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Comments:
Bozoette Mary - 2006-04-13 09:15:21
My mom used to invite them in -- and then tell them that she'd listen to whatever they had to say AFTER they knelt with her to say the rosary. They never stayed. Oh, and my mom never said the rosary, either.
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Carol - 2006-04-13 09:24:17
I think they have a rule that says they must testify to someone every day. Let them testify to each other is my opinion. Leave the rest of us alone. Funny we both have had religious zealots on the same day. Thank goodnes out here in the middle of nowhere we don't get them visiting.
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Stefani - 2006-04-13 09:32:13
Amen, sister!
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Carol51 - 2006-04-13 10:14:39
Where I live Mormon missionaries are as common (or more common) than Jehovah's Witnesses. I usually say something along the line of "I know how satisfied you are with your religion and I am just as satisfied with mine. Just as I respect your faith, please respect mine. Thank you." I also keep handy and offer them information from my religion as well. They always refuse, of course, just as I refuse theirs. While I would like to be rude, I find that attitude on my part just as offensive as I find their proselytizing. So I am learning to respect them just as I want them to respect me. So far so good ... :-) But yes, it would be better if there were no proselytizing to begin with!
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Stephanie - 2006-04-13 10:19:25
I understand what you're saying, Carol51, but the difference is that I'm not invading their privacy. When they come ringing my doorbell, all courtesy bets are off!
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guida - 2006-04-13 10:47:31
You know when I first read your entry I thought about my own mission I served for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Portugal...and I thought "this is the exact sort of person that made me cry myself to sleep some nights."
But then I thought some more, and you know, you got a point about that registry...A secret that most people don't know is that missionaries want to talk to people that want to talk to them. I mean, if I had that sort of list - GREAT! my days would have been soo much better if I could have gone directly to people that would have been happy to see me.
Until the day that registry is made...a little kindness goes along way...It was great when people said no thank you with a smile, and wished me a happy day.
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Stephanie - 2006-04-13 10:58:13
Guida, I appreciate your position, I really do. However, just as calls from telemarketers are unwelcome, so are unsolicited visits from people selling religion. At first, I responded to invasions of privacy politely, but, as they became increasingly frequent, it became harder to do so, especially when you consider that I suffer from chronic pain. Just as people like me have made you want to cry, so have people like you made me want to cry when they disrupted my all too short periods of rest, or took me away from something I was busily engaged in. These visits never come at a good time. Personally, I believe they should not come at all. This is my home - my private property. Perhaps you could leave a flyer with a number for people to call if they are interested.
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LA - 2006-04-13 11:25:30
Yup. 5 weeks ago Wolf answered the door and accepted the Jehovah's handout. Now they've been back EVERY week! Saturday morning without fail. And they have been told politely not to come back. This week I will not be polite. Wolf accepts all kinds of leaflets from whoever is handing them out. The Jehovahs haven't made a convert, they handed some paper to an autistic kid who collects fliers and business cards. I told them that and asked them not to return. And yet they persist in banging on my door and interupting my morning EVERY FUCKING WEEK. Pisses me off. They take advantage of a handicapped kid and think THAT will persuade me to join them? Get a clue, you Bible toting bullies. ~LA
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Sunshyn - 2006-04-13 11:33:44
Funny, I just e-mailed Carol about this same thing, only she was proseletized at the therapist's office, where there was no getting away. I like the "praying the rosary" idea. Usually just telling them I'm Catholic gets rid of them. If not, I tell them I'm ALSO pagan. Let them figure THAT one out! I had to move to get away from some Witnesses once. I sat through the Mormon missionaries once, because I was actually interested. They wanted me to go to their church -- that's where I drew the line. But they gave me a free Book of Mormon, which I never read.
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Guida - 2006-04-13 11:44:49
What chronic pain do you suffer from? I've got bum knees, which ironically enough made me have to leave my mission early...but I totally understand that putting yourself in pain to see someone at the door that you'd rather not chat with is utterly frustrating. I'm sorry you see it as "selling" religion...it's not supposed to be that way...but I understand when there are so many door-to-door salesmen out there too. Actually there are countries that don't allow proselytizing - of course most of those countries have rather oppressive governments. the truth is our government (I'm assuming you live in the USA) will never disallow it because they see it as important part of freedom of speech...and religious groups won't stop because they value that one person in a hundred too much.
Maybe, easier than lobbying the government or religious groups, a good solution would be to get a no soliciting-no proselytizing sign...(you can get one made at any local sign shop if you can't find one) I would have turned around if I had seen one of those. Oh yeah, I'm wary about leaving fliers on doors because I think it's an advertisement for thieves, you know - 'no one's home, come rob the place.'...but I'm not in a position to do that anymore anyway, as I said, my mission is over. I'm just a regular Jane answering the door like you.
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Stephanie - 2006-04-13 11:58:20
Chronic pain - oh boy, where do I start... I have Fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease, pinched nerves in the cervical spine, and debillitating headaches for more than half of every month. Yes, I live in the US, and am a staunch supporter of Freedom of Speech. I also support freedom of privacy at home. :-)
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Jim - 2006-04-13 12:09:22
Many years ago -- late 1950s -- there were a couple of Mormon missionaries who would stop by to see my father about once a week for a month or more. He'd invite them and and tell them they were welcome to sit and chat and have a glass of lemonade and watch a little baseball with him on TV, but he had absolutely no interest in discussing religion. Eventually they stopped dropping by... don't know if they finally gave up on him or if their allocated time for our town was up.
I've never found Mormons to be pushy -- if you show any interest, they will talk and talk, but if you tell them you aren't interested they'll wish you a good day and go on to the next house. Some Jehovah's Witnesses, however, can be very pushy and obnoxious.
We're on the do-not-call lists, but politicians and charitable groups and anybody you have done business with are exempt from those rules.
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guida - 2006-04-13 13:07:27
Ouch! Stephanie, maybe you can lobby the government to pay for your sign :)
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Pam L - 2006-04-14 18:06:53
I think a simple "No Soliticing" sign should do for everything. My son is in Scouts, band, Karate etc. and has many fundraisers but they have been trained to never go to a door that has that sign, and adults should certainly respect it as well, no matter what the reason they are ringing your doorbell if you don't know them or are not expecting them. I must say I agree about the Mormons verses the JW's. While neither has ever been rude, the Mormon young men are giving up a year or two of their lives to do what they feel is right and as Jim said, I have always told them no thank you with a smile and have not seen them again. The JW's are more persistant and I eventually stopped answering the door if I saw them coming around, but they were still polite. I often don't answer the door when I see the milk delivery guy trying to get new customers or those "Teenagers" trying to earn points to go to camp by selling magazines, yeah right. No one says I ahve to answer my door.
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ann marie - 2006-04-16 12:43:59
Unfortunately, I know a JW, and I believe they are "brainwashed" to spread their "truth" from door to door. They even use their children to go to the door to reduce the chance of rudeness. It isn't really the people's fault, it's the leaders of the organization.
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Nyla in Oregon - 2007-01-20 14:13:16
I'm dealing with Koreans coming to the door every week, sometimes twice--they are pursuing my Korean boyfriend--who has told them he is not interested and don't come back. They told him they must "Save" him and won't give up. He is also too polite to refuse their self-gratification papers --(although he does like to collect "religious" documents with Satan or Hell mentioned on the cover.) I do think if he would just ask for the "Satan" ones, they would stay away. We do have a "No Soliciting" sign up. So, I need a "no religious soliciting" sign that's good for English-as-a-second-language folks.
There's a JW church 1 block away, so we get their folks too. So far the Mormons have honored the "No Soliciting" sign.
All the knocking sets our dogs off and it sounds like hounds after a criminal--kinda hard to go about your business.
Note: Magazine sales, we've had people in our state assaulted by creepy magazine sales people posing as "high-school" kids and "Church-youth group" kids. One "Church-youth group" guy on our doorstep turned really snide, sarcastic and menacing when I said "No Thanks". Wished me and the dogs well...but sounded like a threat.
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