Forcible conversions

The old mother superior, stood at the gates of the convent she was in charge of. Her brood of young nuns and novices standing white faced around her, stared fearfully into the night, at the restless mob that stood outside.
Open the gates and let us in,” shouted the leader of the mob. “We will teach you to stop forcing us to convert to your religion.”
“The gates are open,” said the Mother Superior, “and there is no way we can force you to change your religious beliefs, but do tell me what you mean by forced conversions.”
“Your schools are meant to teach your foreign Christianity,” said the leader of the group.
The Mother Superior, put on her glasses and peered kindly at the leader of the group, “aren’t your two daughters studying in our school dear sir,” she asked. “Have they been forcibly converted yet?”
“No,” said the leader vehemently, “but they have been behaving strangely once in a while.”
“You mean they don’t follow you while your threaten their poor teachers in the middle of the night?” asked the superior with a twinkle in her eyes.
“You are being insolent?” shouted the leader.
“Let us burn the building down,” shouted his assistant as he brandished a flaming torch.
“You will only burn your mother to death,” said the Mother Superior.
“My mother?” whispered the assistant leader of the mob, looking hurriedly around.
“Yes, she is housed upstairs in the Old Folks wing,” said the Superior, “she came to us when you threw her out of your house.”
“You are mocking us,” said another young man in the group.
“No,” said the old lady, putting her arm around a trembling sister, “I am only speaking the truth. During the day some of your children study in the school over here and in the night we shelter some of your lonely mothers and discarded sisters.”
“We will die for our religion,” said the leader of the group.
“You nearly did,” said the Mother Superior again looking sadly at him, “during the riots five years ago, and we sisters nursed you back to health in our hospital.”
“They are forcibly converting us,” shouted the mob as they poured in through the gates and started beating the poor screaming sisters.

“If teaching and caring and healing is what you call forcible conversion,” said the poor Mother Superior, as she looked on helplessly, “then there is nothing I can say, except to plead guilty…!”