You know what I’m talking about: the guys that come to your door and say that they would like to share the Word of Jesus Christ with you.
Now, I’m a bit sick right now (basically bedridden for the last 3 days) and I’m a Catholic, but given the right circumstances I would have invited them in for a drink and a discussion. They were very polite, they asked me if they could do anything for me because of my illness, and I believed that they would. They gave me a little slip of paper good for one copy of the Book of Mormon, which I may just take them up on, if only to gain a better understanding of where they are coming from. It never hurts to learn, you know?
I don’t know why people have such a problem with guys like this going door to door, but they do. It’s funny, but it never even occurred to me to be rude to these people. If they were pushy jerks it might have been easier, but they were nice guys. I almost hated to send them away, especially because I’m not really doing anything important at the moment.
Of course, that’s probably just me. I’ve noticed a considerable amount of animosity towards these people, and if today was at all representative I don’t understand why that would be the case.
I don’t like door-to-door salesmen, whether they’re hawking vacuum cleaners or the latest kooky superstition[sup]1[/sup]. If I want to buy something, I’ll go and look for it.
[sub]That’s not meant as an insult to the LDS; I view all religions as equally kooky.[/sub]
We don’t get them much anymore, but the Mormons never really bothered me. Partially because they had the sense to show up in the afternoon, unlike the JWs, who would knock on my door at six in the fuckin’ morning on a Saturday.
I did have fun with one conversation with one I passed on the street:
“Hello, would you like to learn more about the Church of Latter Day Saints?”
“No thanks, I have a friend who’s a Mormon. If I’m going to convert, I want her to get the points.”
“… we don’t get points for converting people.”
“You don’t? But, how do you know who’s winning?”
I walked away before he could come up with an answer.
I think for the most part, that people just don’t like having strangers knock on their doors to try to sell them something. I don’t think it’s more than a minor irritation for most people. I think the people who are really hostile (and specifically hostile because they’re LDS or JW’s, not just because they’re banging on the door) are either belligerant, immature atheists who see an easy target or hardcore Fundamentalists who see heretics.
I don’t know about the Mormons, but with the Jehovah’s Witnesses it’s because they keep. Coming. Back. We live between two kingdom halls and when we first moved in we got doorknockers every week. If you were incredibly busy you could tell them and they’d leave. But if you weren’t, what can you do? You don’t want to seem rude. Better let them in. So they come in, and talk, and talk. You tell them you’re not really interested. They talk some more and give you copies of Awake! and The Watchtower. They leave. After a while you stop letting them in, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to get their foot in the door. A complete disinterest in converting doesn’t seem to faze them, so what can you do? “Kindly leave and take your publications; we already got a set from the OTHER kingdom hall” is rude so we just stopped answering the door when we could see it was them. Not in a we’re-home-and-we’re-ignoring you kind of way, but in a let’s-pretend-we’re-not-home-so-they-don’t-get-their-feelings-hurt-and-we-don’t-have-to-talk-to-them kind of way. But they still leave copies of their magazines outside our door. That sort of thing can annoy people. But then again, some people just want an excuse to be assholes. It’s cool to hate Jesus! Lol.
Well, it was nice of you not to invite them in if you’re sick. You wouldn’t want to start some kind of door to door epidemic now would you?
Actually the LDS missionaries (they even come in female now!) have always been very nice people. For that matter so are the JWs. A very polite no thank you is all it takes. It’s the Baptists that get so pushy around here. They are forever leaving damn little fliers all over the place. Plus they take offense at no thank you, like I’m saying to them, “Nope, never heard of Jesus and don’t want to.” I once asked one of 'em, after he said to me I needed to hear about Jesus, why on earth he thought that anybody who grew up in the deep south bible belt would have never heard of Jesus? He actually told me I had a point. Of course, me being Whiskypalian and all, means that I am a heathen in the eyes of all the good Baptists, apparently. I mean, just because we will speak to each other in the liquor store, does that make us bad?
Enjoy the read Doors. I’ve not read the Book of Mormon cover to cover but I have read through some of it. A little far fetched for my tastes, but interesting nonetheless.
Well, I did have them in one time… and yes, they were nice, at the beginning.
They never came back after that meet, by the time we said the polite farewells, they did not look nice at all. In fact they complained later about us to the contact that recommended my family as a possible target. I guess they were not expecting a Latino family that knew a lot of “the rest of the history” of the origins of the church.
If I have more time, and if there is an interest, maybe I will post about that meeting.
Gigobuster surely you have been around long enough to know that dopers would be interested in it. Especially now since you’ve mentioned it. Now we just gotta know! We’re [del]nosy[/del] inquisitive like that.
Nah. We prefer to speak politely to each other, observe each other’s purchases, then go home and talk about that bottle of rotgut old so and so was buying. It gives us fodder for chatter over cocktails.
Long ago I picked up a Book of Mormon in the 25-cent bin. Skimmed a bit out of curiosity, then put it on a shelf to gather dust.
A few years later came the knock at the door: two polite LDS missionaries. As politely as possible I said no thanks, and closed the door.
A few seconds after closing the door, I told my wife and sister-in-law about the 25-cent BoM I had. We had a little chuckle…whereupon there was another knock at the door:
“We couldn’t help overhearing that you have a Book of Mormon. Could you give it back to us?”
This time I closed the door a little less politely.
Having had LDS acquaintances who went through this from the other side, I’ve seen this from both angles. Missionaries don’t bother me.
Pepper Mill hasn;t had the advantage of LDS missionaries. She does, however, get regular visits from the Jay Dubs when I’m not around. She thinks they’re pleasant to talk to, and she likes having visitors. She takes their Watchtowers, which sit with the old newspapers until it’s time to recycle them all. I think if they knew her real, personal, religious beliefs they’d run screaming into the night.
When I lived in Salt Lake there was a wonderfully weird grad student who once invited the LDS missionaries in just so he could play with their heads. As the story goes (and I hope it’s true), he arranged for someone to call him a couple of minutes into the interview.
"I’ll get that, he said, just before the phone rang. While he was out, he switched on the heating element in the painting behind him that would, in a few minutes, after he returned, cause the painting behind him to begin to melt…
I found one time, encoutering two be-tied young gentlemen on the street one day, that being a non-Mormon from a Mormon family helps with these folks.
“Tell me, are you a Christian?”
“No.”
“Do you know anything about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?”
“Yes, my uncle used to be a bishop at his church, and my Grandfather was a patriarch. His great-grandfather, a member of the Mormon Batallion led at least four down-and-back companies from Missouri to Utah, where he founded the town of Beaver, and HIS father was a close confidant of the prophet Joseph Smith himself.”
“Oh. Um, wow. Would you like to spend some time discussing the Bookof Mormon?”
“Not right now.”
“Well, coud we get your number, and see if you’re interested later?”
“Tell you what, you give me YOUR local number and the book, and if I have questions, I’ll call you.”
Dude, you don’t want to use a broadsword - just makes more. Gotta pull 'em at the root.
We had dogs and a locked gate, so not much growing up - last batch that came through managed to betwitch our doorbell. They were ‘giving away a magazine about employment ideas and opportunities’.
They were ‘giving away a magazine about employment ideas and opportunities’.