This week, the initiative lay with the missionaries rather than their opponents. The Latter-day Saints crossed 87,000 missionaries and 506 missions as President Oaks defended exclusive truth as the guarantor of religious freedom; Seventh-day Adventists opened a “Creator Summit” to enlist a million member-influencers online under the banner “faithfulness over virality”; and Sri Lankan Buddhist diplomacy advanced dhammadūta through Thailand’s Dhammakaya network. Three traditions, three rival theologies of why outreach is legitimate.
Proselytism and Religious Outreach Worldwide: Conflicts, Policies, and Trends – 10–17 July 2026
The European Parliament condemned forced conversion in Pakistan (9 July) — the coercive extreme of the conversion spectrum. Against it, the RSS-affiliated Organiser and Sinhala-Buddhist LankaWeb turn the same vocabulary of coercion on schools, clinics and cricket academies: the missionary as foreign agent. In Auckland, Adventists unveiled AKAI, a faith-bounded AI, shifting digital mission from entering shared spaces to owning the machine.
Debate continues on Sri Lanka anti-conversion law – Buddhist monks lobby for international support of controversial bill
Dublin, September 13 (Compass) — Buddhist monks from the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party have launched an international campaign to win support for a proposed anti-conversion bill in Sri Lanka. The monks have met with representatives at the United States, United Kingdom, Canadian, Indian, Australian, French and German embassies in Sri Lanka, according to local […]