May 19: Jehovah's Witness, Gregory Pardlo, "Problemata"

For a few years now, I have a woman who shows up at my front door every once in a while, usually on a Saturday or Sunday.  She's middle-aged, a grandmotherly type.  She always asks after my son and daughter, comments when she sees them about how they need to stop growing so fast.  She stands on the steps of my house, Bible in hand, ready to hand me some tracts.  She's a Jehovah's Witness.

My wife doesn't understand why I have continued talking to this woman for so long.  After one of the visits, my wife will say something like, "You're just leading her on.  You should tell her you're not interested."

I can't do that.  I enjoy the brief pleasantries that I exchange with this woman.  Plus, I admire her strength of faith.  I don't get in my car and go door-to-door in my neighborhood, telling people about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  This woman opens herself up to hostility and derision for the sake of her beliefs.  That is something to admire.

So, I will continue to talk to this woman when she appears at my door.  I will take her Bible tracts.  I will listen as she tells me about our fallen world and how I can be saved.

Saint Marty will take as much saving as he can.

a section from Problemata

by:  Gregory Pardlo

Consider the dear evangelists who canvas our homes
Saturday mornings, who share their pamphlets and good
words, their domestic concerns swelling with their
longing for the fellowship of us.  Spinoza gives us
this reason not to opt off of their call lists:  The good
which a man desires for himself and loves, he will love
more constantly if he sees that others love it also;
he will therefore endeavor that others should love it also.
Be tolerant of their attention, their pursuit of agape,
a planet-sized chip they bear on their shoulders
from house to house, door to door, welcome
or not, blessing whatever they find inside.

One way to discourage Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons