Why do Jehovah's Witnesses bring out the worst in me? They're only doing what they think is best.
I'm not good with any form of un-asked-for solicitation, be it door-to-door, phone, e-mail, blog comment, junk mail, or any other form of spam. I don't like being rude, but I've found that a quick, "No, thank you; I'm not interested," followed immediately by hanging up the phone or closing the door, to be the solution that wastes the least amount of time—not only mine, but theirs. Why let them go on and on when I know I'm not going to give in to whatever they're selling? I did know someone who would, on occasion, invite them in, and let them go on and on, thinking they were about to make a sale, until the whole evening was used up. He figured he was saving several dozen other folks from having their evenings interrupted, and he found it somewhat amusing. (Reality TV hadn't been invented yet.) But that's not me.
When it comes to JWs, I also know people who will invite them in, serve them coffee, and spend the evening preaching the gospel to them. I admire those who can do that, but it's definitely not me.
Porter, having been a door-to-door salesman himself, is much more understanding and will often take a few minutes to answer questions and ask some of his own. He still doesn't buy anything—unless it's Girl Scouts selling cookies or Lake Brantley band members selling apples; even I am happy to welcome that kind of solicitor with a smile and a sale—and if anything has come from a discussion with a Jehovah's Witness, we won't know it till Heaven. But at least he's friendly.
I, on the other hand, get Really. Ticked. Off. Especially on a Saturday, when I have a thousand more pleasant things to do, like scrubbing the kitchen floor. On my hands and knees. With a toothbrush. Or defrosting the freezer, which is why the garage door was open. I opened the door from the house to find two JWs in the garage, keeping Porter from his work of replacing our kitchen light fixtures. He was gracious, and polite, engaging them in conversation.
Me? I panicked, turning tail immediately and skedaddling back into the house, with an inarticulate growl and an "if looks could kill" expression.
Sigh. Do we learn humility from humiliation? I hope so.
I can understand your frustration. My college apartment was a frequent target for door-to-door guys, though why I do not know. I got both JW and Mormons, and through no fault of their own the JW got me upset, and the Mormons got invited back for OJ and a talk. Why? Just because the JW ladies happened to call while I was relaxing in the bath, and I held it against them that I jumped out, toweled off, and donned clothes just for the opportunity to receive a watchtower pamphlet. I find that irritation at the JW has carried over to the present day even. Fortunately, one of my team members is a JW, which has made a world of difference in my opinion of them.
So, if we think of everyone as having a purpose for the moment and the day, symbolized by what I'd call the "arrow of objective," then we see how important it is that I find a natural intersection between my sales (or proselytizing) arrow and the bathing or defrosting or reading arrow of my potential customer, or my jarring interruption of his activity will anger my customer and frustrate myself. And that's why I'm not sure these relatively high-pressure sales tactics are best for evangelizing. I see a greater likelihood of creating resentment than repentance.
For I suspect that you and I are not the only ones out there that deal poorly with being interrupted. Especially once I've finally stopped procrastinating and gotten started on my task. Even more so should it be during Joseph's nap, when I have very limited time anyway. In that we're standing in the not-so-proud tradition begun by the Twelve, who seemed also to think uninterrupted work more important than other people. So, whether we think of it as "suffer the little JW to come unto me" or as "Be of good comfort, JW, rise; he calleth thee," perhaps you and I need to take a new look at JWs and Mark 10 - and ask people like Porter how they do it.
Thanks for sharing!
In Oswego, we had JWs who would always come to our house early Saturday morning and actually think it was amusing that they had woken us up. Gaunce finally rigged a system that put our doorbell on a timer so that it would not ring before a certain hour of the morning. How anyone can think such harassment is going to win converts, I can't imagine.
Doorbell on a timer! A clever invention that should be more widely available. I'd think there'd be a good market in shift workers.
A friend of mine used to invite them in to discuss the gospel. Apparently she was so convincing that after visits from successively higher and higher people in the organization, she was put on some sort of DON'T VISIT!!!! list. She found this very amusing.
I wish I had the time (and courage - I don't like confrontation, and this would be confrontational) to challenge them about "T," a local JW teen who's parents threw her out when they discovered she was pregnant. We took her in, she lived with us for several weeks until moving to a live-in high school for pregnant teens.
Walk the talk, or go away, is my feeling.
