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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder how many 'new recruits' religious callers get?

35 replies

barrysnotter · 09/12/2011 11:26

When rudely knocking strangers doors and asking them about their beliefs?

I get on average at least 1 a month that I know about..

I have never let them continue talking and tell them I haven't got time to speak to them. My friend however tells them exactly where to go..

Just wondering how many new recruits they get by 'cold calling' at peoples houses?

OP posts:

SooticaTheWitchesCat · 09/12/2011 11:31

We don't get that many and I usually tell them I am a witch, that gets them running

I think they probably keep calling on people even if they never get a new recruit though, they are just like that aren't they!

Original poster

barrysnotter · 09/12/2011 11:36

I find it really rude to knock on someones door unannounced I don't even do it to friends or family. I just find it difficult to believe that they are that successful in this day and age tbh.

I will use the witch line in future though. Thanks for the tip

OP posts:

AMumInScotland · 09/12/2011 11:40

They don't do it because it has a high success rate. They do it because they firmly believe that it is the right thing to do. And that the fact that so few people are receptive just proves how much the world really, really needs to hear their message...

chinam · 09/12/2011 11:40

I read somewhere (can't remember where, so can't link it) that for every ten people who listen to those calling to the door 1 person will become interested/involved in the group the callers represent. I've no idea how many houses they have to knock on to get even ten people willing to spend a few minutes listening to them though.

KathyImLost · 09/12/2011 11:46

I was once walking through our local park with my 2 week old DD, when a lady stopped me, handed me a leaflet and told me that me & my baby were going to burn in hell. She said it all very calmly, with a smile on her face, as though she were doing me a favour. I did wonder at the time how successful she generally was with that approach.

EmpressOfTheSevenSnowflakes · 09/12/2011 11:47

I know someone who had JWs knock at her door and decided to make a project out of them. After about two months of regular chats, she claims she managed to convert one of them to Taoism.

Then there were the Goth couple I know who saw them coming, cleared the table, whipped out a kitchen knife and all the candles they could find, and while one lay down on the makeshift altar the other invited them in with "You're just in time for the offering."

Original poster

barrysnotter · 09/12/2011 11:58

Kathy

Empress Wish I was as quick thinking as that.

OP posts:

EmpressOfTheSevenSnowflakes · 09/12/2011 13:30

Barry Wish I'd been there to watch!

ShengdanRoad · 10/12/2011 17:22

"that the fact that so few people are receptive just proves how much the world really, really needs to hear their message..."

Or that it's a load of bollocks, AMumInScotland...

carabos · 10/12/2011 17:59

I wondered this myself last week when accosted approached by Mormons in the street as I got out of my car. They tried to follow me into my house and only backed off when I pointed out that being followed into your own empty house on a dark night by a male stranger is a situation likely to be of interest to the rozzers.

toweraboveyou · 10/12/2011 18:02

Hopefully none. The sooner it all dies out, the better. What's ruder is when people who stand out in city centres in the evening, telling drinkers that they are sinners and that god is judging them. As god even exist if we hadn't made him up, I think he should be a little nicer.

toweraboveyou · 10/12/2011 18:03

wouldn't even*

NeedlesCuties · 10/12/2011 19:04

I'm a Christian and have been 'round the doors' in the past.

To be honest, it isn't about new recruits, or at least it wasn't when I did it. When we did it we had leaflets about upcoming events at church - such as special Easter service or community events etc.

We knocked a door, had a general chat with whomever opened the door, handed them a leaflet then left. It wasn't about recruiting people to our faith, more about reaching out to people in the local area.

I'm sure some are very pushy and verging on rude, but some of us are nice with pure motives.

AnyoneforTurps · 10/12/2011 19:15

I'm a hardcore atheist, but I don't mind JWs etc knocking on the door. After all, if they genuinely believe that I am going to hell/missing out on the wonderful opportunity of faith, then they are trying to do me a favour.

FrostyTheCrunchyFrog · 10/12/2011 19:17

I think it oughtn't to be allowed. Makes me cross.

As do the shouty hell preachers who come down and preach on the sea front in the summer. They need told to fuck the fuck off.

Queenkongmerrilyonhigh · 10/12/2011 19:19

Last time they knocked on my door, DS was just three weeks old. I was struggling to BF and had just got him latched on web the door went. We were expecting a delivery so I unlatched DS and struggled to the door with him. 'Do you believe in angels?' I was asked. You can imagine my hormonal response...

Tyr · 10/12/2011 19:25

I doubt they get many recruits but that doesn't deter them as they believe they have a duty to do it. I used to get the Jehovah's Witneeses once a month or so where I live.
I used to bring them in on occasion if I had an hour or so free and observe their discomfort as they looked around at some of my ornaments and artefacts and eyeballed the contents of the bookcase. I had difficulty getting them to accept a cuppa and I think they must have been afraid I would poison them.
The same team would never call twice and now I never get any. I must be blacklisted. And I was always so polite and hospitable.
I suppose some very distressed or desperately unhappy person may find some comfort in what they offer and they get an occasional soul that way which makes it all worthwhile.

Frostyfoxy · 10/12/2011 19:27

I've had a JW knocking on my door for the past couple of years!! DP thinks she is grooming me! She knocks on the door every month, has a chat about the weather/her rescue dog/my ds, gives me a couple of leaflets and leaves. She has never been inside the house and never will.

I have no problem with whatever she believes in but I have my own beliefs and we've never discussed anything religious at all! My ds even asked her if she was going to go to his grandmothers birthday party!

I would have thought that she would have given up knocking on my door by now as she so obviously isn't converting me!

hardboiledpossum · 10/12/2011 19:27

It doesn't bother me at all, if I have time I generally have a little chat with them. The few in my area all say hi to me if they see me in the street and have helped me on two occasions. The first was when I was struggling with too much luggage on my way back from holiday and she helped me carry it down my street, the second when she saw me trying to carry my newborn baby who was screaming and my shopping back home and she carried my bags for me. They seem genuinely nice and concerned for my soul.

toweraboveyou · 10/12/2011 19:58

I was quite shocked when they started talking to the lady next door. Isn't it one of the 10 commandments not to convert my neighbour's wife?

Tyr · 10/12/2011 20:08

toweraboveyou Sat 10-Dec-11 19:58:29

I was quite shocked when they started talking to the lady next door. Isn't it one of the 10 commandments not to convert my neighbour's wife?

Apparently when Moses came down from the mountain with the commandments he told his followers, "I've got good news and bad news. Good news is I've got him down to ten. Bad news- adultery's still on the table."

JustGiveMeTheWine · 10/12/2011 20:08

I had a JW knock my door a few months ago, I told her I wasn't interested. She kept on talking and trying to give me leaflets. I told her I wasn't interested! She then asked me what I thought about the issues going on in the world today, I said (very politely) it was mainly down to religion.

She left! [grins]

NeedlesCuties · 10/12/2011 21:23

Toweraboveyou I think you could do with Googling The 10 Commandments...

andSothisisChristmasme · 10/12/2011 21:29

Tyr

PointyLittleDonkeyEars · 10/12/2011 21:33

I won't talk to the doorstep ones - it's my house, my privacy, as far as I'm concerned they're on a par with the hard sell brigade.

If I run across them in a shopping centre, don't have the dcs with me and have a bit of time, I'll sit down with them and have a good old convo with them. As a leftie atheist feminist with a lot of gay and lesbian friends, there are a lot of things I can put to them, a favourite being 'What would you do if your son/daughter came to you and told you they were gay?'. It goes from there. We never agree, but it's fun batting ideas about.

Telling them that if I had to have a faith I'd either be a Quaker or a Pagan tends to make them frown a bit though.

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