Saturday, December 02, 2006
Door to Door Athiests
Special thanks to Brenwah for sending this along. A friendly reminder that the contributors of Ryan the Angry Midget don't care what you believe in. Just don't show up at my house.
I would be interested to see some stats from the Mormon church about how many people they've actually converted going door to door. Something tells me it's about as effective as telemarketing since the Do Not Call list came to pass and they started leaving ambiguous messages to call an 800 number about a very important business matter. Am I the only one getting messages from Jacob Weinstein?
Either way, don't show up at my door step trying to sell your religion and I won't point out how ridiculous it is to belong to a church that was started because of bunch of old white dudes got tired of only being able to have one wife.
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7 comments:
Who was that guy? And does he have other videos? Does he need funding for more of these?
It sounds like he is the Australian Version of Micheal Moore:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Safran
I tried to find one of his videos on Netflix but was unsuccessful.
Brenwah
As much as it annoys me when people knock on my door and interupt my cocktail hour at 1 pm on a Saturday to push their religious agenda, I have to wonder how much they dislike having to be on the other side of the door. I know a couple really great guys from work who are Mormons, and they've never so much as shaken a bible in my direction. And I was recently reminded...hold on to your panties...that I hung out with a couple Mormons in high school. My mother sent me a picture this week of a family Christmas from, well, let's just say awhile back, and I didn't recognize the 2 guys sitting on the couch. I emailed my mom and she told me who they were. I remember now - they were living in my hometown, Armpit, MI, and they were on their "mission." I figure they must have set a cat on fire or something when they were in school, otherwise, how the hell would they have ended up in Armpit? Anyway, my friend Jenny and I befriended them, and we hung out quite a bit, had snowball fights, etc. My mother made them cookies, and apparently, they spent Christmas that year with me and my family. They never pushed their religion or ideals on us unless Jenny and I initiated it, from what I recall. They were just regular guys going through their mandatory rites of passage. Some of us smoked pot, some of us went on religious journeys, to each his own. Actually, those two activities can be considered interchangeable if you do it right. Don't overanalyze this post though - I laughed so hard watching that video that I snorted my cocktail through my nose.
echo_doctor
I too had Mormon friends in high school, and even gave one of them a concussion sledding down a hill at a cement factory on New Years Eve with CowboyLaw. He was a cool guy as well.
I think a religious journey that you embark upon on your own terms has the potential to be as life changing as a bong hit of Humboldt County's Finest, but I have serious questions about what you can gain from being sent away from your friends and family at 19 years-old to go door-to-door.
Most Mormons are really goood people, but if you are religious, I think it should be about you and whatever you believe in, and not knocking on people's door, a technique that is questionable in its effectiveness.
I agree, sending them off to parts unknown to bang on doors and live off 10 cents a day for a year is not an effective method of reaching enlightenment. But to play devil's advocate again, I can't imagine how hard it would be to reject the way of life of EVERYone around you, which includes the mandatory mission. Wouldn't that be like getting taken away from your family and friends, too? To me, it sounds like they're in a lose-lose situation. I met another "recovering" Mormon in college. She hung out with me and my friend, let's call him Julio. She had rejected the Mormon way of life, although she still believed in god, and in part because of the trouble with the resultant relationship with her family, she ended up with oodles of emotional/psychological problems. In college, Julio found her in her bath tub one night getting ready to slit her wrists, and I took her for a psych consult on campus the next day. But here's the kicker - her family knew she had emotional problems, and wouldn't acknowledge or help her because they didn't believe in drugs and psychotherapy. You were just supposed to get your happiness from the lord, I guess. That's an extreme case, obviously, the the point is the same: what choice do these guys have? They can either suck it up and do the door-to-door thing and maintain their family and community, or they can reject that lifestyle and be ostracized.
echo_doctor
There are some questions in this world that do not have answers, and may never be answered ('Why are we here?' or 'Is there a God?'). Once you accept that fact, life becomes a whole lot easier.
this is from Australian Broadcast Corp TV series called "John Safran Vs. God." The funniest ep of this is when he re-enacts the dance scene from footloose - complete with shaggy Kevin Bacon circa 1984 wig and leg warmers- at his old jewish high school in reaction to the no-dance rule they have and follows this up with spirited debate with a rabbi at the school using dialogue from the same film. Priceless.
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