Have you been saved?

[luckynumbah7]

Was out the day before having a relaxing smoke and who should wander by but Mr Have You Been Saved. He opened the conversation with "You look like you listen to metal." I had no currently visible tattoos, clothing was a plain zipped hoodie, a pair of grey shorts and a pair of sandles. And a tiny, tiny earring in the shape of a flower. i made the universal English hand gesture for 'so-so' and said I listen to a little bit of everything.

A reply of any kind seems to launch these people into the 'have you been saved?' spiel. I got him to go away by looking unfriendly, keeping to one word answers and telling him I was Baptist. How do the rest of you get the "Let's shove our Christian religion down your throat as if you've never noticed its existence before, what with 3 churches in a 2 block radius" people to go away?

*incidentally, I was raised Baptist though these days I'm agnostic. My church was a bit older school in that it didn't agree with public displays of religious fervor or that particular kind of conversion.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

... the same way I do for beggars on street corners, magazine/newspaper subscription salesmen, petition signers, food sample pushers, ... anyone who thinks they have something they THINK I want to buy from them... I don't look them in the eye, I don't hear them, I don't talk to them, I don't look at their product, I don't acknowledge they exist, I don't give them any kind of opening to start their spiel.

I hate solicitors of any kind. I don't answer the phone if I don't recognize the number, I don't answer the door if I'm not expecting guests. I hate commercials, junk mail, spam, pop up windows, and advertisements all over the internet.

If you have a legitimate question or need help, that's fine... but don't ask me to buy whatever it is you're selling.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

I tell them I worship the dark prince, they usually disappear after that.

 

[GreyUnderscore]

Depends on my mood that day. A few times I open the door and listen to what the person has to say and if I notice it's going to take a while I say 'no thanks' and close the door. I only do that two or three times a year and only because I feel bad that most of the time they have people close the door right in their face or are ignored completely.

As for people in the street begging, passing out flyers, or asking me to buy something, I do the same as Borg. And again once in a while I grab a flyer or card since I imagine it must suck having to do that all the time and have almost no one acknowledge you exist at that time.

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

If the person is polite and respectful I respond in kind, but take care to note that I'm not interested.

If I got your person, lucky, I would have advised him or her that there are Christian metal bands, and that one should not start a conversation by approaching me as if I'm a baseless stereotype. Then I would have moved on in my day.

 

[Orlandude]

borg said it best as far as I'm concerned.

 

[The Fly]

I just say "Not interested" and close the door, keep walking, or otherwise disengage. I won't give them the satisfaction of even venting their schpeel.

 

[ibill1]

It's funny actually. They say they want to save you and everbody else but everytime I just say I'm a homo and don't need saving they immediatety move on.

 

[eastofeden]

The people close to me want to run and hide when one of them comes around because they don't know what I am going to say to them.

My problem...it is MY FUCKING SPACE and if you are going to enter my personal space with that crap without an invitation..... good luck with that...I don't like people crossing my boundaries....

One of the Jehovahs asked me if I knew about farming in Africa...I asked them if they knew how good it felt to get fucked in the ass....I told them if you get fucked long and hard enough you see God every time and that they should try it....and then I asked them to show me the article on farming....seemed fair...

It wasn't like I knocked on their door and asked them about getting fucked in the ass ....

The poor Mormons...my lover turns white and tries to escape before I get a chance to speak....

 

[Kyanimal]

^ East, YOU Fuckin' Rock!

Keep Smilin'!!
Chaz

 

[Rickrock]

I don't get too many of these, but I try to be polite. Sometimes I say yes I have been saved, sometimes I am non-committal, sometimes I say I am a practicing Catholic, and I usually try to move away if I can.

 

[bankside]

I'm always polite. I respond with the same candour and frankness that they show with their beliefs. Run-of-the-mill Christians tend to use direct admail here. The only people who actually go door to door are the jehovas. Not even the mormons do it.

 

[ElmosToe]

I never answer the door unless I'm expecting someone.

If someone approaches me outside my house and they manage to approach me (barrel their way in front of me and block my path)
I just quietly listen for a minute and eventually tell them I really need to pee, so if they want, they can walk with me and keep talking, otherwise my bladder is about to explode, so....

Plenty of blushing virgins have walked away with their tales between their legs.
Poor little things, so misguided.

 

[Kulindahr]

Depends who it is and my mood at the time -- and my schedule. I tied up a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses one day for over an hour before the senior partner decided they should move on. And I tied up two Mormon missionaries an entire afternoon once.

I look at it as keeping them from annoying other people.


If the mom answers the door, though, I never get to talk to them. She says, "Well, you could talk to my son -- he knows Hebrew and Greek and --" Usually they disappear before she finishes the sentence.

 

[cgymike]

If they smell good, dress well, and have lots of harissa it's cool.

 

[peeonme]

I don't think I can remember ever having been witnessed to by fundamentalist Christians, I get the J.W.'s on occasion.
The church today is always busy it would seem raising money rather than sharing the good news of God's love through Jesus Christ, it is kind of sad that the off beat groups try to convert others while those who profess the 'true' faith are no where to be seen.

 

[LeicsDom]

Depends who it is and my mood at the time -- and my schedule. I tied up a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses one day for over an hour before the senior partner decided they should move on. And I tied up two Mormon missionaries an entire afternoon once.

Please let that be literal

 

[LeicsDom]

I imagine it must suck having to do that all the time and have almost no one acknowledge you exist at that time.

I would imagine they are used to it. After all isn't that called praying?

 

[vidarr]

One of the Jehovahs asked me if I knew about farming in Africa...I asked them if they knew how good it felt to get fucked in the ass....I told them if you get fucked long and hard enough you see God every time and that they should try it....and then I asked them to show me the article on farming....seemed fair...

It wasn't like I knocked on their door and asked them about getting fucked in the ass ....

The poor Mormons...my lover turns white and tries to escape before I get a chance to speak....

Made my day.

 

[Kulindahr]

Please let that be literal

I wondered if anyone would bite.