Aren't I worth saving?

I have a friend who has a friend ...

My friend is an atheist. His friend is a Christian of the literalist variety. He, the atheist, and she, the Christian, appear to have a close, loving friendship.

I once asked my friend if his friend ever proselytized to him. He said, "No, she respects me to much to do that."

This answer, while it didn't surprise me, still baffles me.

My wife, who was with us for this conversation, agreed with my friend: his friend was being respectful by not preaching her religion to him.

So I asked, if he were practicing unsafe sex, and if she had reason to believe he'd thereby contract a deadly disease, would it be respectful to keep her concerns to herself? They agreed with me that it wouldn't be. They even agreed that she would be neglectful as a friend to just let him destroy himself that way.

So why didn't they make the same move with his eternal soul that they made with his mortal life?

Don't get me wrong! I don't worry for my atheist friend's immortal soul. I'm not a believer in Christ or Jehovah or any version of an afterlife -- I don't believe in immortal souls. I'm closer to my friend's atheism than I am to his friend's Christian literalism. But that's beside the point. If she believes in Hell, then I would want her to try to keep her friends and loved ones out of the place.

Should she pester him about the afterlife? No. I also don't think she'd be right to pester him about his sexual practices if his (hypothetical) risky behavior were at issue. I'm not advocating nagging in either case.

But why do non-believers have such a hard time taking seriously the beliefs of the believers? I don't mean that agnostics and atheists should suddenly become Biblical literalists; I mean that non-believers should be capable of following the literalist logic of believers, especially believers they care about.

At some other point, I'll give other examples of this problem with the moral imagination of my fellow non-believers, but meanwhile I wanted to point to a Gary North article from a couple years back on why American Christian fundamentalists don't proselytize to Israeli Jews. (Hint: it's not out of respect!)

While I'm at it, I'll also throw in a Wiccan(/witch)'s advice on how Christians can respectfully preach to pagans.

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"The Unannounced Reason Behind American Fundamentalism's Support for the State of Israel" by Gary North -- http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/north7.html

"How to Share the Gospel With Pagans" by Gwydion -- http://www.homestead.com/barbooch/Gospel.html