Someone just knocked on the door and I am livid!!!!

[phorsenuf]

So essentially its a deck off the back of your house?
Than I agree, totally unappropriate to do. To some people using the back door is no biggie. But to come up onto someones deck is a different story.
But not knowing this in the beginning I originally had a different opinion of the whole front door/back door thing. Sorry......

 

[Mskanga]

Yep, the deck is off the back of my house. So when I say they went into the back of my house, I mean the back of my house, not the far side....complete back of the house!

 

[sweet angel]

Bottom line...

If you can't see the door from the front of the house, and you haven't been invited, you have no right to traipse around the property looking for another entrance.

If it was an apartment building and you couldn't get in a locked front door, would you try the delivery entrance just to gain access?

 

[Mskanga]

Exactly. You cannot see the slider door or the deck from the front or even the driveway.

 

[WDWHound]

Originally posted by gometros
Free speech only applies to the public domain, not to the privacy of one's home. So, no, they do not have the right to invade MY home and proselytize about things I care nothing about.

You will notice I agreed that they crossed the line when the came into the back yard. You also mentioned that you did not feel people had the right to approach you on the street and that was where most of my comments werre directed. I would have told them to leave also and I would have called the police if they didn't. For the record, I thinnk they should have respected that no one answered the front door and left.

My soul is fine, thank you very much. I feed my soul the way I choose and I do not care for people to tell me what will happen to me if I don't believe they way they do.

I'm not fond of it either, but I understand their motavation and try to take it into account when approached by someone who wants to witness to me. You are not alone in getting angry at people who do this, but I honestly don't see anything to get angry about. At worst it is a minor annoyance IF it is done respectfullly. Now if they chase you down the street or invade your property, that is another matter, but so many people get angry even when they are approached respectfully. Your post seemed to indicate that this makes you angry too. I am not trying to insult you, but I genuinely don't understand.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Originally posted by gometros
Jas - that's fine - if you believe in those passages. I find it very annoying when they come to MY door, which clearly marks it the home of a Jewish family. What are they trying to accomplish then?

Hey Sandy! I know some Jewish families who believe that Jesus has come and was the Son of God. You can't always go by that. And if someone comes to your door and you don't want to hear it, you can either not answer the door, or politely say no thanks.

I am not a JW, I am actually a non-denominational Christian, and if I am in the mood I will have a discussion with them when they show up on my doorstep. But I don't go door-to-door myself, and I usually wait for others to ask questions before explaining my beliefs (though people who know me, do know my beliefs even without asking, since it is such a part of my life).

I think when you treat them with respect you get respect. Slamming a door in someone's face is not respect (I'm not saying YOU do that, but you know what I mean).

Hey sometime if you want to tell me about Judaism, I would love it. I don't know enough about it.

 

[gometros]

Originally posted by Miss Jasmine
Hey Sandy! I know some Jewish families who believe that Jesus has come and was the Son of God. You can't always go by that. And if someone comes to your door and you don't want to hear it, you can either not answer the door, or politely say no thanks.

Jas - I PMed you offline, since I didn't want to get bogged down into a discussion of what is Jewish and what isn't I'd hate to be accused of going off topic.

Not in reply to Jas' note, I just do want to say what the heck does it matter what kind of back door it was? I don't know where everyone else comes from, but inmy neighborhood a back door is in the back, a side door is on the side and a front door is the one most people come to when they want to be acknowledged.

Of all the people who say that they don't mind being accosted on the street by people proselytizing, your experience may or may not be with groups of various Christian faiths. I wonder how you would react if a man with a beard and a skullcap in New York approached you and asked you if you wore tefillin that day?

 

[phillybeth]

Originally posted by gometros
Of all the people who say that they don't mind being accosted on the street by people proselytizing, your experience may or may not be with groups of various Christian faiths. I wonder how you would react if a man with a beard and a skullcap in New York approached you and asked you if you wore tefillin that day?

Or a man in a turban and a woman in a burka asking you to accept Allah as God and Mohammad as his prophet. Seems to me religious tolerance rarely applies to non-Christian denominations. I've even had people tell me point-blank to my face that I am not Christian because I was raised Catholic. Huh?

 

[Figaro]

I wouldn't have liked someone coming around to my backdoor either. But I have found that the best way to discourage the door to door religious people is to be very polite and use the broken record technique (just keep repeating over and over: "No thank you. I am not interested").

All of the other more angry stuff people say, often will just feed into a belief system that for some, encourages the belief that they are suffering for their faith (being martyred for Jesus). We live on a block with a Seventh Day Adventist church as well as a Jehovah Witness church (and you would not believe the incredibly loud and angry "discussions" we've ended up hearing between members of each church).

Neither group bothers to stop at our house any more because we won't listen to them and we won't fight with them either, so essentially they don't get anything from interacting with us and so leave us alone.

 

[gometros]

Originally posted by phillybeth
Or a man in a turban and a woman in a burka asking you to accept Allah as God and Mohammad as his prophet. Seems to me religious tolerance rarely applies to non-Christian denominations. I've even had people tell me point-blank to my face that I am not Christian because I was raised Catholic. Huh?

Note the smilie. I was being New York centric in assuming that many people have no idea what I was referring to. You have to experience it to understand.

Btw, in all seriousness, the main difference with the Lubavitch, is they ask you first if you are Jewish. Their intent is not to convert non-Jews but to remind non-practising Jews of their obligations (mitzvot).

 

[phillybeth]

I know what tellefin is/are! Just comparing your example to a another faith, one that is not much in favor in the US right now.

My huh was about people who think that Catholics aren't Christian- let me see, baptised, yup, Christ as God and savior, yup, sounds Christian to me!

 

[auntpolly]

I could be wrong, but I think that Judaism might be one of the only faiths that doesn't recruit, and this is why my Jewish friends have such a hard time with religions that do.

First of all, what I try to explain to them is that all of us Christians are supposed to be "recruiting" -- some just do it differently than others. We feel like we have "good news" and a way of life that has brought us joy and we want to share it.

I try to live by example -- if by talking about my faith someone decides to think about it a little, that's a good thing. I respect everyone's faiths but if something about my faith could help someone else's spirituality; what's wrong with that?

I don't like it when Christians try to tell non-Christians that they way they honor God is wrong, but I'm not going to shut-up about my faith because it might make someone uncomfortable. If someone wants to talk about their faith, what's so wrong with that as long as they don't judge yours or become pushy?

I've never seen a pushy JW. They have always been completely repectful when I say I'm Catholic (they might be thinking that my soul is in trouble, but they don't say it!)

 

[gometros]

Originally posted by auntpolly
I could be wrong, but I think that Judaism might be one of the only faiths that doesn't recruit, and this is why my Jewish friends have such a hard time with religions that do.

First of all, what I try to explain to them is that all of us Christians are supposed to be "recruiting" -- some just do it differently than others. We feel like we have "good news" and a way of life that has brought us joy and we want to share it.

That's an interesting distinction that I was not aware of.

I try to live by example -- if by talking about my faith someone decides to think about it a little, that's a good thing. I respect everyone's faiths but if something about my faith could help someone else's spirituality; what's wrong with that?

I agree with you there. There are a few people of this board I've developed a friendship with and when they became aware of a personal situation, they said they would pray for my family. Now I know who they probably wee praying to and I had no problem with that. It's only when that talking about ones faith is used as a leverage to influence someone's own beliefs.

I don't like it when Christians try to tell non-Christians that they way they honor God is wrong, but I'm not going to shut-up about my faith because it might make someone uncomfortable. If someone wants to talk about their faith, what's so wrong with that as long as they don't judge yours or become pushy?

Exactly. I find discussion about other people's faiths enlightening. Just as long as we all agree to respect each other's beliefs.

 

[battricia]

Honestly, MsKanga, I don't care if you opened the door or not. That was not the point of my original post. My point was this.

You said:

When the heck do they understand no means no????

And I said, that by NOT answering the door, you NEVER SAID NO. The first thing you said to them was, where's your permit, I'm calling the police and I have a large dog.

I can completely understand if you don't want to answer the door, or the phone, or spam e-mail. However, Don't act like you politely asked them to leave, and they were persistant and wouldn't leave.

For others who asked if we get angry over telemarketing or spam e-mails, my answer is no. Honestly, it's not worth my time or effort to get mad at someone who's just trying to make a living (or in the case of religious 'solicitors', just trying to help me find 'salvation'..). Not only is it not worth it to get mad, but it's not worth it to be nasty with people doing these things either, nastiness breeds nastiness, so like I said, If I'm not interested in what they are selling/talking about, I kindly say no thankyou, and they (atleast in my many experiences with door to door people) just about always say 'thanks for your time' and go on their way.

Funny how the people who usually complain about solicitations are also the people who don't seem to be very nice to the people doing the soliciting.

tricia.

 

[crazymomof4]

Thanks, SeaSpray, for your 2 posts. They were to the point and not argumentative, representing us well! I, too, am one of Jehovah's Witnesses and felt I needed to reply also.

I would like to start off by saying that I would definitely NOT be happy if a stranger came to my back door. It is rude and in the times we live in it could be frightening for the homeowner. The liablility due to injury from the dog is also a valid point. I have been in my religion since age 3 and in the door-to-door work countless times. I have never seen or heard of anyone going to the back door of a home, uninvited. I wonder if the person/people who did this are new ones to our faith and not familiar with how our work is to be done. I don't want to seem as if I'm making excuses but there is also the point that our religion is made up of ALL types of people, just like every other religion. There are people in this world who were not raised to be courteous or considerate. There is no test given to filter those types of people out before they join our congregations. We can only hope that these ones learn from the example of the vast majority- those who conduct themselves in a fine manner when going door to door.

There are certain standards for the preaching work that most JW's who have been part of our religion for any length of time subscribe to. We know that we are being watched as we do this work and anything that we do could reflect in a negative way on the organization as a whole.

We are though, all individuals and in the end I can only speak for myself here. I actually do not even enter an enclosed front porch if there is a doorbell on the outside door. To me, that makes the porch a part of the interior of that person's home! When we are calling earlier in the day, say between 9-10 am, I knock more softly than I would later in the day, so that only someone who was already awake would hear. If someone is obvoiusly home but not answering the door [yes, we do know that this is often the case], I take that as a silent "No" and walk away without knocking a second time. I train my children, as I was trained, in the "do's and don'ts": Don't step on person's lawns, don't walk too close to their cars (so as not to scratch them), don't look into the windows/door as you wait on the porch, don't sit on porch furniture or touch anything on the property, including tugging on leaves of trees/bushes.

I would like to also address the complaint of "pushy JW's". All JW's are told NOT to be argumentative at the door! But, unfortunately, this too is an issue where varied personalities come into play. We are NOT there to push our religion on people who are not interested. We are looking for people who are questioning or searching. Even though many people do not fall into this group and turn us away, we continue because there are some who ARE interested as evidenced by the constant growth of our organization. (In 2003 there were 5,726,509 non-JW's who were having free home Bible studies with JW's) Again, I speak only for myself here, but I am never pushy at the door. When someone says they are not interested I thank them for their time, wish them a good day and walk off. I will not reduce the importance of the message we bring by using the tactics of a salesperson who works on commission!

As with SeaSpray, I apologize to those who have had negative interaction with JW's and ask that you not judge our entire religion based on individual experiences.

**To the original poster: You mentioned that you have acquaintances who are JW's. If they live locally they may attend the same congregation as the persons who came to your back door. If you tell the JW's (that you know) how this affected you, it may be possible to have an announcement made at that congregation. Maybe something like, "It has been brought to our attention that some are calling on the back doors of homes we visit.........." Followed by a few sentances explaining why this practice is to be discouraged.

 

[GeekChic]

whew, what a thread. i read thru page 6 before deciding to just come to the end and post so if someone said this already, please forgive me.

i would just ask, as someone who was taken along door to door in this 'preaching work' as a child by my parents, and also as the parent of a small child who may still be taken in this 'preaching work' against my will by my ex-husband...to those of you who talked about releasing dogs and bringing shotguns to the door, please, be kind and re-think this. please do it because you could injure someone who has no control over being there. and yes, parents should know better, i don't believe this kind of thing is for children. but can't people show some kindness here and tolerance?

what if your dog bit a child who was there because they had no choice? what if you accidentily shot a child? isn't it better to just show a little self control and not answer the door, or holler out the window if you want them to leave, instead of risking someone's life?

a lot of people who were once JW's are not any longer. i was born into it and got out as soon as i could. now, myself, i was never pushy even when i was a jw and always took care to avoid houses with no tresspassing signs and no solicitation signs, period.

but if you really want to take care of it and make sure they don't come back, you can either put a "no jw's " sign on your front door (most, maybe not ALL but MOST jw's will abide by those) or you can call the local congregation in your area and ask your address be put on the territories "do not call' list. Yes, there is such a thing and they will abide by it.

these people believe they are doing their god given duty. even though i don't share the beliefs, i do still see them as people, and if they come to my door, i simply don't answer. but i wouldn't threaten with a gun, a dog, or any other dangerous weapon just because i don't want to answer the door!

if you risk shooting or injuring someone...remember, it could be a child. in my mind there is no need to risk violence.

this is still a free country. freedom of religion is a right that people fought and died for, and still do every day. The supreme court did uphold the right of people, mormon, jw or otherwise to preach from door to door, you can't escape it, so please, i implore you, just ignore it, or if you can't do that, take proactive, nonviolent action and you can prevent them from calling on you again.

violence never solves anything.

geek

 

[pw2pp]

if you risk shooting or injuring someone...remember, it could be a child. in my mind there is no need to risk violence.

Oh my Gosh, Geekchic,
I was just JOKING about the shotgun.
For one thing, my husband does not keep it loaded (it is for hunting) and I don't even know where the ammo is located.
My entire post was "tongue in cheek" - note the "smileys" in my post.
Sorry if I scared you.

 

[GeekChic]

thank you pw2pp, i missed the smilies in your post (was reading fast+bad eyes=missed emoticons!) i appreciate your reply.

i took the comment seriously because, i am really sad to say, people in my family HAVE had guns pulled on them while in the door to door ministry more than once. they were at front doors, and sometimes not even up to the driveway, on the public sidewalk.

this is why i take the idea of anyone doing that seriously; it has happened to my family. also, myself, have had dogs let loose on me. a simple 'not interested' would have sufficed. i was just a kid.
this is why i don't like my ex to take the kid door to door; thankfully, he rarely does anymore.

tolerance is the only message i 'preach' to anyone anymore. i'm agnostic leaning toward athiesm now (seriously)!

thanks again for your reply.
geek

 

[crazymomof4]

Originally posted by GeekChic
i don't believe this kind of thing is for children.

I'm sorry that you feel this way. We enjoy being together as a family when we go door to door. I often tell the story about the time an elderly man yelled (yes, raised voice while shaking a pointed finger at us) at my DH and I for "dragging" our kids out in this way. About 15 mins. later we got in the car to head home and our 3 yr old started crying loudly. We asked what was wrong and he said, "I don't want to go home, I want to go door to door!" I said to my DH, "I wish that man could see this!!"
I guess how kids end up viewing it as adults depends on how parents handle it. We try to make each time like a family outing. Most of the time we are with other kids who are their friends. There is time for conversation between doors and often we take a break at a local donut shop. We've NEVER had a gun pulled on us or dogs do anything but lick us. I guess if I lived in an area where the things you mention occurred, I'd have to re-think how we do things to ensure the safety of my kids!

Originally posted by GeekChic
but if you really want to take care of it and make sure they don't come back, you can either put a "no jw's " sign on your front door (most, maybe not ALL but MOST jw's will abide by those) or you can call the local congregation in your area and ask your address be put on the territories "do not call' list. Yes, there is such a thing and they will abide by it.

This is true, I forgot to mention it in my last post!

 

[tnkrbell]

These people are lucky you didnt have a dog in the back yard!! I have a HUGE dog that would of probably attacked these people!!
I just think if you didnt answer the door then they should of taken that as you were not interested.

Geekchic,
Since you have been involved in this, your opinion is very important. And should be heard.