How Do You Deal?

[Dakota]

I'm curious as to how others deal with being preached at? I get frequent visits from Jehovah's Witnesses at my home, (highly annoying). I'm just interested in how others deal with people who invade your space to throw their religion down your throat...

 

On another subject. I have a friend from high school, Nicole, who has been raised as a Jehovah's Witness since age 8. She is a firm believer, although she is not pushy with me, she's a very sweet person, and extremely intelligent, even so, with her intelligence level I am amazed she does not question her religion more. I have asked her if she ever questioned her faith and she said that she did, and read about what others had to say about religion (jehovah's witnesses religion in general) and that she came to realize that everyone else was just making up lies and the Witnesses are the truth.

Nicole is 19 and very bright, I asked her why she decided not to go to college and she told me that her Kingdom Hall believes Jesus is coming back soon and that it is pointless to go to college, because when Jesus comes there will be no use for education. I am appalled at this to say the least. If anyone has or has had an affiliation with Jehovah's Witnesses and can give me any insight or help with trying to show Nicole the error of her beliefs I would greatly appreciate it. I just hate to see such a beautiful, smart girl waste her life believing in something that will never happen.

 

Thank you all in advance

[pyrocrasticfro]

I'm nice to JW's. When I was a kid, my mom and dad (as part of spreading the gospel) would welcome them in and give them some ice tea. Years later, I met an ex-JW who was disfellowshiped from her friends and family because she had converted to mainstream christianity. Anyway--she told me that I should be nice to JW's because that is the one thing they don't expect. They are taught that the extreme rudeness and rejection they receive as they go door to door is proof positive that they are following Jehovah's will.

 

So now that I am no longer a christian--I'm still nice to JW's. I don't get into scriptural debates--I just tell them nicely that I don't believe in whatever.

 

The poo-pooing of higher education by JW's is true but I don't think it's a strict rule. My college roomate was a JW. JW's are a very tightly knit and somewhat socially isolated group--very much an extended family to each other. With this in mind, I don't know what you could do for your friend beyond maybe some gentle encouragement to take a few classes for practical reasons (job and money??)

[Dakota]

I'm not a "mean" person by nature. But I understand that I come across that way sometimes. When it comes to people of any religion preaching at me, at first I generally tell them politely that I do not agree with their beliefs and do not wish to be bothered. If they persist, or came at me with an aggressive nature then I normally respond back in an equally aggressive nature.

 

My particular "beef" with JW's started six months ago. I'm married and am in college full time and do not work, my husband works full time and generally leaves at 5 am and sometimes doesn't get home until as late as 10pm. I am a small town girl transplated to a large city (although are house in basically in the country/suburbs) I do not know anyone here very well and obviously am home alone a lot. Back to the story, six months ago there was a knock on the door and being the "small town girl" that I am I answered it without looking *mistake* Standing there were two very well dressed men and I could see two women sitting in a minivan in the driveway. They launched into their JW speech and I interrupted, told them I was in the middle of something and couldn't talk, as I went to close the door one of the men stuck his foot in the way. At this point I became frightened and started to push on the door, he pushed back and being twice my weight the door flew open. I threatned to call the police and the men stated they simply wanted to share the "good news" with me and that it was vital to my "soul" to hear this. I yelled at them to get out of my house, they just stood there, hearing the panic in my voice my dog came flying up out of the basement and attacked one of the men that was standing in my house. He started hitting my dog, I went for the baseball bat we keep by the door. I hit him once in the ribs and grabbed my dogs collar, the man took off running and all of them left. Badly shaken I called my husband and told him, not ten minutes later two cop cars pulled into my driveway. I went out to meet them and saw that one of the JW's was in the cop car. The cop told me that the JW came to the police post stating that I had allowed my "vicious" dog to attack him for no reason. I told the cop what actually happened and even showed him the whole the JW put in my wall from pushing my door open. The cop placed the JW under arrest.

 

We pressed charges, but the JW only got a small fine and community service. The police notifed the Kingdom Hall of the incident and told them not to send anymore JW's to my home. Since that time 2-6 times a month the JW's still come to our home although now they send at least six JW's along with them, mostly women and maybe 1 or 2 men. We contacted the police and they said they could do nothing about it. Two weeks ago the same JW's that forced their way into my house came back, my husband happened to be home, he met them at the door with a gun and told them if they ever came back again he would shoot them. The JW's filed charges against my husband, they were later dropped. So as you can see I have a very jaded view of the JW's. I am no longer polite to them in anyway (except my friend nicole). I posted this message to see if anyone else has had a similar experience or if this is just a one in a million thing. Also, I just cannot see how this can be legal, for them to come to private property like that, when we have numerous "No Trespassing" "no soliciting" signs.

 

Thanks for reading my little saga!

[godlessgrrl]

I don't know what locale you're in, but in my area, we call what the JW's did to you "stalking", and there are laws against it. Right to religious expression is not an excuse for stalking or harassing someone, nor is it an excuse for breaking and entering.

 

I'd probably fight back by contacting an attorney, documenting the entire incident (including getting copies of police records for all interactions/complaints/etc.), and start keeping a log of when they show up (what times, dates, how many of them, descriptions; names if you can get them). Then I'd have my attorney get involved and send a Cease and Desist letter to their Kingdom Hall telling them that if they don't leave you the fuck alone, you'll press charges for harassment (or stalking, or whatever might be appropriate in your area). I don't rely on the cops to help - at best they're too busy, at worst they're corrupt and/or don't care.

 

If they don't stop, then I'd probably up the ante: get the press involved. Actually sue them, or file for a No Contact order. Make it as public as you can. Just make a bigass stink until they leave you the hell alone.

 

But then, I'm also a major bitch when it comes to things like my personal safety and privacy. I'm also extremely territorial. So that's what *I* would do.

 

I usually just don't answer the door when people drop by. If they have a little tract, they can leave it. If it's UPS, they can drop off my package at the rental office. If it's a friend and I know they're coming by, that's a different matter.

[Jun]

.........in my area, we call what the JW's did to you "stalking", and there are laws against it. Right to religious expression is not an excuse for stalking or harassing someone, nor is it an excuse for breaking and entering.

 

Likewise in Oz. Here it is illegal to remain on someones property after having been asked to leave.

 

just cannot see how this can be legal, for them to come to private property like that, when we have numerous "No Trespassing" "no soliciting" signs.

 

In Oz, if you have such signs and someone enters uninvited they will definately be charged with trespass.

 

I'd probably fight back by contacting an attorney, documenting the entire incident (including getting copies of police records for all interactions/complaints/etc.), and start keeping a log of when they show up (what times, dates, how many of them, descriptions; names if you can get them). Then I'd have my attorney get involved and send a Cease and Desist letter to their Kingdom Hall telling them that if they don't leave you the fuck alone, you'll press charges for harassment (or stalking, or whatever might be appropriate in your area). I don't rely on the cops to help - at best they're too busy, at worst they're corrupt and/or don't care.

 

I would support this course of action 100%, very sound advice Gwenmead.

[ShackledNoMore]

My personal experiences from JWs have ranged from:

 

Least obnoxious -- I'd politely decline hearing their pitch and the JW desists at my first request.

 

to...

 

Most obnoxious -- I'd politely decline hearing their pitch, the JW would persist, I'd escalate in firmness and assertiveness and the JW would persist a couple more cycles until I was VERY firm and clear, and finally back down then.

 

So extrapolating from the worst I've seen to the worst I can imagine, an experience like yours from the worst zealots out there wouldn't really surprise me.

 

There's good reason that there are laws against this sort of thing, and if you want to pursue this, gwenmead's advice looks excellent to me. I'm not anything even close to a lawyer, but it seems to me that you should be able to get a restraining order against the JWs from the Kingdom Hall the same way as you could get one against an individual.

[Toxic]

I've had people coming up to me saying "I want to talk to you about Jesus", I usually try the Epicurus argument on them and then walk off.

[Amethyst]

I had one JW co-worker who, to her credit, never pushed her religion onto me. Of course, I was a liberal Christian at the time. Still, IIRC, JW's are one of those denominations that believe that they are the only Real True Religion and everyone else is going to hell.

[Dakota]

We decided to give it a few months. If no more JW's show up, then we'll drop it and move on. I've already contacted the newspaper, they did an article, seemed very excited by it, but the Kingdom Hall refused to comment or talk to the reporters in any way,they also denied everything, so the news bite didn't last long (it only made our local news). But if they continue to show up, then I will definetly take gwenmeads advice.

 

My great grandmother who is 92 years old and sharp as a tack has a particular dislike for JW's. She refers to them as a bunch of "hovah crazies" Her hearing is failing so she never quite catches the Je in Jehovah. Last week when the "hovah crazies" showed up at her door she met them with a bright red swastika painted on her little wrinkled forhead. They stared with shock. As she politely, in her sweet old lady voice, asked them to "please come in and help her tie up the goat that satan told her to buy". They beat hell out of there. It warms my heart! LOL My gradma ROCKS!

[Guest Durthorin]

There is a story told in some Pagan circles that goes like this. A Wiccan High Priestess was targeted by the JW who kept coming ack and coming back time after time of being told no thank you. But since she was out of the Broom Closet and her house was decorated in Pentacles and other things and a sign that used to say the "Witch is In", they seemed to take it as a personal affront. So after a number of visits she waited and met them at the door and invited them in skyclad. (Skayclad=naked)

 

They beat a hasty retreat and were never seen at her door again.

[godlessgrrl]

:lmao:

 

OMG! The swastika-forehead grandma and skyclad stories are fackn' AWESOME...

 

I sure woulda loved to have been a fly on *those* walls!

[fallenleaf]

Long ago, back in highschool, I was sitting in my front window cleaning a shotgun when they walked up my driveway. Once they caught a glimpse of what I was doing, they turned around and never made it to the door. I've also answered the door before holding a BSD Unix book (adorned with the BSD Daemon on the cover) and told them it was the Benevolent Sovereign Devil and got some reaction out of that. They basically handed me their literature and beat a hasty retreat.

 

But with the exception of those few (and the fact that no group comes to my door anymore), I usually deal with it by being overly nice, needy. I used to be out on the streets trying to reach people for Jesus so I know what they want to hear and what you can get away with if you play the situation right. So sometimes I'll be out and they'll come up and try to convert me. And I slide right into their clutches but seem to get stuck on that last inch... so they spend as much effort as they can to get me over that hump but they can't. And if they start to leave I hint that this would be the last shot I was giving God -- not often in words like that but you know -- and that keeps them around. Properly baited, a street evangelizer could spend as much time as I have to give (3-4 hours in a few cases) and occasionally ends up buying me food in the process.

 

I do this when I have way too much time on my hands (which used to be far too often). But it works for me because I have no fear of being converted again -- it's just not possible. So the time they spend on me is time they're not spending on some fool who they might convert and lead into suffering. I can stand there for hours unmoved and have no guilt about the effort or money they spend trying to convert me.

 

If I don't have the time, I usually start with a little of that but walk away mid-sentence. I don't consider people preaching on the street to be real people... they're just amusing diversions.

[Gaura]

Had a slightly odd one the other day. The church that calls itself the Grove recently moved to a new and much bigger building, thus vacating the old one near this house. Well apparently it is back in business as a church, headed up by an African-American pastor (not meant in a racist way) Well he came to the door and identified himself and his church and invited me, then tried to give me a "gift package" I could tell immediately that accepting the package would just about guarantee that he would be wanting to see me at his church (or else more return visits) so I declined politely. Now I'm kicking myself because I am willing to bet he was thinking race issues. (not the issue, I just don't want to be mangled into his particular version of the Hebrew war cult) I have gotta say that he presented himself very professionally, I at first thought he was perhaps one of hte small businesses coming around hoping to do odd jobs in neighborhoods like ours.

[Thurisaz]

I'm curious as to how others deal with being preached at? I get frequent visits from Jehovah's Witnesses at my home, (highly annoying). I'm just interested in how others deal with people who invade your space to throw their religion down your throat...

 

Invading others' space to preach is illegal over here in Germany, so while there are grey areas frequented by the morontheists, generally they don't even try to ring at your door and hurl their dogma crap at you.

 

That said, I'm kind of "friend" with our local JW coven. I've dropped in for some times at their meetings (know your enemy ) and I'll admit they treated me decently and friendly even after they knew I'm not a potential victim for them.

Of course, maybe they just want to spare one of their brothers the trouble of getting his arse handed to him by me on a regular basis. That brother does the maintenance for the building I have my place in.

 

Anyway, your posting reminds me... I gotta plan for the exception that might happen over here some day (of Them really standing at my door). Something like placing the Necronomicon where everyone will see it immediately, or having the sword at hand's range when I open.

[Kurari]

I'm normally not bothered. People who harrass me on the street generally behave themselves and leave me alone if I say I'm not interested.

 

People who come to my door get no mercy. Jesus Pimps need to be crushed like cockroaches and I'm happy to do the stomping.

 

Once years ago I was home from college cleaning out my snake's cage. I have a pet albino corn snake, and I used to breed her, so I had a clutch of babys I was taking care of as well. I saw the JW's coming up my road and so I grabbed my big mother snake and a bunch of little babies. I grabbed an old black Halloween wig and smeared my lips with the brighest red lipstick I could find, then kissed down the back of my mother snake leaving little kissy prints. I ran downstairs and opened the door all wild eyed and breathless "YEEEeeeeeeeeeees?"

 

The expressions on the faces of those JW's is one I'll never forget. They just said "We'll come back later." They didn't come back for ten years.

 

Ugh, I can't do that shit anymore though living with my current roomates. My rather naive roomate actually thinks he can get into intelligent debate with them on the doorstep so I finally grabbed the door from him because I had guests coming over and slammed the door in their faces. His partner started yelling at me that it wasn't my right to do that, and unfortunately he's a major ass who thinks he's never wrong and is under the delusional belief that he's the "head of the house." I had to end up apologizing for my actions just to get him to shut the fuck up. Moron.

 

But the JW's haven't been back yet.

[Guest Apostate]

I've had people coming up to me saying "I want to talk to you about Jesus", I usually try the Epicurus argument on them and then walk off.

 

Out of curiousity, what is "the Epicurus argument"?

[Kurari]

I've had people coming up to me saying "I want to talk to you about Jesus", I usually try the Epicurus argument on them and then walk off.

 

Out of curiousity, what is "the Epicurus argument"?

 

The Epicurean Argument is basically an unanswerable argument. It says that gods can either take away evil and won't do it, are willing but can't do it, neither can or willing do it, or are both able and willing to do it.

 

If God can take it away but won't do it, then God is not benevolent.

If God is willing but can't do it, then God is not omnipotent.

If God is not willing and can't do it, then God is neither omnipotent or benevolent.

If God is both willing and capable of doing it...how can it still exist?

 

The usual comeback to this is the lame answer of "Well, how can we understand god's ways?"

[Toxic]

 

The usual comeback to this is the lame answer of "Well, how can we understand god's ways?"

 

Yeah, I've had that as well: "clay doesn't question what a potter does to it so we shouldn't question God etc etc."

[specs appeal]

I gotta say. The "hovah crazies" story, the "skyclad" story, the snakes story... are all UTTERLY HILARIOUS! I cracked up!

 

I remember we used to get JW's coming over, too, when I was little -- we all just hid and pretended we weren't home. Even our old church delivered some pamphlet type stuff a while ago. I had no idea who it was so I once again pretended I wasn't home, of course. I really don't have problems with people proselytizing, certainly not with people harassing me or anything.

 

But if they continue to show up, then I will definetly take gwenmeads advice.

 

Man that's crazy of them to act that way!! I hope they lay off from now on!

[chefranden]

The usual comeback to this is the lame answer of "Well, how can we understand god's ways?"

 

The correct answer to this is, "Don't talk stupid, God's ways are eminently understandable."