Yesterday I was at a laundromat reading My Name is Red (great book, go read it), when a man who was a bit overdressed for a laundromat walked in and said good morning to me. I said a cheerful good morning back, and then he offered me "something to read" that "might be interesting." I almost reached for it, but when I saw that it was a Watchtower, I recoiled in horror.
Another day, I might have politely accepted the proffered proselytization and then promptly thrown it away, but yesterday morning I decided I wasn't going to take it lying down, so to speak, and protested proudly, "No, Thank You."
He looked at me suddenly, surprised and slightly offended. "Well, thank you," he replied with a curious amount of emphasis on the last word. I think "thank" might have been a euphemism here. After that, he left.
Oddly enough, it was my first encounter with a Jehovah's Witness not in my family (afaik). Do you all have any interesting proselyte stories? Any opinions about the best response to these people and their gods?
EDIT: OMG I just spent about an hour tracking down a video. All I could remember is that I had seen a scene somewhere of two cops harassing Jehovah's Witnesses, and I couldn't even remember which sketch comedy show it was. Turned out to be Reno 911. I can't find an embeddable link. Season 1, Episode 2 for anyone who wants to look for it.
6 comments:
i remember in religion class in highschool, our teacher told us a good way to repell them is to ask them to pray with you, and worship our lord and savior jesus christ- but there was some caveat that catholics have no problem with and witnesses cannot abide. if you told them this, chances are they would politely refuse to pray with you and leave you be. i cannot for life of me remember what it was. virgin birth? maybe,no idea imma wiki it:P
ahh, the will not worship with others of different religions, acknoledge the perptual virginity of mary (a pretty high tenet of catholic veneration of mary) and jesus dying on a cross. this makes sense as we had a huuuuge old cross from germany in our "entry" in my old house, witness's usually didnt stay too long talking to us even if we were polite.
There are lots of places I've been where people like that were passing out literature like that. I usually passively accept one and then actually read some of it because it often proves to be pretty entertaining. I've even saved some of my favorites.
Sometimes people will come door to door, and that's when I like to have fun with them. Usually they start by asking if my family's house is a religious one, to which I invariably respond, "We're a bunch of godless heathens living in sin. And we'd like to keep it that way if it's alright with you." My mother overheard me say this once, and she told me that I should have just said we were on our way to the hospital for a blood transfusion.
lmao! love the blood transfusion line.
um, and can I just point out the hilarity of one religion giving its members pointers on how to avoid the pesky conversion efforts of another religion?
Also, Amanda, I love the way you tell stories. Every time I just have to laugh.
Well, thank you, Sara. :D
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