# How often do people try to convert you to their religion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 25, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176 "2023-04-25T19:24:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/141 "2023-12-19T03:17:06Z")
I have a friend who exerts gentle pressure on me from time to time to get back in touch with religion. I have had, and currently have, coworkers who are trying to see where I stand on the issue. I did tell an Islamic coworker that I believe in all and no religions so that he could spread the word to a couple of the pushy Christian ones. They have mostly left me alone. But they “pray” on this and “pray” on that and many of the clients want me to have a bless-ed day each time I talk to them. I find it wearying. I stopped one client in her tracks today by saying “Less of that right now please. We need to focus on getting your schedule together because others are waiting to talk to us.” Thankfully, she dropped the subject. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/142 "2023-12-19T03:28:47Z")
I’m in the same boat as the OP. The closest I’ve come is the odd Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon in the street or (maybe once or twice in 20 years in the states) coming to the door, and in either case never actually getting to point of trying to convert me before being told “thanks, but no thanks”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/143 "2023-12-19T15:09:59Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve had a few militant atheists try to convince me that I’m stupid for being a Christian. People like that don’t seem to realize that insulting others’ beliefs is never a good way to turn someone on to your ideas I’m an atheist and have found myself moving in the direction of “militant atheist” purely as a response to the actions of the religious. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/144 "2023-12-19T15:22:17Z")
A couple of weeks ago, I had some Mormons show up and very politely ask to talk to us about their religion. I told them politely that I wasn’t the least bit interested, but good luck to you and they politely left. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/145 "2023-12-19T15:39:23Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > A lubuvitcher friends invited me to some holidays and stuff with him. But he was pretty low-key, and i don’t think he expected to convert me. Mostly, he was being nice because i was interested in his cult. Be careful around Lubavitchers. Once they get you into their van\*, it’s all over. 😱 \*I was once targeted as a teenager in Manhattan for intense proselytizing by Lubavitchers. Fortunately I escaped before they could entice me into their van. \*\*Lubavitcher and “low-key” are probably not compatible terms. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/146 "2023-12-19T15:59:22Z")
He was a co-worker, not one of the teams sent out to proselytize. And they do let you out of the van again. They just make you wear silly objects and recite a prayer, first. Fortunately, they rarely target women. I got a lot more pressure from random evangelical Christians than i ever got from Lubuvitch, even when i lived in New York and walked in their areas. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/147 "2023-12-19T16:15:29Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > . I have had, and currently have, coworkers who are trying to see where I stand on the issue. I did tell an Islamic coworker that I believe in all and no religions so that he could spread the word to a couple of the pushy Christian ones. They have mostly left me alone. But they “pray” on this and “pray” on that and many of the clients want me to have a bless-ed day each time I talk to them. I find it wearying. I sat next to a Ghanian woman for many years at my office who was…Pentacostal? I forget exactly what sect, but it was a hardcore, bordering on snake handling, faith. She knew I was an athiest, but I remember a Christmas dinner among the front office staff where she insisted on everyone holding hands while she said a long grace. She’d spend much of her day typing up the hymnals for her church for some reason. I saw some literature from her group that she’d left out once, with text on it like “When a person is baptized, they have to be completely immersed in the water or it’s no good. Pouring a bit of water over the head doesn’t count and they won’t be saved.” Seeing stuff like that only reaffirmed in my mind that this is all human-created silliness. ETA: Whatever her particular sect was, it was one of those denominations that wasn’t “We all pray to the same god, the particular ceremony doesn’t matter.” at all, but rather “Unless you believe in the tenets of this particular sub-sub-sub-subset of Christians, you’re completely wrong and going to hell. And come to think of it, that other branch of ours across town seems a bit heathan-y.” She once said, in perfect seriousness, “Catholics aren’t Christians, you know. Even they admit that.” Suuuure they do… ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/148 "2023-12-19T16:58:25Z")
We used to get JWs coming by about once a year, but I haven’t seen any since the pandemic started. I see people with a literature rack outside of my workplace every day, though (maybe not in the winter). ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/149 "2023-12-19T17:10:43Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > A lubuvitcher friends invited me to some holidays and stuff with him. But he was pretty low-key, and i don’t think he expected to convert me. It doesn’t feel like quite the same thing to me when people try to get non-practicing members of their own religion to start practicing. Jews aren’t exactly trying to convert me. They think I’m already Jewish; they’re just trying to get me to start practicing. Under some circumstances, of course, that can be equally annoying. It just doesn’t seem to me to be annoying in the same way. (And an occasional no-pressure invitation to seder, like a single no-pressure invitation to church, isn’t to me annoying at all; and, as I said much earlier in the thread, I don’t count those among the (numerous) people who have tried to convert me.) > [@puzzlegal](#): > > And they do let you out of the van again. They just make you wear silly objects and recite a prayer, first. Seriously? They won’t let you out unless you do that? That’s kidnapping. People could bring charges. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/150 "2023-12-19T17:30:53Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Under some circumstances, of course, that can be equally annoying. It just doesn’t seem to me to be annoying in the same way. (And an occasional no-pressure invitation to seder, like a single no-pressure invitation to church, isn’t to me annoying at all; and, as I said much earlier in the thread, I don’t count those among the (numerous) people who have tried to convert me.) Yes, i was pleased to be invited to celebrations with my friend’s family. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@puzzlegal](#): > > > > And they do let you out of the van again. They just make you wear silly objects and recite a prayer, first. > > Seriously? They won’t let you out unless you do that? > > That’s kidnapping. People could bring charges. My understanding is that they are clear about why they want you to enter the van, and you are unlikely to do so unless you are willing to go through with it. I don’t know anyone who has actually been held captive. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/151 "2023-12-19T18:48:24Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yes, i was pleased to be invited to celebrations with my friend’s family. Seconded. I don’t practice; but I’ve been at seders, and at bar/bat mitzvahs. For that matter, I’ve attended weddings and funerals that were held as Christian church services. (And have been proselytized at them; but that’s an issue I felt was on the individual proselytizers, especially as that often doesn’t happen in those circumstances.) ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/152 "2023-12-19T20:39:30Z")
I get letters in the mail to join the Big Box Church in my neighborhood. We are not very religious where I live (upstate ny but in a very blue town) even though there are like 5 different churches on my street. In a previous job a woman definitely tried to convert me and when she left she told me she I hoped I’d find Jesus. My family would love if I went to temple but I don’t. And I grew up surrounded by extremely pushy Roman Catholics, they were terrible and mocked my religion all the time. I also lost a budding friendship because I “celebrated” Halloween - I passed out candy! I’ve had pushy Muslim friends too! ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/153 "2023-12-19T21:57:17Z")
They ask if you’re Jewish first, right? I suppose that “no, but my wife is” wouldn’t be a kind response (albeit a true one). ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/154 "2023-12-19T23:03:37Z")
Yes. And most if my friends say, “no”, even if they are Jewish. It’s an easy way to cut the conversation short. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/155 "2023-12-19T23:53:55Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@puzzlegal](#): > > > > A lubuvitcher friends invited me to some holidays and stuff with him. But he was pretty low-key, and i don’t think he expected to convert me. > > It doesn’t feel like quite the same thing to me when people try to get non-practicing members of their own religion to start practicing. I gather that the Lubavitchers’ target isn’t just non-practicing Jews, but includes any that aren’t their style of extreme lulu. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2023, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/156 "2023-12-19T23:58:49Z")
For a while, they were writing letters to random people, inviting them to church and telling them The Good News. I don’t know much about Lubavitch Judaism, but isn’t it an extremely fundamentalist sect? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/157 "2023-12-21T01:54:58Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve had a few militant atheists try to convince me that I’m stupid for being a Christian. People like that don’t seem to realize that insulting others’ beliefs is never a good way to turn someone on to your ideas. But saying that anyone not signing up for your religion is going to be damned for all eternity is? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/158 "2023-12-21T02:02:16Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > For that matter, I’ve attended weddings and funerals that were held as Christian church services. (And have been proselytized at them; but that’s an issue I felt was on the individual proselytizers, especially as that often doesn’t happen in those circumstances.) My step-nephew had a Christian mother and Jewish father. Sometime after they got divorced he turned into an evangelical nutter. At his wedding, despite or because of knowing there were a lot of Jewish people in the audience - guests - they decided they had to proselytize. I did resist walking out, barely. What was funnier was that the wife of the minister, who wasn’t ordained anything, was on the stage, pulling her husband’s strings, and lecturing on how the wife must obey the husband. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/159 "2023-12-21T02:47:40Z")
That sounds awful. I’ve never felt proselytized at a function like that. The closest was at a Mormon wedding, but we didn’t stick around. The reception was the saddest I’ve ever been to. And not because of the lack of booze. It was just listless and the opposite of joyful. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2023, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176/160 "2023-12-21T07:10:04Z")
I, for one, do not say that to people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-people-try-to-convert-you-to-their-religion/983176.md?page=9)