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Fundie on my doorstep


Athena

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I thought I would introduce myself to this forum by sharing an experience I had with a creepy fundie.

Many months ago a young fundie man rang our doorbell. He was trying to sell me a christian children fund for some poor child somewhere in the world. I now regret what I said, but I responded that we don't support religious organizations. Naturally this opened a can of worms that I wish I would've kept closed. He asked me why and I gave him my honest answer: I don't believe in god and I don't think these organizations really help the problem of child poverty. So he asked me what do I believe in? I said that I believe in science (not that it has to be believed in - it just is). So he says, like scientology? This ruffled my feathers a bit - oh no, nothing like that, said I. I had up to this point believed him to be a naive little sheltered man but when I saw the self-satisfaction on his smug little face and how quickly he left my step I think he knew exactly what he was doing. This taught me though, to keep my mouth shut about my beliefs to strangers on my doorstep.

Anyone else a closet athiest?

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Not an athiest - I'm a secular Jew, so maybe agnostic? still working on it all - but I wanted to say Welcome to Free Jinger!

Oh, and I want to snicker about the fundie guy...seriously, science and scientology......big diff, dude! haha

Welcome, again Athena!

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Not an atheist but i get REALLY sick of jerks ringing my door bell either trying to convert me or trying to get me to donate.

I told them "sorry, i'm not christian , i'm jewish" and the response was "Jesus was Jewish, can you still donate"

NO.

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If they are persistent (I'm looking at YOU momon missionaries!)I just tell them we are Devil worshippers and we need a virgin to sacrifice. That usually ends the conversation :-)

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Growing up, my mom and our neighbor had an agreement where whenever they found out that there were missionaries knocking on doors in the neighborhood, one would call the other to warn her so that they would know not to answer the door.

My policy is that I won't answer doorbells unless I'm expecting a package or trick-or-treaters, and I don't answer calls on my cell phone if I don't recognize the number. That saves me some aggravation, but it doesn't stop tracts being slipped under my door, handwritten evangelizing letters sent to my mailbox, religious text messages . . .

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My policy is that I won't answer doorbells unless I'm expecting a package or trick-or-treaters, and I don't answer calls on my cell phone if I don't recognize the number. That saves me some aggravation, but it doesn't stop tracts being slipped under my door, handwritten evangelizing letters sent to my mailbox, religious text messages . . .

This is my policy too and it's a goodun'. I accidentally opened the door to the Jehovah's Witnesses a few weeks ago. They were dressed in a way that, through the tiny gap between the door's window and its curtain, they looked like policemen or investigators so I panicked (lol!) and opened up. He gave me 2 magazines and has been back 3 or 4 times since. I was polite and spoke with him for about 10 minutes but I'm really not interested. I'm comfortable with my beliefs now and I like celebrating holidays and being able to go over to the homes of people who don't have the same religious beliefs as I do.

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I am a Christian, but dislike door to door *whatever* (religious, selling stuff, you name it).

I state a firm "not interested" immediately followed by firmly closing the door. I don't get many, though; my house has a long driveway and the distance between houses is more than most residential areas, so it is not so easy for people going door to door to get from one house to the next easily and quickly. (We don't even get kids trick or treating because of this).

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I told them "sorry, i'm not christian , i'm jewish" and the response was "Jesus was Jewish, can you still donate"

NO.

My stock answer for that one is, "Yeah, so was Einstein, but Einstein being Jewish doesn't make me a nuclear physicist any more than Jesus being Jewish makes me a Christian."

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I'm so sad we've never had crazy evangelists at the door. Probably because in this city there's a 50/50 chance you'd be killed, but still. People should be brave in service of their god and my amusement.

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Now that I'm thinking of it, I told him I'm an atheist and he asked what that was. He said he doesn't get out into the world that much. I call bs if he knows about scientology.

I just tell the jehovies that I'm happy with my current relationship with god. I just don't tell them that it's non-existant. But I'm pretty non-confrentational.

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Growing up, my mom and our neighbor had an agreement where whenever they found out that there were missionaries knocking on doors in the neighborhood, one would call the other to warn her so that they would know not to answer the door.

My policy is that I won't answer doorbells unless I'm expecting a package or trick-or-treaters, and I don't answer calls on my cell phone if I don't recognize the number. That saves me some aggravation, but it doesn't stop tracts being slipped under my door, handwritten evangelizing letters sent to my mailbox, religious text messages . . .

That policy with the neighbor reminds me of similar policies I have heard of people having with their neighbors. In my town, neighbors were always calling each other over the phone, when JW's were going around certain neighborhoods. A couple of times, my family was warned beforehand and we turned down the TV and closed the curtains before the JW's showed up.

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My stock answer for that one is, "Yeah, so was Einstein, but Einstein being Jewish doesn't make me a nuclear physicist any more than Jesus being Jewish makes me a Christian."

omg, amazing. Are you also the one who came up with "Jesus is the answer to a problem I don't have"? Because that is brilliant and I use it.

I need more snarky, Jewish one-liners. Keep'em coming.

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Going slightly OT in this thread, but I wonder what people like ZsuZsu and the PP would do if Mormon missionaries or JWs knocked on their door.

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Some Mormons came to my door and tried to give me pamphlets but instead I said, "Wait here, I have something for you". I left them at the door and came back to give them chocolate chip muffins. They almost didn't take them, but then one of them asked "Did you make these, or did HE make them? *pointing at my fiance sitting on the couch*" Apparently since I made them, they were safe to take, so they did--then they practically ran away while looking freaked the fuck out. :)

That's totally my official technique for all doorstep fundies, because it seems that if you give a fundie a muffin (sorry, a muffin made by a woman), they scamper right off of your doorstep.

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I'm from a very rural town, so few people know where my neighborhood is. We got missionaries (Baptist) from one local church, but the family across the street were all members of the same church already. This happened exactly once, that I can remember. This was years before I became an atheist, and my sister and I were playing upstairs at the time.

When I was a Girl Scout they warned against selling door-to-door unless you were familiar with the neighbors. I really don't know why missionaries don't follow that rule. And they wonder why people aren't so receptive to the Gospel...

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We live in a very secluded house that most people don't even know exists. Some one sent the Jovies to my door (I do have friends who would find this very humorous). I am Wiccan, my husband is Pagan. They stay at least an hour everytime they come with them trying to convert us and my husband trying to convert them.

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Instead of saying you believe in science, tell them you believe in reality next time. I think makes it easier to understand for people who don't realize that science is studying and trying to understand reality.

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Mostly I will just say not interested and shut the door. There was one lady I did talk to a few times, though. When I was near the end of my pregnancy my oldest son (now 7), a Mormon (maybe JW I can't remember for sure) woman came to my house. She was with a large group of people going up and down our street. They would split up and go to different houses. I told her I wasn't interested in converting and she didn't push and started asking about my due date, boy or girl, etc. She came back a couple more times, the last right after I had my son. She said congrats, asked how I was doing and then left because she figured I would be tired and not up to chatting in the doorway that day. Their group stopped coming to our street after that day. I didn't mind talking to her since she really didn't push her beliefs at all. I kinda got the impression she was just going along with her church's requirements and just liked talking to people.

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The JWs are usually the ones in the big groups.

I don't mind the door-to-door people themselves (usually) but I don't like the idea at all. A lot of them come to my apartment building. They dress to the nines and act generally superior, like they have the answer to our poverty. I am sure they are surprised that most of the residents are traditional families, even some fundies. The bus ministries annoy the hell out of me because they drive this big noisy bus into the parking lot on a Sunday morning and HONK!HONK!HONK! until the kids come out. It's 8:30 AM on a Sunday! stfu!

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My favorite memory of fundies at the door: I was woken up at noon or so by two Mormons. I lived in a brownstone at the time and they were buzzing every apartment to get someone to open the front door. I got dressed and ran downstairs. They were obviously amused by my disheveled appearance, probably assuming I was hungover or something and asked if I was looking for "the pizza guy." I actually was napping after working 5 am to 11 am at my job at a coffee shop (had to wake up at 4 to get there on time) and didn't have class that afternoon. In their spiel, they said something about how they were spreading the good news, blah blah, I told them I wasn't religious, then they said something about how (because they were Mormon) they loved getting up in the morning and smirked at each other. It pissed me off so much, as if I was a lazy ass for having a weird work schedule or lived such a sad atheist life that I was sleeping till noon (not that there is anything wrong with that). But I didn't call them out on their snarkyness for the sake of being polite. Ugh.

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If they ignore the closed gate, the sign on the closed gate warning them about the dogs, my ignoring them at the door when they can clearly see me in the kitchen, then they deserve to be bitten in the ass by whichever dog gets there first.

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We used to get church groups coming by at our old house. I work at home and would get really annoyed by them. But then I'd answer the door and it would be an elderly person and I'd feel bad about blasting them. So I'd very politely tell them that I was an atheist and wish them luck.

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