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AIBU?

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Original poster

To any Jehovah's witnesses out there, would you PLEASE.............

171 replies

lucyellensmum · 07/01/2008 16:22

just leave me alone!!!!!!!!!!

I am very comfortable with my religeon thankyou very much (cathoic). I do not wish to discuss it, end of story.

Just after christmas, a lovely looking young girl with what i presume was her husband (i mean, she was really beautiful!!) Stood with her foot in my door and pushed a leaflet about death into my handsm telling me i shouldnt worry as death isnt the end. I suffer with depression, i know all about death thankyou very much, i lost my father to cancer and ever since i have had a pathological fear of dying for which i am receiving medical treatment. So, thanks for that!! That reminded me of the time i had a leaflet forced on me in the sreet, i was too polite to decline - this one was about when a child dies, i was pushing my buggy at the time - fucking great!

This morning, just over a week later, I am running late, so i am already stressed. I am TRYING to brush my little girls hair, and this is the only thing in the world that she HATES. The door knocks, im expecting my mother, so i plonk DD (who has just let out a blood curdling scream as i hit a tangle) wailing, on the floor. Answer the door, thinking it was my mum, i didnt bother to restrain my dog, who promptly runs past the two smartly dressed old dears standing at my door, making a bee line for the road (they have left the gate open). I have to barge past them to retrieve him. They then say, have we come at a bad time dear???

We are jehovahs witnesses, they say, should we come back another time . No, please don't, please dont ever come back, please just leave me alone. I have no desire to discuss my damnation with you, as i am not a good catholic, i dont go to church and i am not married to my daughters father, so i am bound surely to burn in hell anyway!

Im sorry, i know these people genuinely mean well, but surely they could put their energy to better use. I imagine some lonely and vulnerable old lady, desperate for some company may well invite these parasites into her home, only to have her head filled with hellfire damnation and will spend the rest of the day sitting fretting.

If you want to do God's work, and i really think that is admirable, i really do, then DO something, go and volunteer at the local homeless shelter, go and join the local hospital legue of friends, do ANYTHING but knock on my door - i am running out of polite ways to say i am not interested

OP posts:
madamez · 08/01/2008 10:02

Going back a bit to the subject of street yabberers - I don;t mind them if they are just wittering and not blocking the way (no worse and no better than the alky tramp talking to himself though they sometimes smell less bad). Ones who leap out at me get snarled at, and I thumped one some years ago who grabbed my arm from behind.
But anyone who starts crap-peddling with me in either a social or a business environment (again, whether they're trying to flog me superstition, charity raffle tickets or some sort of pyramid selling scheme) gets the polite no-thanks and if they persist, gets firmer treatment (IE 'I am not interested. Let's leave it at that.') Further persistence means they have forfeited the right to polite treatment.

Elasticwoman · 08/01/2008 10:43

Hardygirl - you should have asked her who she was to cast the first stone! It is rather sad that she was so stupid she did not understand the difference between fact and faith.

Wisteria · 08/01/2008 10:46

I generally say politely "no, thank you I am not interested"

if they persist, a slightly firmer "NO, I have already told you I am not interested"

if they still persist then as madamez points out they have ignored me and forfeited the right to polite response and they will get a sarky comment along the lines of;

"if you don't understand the English language, which you clearly don't, stop wasting my time trying to engage me in a conversation which I don't want to have."

or "piss off and leave me alone" depending on what time of the month it is!

SoupDragon · 08/01/2008 10:57

I've only ever had one bad experience with a JW doorstepper. She was an elderly woman who told my mother that she could repent her decision to allow me a life saving blood transfusion as a newborn baby. Whilst I was stood next to her. Lovely.

However, I've had JW friends and any other callers have been polite and accepting of my firm "I'm not interested". We don't get many around here, if we did I would use the new found knowledge gleaned from MN that I can "opt out" of their call list.

The worst doorstepper I've had was a double glazing salesman who continued to talk to me even after I'd said no and shit the door... I don't know what religion he followed

UnquietDad · 08/01/2008 10:59

I am always polite, but firm. Thing is, I can't help wanting to engage them in debate because the whole idea of someone accepting a book at face value and standing on my doorstep quoting bits of it at me in order to "teach" me stuff makes me so angry that I have to do something about it.

What really pisses me off is their slightly pitying incredulity that I can look around at the beautiful countryside ("God's creation!") and not believe in him.

Last time I was tempted to go and get a copy of "Lord of the Rings" and read bits out to them. It hasn't sold as many copies as the Bible, but it is better-written and has a more believable plot.

SueBaroo · 08/01/2008 10:59

I'd said no and shit the door.

---------

Blimey Soupy, that was a bit extreme...

UnquietDad · 08/01/2008 10:59

"a double glazing salesman who continued to talk to me even after I'd said no and shit the door"

That sounds a pretty extreme reaction!

SueBaroo · 08/01/2008 11:00

Lord of the Rings better written? bleck.

SueBaroo · 08/01/2008 11:00

UQD, snap!

Wisteria · 08/01/2008 11:01

'tis a darn sight more realistic as well

UnquietDad · 08/01/2008 11:01

Well, I found it more engaging!

The Bible has wonderful parts but lots of terrible interminable reams of begetting and stuff.

SueBaroo · 08/01/2008 11:04

UQD, well indeed. It's not one style of book, and it's not designed as pleasant fiction (in the literary sense)

Not a LoTRs fan - in book form anyway. Which is bizaare because I love everything else about it. But to my shame, I hate the books. Makes me a bit like a Christian who doesn't like the bible, that...

UnquietDad · 08/01/2008 11:06

And I'm a non-Christian who does quite like the Bible (in terms of writing), I just don't believe it!!

bigbumhole · 08/01/2008 11:53

Don't get me started on the whole JV thing. DP bloody invited them in! (he loves a good debate tsk).

As a survivor of cancer myself, and after having a huge blood transfusion as a result, they then went on to tell me that i should be dead and that i have sinned and gone against Gods will.

Lets say after that comment they were "promptly" escorted out of our house and they've never come back since.

frootloop · 08/01/2008 11:57

i remember when i was a wee lass we used have jehovas witnesses come around all the time, and it was always me and my sister who would answer the door to them.

i think they must have been preaching to us and we were repeating what they said because one time they came around when dad (who has a hidden inner rage for special occasions) was in the house and heard them at the door.

well! i have never seen dad so angry, he chased them up the very long garden path, red as a beetroot and bellowing like an enraged bull, telling them to fuck off and if he ever sees them near the house or talking to me and my sister again he would do some very unpleasant things to them. to an 8yr old it was an amazing sight, and we never had a visit ever again and that was 20 years ago.

ahhh! the memories of dads rages to people who were mean to us as girls.

jellybeans · 08/01/2008 12:00

I am happy for jw's to practice their religion and believe what they want (although I disagree with denying children life saving blood) but I do not answer the door to them and think they should stop mithering. They proably think I should not be here anyway since I had life saving blood myself.

starfish2 · 08/01/2008 12:51

Oooohhh, all right then. I was too shy yesterday to say it...
'Just say NO THANKS', as you would to a drug dealer...
Except that some drugs are far more interesting than religion...

Elasticwoman · 08/01/2008 14:09

UQD - I think the begetting is the best bit of the Bible. But there is also my v distant ancester, the Most Elastic Man in the Bible. Forget his name, but he was the one who tied his ass to a tree and walked to Jericho.

LucyEllen there was a thread on here some time ago in which I was lambasted by JWs and sympathisers because I got the JWs to walk away from my door with our parish magazine but refused to take their literature myself.

All you cancer survivors out there, well done and I love to hear from you as I have a badge for giving blood 10 times and it makes me feel v proud, not to mention grateful for my own good health.

madamez · 08/01/2008 15:08

Now there's a bit of advice I was once given - if you give blood you can have stickers/posters about giving blood, and sticking one in your window or near your door is supposed to keep the JW at bay (like garlic for vampires I presume). Though I do wonder if it wouldn't make the more, erm, determined ones see you as a target.

SueBaroo · 08/01/2008 15:14

lol @ Give Blood stickers as garlic.

calzone · 08/01/2008 16:00

There is no way a JW would tell you that you had sinned and gone against god's will by having a blood transfusion and that you should be dead.

bigbumhole · 08/01/2008 17:17

Ok maybe not those exact words but thats what they were strongly suggesting. Something on the line of...

JV: we believe that receiving the blood of others is a sinn
DP: but my mrs would have died without having a blood transfusion!
JV: then so be it, it should have been gods will.

The conversation may not be 100% as it was about 5 years ago. Like i said, not the exact words in the original post, but its what they were strong suggesting.

jenk1 · 08/01/2008 17:20

i grew up as a JW although i havent been for a while and there is NO WAY that would be said,NO WAY.

i find it very hard to believe, if JW,s were knocking on doors saying such things and antagonising and starting arguments then im sure police would have been involved.

jenk1 · 08/01/2008 17:22

"then so be it would be gods will"?

Wisteria · 08/01/2008 18:04

I think it's important to remember that although everyone is entitled to their own religions and opinions, if you intrude into someone's home life then really you take the risk of people being abusive towards you, not saying it's right, just that it is 'part of the job'.

Also, as with all walks of life there will be the extremists who do preach extreme views such as the blood donor question and those who just live by their own rules peacefully and quietly.