New Jehovah's Witness proselytizing method?

Great Debates
1

When I checked my mail today I found something that I don’t often see anymore. A hand addressed envelope with a first class stamp. It was addressed to me personally. The return address (also hand written) was for a woman whose name I didn’t recognize who lives a block away from me.

What was this? Someone complaining about how I park my car, or that I was too slow shoveling my front walk? Maybe some poor infatuated woman professing her unrequited love for a handsome neighbor? (Happens all the time. Well okay, actually never.)

Inside was a sheet of notepaper crammed with small neat handwriting. Someone had put some time and effort into this. It started

Dear Mr. last name, (my actual last name, not the phrase “last name”).
I am writing to you because I have not been able to contact you personally.

At that point a small flyer dropped out of the envelope and the words “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and “jw.org” caught my eye. I quickly glanced over the handwritten letter, noticed a couple of occurrences of the word “Jesus” and threw all of it, envelope, flyer, and letter, in the trash.

Considering the effort she had put into it, I actually felt some pangs of guilt at tossing it unread. I suppose that’s the intent. Make you feel guilty about not reading it, or special that they went to so much trouble just for you.

I now have this image of lines of women sitting at a long table in a church basement hand copying the same message from a printed sheet over and over for hundreds of letters. Maybe they even select the people with the best handwriting to do this and the writers bear no relation to the return address which is intentionally that of a member who lives near the recipient. Or maybe this woman sat at her kitchen table and poured her heart into it herself. Who knows?

So is this some new thing they’re doing to replace door knocking? They haven’t rang my bell for several years, and since I telecommute I’m home most days, so it doesn’t seem like they’re just writing to the people who don’t answer the door.

Has anyone else experienced this?

2

It isn’t really “new”. They are REQUIRED by the JW organization to put in a certain amount of time trying to convert people, and door knocking is just one method they use to get enough hours in.
Seriously, they have to submit time cards to the elders of their congregation to show they are spending enough time trying to get converts
If a JW is not putting in enough time to get new converts, the elders of the congregation will put pressure on them to stop slacking off, because one of the core teachings of the JWs is that Armageddon is coming “any minute now” and that anyone who is not a JW will be slaughtered brutally by Jehovah when Armageddon comes, so there is no time to waste in drumming up new converts.
Your letter may have come from elderly lady who can’t walk around well enough to go door to door anymore, someone who just doesn’t like going door to door, or maybe some zealous person who really did try to catch you at home and couldn’t.

If I were you, I would try printing out some fun facts from http://www.jwfacts.com and mailing them back to the person who sent that to you. :slight_smile:

3

One method that IS new for JWs is that they have started setting up carts of literature in public areas. They’ve also been pushing their website very hard because it makes it easier to dodge hard questions from skeptical people by insisting “The answers are all in the website if you just go there!”

Some of you who are extremely bored or enjoy ridiculing terrible things may want to check out this month’s web broadcast of “JW TV”. If you zip through the video to about the one hour and four minute mark*, they present a really shitty song that was written from the perspective of one of their literature carts:
http://www.jw.org/download/?fileformat=MP4&output=html&pub=jwb&issue=201502
*For the love of Jehovah, please don’t attempt to watch the ENTIRE broadcast. I can’t be responsible for the permanent brain damage that you will suffer if you do.

4

Okay, now I feel bad that I tossed the results of the efforts of some poor disabled elderly woman in the trash unread.

I know I shouldn’t feel bad. It’s all nonsense and it’s an unwanted intrusion.

5

I have experienced the same thing probably about ten years ago. When I lived in an apartment building, they didn’t manage to get in to knock on doors because everyone in the building was pretty good about not letting in strangers . Because the security buzzer would ring your phone, I did get a few messages left on my answering machine asking if I was interested. The names on the security gizmo didn’t list the apartment number but they were easy enough to figure out, so I did receive a couple of letters saying they would love to come by and chat. As mentioned above, I figured it was an enthusiastic JW trying to keep their numbers up by whatever creative means they could.

6

Yeah, you shouldn’t feel bad. You didn’t ask for that person to bother you with this nonsense. I think it is excellent that you know better than to give the JWs any of your precious time. Unfortunately, I have a few family members who are trapped in the organization and have wasted countless hours of their life (plus a lot of money) supporting the organization.

Most people don’t hear about all the effed up aspects of JW beliefs that go beyond the blood ban and the holiday ban, so I take every opportunity to tell people what they are really like. For example, they protect pedophiles and won’t let their members go to the police about child molesters, they encourage their members to shun any family members who have left the organization, they use misleading quotes from scientists to make it appear the scientists support Creationism, they actively discourage their members from becoming educated…etc. etc. To me, the more JW letters that get thrown out, the better. :slight_smile:

7

Don’t think so. One of the central tasks [used to be to??] get the tracts into your hands and into your house. Not trying to make you feel guilty, just trying to get it into your house.

Unless that has changed???

8

She got credit - your lack of response means absolutely nothing to them.

9

Common, you’ve got to love those lyrics,

what a feeling
to be wheeling as the cart is being taken somewhere.

10

I am close with a witness, and I have heard her mention writing letters a couple of times.

Once, she mentioned that the elderly or disabled make phone calls or write letters. I had received a phone call from a witness then so she mentioned it. Also, another time she mentioned that if the weather was really bad (not suitable for walking door-to-door), her group might just stay at the kingdom hall and write letters.

I’m not sure but I think she might have mentioned letters in the context of reaching people in apartment buildings and at houses with no solicitation signs. And maybe to prisoners.

11

So since I’m not responding to the letter, I suppose that I’ll get a phone call next. Caller ID is a boon to mankind.

12

I saw one of these in Arlington, Virginia a few months ago. What was odd was that all of the materials were in Spanish. I suppose they figured that hey, this neighborhood has a lot of Spanish-speaking immigrants, so therefore the local language is Spanish. Or maybe they just had a directive from up on high to target Spanish-speaking people. Oh well. It did make it easier for Anglos to just pass it by.

13

I received a letter a few months ago, and was very confused.

It was handwritten and contained a pamphlet. At first, I thought it might have been some friends who signed me up for something as a joke. I showed it around, and nobody owned up to giving out my contact information.

I’m still confused as to how they found / chose me.

14

Once in a while, I find a sandwich bag on my driveway with a few pebbles (for weight I imagine) and a couple of Chick Tracts.

Dive by ministry perhaps?

15

I think they intentionally target immigrants, from what I’ve seen and read. It is easier to hook immigrants into a cult because a lot of immigrants are probably relieved just to meet someone else who speaks their language. If you’ve been isolated in American society because you don’t speak English well, you are going to feel more dependent on the feeling of community that the cult gives you. You are less likely to say things like “wait, what is this crazy shit you guys are talking about about how these are the Last Days and God will kill everyone who isn’t a JW?” if the Kingdom Hall is the only place you have friends who can speak your language.

16

You’re right, that was truly the best rhyme in the song wasn’t it? :stuck_out_tongue:

17

1970s: my great-aunt used to sign her letters “[husband] and I are looking forward to the Resurrection” or similar, so that she could count the time writing letters to her apostate great-nephew against her monthly witnessing quota. Not quite the same as the OP, but witnessing by letter is a long-established practice.

18

Check your Google Maps etc. I’ll bet you’ll find the nearest Kingdom Hall is about a block away from you…

I got a couple of those in the same month. They went into the recycle bin – which doesn’t get filled very fast so it doesn’t get emptied all that often, either. I happened to see the one from earlier in the bin when I was throwing out the latest one. I pulled the ‘handwritten’ letter and noticed the handwriting was exactly the same, down to the micron. Nobody can do that except with handwriting simulation fonts and a printer – usually a color printer, so you think it’s been hand-written with a nice Scripto Gel Pen…

Nah…You’re repurposing that scene from Dirty Harry: Magnum Force where he stumbles across the ladies copying a script off a chalkboard and slathering cheap lipstick on to kiss/sign the bottom of each letter…

–G!

19

Oh man, I love Chick tracts! Wish they’d drop some by my house.

20

I’ve been a lifelong J-dub, and the person sending the letter is just doing so because they can’t get out in the more formalized ministry due to something that prevents them from literally going out, or they may have singled out an area that they can’t get to due to “no trespassing” signs and the like. Just throw it away if you don’t like it. I wouldn’t feel bad for throwing it out. That person reached out to you and felt good for simply doing so, and you can feel good for treating the letter as you see fit.