Im looking at you, Mormons

That is so awesome. I grew up in Brooklyn Heights and we were constantly bothered by Jehova's Witnesses at all times of the day. I would have loved to ring their bell at 8 in the morning to bug the shit out of them!

There's an 8-part documentary to go with this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Safran_vs_God
http://www.craigmelville.com/JSVG/Opening_Titles.html

escap wrote: As an interesting aside, I lived in a small rural town in Japan for two years, and imagine my surprise when I received a knock on my door, and sure enough, there were two Japanese Jehovah's Witnesses at my door trying to spread the faith. Luckily for me, they were even more shocked to see me, and pretty much left me alone. That was really surreal, though.

:shock:
That is surreal!

When it comes to door knockers, I've always been a big fan of the "Just a minute... Honey, there's a couple at the door. Did we find a pair of virgins for tonight's sacrifice yet? Yes?... No sorry, we're not interested today, we're Satanists. Please come back another time." defence.

Mormons do, indeed, go door to door, at least back in California. Generally they travel in pairs, generally in either a sensible compact car or on bicycles.

apollonia666 wrote: Do the Mormons go door-to-door? I know the JW's do, but I didn't think Mormons did this.

Funny thing about the Mormons. I guess I started seeing them in Brooklyn about 2000. But I only ever saw them in black neighborhoods. It seemed like they targeted the worst neighborhoods and would send two of the freshest straight off the farm Utes out to spread the word.They used to have a pretty regular route through Bed-Stuy. I also would see them pretty regularly in Brownsville and East New York.

All my Mormon relatives (ack ack) went on missions when they became young men, like 18 or 19. They go for two years. Many of them learn a foreign language and get shipped overseas. One of my cousins went to Guam. One went to Eastern Europe somewhere, of all places. Oh, and one went to Canada. Eh? That can be kinda foreign, can't it?

Growing up in AZ we had missionaries knocking our door weekly, despite the fact that my mom had been excommunicated from the church after her first divorce. They were always polite and friendly, and she was too much of a softy to tell them to fuck off. She would let them in and give them refreshments and chat for an hour, provided that they agreed to not discuss the church or god. 99% agreed to this, the other 1% got the boot. Eventually, after like ten years of this, they stopped coming. I don't understand why she kept it up that long, and as she is dead now, I can't ask her. I suspect that it had to do with reconnecting to her roots.

In any case, I haven't seen _any_ in Crown Heights. But I _have_ had some of those freaky Jewish dudes come up to me and ask if was Jewish and did I want to pray with them or some shit. WTF? I'm white so I must be Jewish??? I don't get that at all. At least they are friendly, I guess. Not at all insular like The Chosen. I must be running into the missionary types, though. Because I have certainly run into plenty of the insular types too.

daver wrote:

Growing up in AZ we had missionaries knocking our door weekly, despite the fact that my mom had been excommunicated from the church after her first divorce. They were always polite and friendly, and she was too much of a softy to tell them to fuck off. She would let them in and give them refreshments and chat for an hour, provided that they agreed to not discuss the church or god. 99% agreed to this, the other 1% got the boot. Eventually, after like ten years of this, they stopped coming. I don't understand why she kept it up that long, and as she is dead now, I can't ask her. I suspect that it had to do with reconnecting to her roots.

my mom got to be friends with our regular JW visitor in nc, too, even though we'd never been anything but episcopalians. she'd come by every month or so with the new watchtower and awake, and hang out in our living room for an hour or two, just chatting. she was really nice, and i even remember her bringing her son by to meet us. the only religious thing i remember them talking about was finding a surgeon to do some operation without doing a blood transfusion. (my mother is a doctor.) consequently, and much the shock of the gf, i have very good associations with JW doorknockers.

In any case, I haven't seen _any_ in Crown Heights. But I _have_ had some of those freaky Jewish dudes come up to me and ask if was Jewish and did I want to pray with them or some shit. WTF? I'm white so I must be Jewish??? I don't get that at all. At least they are friendly, I guess. Not at all insular like The Chosen. I must be running into the missionary types, though. Because I have certainly run into plenty of the insular types too.

those are the lubavitchers, who are different from either of the groups in the chosen, and have an unusually evangelical practice -- though limited to returning secular or too-modern jews to the fold. the gf's dad works at a tiny college in a tiny mid-michigan town, with one jew from brooklyn. one day, a lubavitcher showed up in gary's classroom, having come all that way after the one lost sheep (to mix religious metaphors). he brought jelly doughnuts.

From the same archive.

erikka wrote:

My favorite JW encounter was after a long night of partying, they rang the doorbell at 8 am and I went down wearing a wifebeater and booty shorts, opened the door obviously hungover, smoking a cigarette and they just sort of nodded and walked away.

Wow. That's bad when even they think you're a lost cause.