An Anti-Witnessing Campaign, Please Join Me!

by What Now? 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Ultimate Axiom

  Imagine the effect it will have if Witnesses arrived at their territory only to find that every house is listed as a “Do Not Call”?

  I think the average Witness would be delighted if this were the case - and even more so if it applied to their entire territory.

  I tend to agree with steve2 here, I don’t think the average person is that pestered with JWs calling at their door that they would give a campaign like this a second thought. Cold telephone calls are a much hotter topic and while they are extremely irritating most people still couldn’t be bothered to do anything to reduce them.
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  What Now?

  Steve2, those are some very good points.

  I guess I want to do this because the witnesses are organizing these 2 special campaigns. And like it or not, their literature will be left at every house. Much of it will go unread, I'm sure. i'd like ALL of it to go unread.

  also, regardless if whether people care about Jehovah's Witnesses or not, JW's do make regular calls and most people consider them quite an annoyance. It doesn't hurt to make them aware that they can stop the calls does it?

  I am aware that printing these flyers will come at some cost to myself - however there are many companies that do bulk printing quite cheaply.

  I think it would be interesting to see the witness reaction if no "outsiders" came to the memorial, if all houses were do not calls etc.
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  Heaven

  I tell people about the Do Not Call process. Alas, I know some people who actually like to mess with the Witnesses at the door. It's fun for them.

  Along the lines of what WhoYourDaddy and humbled said, I would suggest creating a graphic hand out with appropriate wording. Use key doctrines like their blood policy, shunning, and lack of celebrating holidays. I TOTALLY support the advertisement of Paul's website jwfacts.com

  Understanding your audience is important. If I was handed a long winded letter I wouldn't read it because I am a very busy person. But a one page, graphical representation with some key phrases and wording would do very nicely.

  I think there have been some created in the past. Paul has one on his website (not graphical though): http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/pamphlet.php
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  Comatose

  Yeah I would read the first part but not the long second part. I'd remove that as it may cause the letter to be over looked. But, I like what you wrote! I just don't think people will read all of it.
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  Phizzy

  Maybe put the "Things JW's will not tell you" bit on the back ?
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  TTATTelder

  Maybe make a pre-done form with fill in blanks for name and such that formally requests to be put on the do not call list.

  Elders respond to a letter much more readily than a simple request at the door.

  Many publishers forget or lose their notes and never actually follow through with those verbal requests.

  Just a thought.

  Also definitely shorten up the letter. I would suggest just sticking to the one issue As brief as possible.
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  clarity

  WhatNow? ...like your idea & especially your brochure!

  I wish I had those warning words to read 50years ago!

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  But ..... well already been said 'expense, distibution etc.

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  You might think about a media that is free & accessible,

  that will reach a lot of people in one swoop!

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  Letters To The Editor ..... find out newspaper's guidelines

  and push it to the limit. Still a lot of local papers in business.

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  Great to hear from you & the best of luck...plse let us

  know what you decide on & how it goes!

  clarity
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  rebel8

  IMO, proactively writing to the kh with a no trespassing/dnc letter is even better. Then they can't even come to your door.

  Your neighbors will prefer it because they avoid both confrontation and an annoying visit.

  Some have provided a template letter and address to send it to. Then all the neighbors have to do is print, sign and mail. example--

  [Current Date] Jehovah's Witnesses [Address of closest congregation] Dear Sirs: This letter is to serve as formal notice that effective today you may not enter the property of [address]. This “No Trespass” notice will remain in effect until rescinded by me. Failure to comply with this notice may result in your arrest by police, citizen's arrest, and civil litigation, in which you will be named personally and as an organization. Furthermore, please do not contact me in any way.

  Please refer to the following.

  -[cite your state/local laws on trespassing here]

  -[cite your state/local laws on citizen's arrest]

  -Correspondence regarding trespassing from the Watchtower Society to you dated September 2004

  Sincerely,

  [signature]

  [printed name]
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  Apognophos

  I don't like being a parade-rainer-onner, but as I mentioned recently in another thread, there's some issues with the idea of being asked to be put on the DNC list:

  1. The instruction coming down from COs has been to not put someone on the list just because they ask you to. Yes, you heard me. We're [I'm still an active Witness] supposed to ignore the request. You would have to come to the door with a revving chainsaw and hockey mask to persuade them to mark you as a DNC. Or, be an apostate. Some here have suggested that householders be prompted to say "I'm an apostate" in order to get the DNC status, though personally I'm skeptical of the effectiveness of this.

  2. Elders still [are supposed to] check on the DNCs once a year to make sure that the person currently living there still wants to be a DNC. That's already as often as some people get the JWs at their door (at least while they're home).

  3. Depending on the way a congregation manages their territory cards, and how flaky the specific car group is, DNCs can be frequently ignored altogether. "Oops, I forgot to check the back of the card. Well, we already worked all the DNC doors. Oh well."

  I'm not saying that people shouldn't be trying to give an anti-witness to warn people about the religion; far from it. But I just don't see this particular approach being very effective. If people expect that saying the words "Do Not Call" will magically stop JWs from coming, they will be sorely disappointed.
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  rebel8

  ^Right. And this has been discussed at length and repeatedly in this forum.

  The limitations you mentioned are why you need to put your request in writing, keep documentation that you sent it to them, tell them you're going to put them under citizen's arrest for breach of the peace if they trespass, and then do so.

  For most dubs, that will be effective. They don't want to be arrested or sued.

  But you must make a prior notification in order for this to work.

  http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/citizen-s-arrest.html

  http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/breach+of+the+peace

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/266002/1/trespass-at-your-own-risk-so-sayeth-the-governing-body#.Uwo0jM4pc1I