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The hits just keep on coming.

If I may have your ears, friends and Romans:

As I'm outside loading up my car for the day and taking an ice scraper to the legion of frost that thought to congregrate on my windows while I slept I have my doors open and the iPod plugged into the tape player is playing Slayer, because I like Slayer.

I pay little attention to the old, gray car coming down the street until the tell-tale squeal of brakes on their last legs sounds and the car slows to a crawl when it nears me. Now, I'm sure there are a few people who wouldn't mind having me out of the way, but it's far too early (8AM) and too cold for a drive by, so I don't worry about it. Still, my guard is now officially up. A few minutes pass and the car just sits there until this lady gets out and approaches me with the normal pleasantries our society has instilled in us before offering me some pamphlet that I quickly deduced to be a religious text. Being far too cold to get into a whole thing with her, I politely decline but she presses on and tries to force me to take this pamphlet she has in her hand. Becoming visibly annoyed, I decline several more time at which point Slayer's Tom Arraya shouts the line "I'll take the devil any day -- Hail Satan!" and she looks at me with this nervous look before going back to her car and hurrying off.

Now, I think she was problably a Jehovah's witness as they are the only persuasion I've ever witnessd that approaches strangers in the street for their purposes, but I suppose that doesn't matter in the long run. As someone who claims no religion, I get annoyed when someone tries to force their beliefs on me and if it continues my manners quickly become similar to those of Bruce Banner when he's stressed. It's fine that you believe what you want, I'm the last person to castigate someone for their beliefs. However, if you're going to be preachy about it and try to force it on me, please keep it to yourself or find someone who will pay attention to you. That's all I ask.

Discuss:

1.) Being forced to listen to people you wish would just go away.
2.) Having beliefs that go against your own (or lack thereof) forced on you.
3.) March 15th - Antony vs Brutus: The Funeral Oration Throwdown of the Century
4.) Good timing
5.) The necessary evils of car maintenance

Snow rocks! Winter solstice FTW!

I usually just take the pamphlet and tell them I'll read it later. I read it later, so that I'm not a liar, and then I generally throw it away. It's usually easier than trying to explain that a) 'My beliefs are not that same as yours,' b) 'If I want to hear about your beliefs, I'll ask,' and c) 'The pictures of Hell on your pamphlet are kind of scary and also strangely funny.'

Mormons send out young men to spread the word. I used to see them in their short sleeved shirts and black ties, riding their bikes through the neighborhood. It might sound like I'm stereotyping, but I'm being serious. A couple of them used to come into the library where I work.

Bit of interesting trivia: Prince is a Jehovah's Witness. He sometimes goes door to door to spread the word.

We have a few groups who come door to door, and they are rather annoying. Thankfuly we have a dog, she's a beagle rottweiler mix, so she has this crazy dark loud bark which is rather good at scaring people away.

Had to laugh at my mother once, they came by while she was washing windows (yay spring cleaning, lol) and when they asked if they could "share their words" with her she said sure if you grab a rag and pick a window, they left, lol.

As for the snow, its evil, last night had to scrap the ice off the windows so i could leave work, dang twas cold, lol.

-Sniffles- so beautiful.

Heh, right next door to my old university there was a mormon church (this was in CA and I was not accustom to western mormons, all the mormon people I know here in MI were not pushy like that!) and finally one year they did start wondering around campus. They caught me one day and it did piss me off cause I was enjoying my few precious moments of relaxation on my walk back to my place after class. They were trying to push me to come to church on sunday etc etc. So here's in a nutshell what I very calmly told them "My relationship with my higher power is personal and no one elses business. That relationship occurs everyday and not just in a church on a sunday." There was dead silence for like 5 minutes, I was trying so hard not to laugh that they had no clue what to say. They asked if I had read the mormon bible, I just said not really and wasn't interested. They wished me a good day and moved on. Few weeks later another set came up to me and I just said I had already spoken to a couple of their friends and was left alone.
Spirituality (and Religion, I'm not religious I loath it.) are very personal and I agree people should not try to push their thoughts/beliefs on others. I don't mind a constructive dialogue IF I'm in the mood but no one should say there is only one way etc.

That is just too funny that, that line in the song came out at just the right moment. I would have died! rofl

Usually if I don't cut someone off and tell them I really am not interested in listening to them, I'm really good at tuning out!

And yeah, snow is another dirty four letter word in my book but I don't have a car so I don't have to deal with that smile

here in germany most people don´t care about religion, at the offices and public places they try to be mulitcultural.
my mom works nursery school, they have many children form different religions there, so they don´t have any christmas partys or Hanuka or something like that , they have a season party. sure they decorate the school, but they leave typical christian symbols away and everyone is happy. at normal school we have seperated religion lessons, so that everyone learns something about his religion and maybe later about the other ones. at the age of 14 you decide on your own if you want to take part at this lessons.

sure here we have those annoying people, too.
in our shopping mall you can meet an old woman, she wears a big label with "jesus saves " on it and she always shous "the most important", she tries to give you some pamphlets with strage cartoons on it. but somehow she belonges to the town and if you one tell her you a gay she will never speak to you again.
at the university it´s harder,exceptionally whe you life at the campus- village. i often spend the weekend at my boyfriends flat and i stopped to open the door cause there is often someone who wants to talk about religion. once his roommate opened them and he told them that he will talk to the just when they wash up. they really did it! so he sat there for an half hour watched them do the wash and talked a little to them. then when the work was done he said he will tihnk about it ad threw them out.

i personally use to be rude to those people and tell them i´m in hurry (well most of the time it´s the truth) take one ouf their papers and go away. the only thing on those papers i read is what kind of "religion" those people were and the throw it away.

I like Mormon’s...well I like the one that's been keeping me company with no intent of conversion, well I don't let him talk all that much.

I don't think shoving a faith down someone's throat is the correct approach. In fact that is a faster track to making a person not listen to what you are trying to talk about than any other means. Though I do have an amusing story about bible (or tract) pushers on Universities.

While I was away at Uni my first year I was walking to my work study job from my dorm. As it was raining I decided not to wear my glasses to forgo the spotted vision and although it was later in the year and mildly cold the water felt great.
As I near the end of building on the northern housing side of campus I see two blurry figures passing out small green box like smudges. I don't have the best of vision. As I pass the two people I am handed a small New Testament. I smile, thank them, and continue my way on to work. At this point I'm pleased that I didn't have to listen to a diatribe on how their religion is better than mine and I'm wrong..blah blah blah.

Now I like talking about theology and faith...I don't care to argue about it.

As I'm passing the destruction that will eventually become the new fitness center a cloud of steam spews forth from the vents next to the side walk. Out of this mist emerges another one of these individuals. Now this is a great effect but coupled with that was one sheltering himself in the arcs of the stadium. So here I have two of them closing in on me, one out of the fog and the second from the shadows of an Ohio place of worship from Sept to Dec. I lightly chuckle under my breath and pull out of my sleeves the small green book the previous people thrust at me. Both then retreat back to the sides of the sidewalk and I hurry on to the tower that I worked in.

I guess you just have to carry around this stuff and flash them with it to make them back off.

Sadly I am a Christian, and I might be judge with flames by God one day. But I get annoyed by them. I understand they want to preach, that's great; but to tell me I don't know my scripture and beliefs (lol to Jehovah's Witness; since most of them are like this); unfortunately I'm a sinner, imperfect and unlike God; patience can be low for these types of people trying to tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about in the nicest way talk2hand .... I've been reading the Bible since I learned how to read cool so it's quite funny, trying to convert me so I usually tell them "I have my personal relationship with God, and even if you think I'm not a believer I have read the Bible and fully understood it's a good book to refer to the characteristics of a man...religion so many religion, some similarities why is that? Maybe because man is stubborn and will interepret wrong for their own sick benefits, as the saying goes the Devil can pray too; I love to go to church when I feel like going; and Jesus didn't have his own church his church was open so others maybe able to hear him talk and not confined himself in a 4 by 4 cube that is uninviting to everyone who hasn't heard his gospel..." After this they usually leave me alone mrgreen , EDIT: especially if I end it with "God gave us free will, when Jesus spoke of the gospel out in the open it was a man's choice to either listen and stop or quickly walk off and criticize..".