Morrigan
1st September 2009, 01:50 PM
Are street preachers usually persistent, in your experience?
In my previous (limited, thankfully) experienced, they usually aren't. I remember a couple of years ago a happy-looking guy with a charming smile stopped me in the street to talk about Jesus, and I told him I wasn't interested since I was an atheist. He just smiled and said something like, "All right, thank you for your time, have a nice day!" and moved on.
But today I encountered a strange kind of zealot. I was eating lunch in a nearby park with three co-workers, when a man came to us and started chit-chatting about the weather and if our lunch was good and so on. He was holding some sort of leaflet and said he wanted to talk about his website. I thought he wanted to promote his business at first, but then he added that it was about "discovering god".
When one of my co-workers told him we weren't interested, he didn't simply move on, oh no, he went on. Another co-worker told him, more firmly, "Thanks but no thanks, we are not interested at all", but it didn't stop him. He went on about how he was a changed man, he had been very sick, in the hospital and on dialysis and had a "miraculous healing" (I guess all the hospital staff and dialysis didn't help get him better huh, it was God!), he even said something pretentious like "I have suffered more than you" (and when told that he couldn't possibly know that since he didn't know us, he backpedaled with something like "Right, right, we each have our own suffering..."), and so on, while we mostly tried to ignore him. At one point I told him he was wasting his time, but he insisted he wasn't - he seemed convinced he could change our minds somehow?
He soon brought up God again, and I said we didn't believe in God, hoping it would make him finally give up... big mistake, he saw that as a challenge. It went something like this:
Him: "Oh yeah, really? How do you think you are alive, then?" (smirking as if he had just scored some sort of victory)
Me: "My parents screwed." (my coworkers sniggered a bit)
Him: "Right, and you think that's what made you the way you are?"
Me: "That's called DNA. Look it up."
Him: (looking all sad) "I understand now why you wear that shirt." (I was wearing a Mercyful Fate band shirt, with this drawing (http://www.metal-archives.com/images/7/4/7/747.jpg) - I love having no dress code)
Me: METUUUHL!! http://www.metal-archives.com/board/images/smiles/hand.gif (Yeah, lame but I couldn't resist :P sometimes clichés are fun)
I forgot what he said next, but one of my co-workers said that she didn't understand why he kept at it after being told very clearly that we weren't interested, and another co-worker told him his preaching was obnoxious and not appreciated, but he STILL didn't leave yet. So I finally said, "What he's politely trying to tell you is: f**k off and go away :)". Which prompted him to say I was "full of anger", of course (the only anger I had felt was the annoyance of having our peaceful lunch break disturbed by this persistent buffoon), and he FINALLY left after I said I was more amused than angry, after getting in the last word, of course: "I hope you will discover Him".
I've never seen one so persistent before. He was ready to debate life, the universe and everything with us. Every thing we said to get him to stop pestering us only fueled him more. Neither being polite nor being rude was of any help. It seems like the newly-converted, the ones with the "miraculous healings" are always the most overzealous to share it with others. The first guy I mentioned earlier, from a couple of years ago, was probably more a experienced type of preacher and knew how to pick his battles. :D
In my previous (limited, thankfully) experienced, they usually aren't. I remember a couple of years ago a happy-looking guy with a charming smile stopped me in the street to talk about Jesus, and I told him I wasn't interested since I was an atheist. He just smiled and said something like, "All right, thank you for your time, have a nice day!" and moved on.
But today I encountered a strange kind of zealot. I was eating lunch in a nearby park with three co-workers, when a man came to us and started chit-chatting about the weather and if our lunch was good and so on. He was holding some sort of leaflet and said he wanted to talk about his website. I thought he wanted to promote his business at first, but then he added that it was about "discovering god".
When one of my co-workers told him we weren't interested, he didn't simply move on, oh no, he went on. Another co-worker told him, more firmly, "Thanks but no thanks, we are not interested at all", but it didn't stop him. He went on about how he was a changed man, he had been very sick, in the hospital and on dialysis and had a "miraculous healing" (I guess all the hospital staff and dialysis didn't help get him better huh, it was God!), he even said something pretentious like "I have suffered more than you" (and when told that he couldn't possibly know that since he didn't know us, he backpedaled with something like "Right, right, we each have our own suffering..."), and so on, while we mostly tried to ignore him. At one point I told him he was wasting his time, but he insisted he wasn't - he seemed convinced he could change our minds somehow?
He soon brought up God again, and I said we didn't believe in God, hoping it would make him finally give up... big mistake, he saw that as a challenge. It went something like this:
Him: "Oh yeah, really? How do you think you are alive, then?" (smirking as if he had just scored some sort of victory)
Me: "My parents screwed." (my coworkers sniggered a bit)
Him: "Right, and you think that's what made you the way you are?"
Me: "That's called DNA. Look it up."
Him: (looking all sad) "I understand now why you wear that shirt." (I was wearing a Mercyful Fate band shirt, with this drawing (http://www.metal-archives.com/images/7/4/7/747.jpg) - I love having no dress code)
Me: METUUUHL!! http://www.metal-archives.com/board/images/smiles/hand.gif (Yeah, lame but I couldn't resist :P sometimes clichés are fun)
I forgot what he said next, but one of my co-workers said that she didn't understand why he kept at it after being told very clearly that we weren't interested, and another co-worker told him his preaching was obnoxious and not appreciated, but he STILL didn't leave yet. So I finally said, "What he's politely trying to tell you is: f**k off and go away :)". Which prompted him to say I was "full of anger", of course (the only anger I had felt was the annoyance of having our peaceful lunch break disturbed by this persistent buffoon), and he FINALLY left after I said I was more amused than angry, after getting in the last word, of course: "I hope you will discover Him".
I've never seen one so persistent before. He was ready to debate life, the universe and everything with us. Every thing we said to get him to stop pestering us only fueled him more. Neither being polite nor being rude was of any help. It seems like the newly-converted, the ones with the "miraculous healings" are always the most overzealous to share it with others. The first guy I mentioned earlier, from a couple of years ago, was probably more a experienced type of preacher and knew how to pick his battles. :D