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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To want to tell the Jehovah's Witness that call to my home to PISS OFF

192 replies

DaphneMoon · 14/10/2008 10:55

I have just had them again. This is the 5th time in just over two weeks. Why you might ask. Well the first time I made the mistake of answering the door. She was a pleasant lady and started talking about how nice it is to sit and talk to our Dad's. I told her that I was not fortunate enough to have my father around anymore and to be honest she could not have called at a worse time as it would have been his birthday the next day. I did not let her in and only spoke to her for about 2 minutes out of sheer politeness as this is how I have been brought up. She said she would call again I said no thanks I have my own faith. She has been 4 times since then, each time with a different companion. I am sick to death of this I have not been answering the door when I see her walking down the street.

Surely this is harrasment. What I really want to shout at her in a very loud voice is:

PISS OF YOU WEIRD RELIGOUS CULT MEMBER, MY VICAR DOESN'T CALL CONSTANTLY AT YOUR FECKING HOUSE TO PREACH THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, WHY DO YOU THINK AFTER 43 YEARS I AM GOING TO CHANGE MY RELIGION BECAUSE OF YOU. AND I GIVE BLOOD SO THERE! AND SLAM DOOR.

But of course I won't say it I will just nod and smile and say no thanks and close the door quietly.

Thanks rant over!

OP posts:
Tanee58 · 14/10/2008 14:32

I had a JW schoolfriend and politely visited her Kingdom Hall once for a lecture on pagan symbols. It put me off as it debunked and took all the fun out of Christmas (totally pagan, I know ). I later lost a friend to the JWs - we said she only joined them cos she couldn't get a BF any other way - we had to drop her because she started preaching about how wrong every other faith was (I was dating a Jew at the time and my own family background includes most types of Christian plus Hindus and Buddhists, so I am tolerant of all and a bit of a Pagan myself).

They HAVE to go door-knocking - it's in their name - they follow the instruction of the Bible to go out and Witness. They get a fair number of conversions - my friend was one of them. They don't do Christmas because we don't know when Christ's birthday really was and have utilised a Pagan date for our celebrations. They don't do birthdays because they say, if they don't celebrate Christ's birthday, they mustn't celebrate their own, as that would imply they are of a higher status than Christ. My school friend said they would celebrate New Year with presents and that they felt they had the freedom to buy presents for friends and family whenever they felt like it, instead of being confined by a date.

I was told that the 14000 odd select few would go to heaven, but the rest of the JWs would stay on earth and hug lions etc. I still suggested that that would make the earth seriously overcrowded, but my JW friends didn't seem to have a sense of humour - or physics!

I actually find their sheer niceness makes me feel claustrophobic! But it usually works just being firm, saying you are not interested - otherwise, yes, the crucifix and thigh length boots might work

It can also help to tell them you are a Seventh Day Adventist - they have very similar beliefs but avoid each other like the plague.

nappyaddict · 14/10/2008 14:33

Daphne - can you put a sign in your front window/door?

wotulookinat · 14/10/2008 14:40

How about a nice Pentagram for the front door?

DaphneMoon · 14/10/2008 15:04

Yes I am definately going to put a sign up, that way I may not have to face her again. I work from home so have a laminator, put the bloody thing in the loft the other day because we don't use it much. By my reckoning I have till Saturday, it seems to be one call on Sat and one in the week at the moment. The odd thing is it has been on my mind a bit lately and I dreamt about it last night and when I saw her coming down the street I couldn't believe my eyes. Bit odd that.

I am going to be nice but firm, nice but firm, nice but firm, keep telling myself that and I will almost believe it!

OP posts:
DaphneMoon · 14/10/2008 15:09

Right I have done sign it reads:

THE OCCUPANTS OF THIS HOME REQUEST

NO COLD CALLERS
NO JEHOVAH?S WITNESSES

THANK YOU.

I will stick on door on way out to school now.

OP posts:
DaphneMoon · 14/10/2008 15:10

Now I'm worrying that all the delivery people who call and the postmen might be bloody JW's. May have to word it differently.

OP posts:
HellboundNinkynork · 14/10/2008 15:14

My DD has a life-threatening bleeding disorder so I try not to get into any conversation as it upsets me.

When asking them not to call didn't work, I rang the Kingdom Hall and asked for a list of names and addresses so that DH and I might visit them at home at a time which suited us to talk at length about our views.

Divvy · 14/10/2008 16:23

They really scare me though!

I got in with them when I was 13 years old, lonely and vunrable.

It still haunts me now, what they "taught" me.

Its a cult, and very scary one!

Highlander · 14/10/2008 16:26

call the cops. You've asked her not to set foot on your p[roperty, she's ignored you, thus she is trespassing plus harassing you. New stalking laws?

Seriously. Tell your neighbours as well, tell your local resaidents commitee, call the local paper.

You won't see 'em for dust

Majeika · 14/10/2008 16:45

Dont be so ridiculous!

JWs are NOT a cult.

they are normal people with problems like everyone else. They have real jobs and real families.

They have simply looked into the Bible and read what it says.

'Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations.......' they are doing the preaching work because of what Jesus said in the Book of Matthew.

You do not have to listen but you do not have to be rude.

do you think it is easy for them? They work, go to school, are on the PTA, have homework to do, kids to feed, clean the house, wash the dishes,go to the gym AND they go out to preach as well. How on earth do they do it all? They also go to meetings a couple of times a week.

They do NOT all wear black. They do drink alcohol.

Before all you narrow minded individuals have another go, put yourselves in their shoes for a change and think how you could fit all that in and be grateful that they are trying to do some good.All that they do is done voluntarily and so they dont get paid. They will never ask you for money.

Divvy · 14/10/2008 16:47

but it is a cult!

Majeika · 14/10/2008 16:48

HOW is it a cult??

How would you define a cult?

poshbloodencrustedwellies · 14/10/2008 16:49

Why should they get paid for knocking on the general publics fricking doors-If I want to join the JV's I 'll do it off my own back and not by being pestered on my own property.

Do the children have to be dragged around too?

Divvy · 14/10/2008 16:50

brain washing to start with! picking on vunerable people.

you are in too deep to see.

flamingnora · 14/10/2008 16:51

Last time I had such a knock on the door I said I'd read their literature if they read Richard Dawkins's "The God Delusion" from cover to cover - I offered them a copy too but for some unknown reason they refused it. YANBU, it is beyond annoying!

Majeika · 14/10/2008 16:54

Who said I am one?

they are not a cult and I am hardly in too deep to see.

They are good people trying to do some good.

beansmum · 14/10/2008 16:55

I think it's rude to turn up on a stranger's doorstep uninvited. And EXTREMELY rude to keep coming back when they have asked you not to. There are better ways of telling people about your beliefs if you feel that you really have to.

Divvy · 14/10/2008 16:55

here for starters

Divvy · 14/10/2008 16:57

cult

Majeika · 14/10/2008 16:57

oh - its on the internet - it must be true!

If you bothered listening to them from time to time you would know they are not from a cult.

MaryBS · 14/10/2008 16:57

You could always ask them where they live then go and knock on their door, give them a copy of common worship order one, and see how they like it

I had a boss who was a JW elder. It was brilliant, he would never lie, so if we wanted to know what was going on, we'd ask him. If he couldn't tell us he'd tell us, so we'd know that way

I tried the Catholic thing too (when I was RC), but last time they said "oh, we used to be too", so it didn't work. They've not been round for a while... so maybe we are due a visit?

Divvy · 14/10/2008 16:58

here

wotulookinat · 14/10/2008 17:00

It makes me feel intimidated in my own home, when I see them come into the road, and I am very pleased that the last couple of times they have not knocked on my door. It would be entirely different if they put a leaflet through the door, which I could read in my own time, and then contact them myself if I wanted to.

Tanee58 · 14/10/2008 17:02

Divvy, sorry, but one could then define anyone who is totally committed to a religious doctrine as belonging to a 'cult'. The Romans probably considered the early Christians as a cult. I am not, nor ever was, nor ever would be a JW, but as Majeika says, and I said earlier, they are doing what they believe the Bible tells Christians to do - go out and witness for Christ. They 'drag' their children round because it is as much a part of their faith as Nativity plays are to others.

That is not to say that I sympathise with them or am happy to have them knock on my door - but I don't think we should paint them as somehow evil cultists - that is doing exactly what they do to us! The site Divvy mentions is just one view.

Divvy · 14/10/2008 17:02

i did listen at one time. it ripped my family apart!

yes they are nice people, disillusioned but still nice

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