

=A defense mechanism designed to illicit rejection and hostility to reaffirm in the minds of the proselytizer that he was right, as backed up by his beliefs in advance.