To not want to discuss religion while walking my dog?

[listsandbudgets]

Not working today, beautiful morning so decided to walk dog on beach

Almost no one down there expect a couple of other dog walkers. Having a lovely refreshing paddle with dog when a man came over asked me where I was spending eternity and shoved a leaflet in my hand before I knew what was happening.

I politely tried to pass him the leaflet back but he asked me again so I told him most likely hell and he said I should repent of my sins and he could pray with me now.

I pushed leaflet back in his hand told him I was looking forward to spending eternity in hell woth the interesting people and right now all I wanted was to walk my dog in the sunshine

He set off towards rhe other lady on the beach who gave him short shrift.. she told me he was a Jehovahs Wotness.and had form.for this.

Honestly flabbergasted.. anyone want to join me in hell ?

I wouldn't have paid a lot of attention tbh. Just said no thank you.
I do like to discuss religion but time and place.

Our minister says we should take every opportunity to "evangelise" with people. He goes on about asking people in the queue for a coffee if they know and love Jesus etc

I'm totally against this and would not be happy if anyone did that to me. If people want to come to church, they know where it is and there are plenty of online places they can find stuff out.

I would be telling your minister that I would expect Jesus to have better manners than to disturb people who are doing things.

Those awful opening questions they ask mean that sometimes you cannot get away from them with grace. They don't even respond with grace if you tell them you're a Buddhist or Hindu, they just keep on with their script. YANBU.

I assume you don't live in NI. We are inundated with this kind of stuff. There are also people bellowing through loud speakers about unnatural practices and the fires of hell. You just say a firm 'no thank you' to any interaction and keep walking. I say 'no thank you' before they even open their gobs😅

They are a nightmare OP,

They used to space themselves out on the buses here, so people would be forced to sit beside them, even when you told them No Thankyou, they'd carry on.

Sometimes the passengers would tell the bus driver and he'd throw them off.

Except Jesus himself said to go and make disciples!

Start growling at them, and making weird noises. They'll clear off.

That's wierd- jehovah's witnesses don't believe in hell or praying with strangers randomly as far as I know...

They do give out leaflets tho!

Oh nope, I can’t bear it. Thankfully they don’t seem to go house to house anymore, but my stock response whenever they knocked was that I was on my way to give blood so couldn’t stop to chat!

There are 2 who sit in the park at prime dogwalking time around here.

My, rather large, dog slobbered all over one when they approached me the first time, so they avoid me at all costs now for fear my drooly pup will drool again 🤣

I had similar once - was throwing the ball for my dog, all fine, and a woman came up to me. She started with pleasant chit chat about how lovely my dog was, and then told me he was very joyful as he was loved by Jesus, and had I opened my heart to Jesus? I told her I was an atheist and to be fair she moved away quickly, but I often wonder how much success they have with these methods? Glad to know he loves my dog, though!

I cannot bear evangelism of that kind.

The city centre where I live has people yelling about Jesus through megaphones every bloody Saturday and it drives me nuts.

I used to be Facebook friends with a work contact who was American and very religious. She's back in the US now and belongs to a very evangelical Southern Baptist style church with lots of intense ecstatic arm-waving and speaking in tongues. She once went on a missionary trip with a bunch of the church teenagers and posted a Facebook status about 'how cool it was to hear all our young people each turning to the passenger next to them to tell them about our Lord'.

Can you imagine being stuck on an eight-hour flight next to 17-year-old Southern Baptist from South Carolina intent on wanting to talk to you about Jesus? Id rather smash a window and throw myself out of the plane.

In Brazil years ago they would go door to door and only ask if there was something they needed, for which they could pray and the only thing they had to do was call them when the prayer was answered, so they knew they could stop praying. One woman said: yes pray for my cat who walked away, so they prayed and then she called em. Guess what? He's back! Why don't they do that instead of bothering people.

In my locality they stand handing out leaflets near one of the stations. I just politely say good morning and walk by.

I just wouldn't engage ,say no thanks and walk off .

He probably wasn't a JW - he was probably just a really intense evangelical Christian but people will just have assumed he's a JW because of his similarly pushy approach.

We get American Mormons on their 'mission' knocking on our door occasionally and the neighbours always describe them as Jehovah's Witnesses - they're not, but the knocking on doors and being weird thing is just quite similar to what JWs do (or used to do? I think they mostly stand on street corners with leaflets these days instead).

They hang out once a week at the entrance to my local park, I smile and say hi and keep walking. There is a 'Kingdom Hall' just down the road from my house so I have become pretty good at spotting them and knowing who to avoid.

One of his more annoying suggestions, to be fair

YANBU.

People like this get one polite "no thanks" from me, and if they insist on continuing I will happily explain to them exactly why I think religion is a heap of shite that does far more harm in this world than good.

I had a couple JWs come to the door one day, they asked me if I thought the world was getting better or worse, I said 'better' and they handed me a leaflet and left. After all I'd heard about their methods I thought it was surprisingly painless and polite. Maybe if I'd answered 'worse' I would have got more of a sermon. They knock on the doors in my road often.

I was crossing my high street on my way home from work last week when a man (a JW, I clocked his literature) and buttonholed me to talk to me about Jesus. I said that I don’t speak to strange men in the street, he said he wasn’t strange, I assured him he was and went on my way.

These people are sadly radicalised and deluded, and believe invading other people’s space to talk about their weird fairies is their right.

The Bible also says :

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Honestly, I'd burst out laughing if someone said this to me whilst I was in a queue etc - I'd think they were a bit gone out! But what does concern me is vulnerable people being suckered in by god squad behaviours