How often have Witnesses knocked on your door since you left the Borg? How often did they talk to you during street witnessing? Anything? In the past 4 years I have never been visited (live in a new area where nobody knows about my witness past, urban area, highly densed witness communities around).
This week I almost had to force them to preach. I was sitting outside, waiting for someone. They where sitting right next to me and taking notes about return visits. I look over and smile. See that they have tracts and brochures in their hands and try to look curiously. Nothing. They just sit there and do the small talk. After a while I approach them and ask: "Excuse me, now I have to ask, what language are you two talking? I can't recognize it" (This is a capital city in Europe and we have hundreds of foreigners living here - mostly immigrants and students). They said it was Danish. Both seemed pretty uninterested to preach.
God dammit, I have some spare time and WAN'T them to start preaching. I want some fun...
I will spare you the details and share the most interesting parts of this weird conversation. I am not making this up and will not embellish this in any way, but after they finished preaching to me I thought that if that is the Best they have these days, than they can pack up, their done, finished. I am talking here about people that came all the way to my country and are supposed to be better than the run of the mill witness.
I used a lot of joking names like: "the magical sky dude", "the hairy guy in the sky" - the girl giggled a couple of times, her husband looked grimmly at her and his look could kill. He interrupted her a couple of times and treated her like some dumb, stupid girl.
He seriously told me: "It is very easy to participate in our group." I asked: "So, what are the requirements to be one of you?" He laughed and said: "oh, nothing complicated, basically you have to avoid getting drunk and taking drugs."
I told him: "But, look around you (we where midst of a busy shopping street) the mayority of these folks here follow those rules and are not in your religious group." No answer.
At the Beginning they said that they where here doing "some special work". I asked them what it was and they asked if I had ever heard about Jehovahs Witnesses. I said: "No. What is it?" Seriously, he answers: "it is something like a Christian group, only different"
I almost choked. What? So describe it. He says: "It is a bit complicated and we wouldn't have time to explain it all to you" I said that I had plenty of time and that they have my full attention, because I am curious. They started stuttering around and looking at each other and the best idea was to whip the Bible out and say that they had a Bible verse they would like to read to me and ask me what I think (Matthew 24:3-7).
And THIS after I told them clearly that I am an Atheist and don't think the Bible is a holy Book. I also told them that they must like the Catholics a lot. They asked me why and I answered that they are carrying a book around and using a name for god that was pretty much established and decided by them. Blank looks.
They also didn't knew what the Council of Nicaea was and said they have to look it up (face palm).
At the end they wanted to finish this conversation as fast as they could and gave me a tract adding the words: "We know this is not deep stuff, as you seem to be a person that likes to think, but nonetheless you will like it" He scribled the Borgs new website address on the back (said the other url wasn't up to date) and also his phone number. Asked me to call them if I have interest. Never asked for my name, my address or anything else. He mentioned a couple of times that they are not a religion and that they don't have an organization, that the Witnesses just follow purely the Bible.
During the whole conversation I maintained a relaxed and funny spirit and was never confrontational. This was an eye opener. I don't think they where Gilead missionaries as their general knowledge was in the hole - they just presented themselves as missionaries, no doubt becasue that sounds better than "Something Pioneer" which is not understandable.
Conclusion: pretty lousy preachers these days. The glorious days of quick Bible thumbers and razor sharp arguments are long gone. Sad days ahead.
...OUTLAW