That’s right - it helps to feed back into their persecution complex.
It’s also ‘interesting’ to note that they will ignore ‘no soliciting’ signs, as they don’t feel those apply to them.
I always wonder where people get all the time and effort to put into various comeuppance type scenarios involving solicitors, religious or otherwise.
I bought a little “No Solicitors” sign for a couple of bucks and it works just fine. On the rare occasion when someone has either not seen or ignored the sign, a simple and firm “No thank you” and door closing works too. No need to waste their time and mine.
You guys are strange. You are misinterpreting the public at large not punching you in the face when you disturb them as acceptance of your proselytizing ways. My personal policy is to politely say I am not interested and shut the door. But then I read these threads and see the disdain that the door to door proselytizer has for my time and I get angry. I feel that my politeness to strangers is being taken advantage of and I feel like a sap.
I have never known any Witnesses to behave in the manner you describe! If any did, you were well within your rights to go to the extent of calling the Kingdom Hall to complain. Multiple viisists within a week?:mad:! We might not go back to a particular neighborhood for months!
Incidentally, the citation I alluded to was Ezekiel 3:18-21. As for ther quote from Jeremiah, that was speci8fically directed to the house of Judah.
What to Jehovah’s Witnesses do when Mormons come to the door and vice versa?
Do you mind translating into plain English the Ezekiel verses you mentioned? Because I read this as a directive that is selfish in nature. “Attempt to convert others to behave as the elders tell you. If you fail, fear not; I will see to it that they are prevented from reincarnation but You will gain entrance to the Afterlife.”
Again, if a person you have accosted with your beliefs does not (eschew masturbation/oral sex/texting/homosexuality/R rated movies/premarital sex/burning incense) do as you say, they will not be reincarnated. Even if they are good, like **Jocelyn Elders **who encouraged discussions about masturbation in sex ed programs as a measure to reduce sexually transmitted diseases, single or married persons who practice oral sex during love making, persons who text, including the deaf, who are excluded from oral conversations, Microsoft’s Ric Weiland who donated **$175 million **to various charities upon his death, Mel Gibson, whose somewhat misguided but earnest attempt to glorify Jesus Christ’s torture and death in The Passion of the Christ (R-rating), the **4,850,000 couples **living together sans wedlock in the US in 2005, and every practicing Catholic, smokers of weed, and all who burn incense simply because they dig the smell… they will be forgotten and forbidden from entering the Afterlife. But, as long as you warn people they will surely be forgotten and banned from reincarnation in the Afterlife: you’re good.
Sounds like a hearty shrug to me, and a smug sense of self-righteousness. “Eh, I warned them! No biggie. I’ll forget them and won’t even miss them if they aren’t reincarnated in the Afterlife. At least I got in. I told them so!”
Party.
But seriously, I really would like to read some anecdotes along these lines. I used to get visited by (very polite) JWs about twice a year when I lived upstairs from two LDS missionaries. They HAD to have crossed paths at least sometimes, but I was never privy to any details.
Elders? Reincarnation? Afterlife? Those things aren’t mentioned in the passage in Ezekiel, which admonishes the likes of me of the responsibility we have.
I couldn’t care less about Mel Gibson. I am not a moviegoer and I know hardly anything about him, his movies, or his off-screen life. As for the rest, that is not my place to appraise.
It happened to me all the time when I was a Mormon missionary knocking on people’s doors. 100% of the time, the JW will give the Mormon missionary a copy of “Awake!” that they have stashed next to the front door. Usually, they had a specific copy of “Awake!” that dealt primarily with Mormons and refuted Mormon beliefs. It usually took 15 or 20 minutes to extract ourselves from the door, but it served us right. Turnabout is fair play.
I had a JW knock on my door when I was`a missionary, but I just took their magazine and said I wasn’t interested. Mormon missionaries usually avoid JWs unless they don’t have anything to do for the next few hours.
As an aside, it’s odd how often this exact topic comes up. Maybe we should have a sticky: Allegedly humorous things you can do to discourage JWs.
I think you’re being awfully harsh here. The door-to-door solicitor does not know – nor have any way of knowing – beforehand who might be receptive to his or her message. Only if he or she refuses to take “no thank you” for an answer is there any breech of civility or etiquette.
Powers &8^]
I suspect that someone sicced the JWs on me for some reason because that’s the only reason I can think of for so many visits in such a short span of time, and the call to the Kingdom Hall put a stop to it.
It is pretty clear that most people are not interested in whatever you are selling be it fuller brushes or your brand of salvation. To think otherwise is a willful delusion.
I’ve had a class in comparative religion, did some research, wrote some papers with non-biased cites as well as the Watchtower and Awake. I’m familiar with the tenets Witnesses follow. Had a couple friends and quite a few co-workers witness to me, too, and always answered questions politely.
Being familiar means I’m not interested. I don’t want uninvited visitors, and in 10 years at this address: I’ve had exactly two visits by salesmen. I’ve had upwards of 50 visits by Witnesses. When I called the local Kingdom Hall to complain, I was told that “Situations change. You may have experienced a death in the family, the loss of a job, an illness, or a happy event like the birth of a child that causes you to rethink your feelings about faith. We want to be there for you if you have questions.”
That explanation, while earnest and polite, is extremely presumptuous. That doesn’t make me an antisocial hermit; that makes me an informed resident who prefers that persons who knock on my door are invited guests. There is no hostility towards Witnesses here; simply explaining why door-to-door witnessing feels intrusive.
You don’t think I go around doing this, do you?
Powers &8^]
I disagreed with your post that implied that there isn’t a breach of civility or etiquette by coming to a strangers home uninvited. I believe that there is a clear breach of civility in disturbing strangers in their house.
Troppus and Gazpacho - I stopped posting to this thread when it became obvious that the religion mongers were not listening. We had left the region of fact and knowledge, and entered another place.
For these people it is a core belief that they must call to dwellings and sell religious wares to the occupants they find there. They cannot accept any contrary viewpoint, because it goes to the root of what they have been led to believe by their leaders.
If they were selling anything but religion, it would be seen as compulsive activity. Like many obsessives, they believe that they are Doing Good. As a result, they cannot conceive that other people may see it as thoughtless, ill-mannered and disruptive of their lives.
Think of the boy with his fingers in his ears shouting “Nah, nah, nah, I’m not listening.”
MOST people are not, but door-to-door evangelists don’t think in those terms. If a missionary can bring in just one convert on a mission, that’s a success.
To put this in perspective, I work in insurance marketing. We just dropped a direct mail of 150,000 pieces. If we get 750 sales (0.5%), it will be a resounding triumph. Likewise the missionary. They can be threatened with swords and dildoes ad infinitum, but if they can squeeze in the occasional conversation with someone interested and maybe get two or three converts three-month mission, that’s a huge success. Since practically every Mormon is expected to do a mission, if each of them can win just ONE solid convert, that’s a geometric rate of growth and a huge success.
Which is probably why they’ve all been so polite to me. I make my polite refusal, perhaps gently turn away a effort, and they’re on to the next guy.
I didn’t imply it; I came right out and stated it. Part of living in a polite society is receptiveness to visitors, or at the very least, making it clear that you don’t want such visitors if you would be so annoyed by them as to plot some sort of revenge.
If you leave your home unadorned with such warnings, then it is perfectly a acceptable practice for your neighbors (broadly construed) to come knocking. That’s how politicians get signatures on their nominating petitions, how the Fuller Brush man made his living, and in general how communities are knit.
That’s not to say you must welcome anyone into your home. But you must treat them with respect, for they are doing nothing wrong (unless it crosses the line into harassment, of course).
Powers &8^]
Sorry–meant “second effort” there.
And I might be more put off if I dealt with these types more often. As it sits, no missionaries have come to my door in over six years, though I have been stopped on the street a few times. Even when I did get missionaries, they generally came only about once every 3-6 months.
The only time I was a little upset was when a lady brought her son (about 9 years old) and had him make the pitch. She had no idea what was waiting on the other side of that door. Given the responses in this thread, it may not have been very pleasant.
The group in question here - are well known for ignoring these warnings - in fact, they say that “no solicitor” signs do not apply to them.