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December 9, 2006
Blessed Is the Man Who Goes Around Banging on People's Doors, at All Hours of the Morning, For He Truly Is Jesus's Friend
Here's a clip from John Safran, a guy from New Zealand, who rails, quite amusingly, about what's wrong with the ways Mormons conduct door-to-door proselytizing. And then, just to see how Mormons would feel if someone treated them the way they treat each others, he flies to Salt Lake with a friend, some pamphlets on atheism, a copy of The Origins of Species, and a nametag that says "John Safran, Atheist." Then he goes around and knocks on doors.
The whole thing is pretty damn funny, but I especially love when he says to one person, "May I offer you a reading from 1980s concept band XTC...."
Posted by holly at December 9, 2006 2:40 PM
Holy smokes - that's hilarious. I could totally get behind atheism missions to Utah.
Hey Holly,
I saw this clip too, and thought "Damn! Why didn't I think of that??" How are you? What's going on? Thanks for the nice words about me in your earlier blog. best your way...
Holly, I saw this a week or so ago and it had me laughting. Just as funny is this clip of two Aussie talk show hosts dressing up like Mormon missionaries and recruiting for Al-Qaeda. It's hilarious. Here's the link on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOL8SM42udc.
My husband used to invite them in, see the movie, act really interested, and then tell them he was an athiest. In retrospect, that seems cruel, putting them on that way. They're just kids, after all. We were kids ourselves at the time however.
I used to get really mad about the missionaries when I saw them around, but these days I simply try to understand.
Still, I got a kick out of how mad he made some of those geezers!
I've seen the recruiting thing--it's hysterical. Hattie, I think your husband's approach was actually pretty good--the guys got to count the lesson in their teaching stats, and if there's one thing Mormon missionaries want besides good baptismal stats, it's good teaching stats.
Outrageously funny Holly. Love the accent, the agony and the XTC.
Just flew in from an old link at I Blame the Patriarchy and with this post (despite having no specific connection to either Mormonism* or Atheism), I'm won over as a Reader For Life. (However, I will resist the impossible temptation to read the entirety of your work posted here in one sitting, and will bookmark you for later.)
Best regards,
Victoria
*Unless you count an old poem of mine, My first and last day as a Mormon, which is part of a series concerning childhood religious explorations gone very, very strange, from which there are also "...as a Catholic" and "...as a Buddhist" selections.
P.S. This is also probably the most aesthetically pleasing Blogger template I've ever seen.