To just shut the door on religious door-knockers, with no comment?

[BeanQuisine]

I used to smile and say "I'm not religious", but a friend pointed out that this still confers some degree of social legitimacy on their absurd intrusion into my life.

I decided that a better tactic, when it becomes clear that a doorknocker is peddling religion, is to just silently close the door in their face.

Wondering how many people here agree that this is a reasonable response to unreasonable intrusion, and how you choose to respond to these people.

I say no thank you but then close the door before they have a chance to say anything in response.

A friend pestered by Jehovah's Witnesses stepped back from the door, pulled himself to his full height and roared as he rushed forward "You are Jehovah's Witnesses? Well I am Jehovah!!"

They ran off down the path gibbering "Blasphemer!" They never came back.

Why ?
Not knocking to deliver a parcel or something necessary but knocking to push unwanted religious beliefs on others is rude.

People can find out about religion themselves if they want to.

Look out for me. I'll be the one clutching pamphlets and knocking on your door 8am. We can have a nice catch up and a jammie dodger then 🥰

Depending on the time and if I was asleep depends on what I saw. I am very grumpy if my sleep is disturbed by anyone never mind religious nut jobs so they will often get a FO or door slammed, cold callers just get no and the door shut.

I’m glad I’m not the only one lol. DH is much more polite and can’t get rid of them, I have no patience and will tell him to tell them to get lost.

Canvassers in the street I’m not rude to, probably because they haven’t woken me up.

For some reason I'm imagining your friend as Brian Blessed 🤣

Haven't had this since I moved to a quieter part of town, but where I lived before there was a stealthy uptick in various stripes of "neo-evangelical" happy clappy churches who tried door knocking.

Being a proud wearer of the inverted pentagram it was a firm "thanks but no thanks" from me.

But what really got my goat was rocking up with small children like a human shield, because which decent person will be anything less than polite in front of a wide eyed and bewildered under 5?

That's the most offensive part of their tactics in my opinion.

Either don’t open the door, or say “not interested, thank you” and close it. Closing a door in someone’s face without speaking is rude.

People just love drama just say not interested

We get a few there always polite never had any pushy or arse ones when I say not interested they just say goodbye and walk off

Last time I had god botherers knocking on my dog I had Alexa playing my usual playlist. I opened the door just as Ozzy Osbourne sang “god is dead”. It wasn’t done deliberately but the timing was priceless.

The more I think about this, the more I’m convinced about doorstepping of all types being unethical.
I rarely ignore the door because I can’t see who is there and mostly it’s a delivery, if not for us then a parcel to take in for the neighbours.

Just a firm ‘no’ seems like a civil enough and entirely undramatic response to an interruption which I’m not remotely thankful for or sorry to reject.

I have always found that saying ‘thank you but I am not interested’ usually suffices. They don’t come back, I have not been rude. It’s all good.
I am assuming that you mean Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons specifically.

Sometimes, I’ll chat to them. I can discuss the bible. It was reading material that I read completely each year for 5 years of grammar school, I haven’t forgotten much of it.

Not relevant to the thread (sorry OP!) but we had a similar situation last night! Just had our normal playlist on and 'it's da sound of the police' came on randomly just as police car pulled up to arrest a neighbour. Followed by the Clash, 'I fought the law and the law won' just as the guy was being handcuffed.

It was entirely by chance but seeing as our neighbour is a convicted paedophile I was happy to let it play !

Maybe unsolicited door knocking should be made illegal.
same with circulars - such a waste of trees!!

My father is quite funny -- when they offer him a pamphlet he very politely says, 'I'm just going to put it in the recycling, so it's probably better if you keep it for someone who might need it.'

I usually just smile and say 'Thank you, but I'm not interested', and close the door.

Illegal to knock on a door? Imagine seeing post and milk bottles accumulating on your elderly neighbour's doorstep, but hesitating to go over and check on her, lest she set the police on you.

I have privacy film on the small window in my front door, partly for this purpose, as I was getting plagued with visits by Jehovah's Witnesses... during my lunch hour, at least once a week, which ran the risk of making me late for work.

I read on here about writing to the local Kingdom Hall to ask to be removed from their visiting list. They haven't visited since, though they continue to knock on and disturb my neighbours' lunchtimes.

I'm unsure as to how to stop other religious people visiting for doorstep conversion purposes, but as we live so rurally, perhaps they think that we won't mind being heathens!

I live in a rural hamlet now so never get JWs but when I lived on a new build estate in the nearest city, I had them round just when I had got the DDs off to sleep. Their opening gambit was "aren't you concerned about the drugs round here?" My reply was: "yes, they're so bloody expensive. What are you dealing?" They legged it and never came back.

Perfect timing 😂😂😂

I think my personal favourite is Ring doorbell footage I saw on Instagram a while back of a JW knocking, guy answers on the camera and says “I’m having a wank at the moment!”…..JW steps back, nods at the camera, says “Good lad” and walks away 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@Tarytino

Found it 🙌🏻🙌🏻😂😂😂

www.instagram.com/reel/DJZrSUPsb7X/?igsh=cHhwc2w2NTR3Yzd3

Who cares if it’s rude to say nothing? It’s bloody rude to knock on someone’s door unsolicited to peddle your ridiculous superstitions. They can fuck all the way off.

I'm sure you know this, but converting others is a key feature of some religions.

It would be quite easy to accommodate that particular eventuality. Make it illegal to knock unsolicited for the purpose of spreading your religious beliefs. Job done, and no poor little old ladies left in the lurch.

I usually smile sweetly and tell them that I’m just not interested in joining their cult, then close the door. The ones dragging little kids around with them particularly raise my hackles.

I had a couple of JWs come to my door a few weeks ago. I had a discussion with them about the Bible, Christianity, and our society as a whole. It was very interesting, and unfortunately I really did have a meeting I need to go to. They asked if they could come back and I said yes 😆