Have you ever had somebody try to convert to you? and How do you deal with people who evangelise? Not just Christian evangelists but evangelists us from any religion or ideology.

I ask this because a while ago I was approached by Muslim who attempted to convert me to Islam (according to him I would make a good Muslim and Allah wanted me) . I told him I was a pagan (it took me a while to try and convince him that I was not a Christian), to which he said ‘what's a pagan?’ so I began to tell him. However I soon realised that this was a hopeless cause when he said, ‘what's a goddess?’ This came as a bit of a surprise to me, so to end the conversation I told him that I would read the Koran, and then proceeded to remove myself from the immediate vicinity.

This experience, though slightly surreal, was a great insight for me as I realised the immensity of the gap between Islam and Western beliefs.

Occasionally get people coming to the door asking if I want to change my electricity supplier, I just say no thank you and they go away.

I'd probably take the same approach with someone wanting me to change my religion!

gwyn eich byd

Ffred

I am one of those rare individuals whose circumstances have always been too complex and unusual for anyone to handle let alone fathom. Thus anyone trying to impose on me soon found themselves so up to their armpits in shit, they could only flee in terror. Yup, there are some things in nature better left to their own designs and it always amazes me how many insist on learning such lessons in reality the hard way.

Same as I do with any other type of salesperson, tell them I am not interested and walk off. Most often though, just looking at them as they think about approaching me is enough to scare them off Don't know if anyone selling their religion has knocked at my door recently or not (doubt it as they've always avoided me in the past... ) as whenever someone selling anything knocks they get a mouthful - there's a BIG sign on my door saying that salespeople, religious representatives, and cold callers are NOT welcome; anyone not bothering to read it gets grief cos I don't like being disturbed

Re Islam and the Goddess. It never ceases to amaze me that these staunch Moslems deny the Goddess so vehemently, then proceed to worship this!

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...l%3Den%26sa%3DG

Here's another article, which I found informative, and from which I quote:
"evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was married to the sun goddess and the stars were his daughters."
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...l%3Den%26sa%3DN

And re unwanted callers who become pushy, or anyone attempting conversion, I'm like Sehkmut - they get THE LOOK!

If anyone knocks on my door and tries to convert me, I just drag out my dog with the antlers stapled to it's head, that scares them away!

Depends what mood I'm in and how much time I've got. If I'm in a hurry, I say "no thanks" politely and close the door/walk away. If I've got time to spare and I'm feeling wicked I invite them in. They usually leave after a couple of hours and it's funny how they don't knock on my door again!

Frey

Only a couple of times.

The attempt stopped when they realised I knew more about their beliefs than either they did, and certainly more than they did about mine...

The last time was a Texan fundie Christian. After a while I got bored of playing with him as he didn't know his bible very well, and probably didn't read Greek or consider his philosophical and ethical positions beyond what he'd been told to think.

I'd be happy for someone to try IRL, so long as I hadn't got something else to do which was more interesting. Er... yeah, so that includes watching paint dry...

Not sure if it's me, my offspring the Lizard or the Rottie.
None ever want to come in or even pass the door step.
Do enjoy asking the Mormon "Elders" if they've got their "magic underwear" on,
the pushy ones usually leave when I give them the magic handshake.

I've been blacklisted by the JW's as I cast a lot of doubt, with out the
handbook, er, bible.....

Still it's fun to play with them.

A good Texas BBQ comes to mind. Mmmm!

These people make me sad they do not realize that they have been Conditioned since birth to the Evils of Monotheism. When I tell these folks this (Jw's etc ) I tell them that there is a get out of jail card by accepting the Devil which the xtians made Evil, he aint Evil, he just has Horns

I keep meaning to get a goat mask so when they knock at the door I can open it with said mask on, cloak and appropriate "satanic" jewellry and say in a reasonable voice, "Yes, can't talk - I happen to be a tad busy at the moment".

Luckily we live too far away for them to bother with us.

My reaction to being approached and told I MUST believe this or that, very much depends on my mood. But ultimatly has little to no affect on my actual beliefs and practices.

Usually I am polite and firm - no thanks, not interested, fine with my own beliefs/gods etc. - bye - safe journies.

If I am feeling board, have time on my hands and have my mischief hat on then I will stop and talk, invite them in etc. and gain a perverse pleasure wrapping them in circles in thier own beliefs. I have studied theology and have quite a nice little collection of religious texts, all of which are well thumbed. Really though it is poor sport, I think only once have I found someone that I could truely lock horns with and really get indepth with the meanings of faith, god/s and belief and the rightness or wrongness of specific paths.

I did though on one occasion have a funny situation occour... I was in the middle of preparing dinner - which just happened to be rabbit stew - I answered the door with a partly skinned rabbit and knife in hand... they went very pale and backed off rapidly.
That time I genuinly was not meaning to frighten.

Be bright,be bold
Fillionous

If I'm feeling really evil, I let the partner play with their heads.

Heh... try living in the deep south in the states... one gets real creative real fast..

I spent a couple of years in Colorado Springs.. home of some of the biggest fundie churches in the country (Focus on the Family, New life etc) People just walk up to you off the street and start 'witnessing' you out of no where. One of my personal favorites was to stare blankly and say"Im sorry, Satan told me Im not allowed to talk to you". damn idiots believed me....
Another happened to a friend of mine at the time. He and his wife had an infestation of Mormons that lasted the better part of a month. He was a nice guy, he was polite for a very long time.. but they would not give up. He was an artist, liked to paint big things with large buckets of paint. He wore an old butchers apron to work in. One day he happened to be working in red. The hapless mormons knocked on the door and he ended up answering. And he had had enough.. opens the door in his butchers apron up to his elbows in red paint. "Honey! Hold the sacrifice!"
They never heard from them again. The End.

In Texas, the mormons seemed to have adopted a new method to not have so many doors slammed in their faces.... they now bring their small children along with them. I had the pleasure of seeing this personally right before we moved over here. I told him I was Pagan, happily so in fact. He literally stuttered the word "P-p-pagan??" I smiled and he hightailed it out of there. Kinda cute actually.

Dawn

The JW's who knock around here have children with them as a rule ... that kind of ensures you are not too rude I suspect. They also have a blind girl. When you open your door, they say she wants to talk to you about her faith. Can you imagine how difficult it is to send them on their way? They lay a guilt trap and Poppy falls in. I don't invite them in though.

When I was a kid, we had mormons knock, and my dad invited them in. They showed us a film and made popcorn, and wouldn't leave until my dad threatened to punch them They were there for 4 (I repeat 4 hours)

Poppy

I remember being in Birmingham in the early eighties & being approached by a bloke from a Eastern religion I have now forgotten the name of. However he said he wanted to give me a free book about his reliigion & when I took it off him , he wanted money for it. He soon had it back when I refused to hand over any cash.

Don't know whether this counts but I couple of weeks ago I was heckled in the street whilst wearing me new Richard Dawkins scarlet letter T Shirt.

"I prefer life actually!" cries Mr Strange.

"Good for you, Matey!" says I.

Result!

EEK! You mean they BREED?! Argh - the very though of it is making me feel MOST unwell.
Time fer the medication...

I'm sure there was a post quite some time ago (perhaps even 18 months or more) about God/Jehovah/Allah being originally a member of an ancient Hebrew pantheon. If I remember right, there are several references early on in the OT which tend to confirm it. "I am a jealous God" is a bit of a giveaway, as is "no other gods before me", why would he say this, if he's the only one?!

Here's a wikipedia article on Henotheism

Karen Armstrong was on Start the Week on R4 on Monday. she's written a book called Biography of the Bible, sounds riveting. Echoing what Trent said the early hebrews had a pantheon,including goddesses, and acknowledging the existence of other gods and goddesses, even though not suposed to worship them. Lots of info on how they put their scriptures together out of many diffferent versions etc. Sounds a good read.

Cheers
Finvarra

Heres a link that may interest you

http://www.yahwehism.com/html/yahweh-samaria.html

But you were playing nicely though.

I still enjoy the memory of the JW's who left our front door having spent about half an hour talking to me. They went off with a book list and didn't knock on another door in the street. Well I believe in providing a service to the community.

BB

Mike

Before I actually became a pagan we used to be plagued by the usual JW and Mormons until the day that I was in a foul mood and they had the ill luck to knock on my door! I was ready for them and by the time I had finshed they were high tailing it down the path and I was persuing them and shouting "... and another thing!" Funnily I have never had any others darken my doorstep since! Looking back on it it was funny though!

I am lucky that i havent had this happen to me at home yet "knock on wood" but if it did i would politly say no thanks and close the door, if they were constantly coming to my door i would threaten them with harrassment charges, and hope that would work, of course they would have to be there all the time

I have however encountered it in the town, the Hare Krishna's to be exact, my hubby and i stopped and were polite enough and once we had heard what they had to say we said thanks but no thanks and kept on walking and they followed us down the street. It was pretty annoying now i dont stop for any one trying to sell me stuff be it religon or not

The absolute worst bastards are those who keep trying to convert you British Gas, BASTARDS!!! GRRR!!!

Which reminds me - every time I hear about folk wanting to covert me, I automatically become VERY suspicious! (To say nothing of also becoming VERY scared... )

I don't really WANT someone, however well meaning, to shove a pipe up my bum and fiddle around with my thermostats!

Feckin Right there, I am SICK of the Twats phoning me 'n' all !

Get off me Case maan !

Virgin are just as bad!!

British Gas, yes, they're definitely worse than the religious ones. There's an air of bright desperation about them. They seem to have been trained in American sales techniques and they keep talking until you've actually shut the door on them. I wish them better luck with their career prospects and a more fun job asap.

It sounds as though some of you could do with a spot of TPS!

The Telephone Preference Service exists to stop all those annoying cold calls dead. And it works, too. I haven't had a cold sales call for five years, since about a month or so after I registered.

The last time anyone was foolish enough to try to convert me was on a Saturday afternoon, it was a couple of Jehovah's witnesses, who pressed me to hear the word of god, after asking which one? (confused looks on their part) I said I'm happy with my faith thank you and I'm secure enough in it not to have to try to convert others to it are you? After which I walked off.

Storm Raven

I used to get cross, but since learning more about JW's in particular I actually feel sorry for them and so am generally polite.

JW's dont knock the door because they want you to convert quite so much as if they dont convert as many as possible they wont go to heaven.

Its actually very sad

In Edinburgh I had the Mormons in. I said, "so tell me what you believe, then."

The senior Mormon Dude proceeded to go into a long spiel about this and that.
Eventually when he drew breath I asked,
"Okay, I get the bit about God walking on the earth in person. But tell me, please: why is that important?"

Senior Mormon Dude didn't say another word. He just packed up his books and left. His ammanuensis was completely bewildered, and just had to follow him out with a mystified expression.

What was in my mind was: if God is supposed to be omnipotent, what's the big deal about him taking human form? I mean, he can do anything, right? (If you accept the initial premise.) Anyway, never been bothered by Mormons since.

Had Jehovah's Witness along a year or so ago.

They said, "We'd like to tell you about the Good News."

I said, "This is about 'Jesus dying for my sins', right? I'm fifty years old and living in the UK, in Europe. Of course I've heard about the Good News. I heard it when I was old enough to talk. How you can imagine I haven't heard the Good News is beyond me. No, I don't want a magazine thank you."

They left. For some reason.

We don't get many JWs knocking since my ex almost converted one of them to Buddhism.

If i do get approached, whether by JWs, Mormons, or those Hare Krisna dudes, I just smile and say 'no thanks'. I don't consider it harrassment until they start following me, which has never happened. I find that being polite helps.

This is true!

I had a good friend once who turned Jehova, which is fine and I have nothinig against that. But then when he used to come over , he started going on about what he had been learning and it started to get tiresome because he believed that only his beliefs were valid. If I questioned anything, he got bothered and a bit arrogant! . Especially my many questions about how they were teaching him how the end of the world is coming soon, and that he would be saved...or something like that! A bit of scaremongering in my opinion!

I find the Hare Krishna to be great, they are keen to learn about your faith as well as inform you about theirs.

The Mormons in High Wycombe are just plain suicidal, you do not stand outside Tescos on the afternoon of Christmas Eve and tell people that have just fought their way out of Tescos, that they want to come to your Christmas service, especially not the one dressed head to toe in black with combat boots and obviously in a foul mood.

Storm Raven

I think they are great and have had many interesting books off them, but they station about 5 of them in a row down the main shopping street and dodging them can be quite wearing. Last time I shouted 'Gouranga' and darted down an alleyway while they were replying.

I used to love having JWs come round, a great opportunity for a theological discussion (I have a degree in theology). I often sent them away with pamphlets about the Qabalah

Sadly they don't come round anymore since the traveller site moved away from the farm entrance, they don't know we are here I guess.

The most annoying proselytisers (far worse than JWs) are the Christian Boaters Felowship. Its hard to get away from them on the canals, and they can be really persistent.
http://boaterschristianfellowship.org.uk/

I had JW's and Mormons at the door, for a while, I tried talking to them about my beliefs, that didnt work, I tried telling them I was a Satanist, that didnt work, now I just tell them im Gay! Im not, but that works really well!

I have been invited to a Mormons wedding towards the end of July. He knows I'm Pagan I jokingly call him the Merman. He calls me the Pagan. It's a laugh and no offense is intended by either of us. He has after all invited me to his wedding.

I am taking a hip flask full of Rum by the way, just to be on the safe side

Anyways, I knew a bit about the outlandish claims of this religion and decided to do a refresher, just to try to get the jist of it.

If you are not too aware of the Mormon thing here is a Utube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0d1HbItOo&feature=related

I have cross referanced the details in this vid and I have to say that this is Mormonism in it's original form. It has been modified, to erase the blatant racism present originally.

I have spoken to my Mormon friend about this stuff and he just says it's what he was brought up with and then the subject changes.
Is it a cult?

We dont get Jw's often because we are so out of the way but once one came round and i had a good discussion with him out how the universe was made and our 2 different veiws(im doing an astrophysics degree). It was all going well until he tried to convert me. Then i got annoyed and had to ask him to leave before i went crazy on him.

Well, it looks like the JWs are keeping a really low profile lately, especially with all the other religious fanatics getting chucked out of the country.

When a cult gets to a certain size it kinda gets re-classified as a religion...

I studied cults at uni (my university had a specialist 'cult watching centre' at the time run by one of the Chaplaincy staff) and personally I would classify the Mormon church as having 'cult like characteristics', but not as being an out and out cult. It doesn't use mind control tactics (like 'love bombing' or sleep deprivation), doesn't encourage adherants to break contact with their families, and doesn't demand unreasonable amounts of money. It does however insist on belief in disproved facts, seek to completely take over the individuals social life and have a very opaque power structure. This puts it on a par with the School of Economic Science, Anthroposophy and many evangelical churches.

What I like about Mormon missionaries is their suits, they obviously go to the same store as the FBI and Men in Black...

The only time I've ever let anyone get past their opening line was when I was approached by 2 men in the street.

One said "My friend is deaf. Can you tell him how to get to the station?" At the time I was training for a job working in a library with disabled borrowers (not tiny people, book borrowers I mean) and was in the honeymoon period of trying to help everyone before the cynicism of too much red tape and not enough time had set in . I had begun to learn sign BSL so I signed "Hello my name is Snippety" to the other guy.

"He doesn't know sign language" the first guy snapped. Thinking quickly I pulled a notebook and pen out of my rucksack and wrote "Hello my name is Snippety" on it and showed it to the other bloke. "He can't read either" sighed the first chap.

"Well" says I "It's not that far, I'll go with him and show him". At this point he turned the lapel of his jacket over and revealed a little silver cross pin. "It's not easy trying to communicate with someone who can't hear you, or who won't read your message is it ?" he said. "That's how Jesus feels when you turn away !"

Outraged I just stalked off but I was seething about it afterwards. For a start he didn't know if I was a christian or not, and I think that using a disabled person or a child to make sure people feel uncomfortable about refusing to talk to you is despicable. I felt really foolish and cheated.

I do this, as well

That's seriously the worst "conversion" story I've ever heard - I think I'd have smacked them across the face.

Lying really isn't a good way to introduce yourself.
And if it's a real deaf person (who can't sign or read) then that's just abusive.

Thats the approach I usualy take with them, had one of their main ones come knocking on my door, after 2 hours of debating theology he went away terribly upset because he's come to the conclusion that he was going to burn in hell because cotton and polyester is just as much an abomination in front of the eyes of his lord as being gay.

Such is life.

If I have the time I love to discuss different beliefs with them, most are woefully ignorant of other religions and religious history so are easy to confuse, the arrogant ones I sort attack with theories and tie in knots, the others I just do it gently

If I havent got time to talk I tell them I'm a blood donor and they disappear down the driveway as though I'm a vampire after them