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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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).
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.)
Seriously? They won’t let you out unless you do that?
Yes, i was pleased to be invited to celebrations with my friend’s family.
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.
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.)
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!
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.
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.
