Forced Conversion

I may be jumping the gun a bit, since we're not scheduled to read Acts 4 and 5 of The Merchant of Venice until next week, but I read them today, and something happened in Act 4 that I really need to blog about. The antagonist of the play, Shylock, is Jewish, and as part of his comeuppance once his arguably villainous plot is foiled is that he must, on pain of death, convert to Christianity. 

This, I believe, is an atrocity. I am not a supporter of any "Convert or Perish" mentality, no matter who's trying to convert whom, first because it's barbaric, and second because I don't think it even works.

God judges people's hearts as well as their actions. If someone is compelled, on pain of death, to perform an action, but their heart very much is not in it, I'm not sure how much that action will count for or against them at Final Judgement. 

One could argue that one should rather die than betray one's faith, and if one converts instead of dying, they would have done better to be a martyr, but I find it hard to make that kind of judgement call. Far be it from me to judge the actions of anyone under any circumstances, much less those in mortal peril. Were I God, judging one betraying the true faith to save their own life, I would hope I would show a little leniency, owing to the desperation of their circumstances. I might not even count them as "converted" at all.

Of course, each individual's case is unique, and it could be argued that Shylock has worst sins to worry about than converting to Christianity against his will. As in many instances, I am glad that God is the judge, and I am not. However, I personally doubt that forced conversions hold much weight in God's eyes. I would guess that conversion under compulsion is not counted as a true conversion at all. Perhaps it depends on their actions afterwards, but if Shylock is a Christian only because he'd be killed for not being so, I would guess that God still counts him as a Jew.