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Tuesday, November 6, 2007
“Do these tract-toters get results?”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We should never be rude.
It’s not an endearing quality, kids pick up on it, and the Almighty frowns upon it.
But it’s so, so easy to lose sight of all that when you’re in the middle of sweeping the foyer, mopping the kitchen, laundry, trying to get to the gym and to church to help make 1,600 PB&J sandwiches for the homeless - and the doorbell rings.
At 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning.
Two female Jehovah’s Witnesses stood at the door. I don’t know what the they saw first - my face’s pained expression or the broom in hand.
I know very little about the religion’s tenets. I do know that Michael Jackson was - or still is - a convert, and that Prince - Mr. “Purple Rain” himself - has graced a list of famous adherents.
While attending UGA, I worked at a Piggly Wiggly alongside two practitioners. About all the high school teens ever said about the religion was that they didn’t celebrate Christmas, a worthy idea given the holiday’s paganistic, materialistic bent. (Some Gwinnett stores had Christmas decorations up last week.)
Aside from those little factoids, though, I’m clueless. The only other thing I know is that they go door-to-door to spread the gospel. And that’s what I found myself experiencing Saturday - in a frantic hurry, being hit upon, in no mood, really, to listen to a stranger or anybody else talk scripture.
Later, it got me to thinking about this practice of evangelizing, of canvassing neighborhoods door-to-door, handing out pamphlets. How deep is the word being spread going about it this way? I can’t imagine too many inviting responses from the people in the houses. Can’t be too welcoming.
People can be rude, said Tim Talsma, a Jehovah’s Witness since 1961. But mostly, they’re just indifferent.
“A lot of people say they believe in the Bible, but they don’t live by it anymore,” he told me. “You get some rude people, but ‘indifference’ is the best way to describe most people.”
Even if you hide behind the curtains, Talsma, of Cartersville, said the work of the practitioners holds merit.
“When people see us walking through a neighborhood or coming down the street, they know who we are,” he said. “God’s name has been brought to their minds.”
Sharon Watkins, pastor at Tucker First United Methodist Church - my church- inflects her sermons with self-revelations about shortcomings. Sometimes she lets out an “Ouch!” when she names an undesirable quirk or habit, something she knows is wrong, that she wants out of her life.
So I asked:
What’s the best response when someone knocks on the door to talk Bible, while you’re deep in the middle of sweeping, mopping, doing laundry, trying to get to the gym and eventually the church (I didn’t make it in time) to help make 1,600 PB&J sandwiches for the homeless?
“Remember, these people are sincere,” she told me, “or they wouldn’t be doing it. And respect the fact that they are witnessing. You owe them that courtesy.”
Even if you may not feel like giving it.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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