Door to door religious opportunism
Yesterday was a mostly productive day. I spent the morning in the greenhouse cleaning up, removing dead plants and planning. I also planted baby bok choy and various lettuces where the herbs had been in summer.
In the afternoon I moved to the garden removing weeds from the new lawn. Not fun as one has to bend down again and again. Then the intercom rang. That means the dogs start barking, I have to run inside to get the keys to the gates (which were in the kitchen), then run back outside to open the gates with three insane animals jumping around me in a frenzy as if the most exciting thing in the world is about to happen. Once I opened the gate, a friendly looking older woman asked a teenager to hand me this pamphlet:
It says “Will the suffering stop one day”, then you get a picture of a woman who looks like she’s got a migraine, and below a multiple choice of yes, no or maybe. My reaction was the usual reaction when unknown people come to the door or call: “We already support a number of charities, so I’m not sure how much we can give you. Who do you work for? Do you provide the tax credit certificate…” I’ve got the whole speech memorized.
Then the woman asks to come inside because she would like to talk about my suffering. My suffering? Twilight zone moment. Then the teenager says, “God doesn’t like suffering or injustice.”- and then she jumped in with the bible this and that. They were Jehovah’s Witnesses. I had the urge to say something unpleasant like, hey lady, it’s a workday and I’m in my garden with my dogs, while you’re going door to door, which one of us is suffering in that scenario? But I just excused myself and closed the gate.
It’s just an obscenity. They go door to door preying on people who might be suffering. The more I thought about it, the more it annoyed me. And the boy, he was only about 14 years old. Instead of enjoying his adolescence he’s made to participate in this vile scam. Appalling. There should be some sort of atheist sign one could put on a door/gate to make sure those people stay away.
My Mazamet 
insufferable, aren’t they? 🙂
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Transparently monstrous. It’s basically targeting anyone going through a hard time. Shameful.
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my apologies for my previous activities of street ministry and midnight ‘raids’ for evangelistic purposes. as you can probably tell… i’m in recovery 🙂
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🙂 Don’t worry, it’s only happened twice before and the last time it did in Spain I had them escorted out of the community where we lived by security. They never came back 🙂
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I do have a lovely stained glass image of a wizard in my front window. Once that went up, it’s the rare JW that ventures up to the door.
I find these people disgusting with their need for external validation.
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My friend, you could order http://www.amazon.com/Bronzed-Door-Knocker-Balls-Doorballs/dp/B00RCAPMLI.
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and find a way of having it fixed so it is easily seen at the gate.
I dismiss JWs whenever I am unfortunate enough to meet with them
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That’s hilarious!
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Every rebuff they get feeds their persecution complex. . .
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http://api.ning.com/files/1vDSdWV6JAhvEeYAagDUO9RBEEapHpesWCnKK5WiDhYeA6Svzx71HiUXa*1RH2vxrwtS4VhGgY45Ncfjhy*WfHxLkPkT188s/sign.jpg?width=737&height=520
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Since you mentioned the Mormons. . .
here’s one of my favourite scenes involving ‘door-to-door’. If you don’t like profanity, you’ve been warned. . 🙂
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Love it! 😀
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We don’t get visit from JW’s as often as we used to, as they have started to hand out their leaflets etc in shopping areas now. Which makes it much easier to avoid them. I find it very difficult to ask them to leave me alone in a polite manner when they knock at the door – they are usually elderly ladies, looking so kind & sweet, but I know from experience it’s fatal to start a conversation. They edge closer & closer to the door, talking quietly, smiling, trying to engage you in a conversation, asking questions I cannot answer…it’s horrible. With double glazing salespeople I can be rude (ish), & tell them to leave me alone, but old ladies leave me tongue tied. What I find even more strange is they gather in little groups on the street corners, writing things down in notebooks. Are they noting who was rude/kind/guillible? I wonder how many ‘converts’ they get? Do they get upset when people dismiss them? It’s a very strange life they lead.
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I’m sure they plan it that way. Had it been a man my age and size, I would’ve happily told him to go to hell- but an elderly woman and a teenager… They’ve got us feeling guilty even before they begin talking.
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Yes, well, it USED to be younger women and small children twenty years ago – even harder to be unfriendly; you don’t see that anymore, at least. The ‘Bible and Tract Society’ has made some changes. As in every cult, follow the money – there are eight men in Brooklyn (although I believe they’ve had to relocate their head offices) who are dripping in dough. . . bastards. An empire built on the backs of volunteers.
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Tell them you’re Jewish – gone in a flash.
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Don’t waste your anger on them. Statistically, they won’t be doing it for long, JWs have the highest turnover rate of any Christian group.
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They used to like to pester us on Sunday morning (good strategy – catch the unchurched.) As I get ready to go to church, my husband says, “Well, I’d better put on pants in case the Jehovah’s Witnesses come by.” and I answer, “If you want them to stop, don’t bother.”
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Some of us should get together and buy a nice island! Something stylish which has plantation style houses with air conditioning. And regular deliveries from Carette 😀
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It’s not like Christians look forward to the JW knock on the door either.
I’ve always wondered why they don’t want you to knock on their door on Halloween, but they will knock on yours on a Saturday morning.
FWIW, they don’t like military, so I’ve found military stickers keep them away.
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Ahh! It’s reassuring to know that us heathens are justified in our chagrin then, Liz. I mean if even CHRISTIANS get pissed off. . . shake head, shake head. . .
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I was responding to the last sentence:
” There should be some sort of atheist sign one could put on a door/gate to make sure those people stay away…”
I mean, yeah…Christians don’t like that knock either.
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Geez.
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I joked to Mike we should have a sign that says no soliciting unless you’re bringing us a bottle of wine 🙂
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As we are just getting to know one another, I doubt you know I was raised a Witness. After one comes to my area, I always go around and check doors for any literature left behind. I throw it all in the recycling bin and wish it a better life. I hope you’ll forgive me a link to a post I’ve written on this subject:
http://mmjgwrites.com/2014/05/11/do-not-wait-for-the-last-judgment-it-comes-every-day-albert-camus/
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Madalyn – I hadn’t realized you were a Witness. You must be made of strong stuff to have disassociated; I have listened to countless videos of Witnesses who have left – they have a very difficult time coming to grips with reality. I have a couple of neighbours who are long-time members of the Witness community. Lovely, hardworking people who’ve been completely brainwashed by the Bible and Tract Society. . I feel for them, alongside my anger at the power the organization holds over their members. The ironic part of the whole thing is that they think they hold ‘The Truth’. .. if only they could understand the truth about ‘The Truth’, as you have.
If I haven’t told you this before (I think I’ve said it to Victoria) your wisdom far exceeds your age.. . 🙂
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I can’t take all the credit for leaving. Circumstances have to be right and mine were. My mother divorced my step-father while I was still a teenager and we stopped going for a while. There were times when we went to a meeting or my mother went back regularly, but I never did. A small taste of life without was enough to make me question it.
I was on the road to being baptized, mostly because that was seen as the next step in my life and all my friends had done it. My timing was lucky. Some of my friends have left post-baptism and have lost their families as a result. Some of my family are still Witnesses but they don’t have to shun me since I was never baptized.
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The evangelicals troll our streets mercilessly. Useless sacks of waste.
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You probably believe yourself to be one of the “tolerance” crowd. Just can’t tolerate those useless sacks of waste who think otherwise, eh? I’m sure in your free time you do all sorts of great things for humanity.
Sorry to troll your forum…Merveilleux.
You seem like a good, and interesting person, even if we are not ideologically alligned. My regards to Mike (I have a Mike also) 🙂
Take care, taking an internet break. For a long while this time, I think. The internet kind of reminds me of a crowded traffic zone in the city where everyone is angry and confrontational, and shooting their middle fingers to the point even they aren’t sure why.
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I’m always polite. It would, however, be refreshing if these people did something actually constructive with their time, like volunteering at an animal shelter… wouldn’t you say?
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I like having an open forum, where ideas win on merit, so don’t worry about saying anything you like here 😉
Mike’s can be tiresome! I’ve had one for almost 16 years. We should all pitch in and buy a little Mike island where we can send them to when they’re being annoying 😀
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A nasty post and then saying you’re going to be on break. That’s rather convenient to not have to take responsibility for your nonsense.
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You have to get to people when they’re most vulnerable. I wonder if people from other religions get annoyed as well. Too bad they didn’t use that time to actually help people. They could be helping in a soup kitchen for example.
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That’s one thing you’ll never see: a fundraising supper put on by the local Bible and Tract Society — if you look on their website you’ll see that they give to OTHER JW’s; no one else. When questioned about it, they’ll deny it vehemently. That’s how brainwashed they are; they parrot what they’re told instead of actually investigating for themselves. I wonder how many of them know the full story about Candace Conti, for example?
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I’m not a JW, but many Christians give a great deal of their time to charitable endeavors. I spent a lot of time in the soup kitchens when I was a teen. I know doctors and nurses and engineers who give all sorts of time to aid people (especially in third world countries who need them).
Just sayin’
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Sadly I think ‘atheist sign’ would be like a red rag to a bull…”oh goodie, a challenge!” The mindset of these people is truly terrifying. They honestly believe, 120%, that what they are doing is ‘good’. 😦
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The Jehovah’s Witnesses I have come across both in France and Costa Rica haven’t been pushy…and all have been adults.
We politely agree to disagree.
Mormons are around…pairs of young men in whiter than white shirts with badges proclaiming them as Elder so and so…which makes me laugh.
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Meanwhile, if someone called me an elder I’d beat them to death with one of my four pairs of reading glasses!
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What an image that conjures up…
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Once they came, they were two young women. When i began to talk to them they, i guess, have at once understood that it is me who is going to instruct them in atheism, and they told then that in some time they will bring me some interesting “scientific” book which “proves that god exists”. They really brought this book, gave me it as a present and promised to come in some time to talk to me again after my reading this book. They came again in a month or two, and i politely told them that i have found in their book absolutely no evidence in favour of the existence of any ” god” and that the book is in good condition so i am ready to give it back to them. They were so much disappointed that even refused to take back their book and silently went away.
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You even have them in Russia? I’m surprised.
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Yes, there are plenty of them in Russia, and here they aren’t less active then anywhere else.
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