If you believe in God, must you evangelize?

I spoke to a good friend of mine a while back.  She’s a devout Christian, and spends a lot of her spare time talking to other people about God, and how good He is, and how we should all believe in Him.

Some of our mutual friends don’t like this.  They think she’s preaching too much; moralizing even.  They say that she should just leave others alone to believe what they want to believe.

Her response is that she believes so much in the power of God, and the goodness of His grace, that she thinks it would be almost sinful NOT to tell people about Him.  That if she was really to be true to herself, and if she really believed that salvation was only possible through Jesus, then she couldn’t just let people go on and believe something that may cost them their souls in the end. 

My question is: does she have a point?  I mean, I’m Catholic myself.  Should I go around telling everyone about Jesus and trying to convert them?  And if I, and others like me, DON’T do it… are we failing our friends and family members?  The ones who don’t otherwise believe and whose souls might be at risk of eternal damnation?

The thing is, this would conflict with the very liberal values that we are taught in modern-day, Western-style democracies.  We are taught to respect others, to celebrate differences, to value differences of opinion.  If someone is happy being an Atheist, close as we may be to him/her, we are told we have to respect that.   Yet if we do, and we truly believe what we are taught (that Jesus is the only way to true salvation), then are we failing our friends?  Are we dooming them to hell?  Are we not supposed to care not just about liberal values but about their eternal souls?

Or are we really not true believers?  Do we hear all the preaching at Church, nod our heads and then just go on with our lives, content in the knowledge that WE are going to be saved, but not really bothering about anyone else?  Do we even really believe in God and His message?  Do we even believe that our faith is going to bring us salvation? 

All I know is that it seems logically and practically inconsistent: we can’t say we believe in God and in the idea that salvation rests in Him, and then turn around and let other people believe something else, risking their souls in the process, just because we want to respect their "freedom".  It just doesn’t seem possible to have both.  They are mutually exclusive. 

Of course others will say that religion is a personal choice, and whether someone wishes to go to hell or not is his/her business.   But how much responsibility will we hold for this in the end, especially if we could have done something about it, or at least tried to?  I can understand the futility of converting 50 year old men with set views on life… but what about a young child of 5?  What about someone too innocent to know how important this decision is going to be?

At the end, though, I’m still just a moral coward I guess.  My friend seems braver than I, because not only does she truly believe, she truly cares enough to try to make others believe.  I’m not saying she’s right in her faith, or in her evangelization, but I certainly know she’s consistent with her principles.

I, on the other hand, keep saying I believe in God… and yet, even though I’ve had many years of religious indoctrination, I still don’t seem to be willing to "care" enough about people to want to share what should be a joyous faith.  I guess I don’t want to be unpopular, much like the old-age Christian martyrs used to be.   After all, who’d want to be crucified upside down or fed to the lions these days?  Isn’t it much better to sit comfy in our leather couches and rue the lack of moral virtue in the world? 

I’m too scared to take a religious stand, I guess, which either means I honestly don’t believe, or I honestly don’t care.  Or both.   And the sage words of Aristotle still ring true…

"You are what you constantly do."  And I, much as I may want to keep professing otherwise, just honestly DON’T, and therefore am not the man I would like to think I am.