Dan4reason
Facts not Faith
I am against the form of prosletizing in which one party insults the other or is constantly engaging the other in debate all the time.
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I know a young recently married couple. During the courtship, (if you can still call it that) the girl's parents switched to a far more fundamentalist group within Christianity. The boy is Hindu, but quite a liberal one.
(On a side note, mixed faith marriages are a whole new debate, but a necessary one, as they are becoming far more common)
So the young couple decided to appease both sets of parents, and have two weddings, a Hindu one, and a Christian one. The kids themselves were liberal and respecting enough to allow for this, despite objections from the bride's parents.
So when the wedding day arrives, the parents of bride boycott, and are a no-show at the Hindu wedding, but the Hindu parents, in support of their son, attend the Christian wedding. I got to attend one wedding that day.
Now, I really don't know how its all going to work out. I'm sure things won't be smooth, despite the sincere prayers from both sides.
So this is just an example, but one that is becoming far more common in our world, of the pain and confusion conversion can cause, and the originating process was proseleytizing.
Proselytism hm.
Iam a peaceful person. And thats the only reason i havent taken drastic measures against the JWs and LDSs who "visit" me once a month to "show me the light that is jesus christ".
Without a doubt i can say that i dislike them. But iam a peaceful person.
And that's part of the sales process, too.
Another technique that I've read: if 10% (or whatever it happens to be) of your prospects result in an actual sale, then you can motivate yourself by thinking of every "no" as 1/10 of a "yes". I don't doubt that your hang-up gets counted as another step in the process that will end with winning that next sale/convert.
I don't doubt it, but there's a reason why people do come door-to-door selling religion or other products: because it's an effective technique. You might not be buying, but enough people are buying to make it worth their while.
I was a bit disappointed by myself with how I handled an incident where a couple of Mormon missionaries approached me on the bus. As I saw them working their way down the bus talking to each person, I got to thinking about how disrespectful I considered proselytizing to be in general, and how it felt wrong to me for someone to do it to a captive audience that couldn't just walk away or close a door to leave the conversation. By the time they got to me I was pretty angry, and I think it came through in my tone to them. I said to them, pretty gruffly, "I don't think what you're doing is right." I was actually so mad that I had trouble coming up with something to say to follow it up. They looked confused for a moment, and then walked away and got off the bus at the next stop.My mother has a harsh way about her, she once chased away some JWs from her house and they were afraid to come over after that. I cringed at what she did, but she did keep them from coming to her house. I don't dislike the missionaries that come to our home, but I am already a Christian and I don't need that kind of talk. One JW lady was surprised that I knew the Bible as if only JWs know the bible, but she was nice about it. Most of the time, if I know it's them I just don't answer my door: Rude, but effective.
Heh... it just means "lawyer", and I'm not a lawyer, so I can ring the bell, right?And another question: Do any of you have a "No solicitor's" sign at your door? We used to have one but some people ignored it (It said "No solicitors, no salesmen, and so on" we put a whole list of people, for the people who may not know what "solicitor" means, LOL).
I once had a Catholic come to my door proselytizing, but I got the impression that this was her own personal idea. I don't think she was exactly working under official sanction to do this.I'd have one now but the management at the Mobile Home park doesn't allow it. No other Christians come to my mobile home park now except JW's. If fact, the only Christians who ever came to my door were LDS and JWs. I don't recall any Baptists, Methodists, or Presbyterians coming to my door. Other religions never come to my door either.
Recorded messages have been illegal for telemarketers here for a while. I like that.I don't doubt that, the phone people kept calling and calling us and at dinner time, too. I got so annoyed when recorded messages kept calling us (You'd think they'd use real people to call). Every time they called, I pushed the pound key repeatedly and they stopped calling (if it was a human person, I don't know if I would have done the same thing). We still get recorded messages about selling our home, paying off our mortgage (we paid off our mobile home and we don't even have a mortgage anymore), and credit protection but not as often. I think there are better ways to sell things than using recorded messages on people's phones or to go to their house.
From the Iranian government's point of view, it bore truth.
You will forgive me, I trust, if I point out that I've rarely seen a more ridiculous statement. The more so given how many countries have recently condemned Iran for its oppression--and yes, execution--of Baha'is!
Besides which, willful ignorance is NEVER a virtue!
Bruce
I never once said I agreed with the Iranian government point of view.
You know what? I think that what they were doing was wrong, too. They had a captive audience and were taking advantage of that fact. On the other hand, I'm curious as to how persistent they were with people. Most LDS missionaries aren't particularly in-your-face obnoxious if you let them know you're not interested.I was a bit disappointed by myself with how I handled an incident where a couple of Mormon missionaries approached me on the bus. As I saw them working their way down the bus talking to each person, I got to thinking about how disrespectful I considered proselytizing to be in general, and how it felt wrong to me for someone to do it to a captive audience that couldn't just walk away or close a door to leave the conversation. By the time they got to me I was pretty angry, and I think it came through in my tone to them. I said to them, pretty gruffly, "I don't think what you're doing is right." I was actually so mad that I had trouble coming up with something to say to follow it up. They looked confused for a moment, and then walked away and got off the bus at the next stop.
In retrospect, even though I know I wouldn't have been violent toward them, I think they may have thought that I was a threat to their safety.
I think I probably could've handled it better.
Wasn't it Jesus who said that the harvest was plentiful but the laborers
are few. The Bible states that my people perish for a lack of knowledge.
Go into to all the world and preach the good news (aka Gospel)
and Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As a true follower of Christ, Christians should openly share their faith.
Pastor Richards
IMO, it's inherently disrespectful to consider other human beings as a "crop" to be "harvested". It's dehumanizing.Wasn't it Jesus who said that the harvest was plentiful but the laborers
are few. The Bible states that my people perish for a lack of knowledge.
Go into to all the world and preach the good news (aka Gospel)
and Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As a true follower of Christ, Christians should openly share their faith.
Pastor Richards
IMO, it's inherently disrespectful to consider other human beings as a "crop" to be "harvested". It's dehumanizing.