I think betenoir summed up the difference nicely. Buying something from J. Crew or Sears is not going to require a fundamental change in the important things in my life. Changing my beliefs will. I also find a certain amount of “our religion is the only way and if you don’t follow it you are an evil/immoral person” in handing out these tracts. I have strong, well reasoned (as far as I’m concerned) religious beliefs. Asking me to change them just because you tell me to sometimes seems a little insulting.
Hmmmm. Maybe next time someone attempts to convert me on a street corner, I’ll ask them about joining the Episcopal church. Hey, the bishop’s been asking us to bring in new converts.
I hope you mentioned it in your ebay feedback to him.
I think it is tacky. Not illegal or anything, but tacky. I think that most distributing of tracts is stupid anyway, because the damn things are so lame that they usually either piss off the recipient or provide mocking amusement. I doubt they often “save” anyone.
I’d send it back to him postage due, but I don’t think the post office does that anymore
Just to play (you should excuse the expression) devil’s advocate for a second: Stoid, is there any chance that the tract might have been sent to you by mistake? I’m not familiar with half.com, and I can’t tell from your OP if you bought the cookbook from a bookdealer or from an individual. If the former, maybe it was supposed to be sent to someone else and got put in with your cookbook by accident.
Only one question… are you gonna be featured in the gay porn you include? If so, from the doper reaction I’m seeing, your auctions are gonna get a lot more popular.
Stoid, just what kind of book was it? For all we know, the book could be a harmless book about accepting a certain religion. It also could be a book proclaiming that everyone except the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is hellbound.
For the edification of us all, I think we must know.
** Soup, ** that would require reading it, and I refuse. I tossed it, and I may in fact mention it his feedback. (Half.com is individual-to-individual). And I actually don’t know if it upped the postage, but finding out is too much bother.
It just struck me as pathetically tacky, is all… maybe this guy is sitting at home counting up all the souls he’s saved through this method, who knows. But just…yuck. Go away.
Maybe the guy who sent the tract honestly believes it is his duty. Maybe he would LIKE to see someone saved by his efforts, but maybe he is content to just get his message out. Maybe he feels that if one person out of the vast throng receiving his message is saved, then it will all have been worthwhile. In any event, it doesn’t seem worth getting all excercised about.
Oh, and Esprix, can I just buy the gay porn and skip the auction?
In my mailroom work I have opened thousands - nay, surely millions - of envelopes. These are from professional offices, not the public at large, but still a certain percentage will contain a religious message of some sort - from “Jesus Loves You” handwritten on a form, to enclosed tracts. The mailroom’s collective reaction to these? Shrug. It’s a specialized form of junk mail (and this is why I agree it’s “tacky” - it trivializes the message by reducing it to the level of credit card offers). But it doesn’t offend at all. I’ve seen way worse things in envelopes. (Ah-choo!Fucking anthrax.)
The only way such a message or tract would be offensive, is if it was on a par with some of the lower-level Jack Chick stuff. (Actually nearly all of Jack Chick is on this vast lower level.) Like the D&D tract if you’re wiccan, or anti-Catholic stuff, or pictures of fetuses, or whatnot, sure. That kind of thing is offensive.
I’ve never seen anything other than very generic God-and-Jesus stuff. Somebody asserting “Jesus loves you”, or promoting a religion generally, really shouldn’t offend. Take it or leave it.
Honestly – yes. Intrusive proselytizing (it’s late and I can’t spell) bothers me no matter who does it. I would not approve of unasked for Pagan propaganda any more than unasked for Christian propaganda. Religious intolerance does indeed go both ways – I have been offended by Pagans denouncing the Christian faith too.
The idea of Christianity does not offend me. Constantly having to defend my religious beliefs, which I feel are private, between me and the Gods, and being pressured to change them, does. Especially in connection with a totally non-religious purchase.
Maybe it was an addtional cookbook. My “Headshrinkers Weekly” magazine tells me that Christian Missionaries are all the rage in the trendy cannibal restaraunts, served with unleavend bread and a nice red wine.
They just have to work on the title of that book. “Darkness before Dawn: Finding Hope for the Future” isn’t as nearly as eye catching and profound as “To Serve Man”.
What is this, Think Up New Ways to Drive the Mods Nuts Week? I’m sure you think this is a cute stunt. To somebody off the street it’s going to look like the SDMB is mixed up in some kind of porn-by-mail racket. I’m closing this thread. If you don’t pull that goofy offer off Ebay, I’m bouncing your butt out of here.
