Well, it’s finally happened. Yesterday I was enjoying a Sunday morning hangover when I opened my door to a couple of Jehovas Witnesses. I’ve always heard awful things about them, like having one show up on your doorstep was akin to being trapped by an insurance salesman and an Amway rep all rolled into one. Instead, it was quite a pleasant experience.
I answered the door and a very nice looking, well dressed man with a briefcase was standing there. He was accompanied by a younger man- maybe 15 or so, and they introduced themselves as (something to the effect of) being from “up the road”. Now, we have a nice new baptist church up the road and I assumed that they were from there, inviting me to services or some such. I didn’t want to be rude (in case they were my neighbors), so I introduced myself. Then, they started in with some philosophical type questions, preached about what the bible says here and there (he pulled his bible out and pointed out some passages). They ended by giving me a booklet to look over and a promise to stop back another time. Here’s my take on the whole thing.
They were extremely polite to me. Very pleasant to talk to and not at all rude or pushy.
They truely believed in what they were talking about and got their point across without being “condemming”
They left thier booklet, wished me a good day, and left. No “So, when can we expect to see you again? Our next meeting? Tomorrow?? WHEN??”
All in all it was a pleasant experience and these people really were dedicated to their particular religion. Did I just get a really nice pair? Or is this the norm for Jehovas Witnesses?
I figure it takes a lot of balls to actually ring a doorbell and talk to people about religion. I’ll bet they get a fair number of doors slammed and dogs let out to greet them for their efforts.
I thought about joining up, but I decided I couldn’t. I read the pamphlet, and frankly I like my decadent living style. They even say right in it that you can’t play Bingo! Forget that! What good is heaven on earth with no Bingo??
I’m just not as patient as you are Zette. I too recently had a visit from the J.W.'s. And to their credit they were polite and took “no” for an answer. But then again he probably thought I was pretty strange to begin with. I answered the door dressed in my jammies. When he asked me if I’d like to discuss the Bible with him, I told him I’d love to, but I’m just on my way out, so I really can’t. I’m sure he was wondering where someone might go dressed in flannel pants and “Speed Racer” t-shirt and barefooted, but that’s his problem.
I have some strong feelings about Christianity and religion, and any conversation I had with a “Witness” would no doubt turn into either a “Great Debate” or a fist-fight. I figure I’m doing them a favor by not baiting them.
I think most people are surprised by actual encounters with Witnesses. They are invariably polite and will leave whenever asked. They probably even benefit from the various folktales most people have heard over the years, as the reality is so much less unpleasant than expected. I’ve always regarded them as good salesmen for a product I have no interest in buying.
The ones I have met were uniformly nice and polite, like yours. Especially when you are polite to them. Remember, these folks are semi-pros, not like the “Jesus Freaks” of the '70s who went around accosting strangers on the street the day after their conversions. I assume the Witnesses get sales proper training (which would explain some of the more robotic responses) because they are the representatives of their faith the public most often meet.
I assume, also, that the most vitriolic Witnesses-at-your-door complaining comes from people who have never talked to them or, like Jack, hold strongly contrary views. But you don’t need to buy into their religion to have a nice conversation and maybe get some new perspectives on your own faith or lack of one. And “Watchtower” and “Awake!” can be interesting reads. Get the ones in Spanish and practice your language skills!
A few years ago, I was working midnights. It was about noon and I was still trying to sleep. My kids (ages 12&17) were out of school for the summer. They had lots of friends who had been knocking on my door all day. I screamed at my kids that they had better let me sleep cause I was getting irritated, then I went back up the stairs to bed. About 1/2 hour later, there was pecking at the door, nobody answered it. Thinking it was one of my kids or their friends, I stomped loudly down the stairs wearing a ratty night gown, hair wild, mascara running down my face and threw open the door shouting WHAT…DO…YOU…WANT…NOW???
There stood two terrified Jehovah’s Witnesses just looking at me. After a full minute of them staring at me slack-jawed,one of them spoke “Nothing, we don’t want nothing. You look pretty scar… I mean you look look pretty busy.”
They handed me a copy of their booklet and turned around and ran off the porch. I really felt bad about it for a minute then I went back to bed. My kids had left and went to the library.
My experience with Jehovas Witnesses has always been just fine. Never bothered me. I used to work overnights at a Kinkos’ (don’t complain about kinko’s to me, that’s why i quit that damned place, another story for another time…) and a man came in about once or twice a week to discuss his “literature” with me. He really was sincere, really nice, very kind man. I never once was mean to him, I listened, and he quite often invited me to come to one of the meetings, but in a polite way.
I never went, I never said I would, and I was very explicit in that I held to my own beliefs strongly, and was quite content with myself that way. He was very respectful.
Now, as for witnesses from Born Agains and Jews for Jesus, I have had nothing but rude verbal assaults from them. Never a polite one in the bunch in my experience, and never one to “discuss” anything, just to tell me that I was completely lost without Jesus, and to raise their tones of voice with me about how I was very wrong for denying him. This usually made me laugh.
I have nothing against JW’s in particular. I hate anyone who bugs me at home and tries to sell me something. And yes, that includes the adorable moppets earing their way to camp by trying to guilt me into buying 3 stale peanut clusters for $5.
Note to soulsling: You don’t have to tell me about Kinkos - I worked at the corporate office before, during and after the whole company roll-up fiasco. What a nightmare. No wonder the branches are in trouble. I must have talked to 50 pissed-off managers a day. I can’t even imagine what the customer service people had to listen to from customers.
I have to admit that I’ve had few bad experiences with Jehova’s Witnesses (if any – none readily come to mind). When we first moved to the house my mom still lives in (I was 10 at the time), the neighbors across the street were Jehova’s Witnesses. Their son, Tom, was one of my best friends.
Tom and I did most of the things little kids did for fun, but Tom’s family didn’t celebrate his birthday (I guess it’s too much like worship to the JW’s). Tom also didn’t pledge allegiance and did not stand or salute for the National Anthem. I felt sorry for him about the birthday stuff, but we still had fun playing with matchbox cars (this was pre-hot-wheels) and riding our bikes.
When I first arrived in Clovis, I was in a car accident. The only people who visited me at my house (apart from one guy at work) were the Jehova’s witnesses. I was clear that I didn’t share their religious views, but was glad that somebody came to see me, anyway. I think I made them nervous because I knew that their translation of the bible didn’t credit the translators – you can’t look them up and see if they’re actual biblical scholars or just guys hired to spin the text to favor the JW’s metaphysical view. They were well-dressed, polite, and genuinely concerned about my wellbeing, however.
Religious people are still people, and deserve the respect any of us expects, even when they don’t believe as we do.
Several years ago some kids chose my back yard to build a connecting path through a naturally wooded easement between our neighborhoods. Since I don’t have children, I found it a bit of a nuisance that my property had lost a certain aura of privacy.
After experiencing problems with several of the neighborhood kids, including one making threatening remarks to my wife, I closed the shortcut. Whenever I’d catch kids cutting through the yard I’d tell them that the shortcut was closed and that they needed to take the road. One day several kids came through the shortcut, stopped to pick up some pecans in the backyard, and started bouncing them off the glass doors and windows on the back of the house. I set out after them, and after quite an exchange, including a visit from the local constable (when do you ever get to use the word “constable” in real life???) the kids left.
Getting to the OP, one of the little brats showed up two days later and handed be a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses pamphlets that explained how I was going to hell for being a mean person!!! The kid never introduced himself, engaged in no conversation, and to the best of my knowledge, never again came back to the house.
My youngest sister married a Jehovah’s Witness. He is very sweet. I have had some pushy ones harass me but really never judged the whole religion based on them. Personally, I have had tons more problems with Mormons. Talk about uniformly pushy. A friend of mine who was excommunicated from the Mormon Church is constantly being harassed by them. They come and visit him once or twice a month asking him if he has changed his ways. Every time he tells them to never come back but they always do. Sigh.
I feel I must clear something up on my behalf. In response to what DropZone said.
I don’t really have any vitriolic views about JW’s based on my beliefs. Any negative feelings I have about anybody, is based on experiences. I have had some very eager witnessing directed at me, which was not suppressed with politeness. My college roommate decided to invite someone from a campus Christian group into our room for a lengthy conversation. Fine with me, but I told him from the get go - please don’t include me in your conversation. He kept on pressing me, putting me on the spot. I told him countless times that he was not going to change my views and I wasn’t going to change his, so I did not want to get into it with him. Since my roommate had invited him in, it was up to me to vacate the room. Discretion the better part of valor and all that.
On the other hand, some years later, I had some neighbors, who were also very good friends, who were Jehovah’s Witnesses. And while we did discuss religion at times, it was more of a conversation between friends and less a confrontation of strangers. When we first met, they asked me if I’d like to know more about the JW’s, I replied “No Thank you.” After that life was peachy. We attended baseball games together, they invited me to their daughter’s birthday party (at which I contracted Chicken Pox, hmm, is that a JW conspiracy? … nevermind), etc. And they were quite polite and forthcoming when we did discuss religion.
News to me. Maybe they weren’t strict JW’s.
If it means anything, the wife was a JW when they met, and he converted. Maybe he was clinging to something. All I know is I was there and week later I was covered in scabs.
Based on my 15 minutes of trying out being a Witness (as in, while I was reading the literature they left), I believe that these kids:
…were not representatives of the JW. Sounds like some kids who found the literature laying around and thought it would be a kick to give it to you. The lit I got said that people eventually reached the point of witnessing, like it was a goal to someday be qualified to do. Just my opinion.
I have never encountered any JW, I have however had a run in with the Mormons.
I was about 15 and these two young very good looking guys came to the door. They started chatting and asking me what seemed to be harmless questions… and with my raging 15 year old hormones, I listened to every word they had to say.
The next thing I knew I had a ton of reading material and a bible.
Well when my parents got home from work I showed then all the stuff those cute guys gave me and told them they were coming back to see me the next day… I though that was a good thing.
Well my dad flipped and was there the next day to tell them that they should not be soliciting to a minor girl. I never saw them again!!
So, Zette… I can see how you could have been tempted!!
The last time they visited when I was stillliving at my mother’s house, when I told them that I wasn’t interested, they asked if my mother or my grandfather was in. Now, I didn’t know their names, or where they lived, but they sure as hell knew who lived in our house. Other than to tell tehm to go away, I’ve never talked to any (cold calling) JW’s since. Keeping data on you? Is that creepy or what?
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