OH YIKES THATS CREEPY
I just got a letter thru my door from a neighbour offering to convert me to Christianity because "the times are hard right now and the lord can save you"
Like.. man.. poor guy probably doesn't know he was being creepy, but still it's a bit of a downer

I know that the way the church tends to teach it is "you're helping people when they need help" but like... You're not.
You're literally offering them false hope of MAYBE getting help, if they first dedicate themself to your cause and do all this stuff to earn it...

And like.. honestly.. the people who tell their flock to go out and spread these messages.. they KNOW what they're really doing...
They don't innocently mean to help people who are hurting. They just know that hurt people will agree to ANYTHING in the hope of help...

The aim of this stuff is to offer god as a carrot as a stick to trick people into giving their heart and soul and MONEY to you personally and your church. In a time where the hurt that's making them desperate is PRETTY LIKELY TO BE MONEY RELATED

Either that or.. yknow.. THE FUCKING PANDEMIC
The idea of "god will cure your illness if you do all this stuff for me and my church" is completely fuckin messed up
Its really fuckin sick and selfish to manipulate someone like that

God has never successfully healed anyone's illness through prayer, in a way that's been actually proven with any evidence whatsoever
It's sorry to say but.. if he exists, it seems this isn't a thing he's either able or willing to do.

Giving people false hope that they will be the first person ever in recorded history to earn healing from a fatal disease just by being a good enough person is messed up
Also doubly messed up to imply that everyone else just didn't pray hard enough...

And even if you aknowledge that god can't heal goddamn COVID, even going around trying to convert people to your religion with "it'll make them feel better" is still kinda.. accidentally, unfortunately, probably gonna do some harm

Like.. just..
You do not actually have help to offer. You do not have a guarantee of any help. You don't know if this person will find comfort in religion the same way as you did. Just because you did, doesn't mean your religion is right for everyone

And if the comfort just isn't happening for them and they can't force themself to believe something they don't really believe, then this is gonna be a huge layer of shame and guilt and broken false hope that's gonna make them feel even worse in a time of tragedy

Because whenever anyone doesn't have a positive experience with religion, it's them that ends up being blamed for it
The negative, corrupt church teachings that say "trick people into converting when they're vunerable" also shame those who try and leave afterwards

Also.. like.. honestly, even if someone WOULD have ended up joining Christianity of their own free will if introduced to it normally, they'd be much more likely to have a bad experience and end up leaving if the way they're introduced is through coercion and extreme pressure

Someone rushes into converting to something they don't fully understand or believe yet, cos of false promises of help that never comes, in a time of desperate need for help. And then they're shamed for not believing hard enough to make the help come...

That's a traumatic as fuck experience.
Even someone who would have believed in Christ if introduced normally to a normal church could still end up hating Christianity for life because of being treated like shit by a corrupt pastor who shamed them for their own grief.

So yeah, this is why "ministering to those in need" is really not a smart idea. At best it's innocently accidentally insensitive, at worst it's actively malicious and manipulative.
Honestly I would say you should minister to those NOT in need, tbh...

Like.. personally I'm not a Christian! But I don't have anything against Christianity! It's just this sort of "only join because we promise you free help that never comes" prostelysizing that bugs me. That's not a true Christian way to act, that's self serving and arrogant.

If you just goddamn show your religion to someone who's NOT desperately searching for help, then you know that they're making the choice of their own free will to join because.. yknow.. they actualy believe! Not forcing themselves to fake it cos they have no other reason to live.

Also I believe this equally for all religions, and also the absence of religion. I'm atheist but if I saw an atheist taking advantage of a religious person's grief to say "this is because you're religious" or "the solution is leaving your religion", I'd fuckin slap them