Proselytizing (or, a friendly conversation)

[eris_star]

A couple of very nice young Mormon men just stopped by my door. They were friendly, and when I told them I'm a Sunday school teacher at First UU (my polite, quick version of "so please don't waste both our time trying to convert me"), they were interested in learning more about it. I gave them the 10-second spiel, but I found myself desperately

Comments

[xelar]

Oh, jeebus. A couple of weeks ago, I had almost pulled into my driveway when I saw that there were two of 'em at my door. I drove past my house, down the hill to downtown and back to make sure the Mormons or Jehova's Witnesses (or whatever) were gone. I choose avoidance over confrontation every time.

[eris_star]

They weren't confrontational at all. In fact, the past several various religious types have all made a point of being really nice. I think the message has finally gotten out that if you want people to have a positive impression of your faith (even if they're never going to convert), then you don't want to show up on their door and pick an argument. The impression they seem to be striving to leave behind is "We're nice, helpful, good people, and we'd like to get to know you, and for you to get to know us and what we believe." All things considered, it's a pretty good sales tactic. (We'll ignore the fact that I'm as likely to buy what they're selling as I am to drink a bottle of shampoo).

[kayateia]

That's good. :) The JWs in our old neighborhood were like that. They were just nice people who Jessica often had conversations about religion with (she was Asatru and is now Gnostic). The ones in this neighborhood are of the more evil variety. Jessica used to be one of those "I always want to talk to them" people, and now we sit quietly when they knock. Then again, the newspaper people in this area are like that too -- one of them got borderline verbally abusive with her once when she wouldn't sign up for the paper. She said we read news online, and the person said, well, you should just buy it and recycle it. O.o

[glitter_pirate]

We had Mormons stop by our old house once, and it was when Andrew had the flu. I told them that they probably wanted to leave the premises because of that and their response was to see if we needed them to go to the store to get any food or supplies. They didn't try to preach to me about their beliefs or leave any papers that day, which I really appreciated (granted, I probably looked super-stressed/tired, but still).

We mostly get Jehovah's Witnesses in our new neighborhood. They actually seem quite confused when I tell them I am more than happy to take their religious pamphlets/whatever if they take one of the UU cards I have by our door.