Door to door evangelization

[JRKH]

Well if she tries the whole “The Catholic Church tried to destroy the bible” thing again, ask her that if the Church really wanted the bible to be destroyed and hidden, why would it pronounce scripture to be holy and infallible? Why would it canonize the bible? Why would monks by hand copy it over and over? Why would it be read at every mass? Why would we place Sacred Scripture on the same level as Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium?
Pray for patience, even if they get angry and storm off, or you don’t think they’re listening to a word you say, your efforts might not be wasted. It could plant a seed in thier heart, and they just might one day look into Catholicism and come to realize it is the One True Church. And I like the suggestion the other poster said…give them a Catholic pamphlet or something. The next time the JW’s come by my house I’ll give them the copy of the “Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth” booklet I have

 

[Izdaari]

Hmm, I dunno, what does a Protestant look like?

Could be a JW, SDA or an Independent Fundamental Baptist + KJVO-cultist (KJVO-cultists are usually IFB: not always but maybe 90%). Too bad you burned the pamphlet, it probably would have given a clue as to which.

I agree with the good advice given so far. Keep your cool and research the apologetics a little so you’ll have good answers. And remember this is a woman who means well and sincerely believers what she’s saying, even if she’s wrong, and who loves the Lord, even if her understanding of Him is off.

(Btw, I am a Protestant… but I don’t think the CC has been a bad influence on the Bible. Rather the opposite overall.)

 

[KathleenGee]

Last month or so the Mormon tv station had a program on the King James bible…and it began with caricatures of Catholic priests standing by watching…a segment showed a priest preaching with his cap on at the altar with this huge crucifix hanging down, preaching while people left their pews to listen to a peasant speak to them about the Bible…and quotes from Scripture regarding implying that authentic Christianity feeds its people the Word of God…as if the Catholic Church never did…it was very upsetting.

 

[Izdaari]

Hmm, I dunno, what does a Protestant look like?

Could be a JW, SDA or an Independent Fundamental Baptist + KJVO-cultist (KJVO-cultists are usually IFB: not always but maybe 90%). Too bad you burned the pamphlet, it probably would have given a clue as to which.

I agree with the good advice given so far. Keep your cool and research the apologetics a little so you’ll have good answers. And remember this is a woman who means well and sincerely believes what she’s saying, even if she’s wrong, and who loves the Lord, even if her understanding of Him is off.

(Btw, I am a Protestant… but I don’t think the CC has been a bad influence on the Bible. Rather the opposite overall.)

Oops, I was trying to edit my post, not quote it. Oh, well, at least the quoted & edited version is the corrected version.

 

[Izdaari]

Last month or so the Mormon tv station had a program on the King James bible…and it began with caricatures of Catholic priests standing by watching…a segment showed a priest preaching with his cap on at the altar with this huge crucifix hanging down, preaching while people left their pews to listen to a peasant speak to them about the Bible…and quotes from Scripture regarding implying that authentic Christianity feeds its people the Word of God…as if the Catholic Church never did…it was very upsetting.

Never been much of a KJV fan myself. To me, the archaic language is both annoying and distracting. I much prefer a modern translation, and IMO some Catholic translations (such as the NJB) are among the best.

 

[JRKH]

Last month or so the Mormon tv station had a program on the King James bible…and it began with caricatures of Catholic priests standing by watching…a segment showed a priest preaching with his cap on at the altar with this huge crucifix hanging down, preaching while people left their pews to listen to a peasant speak to them about the Bible…and quotes from Scripture regarding implying that authentic Christianity feeds its people the Word of God…as if the Catholic Church never did…it was very upsetting.

The funny thing about this is that the LDS teach that the Bible has been corrupted so they get to pick and choose what is “correctly translated” and what is “corrupted”

Peace
James

 

[ChrisB103]

Pray for them. If you can’t meet with them in charity, don’t.

It is the nature of Protestantism to define itself by which Catholic doctrines and how much of them are not espoused. Since all Protestant communities are founded by men, and emanate through departures from Catholic faith, from their inception they had to identify themselves by which part of Catholicism they wanted to reject.

One must be mindful also that most modern Protestants are not even aware that they have embraced heresies. They are just promulgating what was given to them, and believe it is true. They are to be commended for their zeal. They stand in the tradition of Apollos, and are in need of catechesis.

All that being said, you might consider telling them what they gave you is hurtful and destructive. Such material contradicts the teachings of the Apostles. Usually it cannot be supported by Scripture, so if you ask them “please show me where it says this is Scripture” they cannot. Is it Jack Chick stuff?

+1 to what Guanophore said.

I think the key is saying a little prayer in your head when you find yourself becoming frustrated. If you honestly don’t think you’ll be able to keep your cool enough to charitably share truth, then you might just further their cause in their head.

If you do decide to meet with them, do your best to learn the arguments and counterarguments before they come. There are tons of excellent tracts at catholic.com to help you deal with nearly all stripes of heresies, bad arguments, etc. For me personally, learning my faith better, learning the keys to apologetics, learning the arguments, etc helped me to keep my cool while discussing things. If you already know the charges they will likely make then this could diminish the emotional response you have since it won’t be the first time you hear it. Best of luck!

 

[TheExorcist]

The funny thing about this is that the LDS teach that the Bible has been corrupted so they get to pick and choose what is “correctly translated” and what is “corrupted”

Peace
James

Yes and this is one of my big reasons for wanting to leave the LDS church, they can’t tell you WHAT parts are corrupted. Once you start examining LDS claims from a non LDS (or better yet, a Catholic) perspective they really begin in crumble. Glad Im free of the brainwashing, if not ACTUALLY physically free from the church itself

 

[JustaServant]

JL: Justa that’s a great plan and answer

It’s simple and direct. Most people, when interupted at home, are irritated because they are in the middle of something. They’re searching for that person who isn’t busy so they can proselytize.

The Mormon missionaries in our town always use bikes. Last summer, when pulling out of my street I almost creamed one who was riding on the wrong side of the road. A neighbor has a bush by a stop sign that you have to creep up to look right.
About a week later they came to our door. First words out of my mouth (not angry, just direct) “You the guys on the bikes?” “Yeeeeeah…” sez one sheepishly.
I explained how his bike riding habits almost led one of them to see Joseph Smith more prematurely than he might have desired:stretcher:. Obviously embaressed he apologized and then asked softly: “…um, could we…maybe… leave you some literature?”
“Naw”, I replied, “just ride your bike on the right side of the road.”
They always seem to avoid my house now.

 

[JustaServant]

Another door knocking story:
The local fundamentalist church has “soul winning” nights werein they send teenagers out to knock on doors…at night. One night I get up to answer the door and see two young teen-age girls wanting to give me their literature. I asked why they are out at night doing this, are there adults chaperoning you? They said thier youth pastor is in a car at the end of the street to keep an eye on them. I said I wasn’t interested but asked the name of the church.
The next day I called the preacher and asked him why he would send young girls out at night knocking on doors in a strange neighborhood. He didn’t seem to think their was anything wrong with it.

 

[Tony888]

Another door knocking story:
The local fundamentalist church has “soul winning” nights werein they send teenagers out to knock on doors…at night. One night I get up to answer the door and see two young teen-age girls wanting to give me their literature. I asked why they are out at night doing this, are there adults chaperoning you? They said thier youth pastor is in a car at the end of the street to keep an eye on them. I said I wasn’t interested but asked the name of the church.
The next day I called the preacher and asked him why he would send young girls out at night knocking on doors in a strange neighborhood. He didn’t seem to think their was anything wrong with it.

LOL, my Catholic school used to send use 1st-6th graders knocking on doors, unsupervised, selling chocolate door to door.

Is dropping literature any worse than selling candy?

 

[Darran]

The Mormon missionaries in our town always use bikes. Last summer, when pulling out of my street I almost creamed one who was riding on the wrong side of the road. A neighbor has a bush by a stop sign that you have to creep up to look right.
About a week later they came to our door. First words out of my mouth (not angry, just direct) “You the guys on the bikes?” “Yeeeeeah…” sez one sheepishly.
I explained how his bike riding habits almost led one of them to see Joseph Smith more prematurely than he might have desired:stretcher:. Obviously embaressed he apologized and then asked softly: “…um, could we…maybe… leave you some literature?”
“Naw”, I replied, “just ride your bike on the right side of the road.”
They always seem to avoid my house now.

Haha that is brilliant. I have to say, all of the answers on this thread are great. Having reading material ready for them is a fantastic idea, I might just do that. They haven’t been back yet, I could grab some tomorrow to be ready. That’s a sure fire way for me to stay cool talking to them. Besides, I did read theirs (even though I burnt it to a crisp).

My village is around 80/90 % Catholic now, the vast majority just by birth and not well Catechised. The thought of them presenting these absolute lies to everyone in town where not many will be able to refute them, makes me sick to the stomach for the damage they could do. That’s the reason for my anger.

Indeed, I’ll pray for them, the town, and all of you. Thanks a lot for the answers.

 

[JustaServant]

lol, my catholic school used to send use 1st-6th graders knocking on doors, unsupervised, selling chocolate door to door.

Is dropping literature any worse than selling candy?

get on the right side of the road!!!

 

[JRKH]

Haha that is brilliant. I have to say, all of the answers on this thread are great. Having reading material ready for them is a fantastic idea, I might just do that. They haven’t been back yet, I could grab some tomorrow to be ready. That’s a sure fire way for me to stay cool talking to them. Besides, I did read theirs (even though I burnt it to a crisp).

My village is around 80/90 % Catholic now, the vast majority just by birth and not well Catechised. The thought of them presenting these absolute lies to everyone in town where not many will be able to refute them, makes me sick to the stomach for the damage they could do. That’s the reason for my anger.

Indeed, I’ll pray for them, the town, and all of you. Thanks a lot for the answers.

Your poorly catechized neighbors are yet another reason to 1) stay cool, 2) learn as much as you can about the faith 3) learn what you can about their faith and 4) be ready to provide them with careful, reasoned, on point, and documented rebuttals to their mis-information…

Keep planting seeds of Truth

Peace
James

 

[sallybutler]

When I was growing up, we were given a black cat named – yeah you guessed it, satan.
We renamed him Fat Cat.

We lived in a upper flat in SF. For those of you not familiar with this, that means our front door was on the same level as the lower flat. There was an inner staircase from the front door to the our living space.

Whenever JW’s would knock on our door, my mom would go down and speak with them (and even though she was Catholic, she could out-bible anyone). FatCat would eventually start walking down the stairs to see who was at the door (cats & curiousity, etc). At that point, my mom would revert to the name he had before he was became ours and say, “satan, get upstairs”: The JW’s would blanch and leave. It would be about a year before we’d see a new crop.

 

[Telstar]

When I was growing up, we were given a black cat named – yeah you guessed it, satan.
We renamed him Fat Cat.

We lived in a upper flat in SF. For those of you not familiar with this, that means our front door was on the same level as the lower flat. There was an inner staircase from the front door to the our living space.

Whenever JW’s would knock on our door, my mom would go down and speak with them (and even though she was Catholic, she could out-bible anyone). FatCat would eventually start walking down the stairs to see who was at the door (cats & curiousity, etc). At that point, my mom would revert to the name he had before he was became ours and say, “satan, get upstairs”: The JW’s would blanch and leave. It would be about a year before we’d see a new crop.

 

[zaffiroborant]

LOL, my Catholic school used to send use 1st-6th graders knocking on doors, unsupervised, selling chocolate door to door.

Is dropping literature any worse than selling candy?

Around here we have a lot of religious schools. We have a large Catholic and Lutheran school within walking distance of our home and a “newly” huge Baptist school within a short bike ride, none of them send kids out with candy, even the girl scouts don’t sell cookies door to door. The girl scouts flat out tell the girls not to do this beyond family and friends and neighbors they are acquainted with. Your selling candy may be more a product of your times than Catholic schools.
In my experience the big sellers of candy are organized kids sports and even they don’t go door to door, they sell to family, neighbors and mom and dad’s co-workers.

 

[Telstar]

LOL, my Catholic school used to send use 1st-6th graders knocking on doors, unsupervised, selling chocolate door to door.

Is dropping literature any worse than selling candy?

Did your school send you out alone to sell candy, at night, after dark? Somehow, I doubt it. I was brought up in a very small town (less than 2000 people at that time). We used to go out selling Girl Scout cookies, but we never went out alone, especially not at night, after dark. And, that was back in the 60s, when there wasn’t as much to worry about, especially since just about everyone in town knew everyone else. We also tended to just go to the houses where we actually knew the people that lived there, ourselves. Having two young teenage girls going door to door at night, these days, is not exactly the smartest thing for a church to encourage, even if they do send them out in pairs. Having a supervisor ‘at the end of the street’ won’t be much help if he can’t really see everyone he’s supposed to be supervising.

 

[sallybutler]

Did your school send you out alone to sell candy, at night, after dark? Somehow, I doubt it. I was brought up in a very small town (less than 2000 people at that time). We used to go out selling Girl Scout cookies, but we never went out alone, especially not at night, after dark. And, that was back in the 60s, when there wasn’t as much to worry about, especially since just about everyone in town knew everyone else. We also tended to just go to the houses where we actually knew the people that lived there, ourselves. Having two young teenage girls going door to door at night, these days, is not exactly the smartest thing for a church to encourage, even if they do send them out in pairs. Having a supervisor ‘at the end of the street’ won’t be much help if he can’t really see everyone he’s supposed to be supervising.

When I was a kid I sold Girl Scout cookies door to door. However I wasn’t allowed to cross the street of leave the block. And I seem to remember my mom standing on the sidewalk while I walked up to the door. I could be wrong, it being a long time ago.

This does make me wonder what the parents think is going on. I bet they don’t really know their daughters are being used in this manner.

 

[Tony888]

When I was a kid I sold Girl Scout cookies door to door. However I wasn’t allowed to cross the street of leave the block. And I seem to remember my mom standing on the sidewalk while I walked up to the door. I could be wrong, it being a long time ago.

This does make me wonder what the parents think is going on. I bet they don’t really know their daughters are being used in this manner.

Any parent who doesn’t know, doesn’t care
Q: What did you do at your youth meeting tonight?
A: we went to houses in xyz neighborhood, delivering tracts?
Q: Were you by yourself?
A: No, we went in pairs, and Pastor Pete was parked on the street watching us

At that point the parent has enough info to take appopriate action, based on the neighborhood and pastor Pete
Any parent, who doesn’t know their kids formal activites, isn’t being a parent.