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How do you handle proselytizers?

If I have time, I proselytize back. I tell them why even if I believed in their god, I could never worship such a horrible being. I start with the story of Lot who treated his daughters like trash then blamed them for his incest with them.

Then I go on to the Amalekites whom God had slaughtered including children and animals so God's "chosen people" could steal their land.

And if that isn't enough I continue with the story of the Midianites whom God has slaughtered for revenge except that 'God's people' could take any virgin girls or women for their personal sex slaves....

Here are some more horrible things about Jehovah: Cruelty and Violence in the Bible
 
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If I'm in the mood and have the time, I will chat with them. It's real world practice for the time I spend in the R&P forum here ;) otherwise I'll take any literature they have to offer, thank them and send them politely on their way.
 
How do you handle proselytizers?


Wth long pointy things and forceps - keeps my hands clean.
 
I handle 'em with niceness, maintain my serenity, and eventually they get tired of trying to move the unmovable.
 
Ducky said:
I responded by asking her to use headphones and when she said no, I blasted Prong at top volume from my computer. Prong, for those not in the know, is not a happy sounding music and is exactly the type of music that scares the straights.
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You were far too kind. I would have gone with Immortal, or maybe Deicide.:D

I usually just do the no thanks and shut the door. But if I happen to see them coming, I have also been known to just not answer the door. Yeah, cowardly, but sometimes just easier to do.
 
I don't answer the door when they knock. That's what peepholes are for.

Just because someone knocks on my door doesn't mean I have to open it and talk to them. It's like the phone- you know I CAN choose to not answer...
...and the majority of the time, I don't answer either.
I only answer when i choose and for whom I choose.
 
I just tell them I do not believe and have work to do (hey, thinking is hard!). There's no use in trying to be rational or witty with them - all you're doing is feeding the trolls at their church.

Re the evil bible: used that and they came back and told me that dog did not like, but "tolerated" that (old testesment). They have everything covered.
 
If you're feeling particularly feisty, go to the local charity second-hand shop and buy a Bible (It'll usually be a dollar). When the proselytizers show up, tell them you're glad to see them because you've been struggling with the differences between Acts and Hebrews and you need their guidance. They'll be pleased as punch. Then take out your second-hand Bible, rip out Acts and hand to one of the guys, then rip out Hebrews and hand it to the other. If you can keep a straight face, they'll flip and likely run screaming down the drive.
 
I usually say "I'm not interested" and shut the door.

The only time I've lost my temper when when they weren't actually prosyletizing, but just letting me (as a newcomer) where the churches were. I had just gotten my 18-month-old (still nick-named "Shrieky") down for a nap, and the doorbell woke him up.
 
The last time I remember being proselytized was when some guy handed me a card in a public building a year or two ago. It was some silly fake "check" for "everlasting life" if the recipient would only "endorse" the check (by accepting Jesus, naturally). It was such a novel experience for me that I could only laugh out loud in surprise before ditching the thing in the nearest trash bin.

I've spent most of my adult life in gated apartment buildings or dormitories, so I haven't experienced the door-to-door folks. I'm sure that would annoy me, especially if it was interfering with my weekend sleep-in.
 
Madalch said:
I usually say "I'm not interested" and shut the door.

The only time I've lost my temper when when they weren't actually prosyletizing, but just letting me (as a newcomer) where the churches were. I had just gotten my 18-month-old (still nick-named "Shrieky") down for a nap, and the doorbell woke him up.
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So, where did you hide the bodies?
 
I have a fundie friend that would try to "witness" with every customer. I pulled him aside one day and explained to him that he couldn't do that. I tried to make him understand why it could offend people and that taken to the extreme, it could cost him his job.

The end result was him wandering around the store for the rest of the day with a dazed look on his face, where every so often he would pause, shake his head and mumble in disbelief, "Fired for talking about Jesus ... huh ..."
 
Once, when I saw a guy standing in an open outdoor space where several paths crossed at my university, I stood and debated evolution with him in public for a while Others who saw and heard got a kick out of it. Once he started talking about other religious subjects, I lost interest and left, and someone else took over.

With the ones who come to people's homes, I've only met them a few times, but I've usually taken a few minutes to talk to them. Since every point they try to make is easy enough for me to counter, it doesn't take them long to figure out that they're getting nowhere and decide to leave. In one case, they showed up when I was about to go outside to get something from my car and bring it in anyway. One of them commented at first that it seemed like I was on my way out and she didn't want to interrupt me, and the other pointed out that I couldn't have been leaving because my feet were bare, then they went on with their spiel. I gave them a rather truncated version of my thoughts: "I don't believe this world is the work of an omniscient, omnipotent god, but if I did, I'd have to blame him for all the stuff that's wrong with the world, because it's his fault, and a world run by a god that I could ever worship would have to not have such problems in it". Then I started walking right on past them, so my body language told them the conversation was already over. I heard one or both of them just saying "Oh... well... oookay..." They seemed stunned. I don't know whether that was more because of what I'd just said and how flatly I'd said it, or because they were watching me walk with my bare feet through the snow.
 
Alareth said:
I have a fundie friend that would try to "witness" with every customer. I pulled him aside one day and explained to him that he couldn't do that. I tried to make him understand why it could offend people and that taken to the extreme, it could cost him his job.

The end result was him wandering around the store for the rest of the day with a dazed look on his face, where every so often he would pause, shake his head and mumble in disbelief, "Fired for talking about Jesus ... huh ..."
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I used to have a friend who was canned by Mervyn's for just that. He gave a guy he knew was Jewish a Chick tract, which, while that wasn't so big a deal in and of itself, was highly offensive once I found out what the tract was about. At that point, you have to ask, "What were you thinking?"

Handing a Jewish person a tract which declares damnation against all Jews because "they crucified Christ" was a pretty stupid move. (And, actually, that accusation is and has always been a lie. Even Mel Gibson got that right.) Of course he was going to get fired for that! What did he think was going to happen? Mervyn's didn't have a hell of a lot of choice in the matter, and even the Rutherford Foundation took a pass on defending this guy.
 
Alareth said:
I have a fundie friend that would try to "witness" with every customer.
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That reminds me of a classmate of mine. We're at a local college studying to be medical radiographers (the people who take X-rays, fluoroscopic images, MRI/CAT/PET... really all medical images but ultrasound, but it all starts with X-ray and then branches out from there). Many of us state that part of the reason why we're doing this is to "help people". But he says his motivation is to "help people both physically and spiritually" by not only taking their images to get their diagnoses but also bringing them closer to Jesus. (He's also already literally a preacher at a church.) He says he won't do this with patients who don't want to hear it, but he also sounds like he might push it at people by default until they push back hard enough because his threshold for judging someone's receptivity is probably not calibrated quite like ours. (He comes from a country in western-central Africa. Maybe in that culture, religious behavior we call pushy is just normal

And that reminds me of someone I met in line at a fast food place. This was the strangest case I recall:
HIM: "Hi."
ME: "Hello."
HIM: "I love Jesus."
ME: "I don't." (I looked away from his face, up at the menu.)
I don't even remember what he said next; the amazing thing that stands out in my memory was still talking to me on that subject at all, still trying. (He probably started by asking "why", I guess.) I had meant to be short, final, and dismissive, and he'd taken it as an opening to keep going. But a few seconds later, the line moved and I stepped forward to the counter to order my food, and he apparently figured out that I wasn't talking to him, so that was all there was to it.
 
If they knock on my door I welcome them in and offer them coffe (especially if they are Mormons.)

Then I listen to their whole prepared spchiel, answer their questions, and ask them to provide evidence of logical validation for their arguments. I cite chapter and verse about as well as they do, google references, print out sources supporting or contradicting my arguements and theirs, and have a leaisurely time debating religion as politely as possible.

They never come back again, because it's obviously a waste of their time. I want to waste their time as much as I want to let them have their say. I regard subverting their goals as a public service.
 
I can't bring myself to be rude to them. Especially since I live about 40km out of town and it's rather a hike to get to my front door in the first place. I tell them I'm not interested and they go away after trying to make inconsequential small talk. We've had them twice in about five years. I think they were JWs.

Next time I think I'll offer to read their literature if they'll read mine. Then I'll hand them a copy of Kissing Hank's Ass.
 
Years ago I was watching Easy Rider on a nice sunday afternoon. I hit pause and answered the door. After their initial introduction I said, "Sure come on in! Would you guys like a soda or some coffee?"

We sat down in the tv room and they started talking. After about a minute I interrupted and asked if they had ever seen Easy rider. When they said "No" I hit play and said, "Oh you have to see it!"

It was the beginning of the grave yard acid trip scene. They politely excused themselves, promising to come back, after about 2 minutes. I never saw them again.

About 2 years later I had a roommate who would always invite these people in. One saturday afternoon I was in my room with the door open when he invited in two middle aged women. He just liked asking them about religion and many of them would keep coming back.

He was asking them what they did for fun and if they ever got drunk. They said they went bowling, and all the stuff everyone else does. They would even go out for pizza and a beer but NEVER got drunk! About 20 minutes later my friend was saying his birthday was coming up and they should come to the party. They informed him that they did not celebrate birthdays because people die in the bible when someone has a birthday party, or something like that. For about a minute there was silence and then my friend asked them in the most confused and concerned voice I have ever heard,

"So you don't get drunk on your birthday!?"

His concern was so genuine I fell out of my chair laughing.
 
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