The Solicitation of Religion

[Skylar1]

How does it make you feel?

For example, those people that go door to door telling you about their religion. Or a commercial I saw on the local news the other night... about Mormonism. o_O;

It seems so.. inappropriate to me. They're trying to advertise.. "thoughts"?

It's just weird.

[Furore]

I don't mind them preaching in public places (so long as they don't start following me), but house calls really irk me - and we have tons of Jehovah's witnesses living on my street. At first their persistence was annoying, then it was kind of fun to mess with them, now I just keep a chainsaw behind my door and if one turns up (quite rare of late), I rev it up and start unlocking the door. Generally they start running before the key hits the lock, if not then, shortly after.

Apparently their God will not protect them.

[Anoleis]

How does it make you feel?

I ignore it.

It seems so.. inappropriate to me. They're trying to advertise.. "thoughts"?

They promote ideals and ways of life; if you don't agree with it change the channel or ignore it.

[Aulos]

I've really seen very little of this, and the funny thing is I live in The Bible Belt. I guess they just assume that we all believe, so they don't bother. Well, maybe that's one thing kind of nice about living here. =P

I get far more annoyed by individual people I know. Particularly ones who think atheists are insane because "you have to believe in something". People around where I live have way too hard of a time realizing that they aren't the only person in the world. >_>

[Ellxeeva]

Some are quite persistent.

I find them Amusing..

and well, they can be annoying when they become pushy and stuff.

[Anime-Prince]

I can't stand it.

If I want to learn about something, if I want to look for something to believe in, I'll do it. I don't need, or want, people to tell me why they're right and I'm wrong.

[GameGeeks]

Like Furore said, in public I don't mind as long as it's in an appropriate place. Things like public schools are not the right place to do it. A busy park is fine. A funeral for a dead soldier is not fine. There's a time and place for preaching. Even if doing it at a public school or funeral isn't illegal it doesn't help to get people to support your cause. As for door to door, I can't stand them. It just seems like they're trying to shove religion down your throat. If people believed they'd go to your church. So unless you want to give me money, shut the hell up and go away.

[Anoleis]

A funeral for a dead soldier is not fine.

No reasonable religious group does this; the WBC is not a reasonable religious group.

As for door to door, I can't stand them. It just seems like they're trying to shove religion down your throat.

They only come because you haven't asked them not to; they'll stop after you ask them not to come to your door. Also Jehovah's Witnesses are odd....

[GameGeeks]

Actually, I've asked them not to. And they still come. So that may work for you but it doesn't work for everyone.

[Alphabet]

I never really liked them. I live in a mainly hispanic neighborhood and when I open the door, they have a disgusted, suprised look on their faces like "Oh I thought you were going to be Salvadorian/Mexican, asian sucker." They say "Espanol?"
Obviously no, twit.
ooshy ooshy ooshy

[Cobra Commander]

I don't care if it's out in public. I haven't seen many of them here in Texas, other than the Jehovah's coming to the door. I'm usually nice when I decline their invitations, but one time one stuck his foot in my doorway. I informed him that I had not invited him in, and when he didn't remove his foot, I punched him square in the chest. He tripped amd fell down, and told me that I wasn't being very Christ-like. I told him that Jesus doesn't force his way into people's homes. I haven't seen that one since.

[animeyay]

As long as they don't persistently try to get me to join them, they can do whatever they want. Although, once I did have some free time to kill so I debated with this Evangelist student. I brought up the universe, dinosaurs, science, and kept asking him "Why Christianity and not some other religion?" So in the end he conceded, but asked me to be his fb friend, lol.

[Wio]

It's really no different than any other solicitation.

[Armageddon]

Uh, well I don`t have a problem with JW's or even Mormans, or any sort of religious person preaching to me. I guess it is beacsue I lived with a JW family for a little while, and I`ve come to learn about thier views and the reasons to why they 'door knock' and such.

I respect it, if someone does come up to my door I do actually let them in for a coffee. Though, I tell them I am not interested in converting, but more than happy to have a 'chin wag' and see what they have in the watchtower for that month, because, they actually do have some interesting reads in them.

Uh, though I heard the Mormans, when they go out 'door knocking' the 'holy spirit' tells them which door to knock on. In this case, shouldn`t they have a 100% conversion rate?

:s

Religion.. No thanks.

[Kyubi-no-kitsune]

coming from a family of mormons not one myself, the missionarys(aka what you guys call door knockers) dont get paid for it they volunteer two years of their life trying to teach people about jesus christ and god, i just find it remarkable that a young 20 something kid can take two years to do something like this,also the jehovah witnesses are really odd, there i got on my soap box for today lol

[Shinn Kamiyra]

How does it make you feel?

For example, those people that go door to door telling you about their religion. Or a commercial I saw on the local news the other night... about Mormonism. o_O;

It seems so.. inappropriate to me. They're trying to advertise.. "thoughts"?

It's just weird.

I've nothing against people expressing their opinions, whether religious in nature or not. However, I've never been one to indulge in religion; so anyone coming to my door with the intent of trying to convert me is pretty much wasting their time. If they're just looking for someone to have a nice convo with over a cup of coffee or something though, that's an entirely different story.

As far anyone going around intentionally trying to convert people to their religion; that I don't find cool at all. It's fine if one simply wants to go around informing people, but let's leave any notion of conversion up to them.

[SigmaSD]

I really don't like it when they come to your house because it feels awkward answering them while I'm still in my pajamas and bedhead. But anyway, I tend to tell them I'm not interested at first or else I sit there listening to what they have to say and once they finish I tell them I'm not interested. I just want to see if they're more annoyed if someone rejects them outright, or if it be more annoying to have them talk for a long time before they actually get rejected.

[Yukitomon]

It seems so.. inappropriate to me. They're trying to advertise.. "thoughts"?

They're trying to spread their religion. They're not advertising thoughts, they're advertising beliefs. There are three main reasons:
1.They're trying to save your soul.
2.They want you to have the same happiness they have.
3.They want more members.

It may seem inappropriate to you, but religion is a unique thing. Religions do not follow conventions of society, but instead their God. You cannot rightly expect religious people to fit into your definition of normal. And besides, they're usually well-intentioned. If you don't like it, just shrug it off, change the channel, whatever.

[Jmosies]

If somebody's in a park preaching the value of kindness and goodwill, that's great, the world could always use more of that. I could do without the fire and brimstone stuff though...

[Tigris]

I don't mind it, almost nothing gets to me. But as far as thoughts on it? It's stupid. Promoting a system of beliefs in that way turns your religion, beliefs, etc into a product, or at the very least an item for promotion. Religion is your collection of thoughts and beliefs, and should be nothing more. If for some reason you believe that yours is so correct, perfect, or all around good for someone's/humanity's well being(which is reasonable), that is fine; but be a symbol of your faith, not a manufacturer, and certainly not a salesman about it. You should show through example. Through the way you live your life, and the way you affect others' lives. Does that make sense?

[wolfgirl90]

If somebody's in a park preaching the value of kindness and goodwill, that's great, the world could always use more of that. I could do without the fire and brimstone stuff though...

That's the speech I usually get. Sure, I get some nice Christians who just want to spread the gospel and I'm fine with that and most are willing to accept that I am not interested.

HOWEVER, there have been times when I get the "You are going to hell" speech, mostly due to my religion. While I don't go around screaming the fact that I am a Witch, I don't really keep this fact hidden. So, when some Christians come over, they look at my pentacle, scream "WITCH!!" (like its the freaking Salem Witch Trials) and proceed to tell all of the different things I am doing that are a sin.

Of course, I usually get them to shut up by pointing out all of the different things that THEY are doing that are a sin (I have probably read the Bible more times than most Christians), such as having a Christmas tree, which is so blatantly Pagan as to be specifically banned in the Bible.

[Elukien]

I don't mind if people want to waste their time preaching about their Religion but i wish they leave me out of it.

[TheyCallMeFei]

There's too many things I disagree with with regard to the majority of religions for me to even take them seriously any more. So how does it make me feel? I guess it doesn't.

[DeathBlade/13.666]

I've got no trouble with those "Pass it on" commercials, but I do hate those Door-to-door people....Don't think it's the Jehovah's Witnesses that I'm talking about, I'm talking about baptists actually. The Witnesses will only talk, Baptists tell me I'm gonna burn in hell because of this or that, sometimes because I'm Catholic.

There's I trick I've got though. I answer the door naked. If anyone askes "Why am I naked?" I tell them I'm a nudist!
Of course, it sucks when the cops are called.

Why can't people be more like the Amish? They leave everyone alone and tend to themselves.

[Skylar1]

They're trying to spread their religion. They're not advertising thoughts, they're advertising beliefs. There are three main reasons:

1.They're trying to save your soul.

I'm a secular atheist. I don't believe in souls. What is there to save?

2.They want you to have the same happiness they have.

"You do it your way, and I'll do it mine"

I'm pretty content with the way I choose to live my life.

3.They want more members.

more like, they want more people who will do their bidding for them. Amirite?

It may seem inappropriate to you, but religion is a unique thing. Religions do not follow conventions of society, but instead their God. You cannot rightly expect religious people to fit into your definition of normal.

no, you're right. I can't expect that from them.

But what I can (and do) expect, from everyone, is something called common courtesy. Meaning, don't go around sticking your foot in someone's door, (as one member pointed out) and try to force entry into their home after the owner stated they're not interested.

And besides, they're usually well-intentioned. If you don't like it, just shrug it off, change the channel, whatever.

A lot things are "well intentioned"; that doesn't mean that they are necessarily good.

@BoldMushroom: used an analogy a little while ago that you can try to solve mass dehydration by giving everyone a bottle of salt water (deadly). Sure, it was "well intentioned" to fix everyone's thirst, but that doesn't mean that you did anything to improve something, and perhaps only make it worse.