What is the polite way of saying no to Jehovah Witness?

[raindog]

[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord]
I can’t tell you what verses they were because they were randomly brought up at the time they tried to convert me. Just bring out your bible and show them. Interpretation of the bible is why every Christian branch exists. Take any two and something is different in the bible. Some are very obscure. I think the only real difference in the two Lutheran groups is One believes in communion representing God’s body and blood, while the other says it is God’s body and blood. A big deal if you are a Lutheran.
[/QUOTE]

You see, this confuses me. You said, *“after being shown about 10 different passages where their bibles had key words wrong.” *

What were these “key words”? I infer that these were translation issues? Since they were random then, just give us random ones now.

[raindog]

[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
I will say that the JW’s are the only group who have come into my office. Coming into a place where people are working is inexcusible. I told them to leave immediately or I would call the police. They left.
[/QUOTE]

What type of office, or business?

[raindog]

[QUOTE=Wile E]
I think it’s extremely rude to knock on someone’s door early in the morning and then have to be told several times by the occupant that they are not interested in talking to you about your religion nor do they want your pamphlets. They will not take one “no” for an answer. It matters not a whit if the JW’s are polite about it, it is still rude for them to do this.
[/quote]

What time did they knock?

[Hazle_Weatherfield]

Why even answer the door? I work from home and I never answer the door. In fact I never answer the door unless I know the person. I mean, would these people just continue to knock and knock and knock? Wouldn’t they just go away if you didn’t answer the door?

[Wile_E]

[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Can I interest you in some literature?
[/QUOTE]

Maybe if I can get you to come in and cook for me. Did you bring your bacon salt?

[Zambini57]

[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
I will say that the JW’s are the only group who have come into my office. Coming into a place where people are working is inexcusible. I told them to leave immediately or I would call the police. They left.
[/QUOTE]

If it ever happens again, you should try to be polite and just say “We are not interested and we are very busy”. Or “This is not the time or place, but thank you anyway”.

The fact that you threatened calling in the cops just shows you are a hard-ass with a chip on your shoulder that comes from only you know where.

[Ferret_Herder]

When I was growing up, we lived in the country but near enough to the city - and between it and the local Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting hall, so it was a popular route to travel down on the way to the more densely populated area. My dad just couldn’t say “no thanks” to the Jehovah’s Witnesses that would stop by, so we were put on their “good lead” list, I guess. If he wasn’t around to chat them up in our doorway, we were subject to lots of knocking before they would go away, or a pretty hard-sell pitch with pushing of pamphlets and things if we would go to the door.

One day we had the curtains closed and didn’t answer, and the knocking went on for a while. Then I saw one of them peeking through the curtains! How freaking rude!

Another time, the knocking went on for a bit, and then… I heard the door open. :eek: (We lived in an area where you didn’t lock your door when you were at home, until it was time to go to sleep.) It was the outer door on a little foyer before the inside door, but still, that’s not only illegal, it’s rude! I was a young teen at the time, IIRC, so I was furious but still scared to confront adults doing that. My mom was in a back room and didn’t have time to respond. I finally opened the inner door, saw they’d left some pamphlets, and grabbed them. Then I opened the outer door and flung them outside, stared at the JWs standing around their car, then locked the door and went in. Checking a minute later, the pamphlets had been retrieved.

Come to think of it, I think they stopped visiting after this, but I don’t recall if they showed up again right after. I suspect my father might have had a talk with them about their behavior at their next visit. Alternately, maybe they don’t like dealing with people whose response to trespassing/illegal entry is tossing their informational papers in the dust.

[raindog]

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
We’ve (you and I) already had this discussion in another thread and I don’t see the need to retread it here. To jog your memory: physical and sexual abuse victims being shunned while the abusers are sheltered from social and legal sanction.
[/QUOTE]

If it is the thread Unauthorized Cinnamon hyperlinked I don’t believe we discussed anything. You posted to the thread, but iirc, I didn’t respond to that post.

From re-reading it, it looks to me like someone lied to you.

[Wile_E]

[QUOTE=the raindog]
What time did they knock?
[/QUOTE]

Well, they actually rang the bell and knocked. It was usually 10 am on a Saturday but as I explained, that’s early for me because I used to work nights and also had frequent insomnia. It was also usually my day off so 10 am is early to me. Occasionally, I had just worked the previous graveyard shift and had only been asleep an hour. I did explain this to them once or twice when I was still being polite and a few more times when I wasn’t.

[QUOTE=Hazle Weatherfield]
Why even answer the door? I work from home and I never answer the door. In fact I never answer the door unless I know the person. I mean, would these people just continue to knock and knock and knock? Wouldn’t they just go away if you didn’t answer the door?
[/QUOTE]

I’d usually have to look out the window first and see who it was and they usually always caught me looking and kept ringing or knocking. Stupid peephole is too high for me and you can’t make out anything in it anyway. Sometimes I’d call out I wasn’t interested and to go away. They would eventually but it usually took a couple “go aways” first and they always left the damn pamphlets. Sometimes I was still asleep and by the time I got up, put on a robe and got to the door they were gone, except for the pamphlets.

I don’t think I was bothered as much as another poster but I’d say they came by once a month at least. But they haven’t bothered me for months now since the Beevis boxers incident.

[Unauthorized_Cinnamon]

[QUOTE=the raindog]
Do you think the JWs who came to your door had never had anyone say [essentially] “what extrinsic evidence shows it to be reliable?”
[/quote]
The deer-in-the headlights looks and vague fumbling for answers indicated they hadn’t.

The JWs you spoke to you have heard this rationale a thousand times. Yopu may think it is devastating logic, but to them it is your chestnut.

Obviously you are very sensitive about any perceived shortcomings about any individual member of your religion. However, your reluctance to acknowledge the fallibility of JWs doesn’t give you mind-reading powers. What you say may well be true of you. All indications were it was not true of them.

JW1: How’d that call go?
JW2: Not well. They brought up the “How do we know the bible is the word of God?”, and; “What if I wrote a book and said it was from God?” argument.
JW1: Oh, that old chestnut.
JW2: Yea, she used a cocktail napkin.
JW1: Oh well. We’ll move forwrd.

So, what are you saying here - that they had answers, but decided not to share them because I sounded too unreceptive? That is really hard to believe of people dedicated enough to sharing the word that they get up early to knock on people’s doors, knowing they will be reviled and abused by a large percentage of residents. Or is it that there are no answers, and they give up if the person fails to fall for emotional appeals?

The JWs knocking on your door have zero interest in debating you, or proving anything to you. (or themselves) They are quite willing to “make a defense of their faith”, but that doesn’t mean arguing with someone who is hostile to their message.

Again, that makes absolutely no sense, given how proselytizing is central to the faith. Nor does it jibe with their repeated visits, or the ubiquitous stories of JWs who will not take no for an answer or stop coming back.

They are interested in talking to people who are receptive to their message. You may take pride in showing them a thing or two, but I can tell you that what you perceive to be confusion is an unwillingness to debate.

Except, I wasn’t argumentative or hostile in the slightest. These seemed like nice people, and I was interested in what they believed. I’m always open to new arguments or evidence on religion, and I enjoy discussing these questions. I was honestly disappointed they had practically nothing to say.

By the way, if you have answers for these questions, and would like to try to convince me, I’d be happy to engage, but it seems more of GD thread than IMHO.

[Annie-Xmas]

[QUOTE=Zambini57]
If it ever happens again, you should try to be polite and just say “We are not interested and we are very busy”. Or “This is not the time or place, but thank you anyway”.

The fact that you threatened calling in the cops just shows you are a hard-ass with a chip on your shoulder that comes from only you know where.
[/QUOTE]

It’s a rental property management company. I was very busy and didn’t have time to talk to them. After I explained that to them, they kept on. Which is when I told them to leave or I would call the cops. I have a standing order that if anyone disturbs the office, we call the police.

When I bump into them on the street and they start talking about the problems of the world, I tell them I love this world and don’t want to leave anywhere else. I tell them I live day to day and find joy in every day I live.

[Wile_E]

Off topic but I just wanted to post this entry from the Bulwer-Lytton contest here;

She’d been strangled with a rosary-not a run-of-the-mill rosary like you might get at a Catholic bookstore where Hail Marys are two for a quarter and indulgences are included on the back flap of the May issue of “Nuns and Roses” magazine, but a fancy heirloom rosary with pearls, rubies, and a solid gold cross, a rosary with attitude, the kind of rosary that said, “Get your Jehovah’s Witness butt off my front porch.”

[Voyager]

[QUOTE=the raindog]

The JWs knocking on your door have zero interest in debating you, or proving anything to you. (or themselves) They are quite willing to “make a defense of their faith”, but that doesn’t mean arguing with someone who is hostile to their message. They are interested in talking to people who are receptive to their message. You may take pride in showing them a thing or two, but I can tell you that what you perceive to be confusion is an unwillingness to debate.
[/QUOTE]

If I’m reading you correctly, their target audience are those who know very little about religion, but feel that they are Christian from upbringing and culture. In other words, the unintelligent or uninquisitive members of the population. Is this for efficiency, or because they don’t feel they can argue effectively against someone who is familiar with the Bible or, in the case of evolution, science. Is that supposed to give the rest of the public a good feeling about the truth of this religion?

Your old chestnut dialog inspires this analogy:
Bushie 1: I talked to this guy about the Iraq War, and he said it started based on a lie, since they found no WMDs.

Bushie 2: That old chestnut.

Saying you heard an argument before is not a response to the argument.

[guizot]

[QUOTE=KRM]
No hablo ingles.
[/QUOTE]
When they come to my house, I talk to them in Armenian about Azerbaijan. When they walk away, I continue to yell at them.

[Czarcasm]

[QUOTE=Zambini57]
If it ever happens again, you should try to be polite and just say “We are not interested and we are very busy”. Or “This is not the time or place, but thank you anyway”.

The fact that you threatened calling in the cops just shows you are a hard-ass with a chip on your shoulder that comes from only you know where.
[/QUOTE]

[Official Moderator Warning]I see multiple posts from you in this thread that are totally inappropriate outside of The BBQ Pit. I strongly suggest that you not post in this manner again.[/Official Moderator Warning]

[OneCentStamp]

[QUOTE=the raindog]
The bolding is mine.

Show me.

Given that you have an interest in this, it should be easy. While you’re at it, show me the “clunky and ugly” parts, and their more elegant counterparts.

Show me.
[/QUOTE]

Well, actually, I don’t have an interest in this. I’ve made that plain in both of my responses to you so far. One of the best things about walking away from Christianity is not having a rooting interest in arguments like these.

But, let’s take a look at one example. How about John 1:1? This will be me going from memory since I no longer own copies of New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, or even a King James Bible.

KJV: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
NWTotHS: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.

Small difference in the wording, huge difference in the meaning. So which is right? Well, in the original Greek, there’s no article before the final theos (god). That would make the most appropriate translation “and the Word was God.”

You could construe it to mean that there should be an implied indefinite article in there, but that isn’t the simplest or most straightforward translation. And if the Jehovah’s Witness translations are known for one thing, it’s for being very word-for-word literal. So why not here? In my opinion, it’s because the KJV translation (which is the same in the Reina-Valera Spanish translation, the bible of my missionary years, as well as every other translation I’ve seen) seems to support a belief in the Trinity. Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the Trinity (not saying they’re wrong or right); how convenient then that their translation starts interjecting implied articles in an otherwise very clear and straightforward passage of Greek.

As far as the “clunky and ugly” goes, it’s strictly my opinion. To me, reading the Psalms in the KJV feels like reading poetry, and in the NWTotHS it feels like reading the instruction manual for a VCR. The language is just very plain, modern and feels pedantic to me.

There are good things about the New World Translation: for one, I like how they cut out the LORD and GOD euphemisms for the name of Jehovah. Now, how they pronounce that name is another matter entirely, but hey, this isn’t Great Debates.

[Boyo_Jim]

I have a fiend who used to be a JW. According to her, the ruder you are to them, the better the results for you. They have, or had in her time, maps of their “territories” with color-coded pins marking each private home. The color was based on based on the degree of friendliness or hostility shown to them by the residents when visited. The most hostile responses got a “keep away from” code that could result in no visits for possibly several years – on the hope that you move away or die or mellow out in the intervening time.

[Beaucarnea]

My favorite co-worker is JW, and on a day in the middle of funk when he was questioning his faith, we had this conversation. This was a few years ago when my friend was facing some difficulty in his life and was waffling a bit about his faith. I will try to remember exactly what he said.

“Why do Witnesses continue to come back after I have told them politely and repeatedly that I am not interested?”

“Because they feel that though you are not interested at this time, that your situation or circumstances may change, and that you may be in need of help or guidance at a later time.”

“But that is really presumptuous, and quite frankly, rude. Why would they persist after being asked to leave?”

“Because we have rehearsed numerous ways to counter resistance, and we are prepared for nearly every response from hesitation to outright hostility. We frequently knock on doors with the anticipation that we might meet resistance, and we would ask for the courage and insight to handle any negativity. Many witnesses go into sales careers, and are very successful salesmen because of their experience and training at getting an idea across to someone who is unsure or resistant.”

“Is there any way to stop it? I mean, if one is firmly against being converted, how can you stop a Witness from trespassing.”

Long pause, sigh. “Ask them to write it down. Say this: Say ‘I do not want you to return to this address, and I want you to write it down. Please do not return.’”

I used this two years ago at my current address. No more knocks.

[Boyo_Jim]

That kind of jibes with what my friend says – they take notes, mental or otherwise, about the quality of their reception and base their future routes on them.

[WhyNot]

[QUOTE=the raindog]
If it is the thread Unauthorized Cinnamon hyperlinked I don’t believe we discussed anything. You posted to the thread, but iirc, I didn’t respond to that post.
[/QUOTE]

Right you are. I apologize. I conflated you and **SmartAleq **in my memory. My bad.