You have a right against self-incrimination, you know. :rolleyes:
Something did occur to me that would be an amusing way to handle either Witnesses & Latter-day Saints- when a JW comes to the door, have a Book of Mormon nearby & say to them “May I tell you about the Other Testament of Jesus Christ?” or when a LDS comes to the door, have a New World Translation Bible nearby & ask “Do you know about Jehovah’s Coming Kingdom?”
My former father in law was Very Catholic. To help out the local priest, he used to store boxes of church literature, handouts, bibles, hymnals, etc. in his basement. My ex told me that on one occasion when a JW came to the door, he invited him in, sat him down and listened to his entire spiel. He then asked him to stay while he fetched something to show him, and hauled a box full of catholic glurge up from the basement. After about ten minutes, the young man tried to excuse himself, but was told “I was polite and receptive to your ideas and comments; I would hope that as a Christian, you would return the courtesy.” After an hour, the guy was practically begging to be let go.
But did you look at the The Book of Abraham first? Good for you not believing one of the silly religions.
A good friend and former Utah-resident had a great method for dealing with un-wanted prosyletizers. He would answer the door with a big smile, raise his palm and say “Have patience” and then softly close the door. He could usually get them to wait 5 or 10 minutes before knocking again, at which time he would answer the door, this time saying “Didn’t I ask you to have patience?”.
cue softly closing door
Even the most obtuse of the callers would finally figure it out.
:Sigh: This is a roundabout and time-wasting effort. Most of the people I encountered would just say “I’m not interested” and that was enough for me. We did not press the issue, and left quietly. You went to a lot of trouble to rid yourself of people you could have sent away with a simple refusal such as I usually encountered.
I think you are missing the point. The vast majority of people dislike door-to-door marketing - whether it is someone marketing his beliefs or his new mousetrap.
You assume that you have the right to disturb us to make your pitch, and that our only right is to tell you to go away. We are trying to give you a message, and you are not hearing the message - calls from people like you are disruptive of our lives. You should find some other way to convert the world to your version of reality, please.
There is a cultural shift going on–When I began the ministry 50 years ago it was standard procedure for “cold calling” to meet the neighborhood and perhaps find someone interested. I never once was not received politely, even when someone was totally uninterested. (Who knows what they said after I left?) Nowadays church members do not want the pastor they know well to just drop in.
When the 21st has come and gone it will be a great worldwide lesson in Impermenance and False Idols.
Saw a 21st apocalypse billboard under the viaduct in Toledo, today. Mark my words, The 21st. is the day I will plant my Tomatoes and Peppers. No different than any other Spring day.
Sorry. I do not consider this disruptive inasmuch as the people I have known have always been quite civil. If I were a stranger politely asking directions, or an injured or robbed person in need of help, or a passerby telling you your house is on fire, would you consider me disruptive?
Jesus authorized his disciples to be witnesses of him “to the most distant part of the earth.” I am sorry you consider it disruptive but it has divine authorization and is beyond your ken to suppress. --Acts 1:8; 5:38, 39; 20:20. 
You are incredibly thoughtless, if you assume that politeness implies encouragement or that you have not disrupted their lives. Most of us are courteous, even to people who do not deserve our courtesy. However, there are limits to our patience when ill-mannered people persist in bothering us in our homes.
If you are in need, I will help you. Of course it is disruptive, but I owe you a duty of care as a fellow human. What goes around comes around.
If you are warning me of an emergency, I will thank you. A disruption already exists, and you are just warning me of it.
Hmmm. You are authorised to disrupt my life by text in a book which appears to have been written during the Roman Empire. Okayyy…
::Steps back from strange person, prepares to unleash the leopard if he comes any closer::
There is a tacit understanding in modern Western societies that having a home with a relatively welcoming appearance is a tacit acceptance of visitors, whether they are known to you or not. People who do not want to be bothered by strangers erect fences and signs announcing such, or acquire aggressive canines.
The “disruption” to your day is minor. Deal with it like a normal human member of society and say “No thank you.”
Powers &8^]
Just because people are polite doesn’t mean it isn’t disruptive.
Yes, but the context is different so acceptance of the disruption is different.
I’m fairly certain Jesus did not go door to door or otherwise intrude on people. He talked to people he encountered or who came up to him.
There are many ways to deal with annoyances. There is something appealing about taking someone who is disrupting your day and giving them a dose of annoyance back. It’s why some people play games with telemarketers. It’s “You’re a pest, and here’s a dose of your own medicine”.
This goes to the root of the discussion. There is no such “tacit understanding” - you grievously misunderstand the situation if you think there is.
You have been told to call at houses and try to sell your religious beliefs to the occupant. Most “normal members of society” do not wish this to occur, but they are courteous to strangers, even ill-mannered ones who bother them. They are too polite to set the dog on you and will rarely seize a sabre, unless driven wild by people who call at inappropriate hours.
You can easily test your “tacit understanding”, by writing in advance to ask permission to call. Only a tiny percentage will grant permission. Try it.
There is no tacit understanding that you may sell your wares to occupants. It is absurd to claim they consent to marketing, if they have not erected a barbed wire entanglement or a chained leopard outside the door to drive you away.
I think enough has been said on this. If you do not understand your fellow man, who you meet every day, there seems to be little purpose in knocking on his door to talk to him.
Over and out.
I went through no trouble at all, if you would bother reading what I wrote. The person who did this was as devout about his religion as any proselytizer, and I’m sure felt that he was doing something worthwhile to convince the young man of the errors of his ways, while at the same time discouraging his return.
Certainly there is. It’s a basic point of etiquette that persons may call upon you at your place of residence. That’s just part of being a functioning society. You are at your liberty to preemptively reject such calls, but to do so you must be explicit about it. You can’t expect a solicitor to gaze at a streetful of houses and know intuitively which ones have antisocial hermits within them and which ones do not, without some sort of visual marker or notice.
Now, if you’re arguing that door-to-door solicitation (be it of goods or of dogma) is inherently rude, that’s a different story. The consensus of society, however, is that it is tolerable if not particularly welcome. If you cannot tolerate it, then it is your responsibility to make that known. Politely.
Powers &8^]
I thank you, Powers, for a defense of the Witnesses’ stance. 
It had been my experience that few, if any, householders were as severely irritated by the door-to-door ministry as some of those posting to this thread are. In any case, some people who were particularly disagreeable to us were identified as such on the neighborhood map cards that were used, and we made an effort to avoid them.
I am not impressed by the comment about the book of Acts as being merely a “book written at the time of the Roman Empire.” That is a little like the Arkansas native who ignored the radio warning about a tornado because he heard it on “a little old dime-store radio.” And a similar exhortation appears in the book of Ezekiel, some six cxenturies older.
Hmmm. Maybe you will understand if I just say, Jeremiah 5.21. :rolleyes:
The only reason I got irritated at the JW’s visits was because there were so. damn. many of them. For a while, it seemed that I was getting multiple visits per week. No matter how much I tried to politely emphasize that I wasn’t interested, the visits kept coming. It literally took a call to the Kingdom Hall for the visits to stop. This doesn’t include the rather odd phone call I got from a JW a few years later, in which a woman went on and on about dead children before I hung up on her.
And here you are, tacitly admitting that it takes assholish behavior to get us crossed off your list. Now that I know that, I’ll behave like an asshole when they show up.