I was actually in a restaurant on Sunday where the couple at the table behind us were ‘witnessing’ to our waittress every time she refilled their water glasses, etc. She tried to be polite (realizing her tip depended on it to an extent) but I was about ready to rip the guy’s head off.
I have a problem with people who witness at restaurants for the following reason:
This is someone’s workplace. This is their job, and although the destiny of their eternal soul is important - you can’t jeopardize their here and now with the then and thereafter.
Many times, these eating evangelists are not coming so much from a place of sincerity as a place of superiority. The fellow behind me was so eager to prove how cleverly he could twist her responses and show his quick-wittedness, it was obvious that he was witnessing to assuage his compulsion, not save her soul.
By trying to ‘save’ our waittress, he was preventing many of his fellow patrons from getting the service and attention they were paying for. I know our waittress started avoiding our section, leaving us to fend for ourselves on getting my godson refills, more napkins, etc.
As the old adage goes, “a person saved against their will is of the same damnation still.” If you are truly interested in witnessing to someone, realize that salvation is not some ritual you perform. Say the words, make the gestures, hurray you’re saved! Not so much. It’s a personal decision for someone to accept Christ - which means they have to *want *to. Not just do it to get you off their back and out of their restaurant.
So be polite, leave a tip, leave a tract even - but maybe leave it with your phone number so they can call you and ask more when THEY are ready. But respect them at their work, and they’ll better respect you doing God’s work.
I think the only answer I could give is, “I see myself as god.” He either finds that funny and takes the hint or he gets offended and doesn’t question you any more. Either way, problem solved!
“Well, she’s black and y’know how they are, always yelling and screaming and clapping in church. . . and so when she invited me to the cantata, I stayed home because I didn’t want to get a headache. Y’know what I mean?”
Shockingly, I’ve been on the receiving end of a couple of these. One of them in the last year in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco :eek:. Standing in the gift shop looking at pricey arty books and doodads:
Random presumably non-native-touristy-looking white dude to me: “Man these prices are unbelievable.”
Me ( friendly ): “Yeah, a little ridiculous, but I guess par for the course for a museum gift shop.”
RD: “Probably owned by Jews. I hear they are into art.”
Me ( less friendly ): “Err…I have no idea.”
RD: “C’mon, you know it’s probably true.”
Me ( slipping away in a carefully controlled retreat ): shrug
Slightly paraphrased from memory, but pretty close. Some people just have no shut-off valve between their brain and their mouth.
With regard to the OP, I agree. Even as a Christian myself, I’ve always believed that the whole “cold sell” approach is more likely to anger or annoy people than anything else because, obviously, they’re not open to it; it doesn’t matter whether they’re a waiter, a co-worker, or some random person I happen to have a conversation with. OTOH, when not making any attempt to do so, I have been asked about my beliefs or they’ve been directly relevant to the conversation, at which point I share enough to make the point and allow them to be open or not.
I won’t attempt to hit on a girl that is working, or for whatever other reason obviously not looking to be hit on, for very much the same reason. I wouldn’t want to be bothered with religion, politics, or random women hitting on my while I’m working or otherwise not looking for that sort of attention, so why would I subject other people to it?
That said, I don’t really think it’s a big deal if someone does so. It may seem more offensive to someone who doesn’t believe, but really, it isn’t a whole lot different than any other number of things they could say. At the very least, you can be reasonably sure that someone who is witnessing incessantly has a lower probability of stalking you to your car than someone who is hitting on you constantly. Either way, it sounded like you handled it in a professional way, and that should be the end of it.
It’s not necessarily related to the religious thing. It goes like: “All those [members of a race] are all [derogatory statement], am I right?” Well, no you’re not right. But I can’t really discuss it freely at work with a customer or respond the way I would under other circumstances. Really all you can do is try to get them to drop it, but sometimes they won’t.
I once worked in an area where there were a lot of Cambodians, we had quite a few who worked in our store. A guy came up to me once and out of no where started ranting about them and how they all steal and eat our pets and was trying to get me to agree with him. Yeah, HR would have loved me to agree with the customer on that one.
I also worked at a jewelry store where a woman kept trying on earrings and asking me if they looked “too Persian.” I have no idea what that even meant but she told me she lived in an area where there were a lot of “Persians” and from what I gathered during our “conversation” she apparently didn’t like them or want to look like one.
The point is that it is rude and ignorant of other people who already have belief systems of their own. How did he know she wasn’t already “saved” in a religion of her chosing?
I worked 10 hr days and took between 65 and 80 calls a day I had people try saving me at least 3 times a week. They wasted their time, my time, the customers waiting for my helps time and cost my employer money.
I also got a lot of this right after I told them I was in Idaho. “Oh then you’ll love this joke I just heard.” Just because I’m from Idaho I must be a racist.:rolleyes:
With a witnesser, the sale is dependent on acting at least outwardly agreeable to the person witnessing. And there’s no way to change the subject, either, or none that I’ve found.
A sales clerk or food server is there to assist people with their purchases or serve food. They are not there because they enjoy doing this sort of thing for the most part. And someone who INSISTS on trying to convert a worker is no better than someone hitting on a worker.
And yes, I’ve been followed out to my car after work because someone wanted me to get into THEIR car and go to the evening service at church. Ummmmm, not gonna happen. Usually I would say, truthfully, that I had to pick my daughter up from daycare. But I was amazed the first time it happened, and absolutely furious the next couple of times.
As to asking someone to pray for me, well, good thoughts are good thoughts. I also like to hedge my bets.
One of the joys of working with the public is you get to hear all sorts of things. I’ve had a customer flat out say he’d me to breastfeed him. I heard a lady say “She’s such a pretty girl, she didn’t have to go marry no nigger.” I’ve pretty much heard it all and I’m not a delicate little lotus blossom, I was a poker dealer, no room for timidity there.
If it was 1.5 seconds each time I went by, it would be tolerable, it wasn’t. I had to pry myself away each and every time. I’m actually wondering if melodyharmonious wasn’t my other table right behind the preacher.
When I was pregnant, I had a player ask me if I was going to have my daughter baptised. I’m a redhead with freckles, I looked at him, tilted my head with a smile and said “Nope, I’m Jewish.” He let it go.
He didn’t quote John 3:16-20, like my recent guy did at one trip to the table.
And, I actually have a card from a customer I keep in my ticket book. Awesome table, awesome people and as she left, she handed me her card and said “If you need help or prayer, please call me.” She rox.
I know this sort of thing is expected when one moves to the buckle of the bible belt. I’ve never had to wait to go to a table because they are praying and it happens all the time. Just cultural differences. There is a brazenness with proselytizing here that I am pretty unfamiliar with. Heck, I live on a remote mountain top and we didn’t even have the moving van unpacked before the Jehovah’s Witnesses were knocking on our door.
Mostly, I just like my rule. It is a good one and applies to a multitude of situations.