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.

A bit rude to just shut the door in their face. I just say "no thank you" and if they persist with "we're worried about your soul and we don't want you going to hell" I just say "that's very kind of you but no thanks".

Then I shut the door.

Last time they knocked I said no thank you, and explained I wasn't interested in any sort of organised religion. They thanked me for being polite about it and went on their way. I assumed that meant many people aren't polite about it, but manners cost nothing.

There's no need to be rude fgs. They are people!

Just say thanks but no thanks. Wish them a good day and be done with it.

There is no time or place for rude behaviour when someone has knocked on your door thinking they're doing you a favour.

Im not religious but I am civil.

They give me the heebie jeebies. Like they have all been brain washed. They don't celebrate Easter, but have something called Memoriam to mark Jesus's death. Makes me shiver.

they’re human beings, no need to be rude .
I do ignore people who try to stop me in the street though 🤔

Exactly.

Why would that make you shiver?

Yep @indoorplantqueen . Thirded. No need to be rude, either we live in a society, or we don't.

I agree, I think rudeness isn't necessary. I do the same as I do when anyone cold calls, I simply say "I'm okay for windows/tree cutting/dishcloths/religion, thank you. Bye".

This is fine, costs us nothing to be polite.

No it's not. Orange rude to knock on peoples doors unannounced spouting religious bollocks no one wants to hear.

Thank you for your comment which seems very level headed & considerate.

Just a small point, no JW is set a target of what preaching they have to do by anybody, it is entirely up to the individual and their circumstances as to what they can do.

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine :-)

@notedbiscuits I think it's part of their religion that they must a certain amount of time each week trying to convert people. I think they may even have targets and if they don't convert enough people there is some kind of punishment. If they have children and the children grow up and want to leave, then they have to disown the children. It's an awful religion.

Must spend

How do you know that no-one wants to hear?

Well they might not want to be ostracised from their community - I think there is something in the bible about spreading the word of god and ministry , they’re just do gooders following their faith, not dealing drugs are they ! Just be polite

This reminds me of my late Mum who was Italian and married a British soldier, (my Dad), who ended up being stationed in Italy as WW2 was coming to an end. When he was demobbed, she came back to the UK with him.
She was intelligent and good at languages, and eventually became fairly fluent.
However, she was still prone to malapropisms, and referred to Jehovah's Witnesses as Jovial Witnesses.
And having heard my Dad now and then tell annoying/rude/unpleasant people to go away, she used the exact wording he had used, and told the JWs to "bugger off"...........

Either don't answer the door or answer and say "No, thank you", and close the door again.
I don't get into discussion with anyone like that.

The way our flats are arranged I can hear my neighbour when she answers her door and all cold callers go to her first so if I hear her have a short conversation and close her door and 10 seconds later my doorbell goes I know not to answer it because it's definitely a cold caller!!

That is what I do. Sometimes I want to add " I do not have a faith but I don't go knocking on strangers' door trying to talk them round to my world view" but I am too polite!

I don't open the door at all. This is what spyholes are for.

If they said that to me, I would sing Don’t you worry bout a thing (Incognito version). 😂

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MWd5379FMGU

Just politely say you are not interested. It's not something that happens every day.

I would have zero problem shutting the door at that stage as I have a clear sign up on the door saying not to knock if you're on of those people.

They have to submit monthly reports showing how many hours they’ve spent witnessing, whether that’s through knocking on doors, doing Bible studies with other people etc. It’ll depend on how strict the local congregation is but most witnesses will commit to around 30 hours a month. So maybe not ‘targets’ but a lot of pressure to perform.

What annoys me more is the charity knockers. One opened with ‘do you want to help disabled children?’ Which is really not a question you can easily answer no to,

They are 1,000 times worse than JWs, in my opinion. At least JWs are sincere and genuinely think that they are doing a good thing. And I've never known one not be polite or not leave promptly.

But the chuggers are paid for what they do, they're manipulative and devious in their language, probably couldn't give a stuff about the charity that they're agent signed them up with, and they don't give up. They just keep on talking and trying to guilt you.