When the Evangelizers Come a-Knocking

One of the things I love about where I live is that I’m kind of in the middle of nowhere. My little village is out in the woods, about 25 minutes from the nearest Real Town, and we only have a population of 750 people. We also happen to have a village-wide No Soliciting ordinance, which means the only people who knock on my door are my neighbors stopping by to see if I’d like to swap some plant cuttings, some kid on an ATV who’s gotten lost on their way back to their parents’ campsite, or the UPS guy. This is great, because no one is on my front porch trying to spread the word of Christianity to me – my town does have two churches (one Methodist, one Pentecostal) but they just mind their own business.

However, I’ve lived in plenty of places where I’ve heard my doorbell ring and found a couple of nicely-dressed people on my front step ready to ask me if I’ve heard about Jesus, as if there’s anyone who hasn’t heard about him at this point. So, I’m definitely familiar with the problem of evangelizers interrupting a nice quiet Saturday morning while you’re trying to enjoy your coffee and watch YouTube videos.

I recently got an email that read, “Some Christians came to my door and gave me a pamphlet to read. I didn’t want to talk to them and they didn’t leave for about twenty minutes. This makes me so angry! Why do they do this? And if it’s okay for Christians to knock on your door and preach, why isn’t it okay for Pagans?”

Here’s the thing: It’s your home, so you’re not obligated to allow anyone to stay there if you don’t want them to. Many people feel like they’re trapped when the church folks knock on the door, but it’s often because they just won’t take no for an answer. I’ve found the easiest way to deal with it, if you really don’t want to engage, is to say firmly but politely, “I’m not  interested, but thanks for stopping by.” Then you shut the door. That’s it. Just say “no thanks,” (or some variation thereof) and close the door. No is a complete sentence. It might be hard the first time, but you’ll find it’s very liberating once you learn to do it.

The second question, about why they do it, is a pretty simple one. In some religions, part of the practice involves sharing “The Word.” That may mean evangelizing to total strangers. It’s just what they do. Finally, how do you know it’s not okay for Pagans to do so? Typically, rules regarding door to door solicitation are established by the municipality you live in. Check with them and see what the ordinances say. I bet there’s nothing in there that says “no Pagans.” Also, why on earth would you want to go door to door as a Pagan? I can’t think of a single Pagan tradition that includes evangelizing as part of its practice. I don’t know about everyone else, but I don’t have the mental bandwidth to go around ringing doorbells and talking to strangers about anything, let alone my spirituality, which is deeply personal to me.

Another option is to do what one of my friends does – and obviously, this would only be something worth doing if you’ve got some free time and you like talking to strangers. She just loooooves to have a civilized and polite theological conversation with them. Most of the door-knockers don’t have the first clue what a modern Pagan is, does, believes, or thinks, so she’s had a few very nice teaching moments of her own, which usually results in those people never returning to darken her doorstep again. Seriously, though, it’s your home, so if you don’t want to stand in your doorway chatting about theology with strangers, then don’t.

And if the idea of saying no to someone in person makes you anxious, consider a Ring doorbell – you can see them on camera, and use the microphone to tell them to go away without having to do it face to face. This is also effective with telecom sales reps, those sketchy guys who want to repave your driveway for cheap, and political campaigners.

The bottom line is you don’t owe anyone your time. Say no, or just refuse to answer the door in the first place.