Random Christian Mailings

[LadyCrow1313]

Helpmeets, please feel free to move this (if this post isn't in the correct topic area; didn't quite know where else this could go).

I received an unsolicited mailing from a local church yesterday. It wasn't addressed to me personally, but to the "_____ Family". It contained a random photocopied prayer, & the gist of it was to recite the prayer to allow the Lord entry into my life.

I'm not a Christian & haven't been one in many, many moons (I have no issues w/Christians or any other religions/beliefs, either; be cool w/me, & I'll be cool w/you). While this mailing really didn't disturb me, I thought it was an odd thing to receive out of the blue.

Do you think this a normal thing for churches to do?

 

[MatthewDuggar]

Yes, I get them once in a while especially for new or offshoot churches.  I guess it all depends where you live as well.  A few years ago, I attended an outdoor candlelight service a non-denominational  church here in Florida.  It was an outreach thing and I did it because some friends were going and it was being held in a trendy new area.   I must have gave them my info for a holiday drawing because soon after that I was getting robocalls from the pastor to be sure to come and worship at their church!  

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Yes, I get them once in a while especially for new or offshoot churches.  I guess it all depends where you live as well.  A few years ago, I attended an outdoor candlelight service a non-denominational  church here in Florida.  It was an outreach thing and I did it because some friends were going and it was being held in a trendy new area.   I must have gave them my info for a holiday drawing because soon after that I was getting robocalls from the pastor to be sure to come and worship at their church!  

The question is...did you win the drawing?  

[clueliss]

Sometimes get them.  I remember an ongoing question say 6-10 years ago at the church i went to about how the churches in question doing the giant mailings might have been 'stealing' other churches members.

There was also one church in the general area known for the door knocking, witnessing at the door.  And if i recall the issue with that group was they had one of those leanings in the 'you have to believe like we do our you'll go to hell' directions.   

And as someone who is now not happy with organized religion I would hesitate to given any church organization my contact information for the reasons stated above.  

[Whoosh]

I live in apartment and the mailboxes are locked and only accessible to the resident and the postman.  About a year ago everyone got a copy of some book by Ellen G. White (apparently some big wig Seventh Day Adventist author).  The books were not in any packaging and had no address or postage - just a book.  I meant to register a complaint with the post office but life got in the way.  Quite a while later I finally was at the post office mailing a package and mentioned the whole thing to the branch manager.  He looked very uncomfortable and said they had received multiple complaints.  He gave me the card of the gentleman who was looking into the incident.

That type of thing doesn't really seem to happen in my area that I know of.  The fact that it appeared that the postman had delivered these goodies on the government dime REALLY rubbed me the wrong way.  When I called the number on the card, the guy could not have been more apologetic.  He said the matter was being taken quite seriously and he would be happy to assist me in registering my own formal complaint.  I was just glad they were taking it seriously and thanked him for his time.  The government involvement bothered me so much more than any missionaries ever have, but I do think it was dealt with.  We have a new postman and a new branch manager.  

[GeoBQn]

I got a proselytizing mailing that really creeped me out once.  It was a hand-written letter on notebook paper, addressed to me, sent legitimately through the postal service, from someone I had never met before (and certainly had never given my address.)  I've also been woken up in the morning by proselytizing text messages, again from someone I had never met.

[Sobeknofret]

I usually get invitations to seminars on the End Times and the Book of Revelation. I always wanted to go to one of those things, because the Whore of Babylon on the flyer always looks smoking hot, but I don't think that was the intention. Besides, I'm a Quaker, and most of us think that John of Patmos (author of Revelation) miiiiight have been a bit chemically enhanced while writing it.

[MatthewDuggar]

I got a proselytizing mailing that really creeped me out once.  It was a hand-written letter on notebook paper, addressed to me, sent legitimately through the postal service, from someone I had never met before (and certainly had never given my address.)  I've also been woken up in the morning by proselytizing text messages, again from someone I had never met.

Now that would freak me out!!!

[clueliss]

I usually get invitations to seminars on the End Times and the Book of Revelation. I always wanted to go to one of those things, because the Whore of Babylon on the flyer always looks smoking hot, but I don't think that was the intention. Besides, I'm a Quaker, and most of us think that John of Patmos (author of Revelation) miiiiight have been a bit chemically enhanced while writing it.

Oh now there's a possibility I hadn't entertained before.  I rather like that.  

[smittykins]

Late last year, my old apartment building was condemned, and I had to live in a motel for two months until I found another place to live.  Anyhoo, one day I received a knock on the door, and their was a group of kids handing out tracts from the "Bible Baptist" church down the road from the motel.  They couldn't have been older than 7 or 8, and I saw no adults with them, although I assume there was a car sitting in the parking lot.

(Incidentally, when I moved into my former building in 1991, there was a JW tract under my door, although you needed a code to open the main entrance.)

[Cats B4 Quivers]

My mom's church had a split years ago. Her favourite pastor moved to his own church and took with him a junior pastor and a load of church members, including my mom. She said for years she received cards in the mail from the previous church asking her to come back to them. She said others received the same cards. But at one point she and a few others started getting notes in the mail claiming her favourite pastor was an adulterer, had forged his diploma, and had declared bankruptcy multiple times. My mom ignored the notes because she really liked her pastor and she only stopped attending her church when the pastor retired and then my mom moved to a new city. 

All I can say is, church people can be vindictive. 

[purple_summer]

A church in my area regularly loads it's school-age kids on a bus to pass out literature at different points around town. I used to get stopped walking home from school.

[DaisyD]

I usually get invitations to seminars on the End Times and the Book of Revelation. I always wanted to go to one of those things, because the Whore of Babylon on the flyer always looks smoking hot, but I don't think that was the intention. Besides, I'm a Quaker, and most of us think that John of Patmos (author of Revelation) miiiiight have been a bit chemically enhanced while writing it.

Oh now there's a possibility I hadn't entertained before.  I rather like that.  

Magic mushrooms have been around since before humans. 

[Sobeknofret]

I usually get invitations to seminars on the End Times and the Book of Revelation. I always wanted to go to one of those things, because the Whore of Babylon on the flyer always looks smoking hot, but I don't think that was the intention. Besides, I'm a Quaker, and most of us think that John of Patmos (author of Revelation) miiiiight have been a bit chemically enhanced while writing it.

Oh now there's a possibility I hadn't entertained before.  I rather like that.  

Magic mushrooms have been around since before humans. 

And it's a time-honored tradition to use them to contact the Divine. John wouldn't have been the first, and he certainly wasn't the last.

[campused]

I got a proselytizing mailing that really creeped me out once.  It was a hand-written letter on notebook paper, addressed to me, sent legitimately through the postal service, from someone I had never met before (and certainly had never given my address.)  I've also been woken up in the morning by proselytizing text messages, again from someone I had never met.

The handwritten letter happened to my husband, too. I was like, "do you have some old aunt I've never heard about?" It was so strange. He just shrugged it off but I was like, "we must get to the bottom of this!" 

In college we all had the same address so we would sign friends up to receive the Reverend Peter Popoff's mailings. Paper Jesus rug, magical felt strip, rainbow rag. Some good stuff.