Tonight, I logged into Tagged to find the following message waiting for me:
The person who sent it to me is not on my friends list, so I can only assume that he's sending this message to random people on Tagged. This makes him the online equivalent of door-to-door evangelists. In my mind, it also makes him the online equivalent of a telemarketer calling me to sell something I'm not looking to buy, a Mormon missionary knocking on my door, or a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman (do they even have those anymore?). In other words, like all those others, he's a minor annoyance.
I simply don't understand why people feel it is necessary or good to walk up to someone at random (or contact them online at random) and try to "sell" that person a particular religion. To be frank, religion is far more important to me, and it's something I'm only interested in discussing with someone I have an established, fairly well-rounded relationship with. Anything else is just someone looking to make their next "sale" and gets treated like every other salesperson that decides to peddle their wares to me unbidden.
Of course, I do pride myself on politeness. I don't get nasty with telemarketers (unless they continue to press the matter after the polite "I'm not interested"). I don't get nasty with Mormon missionaries. And I didn't get nasty with this guy. In fact, I sent what I felt was a rather polite reply:
Romans 6:23 "...the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"... Do you know Him?
The person who sent it to me is not on my friends list, so I can only assume that he's sending this message to random people on Tagged. This makes him the online equivalent of door-to-door evangelists. In my mind, it also makes him the online equivalent of a telemarketer calling me to sell something I'm not looking to buy, a Mormon missionary knocking on my door, or a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman (do they even have those anymore?). In other words, like all those others, he's a minor annoyance.
I simply don't understand why people feel it is necessary or good to walk up to someone at random (or contact them online at random) and try to "sell" that person a particular religion. To be frank, religion is far more important to me, and it's something I'm only interested in discussing with someone I have an established, fairly well-rounded relationship with. Anything else is just someone looking to make their next "sale" and gets treated like every other salesperson that decides to peddle their wares to me unbidden.
Of course, I do pride myself on politeness. I don't get nasty with telemarketers (unless they continue to press the matter after the polite "I'm not interested"). I don't get nasty with Mormon missionaries. And I didn't get nasty with this guy. In fact, I sent what I felt was a rather polite reply:
I'm sorry, but I have a policy against getting into evangelistic conversations with random strangers. Please accept my best wishes and a blessing for a full life, however.
Bye.
And with any luck, that'll be end of the whole thing.
Update: As I was making this post, I received the following reply:
I'm sorry about your policy.
God Bless
And I'd say that's a pretty good place to leave the whole conversation.
I call it spamgelism
Good for you. Though I do always feel the urge to make some sort of sarcastic comment, and often give in to said urge, I generally treat electronic communications like that as spam.
As I tweeted the other day, I actually think you can't convert someone to a different point of view, at least not suddenly. People always modify / adapt / syncretise.
Also, there's a difference between interfaith dialogue, evangelism & proselytising.
An appropriate label to be sure, Matt.
Very big difference, Yewtree. You're right.
I wandered into a Pagan life all on my own. Help and guidance showed up later. So I figure that other folks will wander in on their own. Or won't. I have no urge at all to evangelize Paganism.
Christianity took a different--and sometimes annoying--approach. The souls of other folks are important to them, so they try to bring them to Jesus. They nag. Off line and on.
Bugs me, too!
I tend to see things the same way as you, Pitch.
I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, but later would have been so much better!
What some people won't do with "toss your bread upon the water"!
Ain't it the truth, Stace? By the way, it's good to have you commenting again.
It seems to me that if you are going to have a blog, feature your e-address, and invite comments on your various postings you really have no business complaining about unsolicited emails.
Just as this one is---sort of.
I disagree with you, Sue. That's like saying that a person who has a listed home phone number has no business complaining about telemarketers. I put up my blog to share ideas. I allow comments on the blog and give out my email so that people can contact me and engage in further dialogue about those comments. That doesn't mean it's an open invitation for someone to try and sell me Christianity, Rastafarianism, penis enlargement pills, breast enlargement pills, or a vacuum cleaner. Comments that do so are usually deleted.
I may invite people to contact me unexpectedly, but the parameters of that invitation are not as open-ended as you imply. To think they are is, well, somewhat silly in my opinion.
All the same, thank you for the rather topical comment. :)