One of the benefits of Covid social distancing was that the Jehovah Witnesses stopped knocking

[Baitball Blogger]

on the door. It's a small silver-lining, I know. But it's important to think positive. They use to come to my door once every three months, which I thought was excessive. And I suspect that one of my neighbors may have sicced them on me because one woman finally asked, "Did you request a visit?" I said no, and she looked puzzled.

I was puzzled too. In the last year they sent mostly minority members to my door, which was a very bad choice for them on this street. A police car would usually show up minutes before they left, or minutes after they left. And one time, two of their members were accompanied by a white male, which was strange. White men almost never come knocking on my door, and, yet, there he was accompanied two minorities who came to the door. He acted more like a supervisor than a regular knocker. I gave them the same cryptic message I gave all of them. "Thank you and good-bye." As I began to shut the door I watched the white man look shock and then looked to the other two for understanding. I felt like it was a bit over-played.

So, here I am thinking that nuisance is off my plate, until a letter came through the mail. It was a mailed testimonial solicitation letter. A brochure with a hand-written letter explaining that they are homebound because of Covid and are contacting me through the mail.

Just want to add, I read the entire one page, hand-written letter. Maybe it's a good idea that they stick to the postal service because they had my attention longer with that letter, than they ever got in two years of door knocking solicitations.

[rzemanfl]

1. The last time I went to the library with my wife, got my temperature taken

and picked up a book I had reserved I said, "One good thing about COVID is there aren't people outside the library wanting you to sign stuff."

[underpants]

3. We get Mormons, siding, and windows here

The east end of the county gets Witnesses

Yes. I’m curious how canvassing will be effected.

[empedocles]

9. Same here, plus evangelicals.

Used to have an old neighbor who loved to talk. I would recommend and send the evangelicals over to him.

I could see from my desktop. The Morms would catch on more quickly. The evangelicals though - one time they may have lasted about an hour. - Maybe they thought they had a biggie, a possible, vulnerable, donor?

[SiliconValley_Dem]

4. maybe it was your knee jerk reaction to them coming to your door which caused you not to listen

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Um. Seriously?

I pitched the letter and now that I know what they're doing, I'll probably pitch the rest without opening them. Easy to figure out what's inside the letter because the address is coming from their church in the next City.

[SiliconValley_Dem]

7. lol.

[Buckeyeblue]

6. There is nothing like door to door religion.

Around here it's not just the Witnesses. The Baptist will come around. One day when I was doing yard work, a group of 20-somethings came by asking me if I needed any help in my life. I said, "I could use help with my yard work." They just laughed and kept walking. I guess that wasn't the kind of help they were offering.

[SWBTATTReg]

8. I don't even waste my time in answering the door for one thing, if the visit is unplanned, I don't

answer it and also, mail from such entities unasked for is unopened, and sent to the shred bucket in my household. We don't believe in these time wasters (we all have enough crap on our plates as it it, why are some wasting their time on such time wasters?).

[Polly Hennessey]

10. I have two large, loud dogs.

This is usually all it takes. I think a sign that reads, “Don’t bother to knock, we know you are here,” is in order.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. +1

[VarryOn]

11. I don't answer unknown numbers or people at my door I don't expect nt

[Wicked Blue]

12. If your religion is so wonderful, why do you have to pester people to join?

That's what my late mother always said.

A long time ago, I used to tell these door-to-door recruiters that I worshiped Satan and wasn't interested.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. +1

[ismnotwasm]

15. I think JWs and Mormons are required to door knock

I don’t know the particulars. I’m always polite to them. One time I was unloading gravel our old truck, and it was Mormons that came by—couple of young men. Again, I’m polite. So these nicely dressed boys asked if they could help me, I just smiled and told them I love physical labor. They asked if I was sure, I think since I’m a middle aged women, they assumed I’m not strong (I am) It was a nice gesture, but thinking back, I should have let them. It would have made them feel good I think, better than going door to door.

[Midnight Writer]

16. I keep a stack of religious tracts by my door.

I started "collecting" them years ago. They usually have a cartoon style and tell the story of a religious conversion of some sort.

My favorite is about a young man who went to a Rolling Stones concert and became sexually excited by Mick Jagger. This was followed by dreams of having sex with Mick. The poor youngster went to church and a kindly pastor informed the confused kid that Mick Jagger was an agent of the Devil, and this (along with lots of prayer) "straightened" the boy out.

So now when a religious delegation, a salesman, or an unwelcome neighbor shows up at my door, I pull out a tract and hand it to them. If they persist, I start explaining the tract to them. Works well, they don't come back.

[BluesRunTheGame]

17. They're EVERYWHERE!

One winter I was living in a little cabin in Montana off the grid. It was 30 miles up a gravel road and literally just across the river from Glacier National Park.

The snow had started to melt and there were pools of water and mud all over the place. The remaining snow was still a couple feet deep.

One morning a car pulled up out front. A couple got out and the wife went to the place across the road and the man, wearing a blue suit and black shiny shoes navigated the mud puddles up to my front door.

I was so dumbfounded and curious that actually talked with him for a few minutes before sending him on his way.

[Thekaspervote]

18. ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

[Niagara]

19. I had thought the same a few days ago.

The JW usually knocked on the door on a Saturday around 10:00 in the morning. I'm generally cleaning the house at that time which means I can't get to the door anyway. Plus, I'm not the type of person that answers the door to a random stranger.


2019 was really bad with them leaving hand written letters. A few days after Halloween, they literally pulled up in front of our house, got out and knocked on the door and when they didn't get an answer they left. I watched them and they didn't canvas any of the other 25+ houses on my street. Weird.


If things ever get back to normal and they keep at it, I'm going to firmly but politely ask them to put my address on their do not call list.
I certainly don't miss them stalking me.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. That is weird.

I have seen some very strange social behavior around my community, with people using their social networking links to try to reach out to see what we're up to. They even contacted friends that were once close enough to suggest a get together the next day, even though we really weren't ready with our kitchen renovation to show the house off. I was a yo-yo on a string. As the months continued, when they started to pepper our conversations with opinions that were clearly from their contacts in the community, I realized they were conduits. They're no longer friends. It just got too toxic.

[Niagara]

21. It's definitely puzzling behavior.

I certainly hope that your neighbor didn't sic them on you since the JW's are ,what I consider, a toxic cult. Their rules are





That's scary. You certainly don't need that toxicity in your life and your safety and well-being comes first.

[Baitball Blogger]

22. When you have large anglo families trying to game a community in their favor,

you begin to appreciate the complexity. They're not all Christians. Not impossible to have a daughter married to a Jehovah Witness. And then they have access to a group that has members who are submissive enough to follow orders without asking too many questions.

Fortunately, once the Jehovahs moved out, the JW visits decreased dramatically. And the couple were not mean people. The husband was rather nice. The wife, too, but she came across like a Karen. I think they were "following orders" while they lived in the house. Not only was it obvious that they did not have a steady income to justify a mortgage for the house, but the fact that they were visited by troublemakers in the neighborhood right before they hastily moved out suggests that they were being pushed out. I felt bad for them, in the end. They used a trailer hitch to pile on their things and moved out on several trips.

Oh, and because I expect you'll ask, the troublemakers were four young men who drove in at night on a very large golfcart. And then they got out and snuck up on a window and banged it before hastily leaving. The wife always seemed fearful, and I thought it was just the way she responded to me. But I suspect there was a host of complications they were dealing with when they moved into that house.