America, A Proselytizing Society 
by Eric B. Dent 

 
Americans have a history of sharing and being generous. If we find something good in life, we 
want to tell others about it so that they can share in the goodness. For a few weeks I kept track of 
all the ways that I was proselytized by people I encountered. I was told, often passionately and 
emphatically, that I should 
 
 • Send my kids to a particular school(s) 
 • Become a fan of a certain sports team(s) (I was really harangued about this) 
 • Buy a specific type of car 
 • Do Pilates, the South Beach diet, and the Atkins diet (do I really look that fat?) 
 • Read a particular book(s) 
 • Shop at a certain online site(s) 
 • Take shag dancing lessons 
 • Invest in a particular stock 
 • Go see a certain movie 
 • Eat in a new restaurant 
 • Have laser surgery on my eyes 
 
It would take about two more pages to list everything I was proselytized about in just a few 
weeks. The point is that we are constantly bombarded with advice and recruiting by our family, 
friends, business colleagues, and others. This proselytizing is simply part and parcel of American 
discourse. We accept it and we’ve learned how to deal with these unsolicited recommendations. 
Sometimes the advice of an overbearing mother or friend who lost 100 pounds on the South 
Beach diet strains our patience. Still, we make adjustments accordingly, perhaps, tuning out 
mom or eating donuts in front of the friend. 
 
There is one dimension of life, though, in which some people believe proselytizing should not be 
allowed, especially at work - religion (Mitroff & Denton, 1999). Some even say that it is 
offensive for one person to mention the goodness she has found in her faith to another person. 
Offensive is a term that should be reserved for the haranguing we receive when moving from one 
hotbed of ACC basketball to another! Are we really so thin-skinned, fragile, and impressionable 
in one realm of life that we can’t hear about someone’s religious beliefs but we can hear about 
their political, sports, shopping, restaurant, and child-rearing ones? I’m not afraid. Tell more 
your religious beliefs. But, please, don’t tell me how much weight you’ve lost and what diet I 
should be on. 
 
 
References 
 
Mitroff, I. I., & Denton, E. A. (1999). A spiritual audit of corporate America: A hard look at    
     spirituality, religion, and values in the workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.