There are few things as annoying as the feeling of having one’s peace shattered because a smiling, yet uninvited guest has come to the door. Maybe they are selling knives, perhaps salvation, but either way, most of us would do almost anything to make them go away. Sometimes, fat itself decides to intervene on your behalf, if you can seize the moment.
A man was being pestered by a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses so he decided to play a little joke on them. People applauded his creativity and shared their own experiences with door-to-door bothers.
Door-to-door preachers seem like a false flag operation to make people dislike a group
Image credits: Jonathan Wells (not the actual photo)
One man and his cat found a perfect way to make a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses leave and never return
Image credits: Scurvy64Dawg
Image credits: Isis Chávez (not the actual photo)
Most of us hate unexpected guests at the door
While the Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t the only group to preach its message door to door, they are generally the best known. Indeed, if you see a clean, beardless, and generally well-dressed pair of people at your door, it’s a relatively safe bed that they will be telling you about the wonderfully dramatically named Watch Tower Society.
What sets Jehovah’s Witnesses apart is the belief that they are separate from all other religions, including other branches and denominations of Christianity. As a result, a lifelong Christian might receive a visit from a JW, who will inquire if they have ever heard the gospel. This can be both irritating and bemusing, depending on one’s mentality.
Going door to door, what they call “public preaching” is seen as a requirement for members of the church (generally called witnesses), hence the sheer numbers of recruits. They are often required to submit monthly reports, called “Field Service Reports,” to indicate how well (or poorly) they are doing. The performance meetings must be brutal if they are willing to put up with constant abuse and stonewalling from the public just to boost these numbers.
Image credits: Samuel Peter (not the actual photo)
JW’s believe that all members have to go door to door
This practice has gone all the way back to 1920, although there is one important caveat. The main measurement of a “witness’s” effectiveness isn’t the conversion rate, it’s simply the number of hours they “worked.” As anyone with a commission-based job can confirm, hours worked don’t necessarily translate into anything productive.
Indeed, one wonders if the JW’s have an incentive to not report “conversion rates.” One has to assume they are fairly low, given the general disdain most people have for them. It’s pretty easy to see just how hard it might be to convince new witnesses of the effectiveness of this practice if their success rate looks more like a rounding error.
At the same time, it might not be that easy to measure a “conversion.” Would a person saying that they are interested to a witness count? They might be lying to get them to leave. If a person comes to a JW church (also dramatically named “Kingdom Halls”) on any given Sunday, can you attribute their presence to a door-to-door conversion? After all, most people are generally aware of Jehovah’s Witnesses in general.
Image credits: Aubrey Odom (not the actual photo)
OP lived many people’s dreams when he got revenge
All in all, regardless of where you stand spiritually, the vast majority of us don’t want to be disturbed at home, much less by a physical person. An unexposed phone call is annoying enough, but getting a person at your door to leave can create a degree of antagonism so intense, it almost seems counterproductive for the proselytizer.
Many people have no doubt dreamt of the sort of revenge OP pulled in this story. Indeed, based on some people’s reactions, these JW’s in particular got off easy. The comments, some of which can be found below, are full of other stories from people who answered the door and decided to put a stop to these pestering preachers.