Jehovah's Witness - No time to talk!!

[Lorna]

Originally Posted by Isis

So I just humour them, promise to read the book (which I'm sure I will one day out of interest), let them say a prayer and then they leave.

The same book that had to be written twice on account of the man's wife, who knew her husband to be mad, destroying it.

So the word of god came to him twice in all the same words. Brill!!

Lxx

[Lorna]

Originally Posted by Jive Brummie

Don't get me wrong here or anything, I'm not a Jehovah's witness or particuarly religious...but is everyone in such a rush, or feel so strongly in their own beliefs that they can't even entertain listening to people and letting them have their say?

JB

The whole point of this thread was to point out that I was in fact interested to have a discussion with them. You forget, they were on my doorstep spreading their word but when I wanted to both listen and then 'spread my word' they refused and just wanted to leave. I was neither rude or pushy.

Lxx

[Isis]

Originally Posted by Lorna

The same book that had to be written twice on account of the man's wife, who knew her husband to be mad, destroying it.

So the word of god came to him twice in all the same words. Brill!!

Lxx

I didn't know that.

It's a miracle

Originally Posted by Lorna

The whole point of this thread was to point out that I was in fact interested to have a discussion with them.

Sorry, I skimmed over that in my reply. You're totally right. If someone wants to disturb you at your home to talk about their beliefs, they should be willing to listen to what you have to say. Their faith is obviously too shaky to cope.

[Twirly]

Living in a first floor flat, and being a lazy so-and-so, when the doorbell goes, unless I'm expecting someone, I usually open the living room window and lean out to see who it is, calling "hello".

If it's someone with a pamphlet in their hand (usually pentecostal Christians in my area), they look up (being a bit confused by the voice coming from above ), I give a cheery "sorry, I'm busy at the moment" followed by a swift closing of the window and they're on their way. Usually looking a bit bewildered...

I may be a bit abrupt, but I'm polite. And I make sure I don't engage. I use exactly the same technique if I get a sales call at home (still do, despite being on the Telephone Preference Service). Let them get the first bit of their spiel out, say "no thank you" and hang up. You only have a problem if you let them get started.

And quite frankly, although I see Jive Brummie's point, I usually am busy and don't have time to be interrupted.

[Trouble]

Do these people have a sort of time of the year when they all come out then. Cause they all seem to have visited very recently most of you. How strange.

I dont answer or answer and say no thanks and shut the door. I also do the same with sales phone calls and people in supermarkets asking "DO YOU HAE 5 MINS" I just reply no and keep going. Absolute invasion of privacy and now they have electronic sales calls, very annoying.

[dep]

Originally Posted by Isis

Only problem with that, last time they visited, my daughter was getting very fed up with 'all that Jesus stuff' so she went and phoned her Dad to tell him "Mum's got some men round and I'm very bored".

and she was six by the time they left.

My response used to be
"I'm not interested, please don't come back".

Now I live where they can't find me.

[Crazy Shark]

Luckly i've had no-one knock at my door this year

I usually tell them that im atheist so they get the message that its pointless convincing me to become a Jehovah's witness.

[Georgious dancer]

Originally Posted by Jive Brummie

Don't get me wrong here or anything, I'm not a Jehovah's witness or particuarly religious...but is everyone in such a rush, or feel so strongly in their own beliefs that they can't even entertain listening to people and letting them have their say?

Whilst in many cases I would agree with you, I do not necessarily agree when discussing Jehovah's Witnesses. In my own experience they are the only religion that prevent their children from taking part in lessons that discuss topics such as easter, christmas, other religious celebrations, birthdays, abortion, alcholism, oh and the list goes on. So for them to come knocking on my door and try to convert me to their way of thinking is some what hypocritical in my opinion.

When it gets times of the year such as christmas or easter I often set the children a competition to design and make a cake with a christmas/easter theme, with the chance of winning a prize.

One such time I had a Jehovah's witness (I did not know this when I set the competition) in the class and her father sent me a polite note asking if she could decorate her cake with a different theme. Of course I said this wasn't a problem and she joined in with the rest of the class. At the end of the lesson all the class got to vote for their favourite cake, the one with the most votes winning the prize. The JW girl left the class seemingly happy and pleased with her cake.

Later that evening I got a rather irrate phonecall from the JW father, ringing to complain that his daughter was upset that she had not got any votes in the competition and accusing me of discriminating against her. Saying that it was innapropriate for me to have a competition based around Easter and that I should feel disappointed in myself for upsetting his daughter.

Had I known that I had a JW in my class then I may have changed the theme to Spring. However, I did not know this and even if I had the majority of the class would still have designed cakes for easter and would have favoured cakes with these designs when voting. In my honest opinion the narrow minded point of view encouraged by the religion is what caused the girls upset. She is a talented cook and had she been allowed to have an easter theme she would probably have been in with a good chance of winning.

[Aurion]

Originally Posted by Twirly

...........

I may be a bit abrupt, but I'm polite. And I make sure I don't engage. I use exactly the same technique if I get a sales call at home (still do, despite being on the Telephone Preference Service). Let them get the first bit of their spiel out, say "no thank you" and hang up. You only have a problem if you let them get started.
...............

Now there's an idea... is there a Religious Preference Scheme we can register with to stop the visits...

[Isis]

Originally Posted by Aurion

Now there's an idea... is there a Religious Preference Scheme we can register with to stop the visits...

[StokeBloke]

Originally Posted by Aurion

Now there's an idea... is there a Religious Preference Scheme we can register with to stop the visits...

Yes there is.

Next time they call, politely ask them to put you onto their 'do not call' list and they will do so. If you cannot bear the thought of waiting that long, you can call them and request this on the phone. Their number will be in your local phone book, listed under Jehovah's Witnesses

[John S]

Originally Posted by Aurion

Now there's an idea... is there a Religious Preference Scheme we can register with to stop the visits...

Originally Posted by StokeBloke

Yes there is.

Next time they call, politely ask them to put you onto their 'do not call' list and they will do so. If you cannot bear the thought of waiting that long, you can call them and request this on the phone. Their number will be in your local phone book, listed under Jehovah's Witnesses

Ah, but that would only stop the JWs. What is needed is an all-embracing Scheme to cover ALL religious callers! And just as the Telephone Preference Scheme is overseen by the Information Commissioner, so we would need a Religious Visiting Commissioner to administer this scheme. I vote Barry to be in charge.

[Isis]

Originally Posted by John S

I vote Barry to be in charge.

I imagine he'll be too busy this week. He's probably watching 'Jesus of Nazareth' to celebrate the season.

[Husky_Cat]

Originally Posted by StokeBloke

That is truly disgusting!!! Imagine someone knowing that you're deaf, and therefore using sign language to communicate with you... that is bang out of order!! How dare they.

I think you're quite right to say you're going to get abusive towards them for being so inconsiderately thoughtful

No, You got it wrong. Let me explain from the beginning. I had only just moved into my flat nearly 4 years ago, and few days later, got the Jehovah's Witnesses around my flat, and they knew that deaf people were living in the flat when we hadn't even informed anyone of our move. We had no idea how they got the information from. It was not our neighbours as at that time they didnt know we were deaf.

So ever since then, i keep getting Jehovah's witnesses signing before i have even said hello. I have NO idea how they found out in the first place so i find that quite disturbing really. And most Jehovah's witnesses that i know targets the deaf people as i have had lots of deaf friends complaining that jehovah's witnesses knew that they lived there!

That is why i dont like it that way. Hope you understand.

[Barry Shnikov]

Originally Posted by Twirly

If it's someone with a pamphlet in their hand (usually pentecostal Christians in my area), they look up (being a bit confused by the voice coming from above ), I give a cheery "sorry, I'm busy at the moment" followed by a swift closing of the window

It's not the 'voice coming from above' - they're expecting that! It's the fact that the voice is female.

[Barry Shnikov]

Originally Posted by Georgious dancer

Had I known that I had a JW in my class then I may have changed the theme to Spring.

WHY????

Why should we cringe simply because people expect to be able to wave their 'religion' in our face and get some sort of favourable treatment?

[Barry Shnikov]

Originally Posted by Isis

I imagine he'll be too busy this week. He's probably watching 'Jesus of Nazareth' to celebrate the season.

I thought I might watch 'The passion' to see what current thinking has put in to the story, but haven't had the chance. Only thing I've seen really is Toy Story 2 and the Malaysian grand prix.

[Kel_Warminster]

I tried telling the last Jehovah's Witnesses that knocked on my door that I had my own belief, that of science and the natural evolution of things (as I am a scientist, NOT a scientologist LOL) and that I disagreed with the bible, but respected their faith in it.

BIG mistake........ I had to drop my usual polite manners after a length of time, and tell them to go away as I really was happy with my view on life, and didn't want to change it!

[StokeBloke]

Originally Posted by Husky_Cat

No, You got it wrong. Let me explain from the beginning. I had only just moved into my flat nearly 4 years ago, and few days later, got the Jehovah's Witnesses around my flat, and they knew that deaf people were living in the flat when we hadn't even informed anyone of our move. We had no idea how they got the information from. It was not our neighbours as at that time they didnt know we were deaf.

So ever since then, i keep getting Jehovah's witnesses signing before i have even said hello. I have NO idea how they found out in the first place so i find that quite disturbing really. And most Jehovah's witnesses that i know targets the deaf people as i have had lots of deaf friends complaining that jehovah's witnesses knew that they lived there!

That is why i dont like it that way. Hope you understand.

Ummm sort of. So if you'd said you were deaf and they had signed from then on it would have been OK? It's the notion that they picked up on the fact that you were deaf that you didn't like. Personally, I thought it sounded quite considerate - folks are very fast to complain when the situation is reversed and people aren't inclusive in their approach to the public. Seems a bit like damned if they do, damned if they don't (please excuse the blatant but irresistible pun ).

As for the second point you raise, as you know a few of them why don't you simply ask one them why they are targeting the deaf community, and how they knew you were deaf

[Husky_Cat]

Originally Posted by StokeBloke

Ummm sort of. So if you'd said you were deaf and they had signed from then on it would have been OK? It's the notion that they picked up on the fact that you were deaf that you didn't like. Personally, I thought it sounded quite considerate - folks are very fast to complain when the situation is reversed and people aren't inclusive in their approach to the public. Seems a bit like damned if they do, damned if they don't (please excuse the blatant but irresistible pun ).

As for the second point you raise, as you know a few of them why don't you simply ask one them why they are targeting the deaf community, and how they knew you were deaf

The reason why i know some of them is because they also work in college as communication support workers. We have asked them how they got the information from in people that are deaf and living at certain houses. They never gave us answers, they would say that they are not at liable to say. I have asked them to take us off their list but they dont do it.

I do see where you come from in that i dont like the fact they sign without me saying that i am deaf. It comes from a life of explaining to people that i am deaf when they speak to me. When the situtation is reversed, it can be a shock to find someone who is absolutely a stranger to me can just know that i am deaf when all i had done was open the door.