Do I have a sign on me that says "Save me..Going to Hell!" or something?

[TZ]

I swear I'm a magnet for bible thumpers. Trotsky remembers my story about being approached in the Mall of America by someone who asked me if I knew "God loves me". I've since told someone else from the Twins Cities this story and they were more than a little surprised.
Okay so last week I was visiting a friend in Ohio...I had a hard time finding her place out in the country. I followed her home and we found someone pulled up at the end of her very long driveway looking for her. She went over to talk with them briefly and then came back to me to tell me they were trying to convert her and she's NEVER had someone pull all the way in like that..usually a flyer is left in her mailbox.
Then just Saturday my doorbell rings late Saturday afternoon and its more bible thumpers..WHAT.THE.HELL. I hadn't had them at my door in probably 3 years.....at least I was on the phone so I had an excuse to get rid of them.:eyes:
I think I need to walk around with a shirt that says "Warning: Militant atheist--leave alone!!" :banghead:

[laconicsax]

1. Coincidence

Separate polls have around 40% of the US population claiming to be YECs or around 38% claiming to be 'born-again' or 'evangelical,' so that's really around 110 million (or more) rabid bible thumpers. You should be surprised you don't run into them more often.

[TZ]

2. Yeah I know

But its odd how for the longest time I won't run into any, and then all of a sudden they are everywhere...

[laconicsax]

3. I have the same problem.

I try to let them keep talking for as long as possible by stringing them along as a possible convert. I see it as a good deed to spare others the suffering. Everyone wins in the end--they leave thinking they've 'saved' another soul, I leave when the amusement runs out, and everyone else gets to go about their business uninterrupted.

[NMMNG]

4. They probably bus them around the country to seek converts

Sort of like they send groups of "missionaries" overseas for the same purpose.

BTW, I just read yesterday of a great technique to send them running the other way (though I myself would only use it on the ruder/peskier ones). Give them a look of utter disgust and say something like, "NO! I will NOT have a three way with you and your dog!"

[Soylent Brice]

5. didn't you hear? the rapture is coming. these folks are just more froggy than usual.

[immoderate]

6. I say, "Your time would be better spent with someone else."

It rarely goes beyond that.

--imm

[Evoman]

7. Funny, cuz the bastards walk right by me.

JW, Mormons, whoever....they never want to talk to me, and when they do it's just long enough to hand me a pamphlet. And I'm really not mean, nor do I answer the door naked or anything like a lot of people claim to do.

Only one who has ever tried to save my soul was my fundie friend, and he basically just gave up after awhile.

[MrModerate]

8. No patience with those guys. Happily, they don't knock on doors much . . .

in Australia, or any of the other places I've lived over the last few years (London, Budapest, Cluj-Napoca). Even when I was in Maryland and Houston for almost a year each, I never had Christers visiting me.

Maybe it was the Satanic symbols I scrawled on the door in blood.

[Ezlivin]

9. Trying getting around in a wheelchair

I've lost track of how many times a Pentecostalist wanted to "pray over me" and perhaps "lay hands on me" so that I could "receive healing from the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ™."

I've been given tracts inviting me to a "Healing Rally" with the evangelical flavor-of-the-moment. (One had the hilarious line saying "George literally leaped from his wheelchair.")

But nowadays they leave me the fuck alone. There must be something burning in my visage that gets to them. As a seminary graduate (in apologetics, nonetheless) I am not to be trifled with. If they don't know it, they soon learn.

Forget the shirt: That'll just draw them like flies. Christians love sharing purely apocryphal stories about the conversion of this or that atheist.

[Q3JR4]

10. I look them squarely in the eye and say

"My imaginary friend can beat up yours." If that doesn't work then I break out the, "Aren't we supposed to respect each other's beliefs?"

Q3JR4.