People who go door-to-door to promote their religion

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I live on a dirt road, pretty much in the middle of no-where on two acres amongst farmers. In the twelve years I’ve been here I’ve had two JW actually make it to the door. Brave lads with my two BIG dogs (150 and 95 lbs) usually sitting on the deck watching the world.

These two only made it to the door because the beasts were inside.

Needless to say the doorbell RARELY rings and the loud barking tends to make it redundant anyway.

One afternoon: “ding-dong”. I answer the door, openening it a few inches, both beasts trying desperately to get out, barking up a storm, poke my head out, totally exagerating the effort it requires to keep the dogs inside, and say “yes?” Fortunately, the wagging tails are not visible from their perspective.

Takes all of five minutes to get rid of them all without having been rude. Oddly enough we never receive the free (rural) weekly newspaper either.

22

cygnus –

Glad you enjoyed, but next time lose the smilies.

Why? Ask and older poster.

Guest contributor
Straight Dope Science Advisory Board

My 15 minutes of fame

23

The “Hovies” are thick around New Jersey.
They come to my door, my office, and bug
me on the street. I’ve learned enough
about their beliefs to argue them into
the ground. One of the smuggest feelings in
life is getting them to walk away from you.

Someone at work once listened to me drop
jawed while I talked with two. Later, he
said he didn’t know anyone could talk to
them like that, and everything I was
saying was right. He was very impressed.

24

Ok, looks like this thread could use some first person perspective.

I was raised (from age 8 on) as a Jehovah’s Witness. Was never much moved by it and disassociated myself when I was 15. So everything I am about to say reflects on JW only (though there is probably many parallels with other evangelist religions).

I’m going to say things defending their activities, but it isn’t because I have any interest in doing so. I am very firm in my atheism and most of my family has drifted away from the JWs.

  1. Does door-to-door (or pioneering as JWs call it) work?

Yes, but not often. That is how my family was “recruited”. They caught my step-father outside and had a good conversation with him, impressed him, and it went from there. However, in my 7 years of involvement I did maybe 150 hours of pioneering and never saw a success (at least not an immediate one).

  1. Does it matter if door-to-door works?

No. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses pioneering is the most important aspect of their faith. Whether you agree with them or not, they honestly believe that only those who believe as they do will get to enjoy the eternal life after the resurrection. Therefore they believe that if they made no effort to get the word out they would be letting everyone walk to their (permanent) deaths.

If you honestly believed (right or wrong) that red apples were poisonous you would probably do your best to keep your neighbors from eating them.

  1. Why do they drag their children along.

I doubt anyone has said “what a cute child, I think I will convert.” The children go along for several reasons.

a) Because, as I mentioned above, this is the most important work you can do as a JW and the JWs never segregate the children from the adults (there is no equivelant of Sunday School);
b) Because it is a social activity. You may only see one group of 2 or 3 at your door, but likely there are a couple carloads working your neighborhood at the same time; and
c) It teaches the children how to defend their religion. JWs actually spend a lot of time training the children this way. For example, every Thursday night (in my congegration) one of the older kids would lead the congregation in the discussion of a scripture. Brainwashing or training? Depends on your perspective, I guess.

  1. Does acting weird one time keep them away forever?

No. There is no master list of houses with comments like “has a pentagram on the door.” In fact, this my just pique the curiosity of someone seeking a challenge. As with any endeavor various people approach pioneering with different degrees of confidence and skill.

Territories are assigned and rotated. So at best you are going to scare away whoever has the territory at that moment. Perhaps you can do something so scary or rude that they pass the word to the next person, but eventually they will be back.

  1. How should I respond when they knock on the door?

Any way you want, you aren’t likely to do or say anything they haven’t heard before. That said, politeness is going to work just as well. I remember well the time a woman opened the door, hear the introduction and simply said, “Thank you, I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I am not interested. Have a nice day.” She said it with a smile, we smiled back and moved on.

You can also tell them (politely, preferably) that you would prefer they not return. It is likely they won’t but as I said, there is no master list anywhere and you eventually be visited by someone else.

If you feel that the vistor has been rude or in any way bothered you (other than by their mere presence at your door), ask them which Kingdom Hall they attend and their congregation (there could be more than one congregation per Kingdom Hall).

End of rants.

While I think the Jehovah’s Witnesses are prety much wrong about everything, I have to admit that they are pretty nice group of people.

-Obfus

25

Damn, that was much longer than I intended.

-Obfus

26

I don’t practice my own religion which is the TRUE religion and you want me to practice yours which is false? Gimme a break!

27

Yeah…you sure showed THEM, didn’t you?! Nothing like a dog to fight your battles for you. And it’s a pity you don’t have the courage to call someone a “religious looney” to their face! Why be objective when you can show what a madman you can be? (I’m wondering: in this instance, who is the looney: the Witness or the householder? :frowning:
My experience with door-to-door witnessing taught me something plain and simple: If the householder says “I’m not interested” and closes the door, that’s it. Jesus even told the apostles that some people would not listen to them; and a passage in the book of Ezekiel absolves the man of God from any blame when they person he wants to talk to won’t listen.
On going house-to-house: Acts 20:20.
On whether the Witnesses have the true religion or not: Acts 5:35-39. :slight_smile:

28

Well, will wonders never cease - I walked down to my mailbox this morning, and when I came back noticed something rolled up and stuck through the screen door handle. Yep, some sort of religious tract - I didn’t look to see who it was.

For those of you who don’t see anything wrong with going door-to-door, I personally think it’s very, very rude and inconsiderate.

I’m home alone most of the time. I live in the country and don’t have any real close neighbors. I don’t appreciate having total strangers knocking at my door, and I’m certainly not going to answer it. And I surely don’t appreciate having strangers drive up into my yard (usually several young men together) and approach me while I am outside working. It’s just not a cool thing to do, you understand? As a matter of fact, you’re trespassing on private property - I bought it so I could choose who did and didn’t set foot on it. If you weren’t invited, don’t come to my house.

I’m also usually very busy. I may be cooking or cleaning, taking a bath, getting ready to go to work, wrestling with a cat that needs its ears cleaned, delivering a litter of kittens, etc. I don’t appreciate being interrupted by strangers (heck, I don’t appreciate being interrupted by family or friends, either). If I didn’t invite you, don’t come to my door.

I sometimes keep some odd hours, so may be sleeping at unusual times. I don’t appreciate being woken up by strangers knocking on my door. Also, during the infrequent times that my husband is home, we may be involved in something other than sleeping. Don’t interrupt us, okay?

My niece and several other women I know do their housework in the nude. They don’t appreciate having strangers (usually men) knocking on their door either.

Really, I don’t see where anybody thinks they have the right to come knocking on my door without an invitation. I don’t care if you’re selling encyclopedias or religion - if I wanted to talk to you, I’d look you up and invite you over. If you feel that you just HAVE to go out and spread the word of God or whatever, why don’t you just leave your literature in my mailbox? Then, if I’m interested, I’ll get in touch.

I think door-to-door anything - religion or selling - should be illegal.

29

Coosa said:

What?! You mean porno plots are true?

::start cheesy music:: babow chicky bow bow

I look at door-to-door “religious looneys” the way I look at any door-to-door sales people, or telemarketers, or unsolicited junk email. It is spam. If I need or want it, I’ll go looking for it. The only thing I want showing up unsolicited at my door is beautiful naked women wanting free sex. Or someone doling out free money, no strings attached. Otherwise, it’s an interruption to me. Whether I’m sleeping late, taking an afternoon nap, surfing online, or watching TV, it’s an annoyance. I don’t want to call them “religious loonies” to their faces because I don’t want to have to talk to them at all. “Go away, ya’ bother me.”

30

I’ve never been approached by the JW or LDS.

In fact, I work with three young (19-23) JWs and would never have even known their religion if I hadn’t overheard “Kingdom Hall” in one of their conversations.

I guess I just reek of damnation and they don’t even find me worth the effort. :wink:

31

I’ve got a good Jehovah’s Witness story:

A Jehovah’s Witness came to my door. I happened to be wearing a Notre Dame t-shirt when I answered the door. He took one look at me and said, “No sale, huh?”

32

Actually, I knew a couple JWs in high school. One was a girl that was a friend of my sister. She was cute, too.

They were very nice and never pressed their religion, or bothered me about it at all. There was even a situation at school where the administration got huffy over students sitting through the national anthem, even the JWs, and my sister protested with them. (I was at work then, so heard about it after the fact.)

None of that means I want people knocking on my door to sell me something.

33

Coosa;

Have you considered putting numerous signs up around your property that says “No solicitors,” “No peddlers,” and “Trespassers will shot”? I suspect most folks don’t consider merely knocking to constitute an egregious act of trepass (whereas if they tried to enter against your will, that would be worth a call to 911), but I think your posting signs might give them fair warning before they even enter your driveway.

– Baglady

34

While I’ve never been a JW, I did spend several years in the International Church of Christ which requires a lot of asking complete strangers if they want to come to your church or attend a Bible study. Since I was in college at the time, it was a lot of asking people in the quad, the local McDonalds, the library, etc as opposed to any door to door activity (which I think was against dorm rules anyway) although from what I recall, several universties had real problems with door to door ICoC’ers. Anyway, cold contact almost never works. Or else I just wasn’t very good at it since I never really felt right about it anyway. The few people I got to join were semi-friends who I’d talk into attending a study and the very rare occassional cold contact. Anyway, for various reasons I eventually left the church and posted the studies we used on my website which didn’t mae them very happy. C’est la vie.

35

Another first person response, this time from a former LDS missionary:

Yes, it works, but only rarely. If it never, ever worked we wouldn’t do it. In my personal experience (Two year mission in New Zealand, 25 years ago) we had two converts that we met going door-to-door. But we didn’t go door-to-door very often, precisely because it is so unproductive.

The idea isn’t so much that we think we can talk people into joining our church just because we see them at the door. The missionaries are looking for people who are looking for something. We DO think we have answers to some of life’s questions.

As far as annoying people, we recognize that that is sometimes true. My personal experience, once again, was that most people were polite but not interested, a few were visibly annoyed, a few were willing to talk, and of those few a small percentage joined our church.

We tried to be considerate of people’s feelings. We didn’t go out at dinner time (in New Zealand we also didn’t go out during “Coronation Street”, a very popular early evening soap opera). We would sometimes go “tracting” (our term for door-to-door visiting) during the day but our message was for families so we would try to make appointments for times when the whole family (or at least the husband and wife) would be home.

– End of comment. What follows is explanatory material –

A couple of definitions (for Mormon missionaries): Latter-day Saint young men, ages 19-25, are expected to serve a two year, full-time mission for the church. That’s all they do, six days a week. They spend mornings studying, afternoons typically visiting with members (or going door-to-door!) and evenings teaching. They always work in pairs. Young women also occasionally serve missions but they have to be 21 years old. The young missionaries have to be single (and they are strictly segregated by gender!) but older couples can go on missions together when their kids are grown. Children never accompany them. Missions are usually financed by the missionaries themselves (from savings, they don’t have jobs while they are on their missions) or their families, occasionally from the local congregation where they live. They call themselves Elders because that’s the priesthood office they hold and it adds a little formality to these admittedly young men. (Church members generally refer to each other as Brother and Sister.) They are required to wear white shirts and ties and generally suits also, except in hot climates.