Do you like Christians banging on your door and shoving fliers and magazines in your face and trying to convert you when you just sat down to dinner? How about if they did it to you when you're at the movies, shopping for groceries, in public restrooms, and when you're sitting in the emergency room? Would you say "hey, they have a right to ask and it is my obligation to give them a chance to make their case before accepting or rejecting their position" or would you do what almost everyone does and be pissed that someone ignored your personal space and freedom to go about your life in peace without having to fend off their high-pressure sales pitch?
You wouldn't generally accept someone sitting down next to you and randomly launching into a sales pitch for Jesus, time shares, or anything else. Of course it is even more of an offensive imposition when it involves having intimate relations, and yet some people act like it is much less of a big deal.
Sure it's mildly annoying when someone comes to your door or solicits you by phone but how would you like it if proselytizers or salesmen interrupted you while you were having a drink with friends, sat down on the dinner table with you, sat next to you on the bus on the way to work and began to pitch you, approached you while you were sitting reading a book, studying or doing your work, interrupted you as you attempted to speak to someone else to make their pitch, etc. And if this not only happened all the time, but was considered totally fair game by society and if you complain about them you're told "Well just tell them no."
See also[]
External links[]
- Question: why do atheists object to evangelism & proselytization?
- Can I Buy You a Coffee? A blog post which uses the same approach to explain why women may find being hit on by strangers annoying.
- This wiki article was originally adapted from comments by Improbable Joe and violet.