Real Life Fundie Encounters - Part 3

[MarblesMom]

As I type this, the JWs have once again come onto the property (in the middle of nowhere, off a loooong driveway) and attempted to engage me.

Oh my. 

Certainly there must be an easier way for them to get the word out.

I will recycle the tract they left.

[clueliss]

JW's make me twitchy due to neighbors we had when I was a kid.  A pair of the meanest people.  Which has little to do with their being JW's but has clouded how i perceive the entire cult since.

[HereticHick]

5 hours ago, MarblesMom said:

As I type this, the JWs have once again come onto the property (in the middle of nowhere, off a loooong driveway) and attempted to engage me.

Oh my. 

Certainly there must be an easier way for them to get the word out.

I will recycle the tract they left.

Here in Washington DC, they seem to have ditched the door to door method & just set up outside metro stops and busy street corners, with a display of tracts in various languages. 

[nokidsmom]

I guess I better keep on eye for the JWs again.  They have started coming around the neighborhood again in recent years and now that the weather is warming up, it's probably time for them to make another round.  

[CTRLZero]

8 hours ago, MarblesMom said:

the JWs have once again come onto the property

I feel your pain.  We haven't had the JWs around lately, but the Mormon missionaries have been plaguing us on a frequent basis.  We have asked them politely to stay off our property, posted a general "no soliciting" sign, and don't answer the door when they knock.  It's funny, a couple of times after they've knocked and we pretend we aren't home, we've heard them talking on our porch about how they hate going door to door!  One time they were arguing over who should be the one to knock -- "it's your turn; no, it's your turn."  Dedicated young missionaries...

[clueliss]

I once had to tell someone knocking on my door for Jesus that no soliciting applied to him.  He tried to tell me know.  I don't care if you're the sat elite dish troll wanting to sell me something or someone handing me a flyer for Jesus - it's all politicizing.  (this happened to be a local very weird if you don't believe like we believe and exactly as we believe you are going to hell group who once tried to get me to go to their church even though I went to church somewhere.)

[feministxtian]

Thank God I live in a gated community

[Swamptribe]

On 2/5/2016 at 7:21 PM, Granwych said:

wo young women came to my door a few weeks ago asking if there were any Portugese-speaking families nearby.  I'm guessing these ladies were JWs.

We came home from the beach this morning to find a JW tract stuck in our door.  In the past I have told them to not come back.

[Quivering Uterus]

They've got a target on Me. I an not far from one of their churches, so we've gotten quite a few visits. This winter came by right after I had surgery, and I thought it was a friend knocking. They asked my name after a few words were exchanged. I should've known better. They asked if I was okay, lol. ( I hadn't brushed my hair yet that day and looked like Einstein.) They asked if I had someone taking care of me, lol.

So now they think we are friends. I am going to have to hurt their feelings and break up. I am formulating my speech. 

We've not had one Mormon. 

[Leftitinmysnood]

I have a "no solicitors because you'll wake the baby" sign in English and Spanish. So I got the JWs knocking on my door asking if I knew any other Spanish speakers in the neighborhood. Fortunately, I answered the door with a squalling, teething infant and they left in a hurry. They no longer try to talk to us, but I still get a watchtower under the mat once a year.

[Granwych]

1 hour ago, Leftitinmysnood said:

I have a "no solicitors because you'll wake the baby" sign in English and Spanish. So I got the JWs knocking on my door asking if I knew any other Spanish speakers in the neighborhood. Fortunately, I answered the door with a squalling, teething infant and they left in a hurry. They no longer try to talk to us, but I still get a watchtower under the mat once a year.

Sometimes they have the nerve to ask for a donation for that piece of soon-to-be-trashed paper.

[Grimalkin]

I found you have to give a firm no thank you to JWs.I used to struggle with being assertive and not wanting to be rude so I would take the flier, they took that as interest and kept returning. I finally just told them I was not interested and they left and never came back. 

[solacetea]

This isn't a fundie encounter, but it's a sad story about how fundie religion has hurt my family. My cousins son died last week. He was 24. He overdosed on heroin. His grandmother is my mom's younger sister, my beloved aunt. My cousin has always been a flake, bad mom, threw this boy out when he was 15. He never had a chance. My cousin and I close when we were younger, she was in my wedding. My aunt divorced her father years ago. My ex-uncle was raised Catholic, but found jesus, got a ministry degree from some fly-by-night bible school, calls himself a Dr.,  got remarried, and moved to Canada to minister to the native people and hide from the IRS (bad business dealings). My cousin abandoned her kids and followed him. She's been married five times, etc but of course jesus forgave all her sins. 

The hurtful thing is that my cousin cut her mother, and the whole side of our family out of her life because we aren't "born again". My aunt lived two towns over from her grandson, and he'd reached out to her recently, but when he died his mother and her father swooped down from the great north to deal with the funeral. They told my aunt she wasn't invited. She wasn't even mentioned in the obituary. He was her first grandchild. She is distraught.

His grandfather is now asking for donations to his ministry in memory of this poor kid.

[EmainMacha]

@solacetea- that  is a very sad story. I'm so sorry for all that your family is going through right now. And kinda angry that someone is using the situation to raise funds for themselves/their 'ministry'.

[lawlifelgbt]

I'm on a little vacation on the Gulf Coast, as my parents bought a house down there. We've been getting along much better so I decided to go (also the humid air helps my skin). Last night there was a neighborhood thing with the HOA people and the long-term renters. So naturally we all went over.

I know I'm in the South right now and I don't say I'm gay where it's genuinely not safe to do so. But, that bar is pretty damn high, and I never keep quiet or lie to make people comfortable (although I may say I'm married and then only correct people when they say something about my husband).

Anyway, so I had mentioned it to a few people in the context of "I live with my wife," and such. Then this one lady in a skirt with long hair showed up. Didn't peg her as fundie until I started hearing stuff like "oh, X is such a blessing," and she was really nice actually. We got to talking about kids and I said I'd like to have them. She starts going on about homeschooling and how maybe that's best and don't you want to shelter your kids always? And maybe there was a natural remedy for my skin issues. I said, "but I don't have kids yet, just cats!"

She said, "And a husband!"

I said, "Nope, a wife."

She pointedly went to sit somewhere else. Which I suppose was better than harassing me. Oh well, at least my parents didn't tell me to not say anything so no one would gossip. Then again it's hard to hide one's wife (because if we continue to get along decently, my wife is coming back here with me in December).

[MamaJunebug]

On March 4, 2016 at 4:31 PM, HereticHick said:

Here in Washington DC, they seem to have ditched the door to door method & just set up outside metro stops and busy street corners, with a display of tracts in various languages. 

Happened to me in Germany, Nuremberg, I think. Only I was just ambling through the square and a woman a little younger than me  said, "Hi, you look like you speak English" so amiably that I let my guard down.  Sure enough, she was a JW.  With complete confidence, I replied, "you know, the Watchtower Society [JW corporate entity] gets a few key things wrong" and her eyes and mouth made the shapes of O's -- but I barely got another word out when a very angry looking woman swooped down upon us and in German told her to not answer me and propelled her away.  But not without casting a VERY perturbed scowl at me over her shoulder. 

I honestly think the amiable proselytizer was mic'ed, her handler came around so fast! 

Edited March 6, 2016 by MamaJunebug

[tumblr]

My mom had a good friend who was JW and thought the religion was very odd but never had the heart to turn them away if they knocked on the door. One day I came home from school to her making cookies with one of the young women who had came to the door trying to convert her. 

[JoyfulSel]

Since the weather has been a bit warmer, I have seen JWs around. It is always the same people and they come around with their kids, some of who are in strollers, and knock on doors. I watched them scout out one house and go up to it, spend a few minutes, and then leave. They never really go door to door, but just pick a few houses and try there, then go on down to a different street. My mother, who was raised Catholic, always mentions how her grandmother would tell her to beware of false prophets, and thinks of JWs as such.

 

My parents have dealt with their fair share of stupidity when it comes to religions because my mother is Catholic and father Muslim - both sides of the family trying to convert the other, very obnoxious.

[PennySycamore]

The cable guy came to the rarely used front door and realized that we had a near miss with the JWs.  I found a flyer telling me about some seminar they were having.

[salex]

Today, one of our clients explained to my husband part of why she won't be coming to an upcoming event next month is because it sounds like the only ride she could get would be with a man. 

And her husband won't allow her to ride in a car with a man.  Even, apparently, 20 minutes to a monthly professional meeting with one of our other clients, much less for 5 hours to an annual event.

I know all the people involved in "i can't ride with him" and have to say, as nice as they all are, none of them seem like such horndogs or hot specimens that that everyone in the car wouldn't make it 20 minutes or 5 hours without having to pull over for a fuckfest.

My husband was dumbfounded, so I pulled up Steve Maxwells "Why not to go out to lunch with a saleswoman" bit and read him parts of it.  He and I both agreed I was all over him going out to lunch or dinner with a female client if it was going to bring money in the door. And why?  Because he recognizes that clients aren't dates.  As do I.  As do the clients. 

But apparently not all of our client's husband get that...

 

[nastyhobbitses]

14 hours ago, salex said:

Today, one of our clients explained to my husband part of why she won't be coming to an upcoming event next month is because it sounds like the only ride she could get would be with a man. 

And her husband won't allow her to ride in a car with a man.  Even, apparently, 20 minutes to a monthly professional meeting with one of our other clients, much less for 5 hours to an annual event.

I know all the people involved in "i can't ride with him" and have to say, as nice as they all are, none of them seem like such horndogs or hot specimens that that everyone in the car wouldn't make it 20 minutes or 5 hours without having to pull over for a fuckfest.

My husband was dumbfounded, so I pulled up Steve Maxwells "Why not to go out to lunch with a saleswoman" bit and read him parts of it.  He and I both agreed I was all over him going out to lunch or dinner with a female client if it was going to bring money in the door. And why?  Because he recognizes that clients aren't dates.  As do I.  As do the clients. 

But apparently not all of our client's husband get that...

 

I don't know if that's fundie, abuse, or both. Your husband may want to try to have a discreet, sympathetic chat with her about what's going on. A husband who tries to control her in her workplace is probably doing far worse things to her.

[GenerationCedarchip]

A colleague I know was invited to give a presentation on advance medical directives to a group at a large pentacostal church near me. I'm familiar with the church and know that it tends fundie-lite to full-on fundie.  She didn't realize how conservative her audience would be, so she dressed as she normally would for court (skirt suit, stockings and heels). However, her suit skirt stopped just at the top of her knees. Apparently she walked in to address the group and someone there gasped out loud, pointed at her knees and stage whispered to her friend, "Oh my!  Look at what she is wearing.  THOSE look like Satan's doorknobs!"

Mortifying all around.  Also, even if someone didn't meet my personal dress code, I'd at least be polite to them and not get into the public shaming.

[sawasdee]

Satan's doorknobs?

[clueliss]

@happy atheist because well priceless.  

[sawasdee]

@happy atheistHandling Satan's Doorknobs?