Personally, almost never. It has happened a handful of times in my 55(ish) years. I have been adept at rebuffing them (always politely). I find if you are clear up-front those who are proselytizing stop…usually.
My one exception is my BiL. He has long since given up on me (which is fine by me) but for 10(ish) years he’d have a go when we were together (various family events). Nothing too in-your-face but he’d try and then stop and then try to covertly/cleverly try later (not actually covert/clever but I think he thought he was being subtle about it). He even had a go at converting my GF a few times (which she re-buffed). She is even less interested than I am.
My BiL has given up on me and my GF at this point (good IMO). But he really tried there for a while. We are on good terms…get along pretty well really.
Credit where credit is due…my BiL was never ranting or mean when trying. Just trying to convince you that he was right…trying to talk you into it. If only you had the revelations he has had life would be so much better (I am summarizing).
I live in a very liberal city in a conservative state, in the heart of the Bible Belt. So while we get things that would probably raise the eyebrows of Canadians or Brits or New Englanders - “Jesus is truth” billboards, devotional ads on the sports talk radio station, Jehovah’s Witnesses handing out literature in the train station, the occasional street-corner Jesus-hollerer; some fool has recently started adorning telephone poles around my city with signs saying “Jesus is coming! Repent!” - I rarely encounter anyone actively trying to bring me to that ol’ time religion. Not even JWs or Mormons, although I see them around from time to time.
The most pressure I get actually comes from my mother, who would love for my wife and I to join her Episcopalian church. But she’s not trying to convert me to her religion - she’s somewhat agnostic herself - she just thinks her church is full of intelligent, interesting people that we’d enjoy knowing. (Plus, she’d get to see us more often). She proselytizes for her church, rather than her faith.
And she’s right - I’ve met some of her friends from the church, and they are a kind, interesting bunch. Including her pastor, a South Asian lesbian who says she thinks it more important to follow Jesus than to worship him. She, and that whole church, are why I can’t join in the root-and-branch condemnation of all theists everywhere that some Internet atheists demand.
I live in a suburb in Texas, and pre-pandemic, I got door-to-door proselytizers about as often as roofing vultures–which is to say, about 2-3 times per month, depending on the weather. Post-lockdowns, they’ve slowed down a bit…but part of that is just from me not answering the door most of the time. I still find their “literature” rubber-banded to my door handle or cards wedged behind my doorbell button most weeks, so I figure I’d still be seeing a couple of attempts a month if I didn’t ignore the bell.
In fairness, most of the door-to-door types were pretty good about taking a polite “I’m not interested” for an answer. The exceptions were mostly the ones who had dragged their kids along–I never really understood why. All I could guess was that they hoped persisting would get a rude response that they could use to reinforce the idea that unbelievers were “bad” with their kid. (I always felt sorry for the kids, who very obviously would rather have been doing something else.)
When I was a child, some Southern Baptists tried to get me to go to their church and would talk to my about their views related to Jesus and their denomination. I was basically raised as an unchurched person. Also, my grandmother would talk to me, as my lack of belief worried her. But for the most part, I was left alone.
During my 30’s, I joined the United Methodist Church. I’ve raised my kids in the UMC. I’ve found that since then, no one has ever approached me to change my views or argue with me or anything like that. And likewise, I don’t approach others about it. Inside my family and inside my church, we have discussions. But that’s as far as I take it. Most people react negatively if you approach them about religion.
[quote=“k9bfriender, post:88, topic:983176”]
And the Christians that don’t call them out for it are providing cover
[/quote] …
This tired old canard. It never dies. What are mainstream and progressive Christians, who are just as horrified as anyone else at what uses fascism puts “Christianity” to, supposed to do exactly? Protest? Get out the vote? Preach from the pulpit? March? Lobby? Write op-eds? We are doing those things. You simply haven’t noticed. Because it’s side by side with Jews, atheists, people of color, trans folks, gay people, and you don’t see us because we don’t go around blaring our faith, just the way you want us to not do. You can’t have it both ways.
As far as the OQ goes, it approaches zero. Even the very few JW’s who manage to find us in our rather remote locations just go away when I say, “I’m happy with my religion, thanks. No chance of me changing it.” That’s all it’s ever taken.
No one’s tried to convert me since a few years pre-pandemic, when a church busload of teens was brought in to a venue I was at to try to convert the locals. It didn’t go well.
I just don’t run in circles where I meet proselytizers anymore. Thankfully.
I still remember being told I was going to hell for not being a Christian back in my teens. But even on this board, a week or two ago, someone posted that they believe people who haven’t accepted the right beliefs will go to hell (in a thread having nothing to do with religion). At least they kept it to their own opinion, and didn’t attack any one person in particular.
From this side of the Atlantic (@eburacum45 posted upthread, but they’re from the north of England, I believe, and I’m way south): I haven’t had any saved person knock on my door in years. Maybe once a decade - which is slightly odd, as the Mormons, Scientologists, Rosicrucians and Opus Dei all have their headquarters in East Grinstead, which isn’t very far away.
What’s very visible over here (and increasing in Europe) is JWs with their pamphlet stands at any sizable railway (or Tube) station, or other places with heavy footfall. Never had one accost me, though.
Another thing we do get, often enough for it to have stopped really registering, is a person or group in the town center at weekends, shouting about Jesus and trying to pass out leaflets. It’s low-level annoying and they tend to get ignored. @AHunter3 mentioned brownie points with god upthread; nice phrase and yes, I would guess that’s most of the motivation here too.
Nowadays, the occasional Mormon or JW door knocker.
When I worked in downtown Washington DC, there were Scientology pamphlet guys at the Metro station exits. Some of them were kinda aggressive about getting you to come to their temple (not sure if that’s what they called it) that was nearby. I learned to avoid them.
I guess there are big gradations along the scale from “public proselytizing” to “lock you in a room until you recognize that Jesus loves you, dammit.” I’ve had religious folk knock on my door, and I brush 'em off.
Anyone here in Toronto is familiar with The Believe Guy: older dude who’s been standing at the corner of Yonge and Dundas for decades now with a handful of flyers, who’ll occaionally let out a loud “BELIEVE!” in the middle of his “Oooonly tru God da fatter can you enter da kingdom uff heaven…” rants. Any longtime Torontonian has watched a tourist or two jump out of their skin when his exhortation is unleashed as they pass by innocently.
Sidebar: a couple of years ago, there was a meme circulating portraying the Toronto Suicide Squad, which included the Believe Guy, the IKEA monkey, the girl who chucked a chair off the condo balcony and the guy who does aggressively does pushups on the subway…anyone local could only nod in resigned recognizion.
Anyway…a wing of my family is Mormon, and one Christmas while I was in uni, my parents, my sister and I were invited to Christmas dinner. They were hosting a couple of missionaries from the States that week. In addition to way too much saying grace, when I was taking off my jacket, I swear to this day I saw the two white-shirted door-knockers scan me up and down like they had Terminator vision, then huddle to work out a plan of attack. Mercifully they didn’t try; I would have been berated for making a scene, I’m fairly sure.
Also got sent to a Christian camp one summer in high school. By then I was already a shrugging atheist, but I kept my mouth zipped for two weeks while scripture was shoved at us (well, it was in Canada, so it was more a general “Circle Square” style preachiness). I remember the end-of-camp speech by the camp director in which he said something like “And you have to remember that everything in the bible, it’s all true! Every word of it!” At thirteen I’d already learned to tune that out.
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.
Once every spring we get JWs come through the neighborhood. If I’m home I’ll talk to them. I’ll be honest up front and tell them I’m not a believer, but that I can talk with them for as long as they’d like. They are usually happy to chat for a few minutes. I’ll offer them some bottles of water if it’s a hot day out. They never take it.
As long they’re not pushy about it, I’m happy to talk to them. They’re generally pleasant people. I won’t engage in a theological debate, but I can be polite. Aside from the utility scammers, I don’t like people to walk away from my house upset.
(if you ARE a utility scammer, you get exactly one warning, and then no quarter)
I take this back - for some reason I wasn’t thinking about the door-to-door proselytizers. The JW’s have now started leaving phone messages once a year instead of coming door-to-door. Once in a while they mail me a pamphlet, too.
I’ve had people come to my door and ask if I’d like to learn about JW or the newer testament of the Mormons. It doesn’t happen very often. I get a lot more people knocking on my door asking me to support environmental and social justice charities.
I walk by people who are handing out leaflets somewhat more often. As they are just standing on the edge of the foot traffic, I’m not sure if they count. They certainly don’t bother me.
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.
So i guess it depends how you count, but not very often.