LDS Mission Prez: "Don't want to listen - get up and move"

[_Joey]

Classic story of Missionary abuse supported by Missionary President! Read last paragraph:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/the-nor ... passengers

[_Joey]

Looks like the link may not be working. Here is the content of the article from the UK Gardian

Bus company asks Mormons to leave passengers alone
The polite request comes as Stagecoach customers in Lancaster complain of being targeted by missionaries



Stagecoach is taking action following complaints from passengers and drivers in Lancaster.

Rick Seymour was travelling on the Second Amendment bus service from Lancaster to Morecambe last Tuesday afternoon, and heard a conversation between three young men.

Two of the men, he said, were Mormons using the bus as a way to engage members of the public to tell them about their love for Jesus.

Mr Seymour said that he had been "engaged" by Mormons on two previous occasions while travelling on a bus, and in a letter to Stagecoach Bus Company said: "I firmly believe that the Mormon Church is using your service as a place where the public cannot escape the attempt to indoctrinate them."

The 31-year-old, of Heysham, Lancashire, added: "Whilst I respect that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs or none, telling others that their beliefs are misguided or plain wrong is wrong in itself. Practice your own personal beliefs in your own home and do not ram it down others' throats. I hope that Stagecoach will write to the Mormon Church in Chorley and tell them their behaviour is unacceptable."

Stephie Barber, operations manager for Stagecoach in Lancaster said that bus drivers had recently reported similar incidents.

"We do not permit any commercial or other organisation to promote their products, services or views through direct engagement with passengers on our services," he said.

"In cases where we are made aware of any activity of this nature, we follow it up with the organisation involved.

"We are also doing so in this particular case to make our position clear."

But Robert Preston, England Manchester Mission President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, said he considered the 140 young people in the north west of England actively engaged in trying to convert people as "persistent and courageous".

He added: "They will sit next to someone, and they will introduce themselves and try and have a good conversation to explain a point of view that someone might never have heard before. We do encourage this, but we would not want people to feel intimidated.

"If it becomes clear that someone does not want to hear that message they should move away."

[_stemelbow]

Abuse?

The article makes it sound more like someone is making much ado about nothing. So missionaries have attempted to discuss religious matters with passengers on the bus? People actually havin'g conversations on a bus?

I get that some missionaries, in their persistent efforts, are obnoxious, pushy, and annoying, but that's certainly not all of them. And those qualities, common to other people in the public, are not abuse.

Man, you love to make mountains out of molehills when it comes to whining about Mormons.

[_Buffalo]

Abuse?

The article makes it sound more like someone is making much ado about nothing. So missionaries have attempted to discuss religious matters with passengers on the bus? People actually havin'g conversations on a bus?

I get that some missionaries, in their persistent efforts, are obnoxious, pushy, and annoying, but that's certainly not all of them. And those qualities, common to other people in the public, are not abuse.

Man, you love to make mountains out of molehills when it comes to whining about Mormons.

You're aware that the word "abuse" has more than one meaning, right? Surely you've heard the phrase "abuse your privileges".

[_stemelbow]

You're aware that the word "abuse" has more than one meaning, right? Surely you've heard the phrase "abuse your privileges".

That's not a different meaning, buffalo. Abusing privileges has the same meaning as abusing people--perhaps it just takes different actions.

I don't get this though, "you can't talk to people on our bus". Seems stupid. So if a hindu hops on the bus and people start asking him/her about Hinduism are they going to toss off the Hindu? or does the Hindu have to initiate the conversation before they take action? it sounds like some guy is offended LDS folks are out there talking to people for some odd reason.

I've ridden tons of buses and I've had to bear tons of obnoxious conversations from people. Its part of riding public transit.

[_Buffalo]

You're aware that the word "abuse" has more than one meaning, right? Surely you've heard the phrase "abuse your privileges".

That's not a different meaning, buffalo. Abusing privileges has the same meaning as abusing people--perhaps it just takes different actions.

I don't get this though, "you can't talk to people on our bus". Seems stupid. So if a hindu hops on the bus and people start asking him/her about Hinduism are they going to toss off the Hindu? or does the Hindu have to initiate the conversation before they take action? it sounds like some guy is offended LDS folks are out there talking to people for some odd reason.

I've ridden tons of buses and I've had to bear tons of obnoxious conversations from people. Its part of riding public transit.

Not remotely the same thing, stem.

Abusing privileges: playing video games in study hall
Abusing people: beating your spouse black and blue

Seriously, Stem?

And it's not about not talking to people on a bus. It's about not soliciting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solicitation

[_Chap]

I don't get this though, "you can't talk to people on our bus". Seems stupid. So if a hindu hops on the bus and people start asking him/her about Hinduism are they going to toss off the Hindu? or does the Hindu have to initiate the conversation before they take action? it sounds like some guy is offended LDS folks are out there talking to people for some odd reason.

Most bus passengers, I think you will find, will be delighted to hear that the company actively discourages people taking advantage of the captive state of passengers on long journeys to inflict on them solicitations to buy insurance, give to charities, or join religious sects.

Your Hindu analogy is just a bit silly, isn't it, as I think you saw half-way through writing it? Of course if you are on the bus and I ask you about your religion as part of a conversation, no-one is going to throw you off for replying.

But if a missionary organization deliberately and systematically sends its representatives onto the buses in order to try to convert people, the company is within its rights (and will I am sure be supported by the great majority of its passengers) when it says something like "People on a 12-hour journey to Duluth are having a hard enough time already without being ambushed by neighbors who are there to missionize rather than because they too need to get to Duluth. Keep off our buses please." That applies to any religion, not just yours - but that good old sense of persecution seems to be at work again.

What do you call it when people talk that way? Don't you like to use a word that begins with 'w' and ends with 'g'?

[_stemelbow]

Not remotely the same thing, stem.

Abusing privileges: playing video games in study hall
Abusing people: beating your spouse black and blue

Seriously, Stem?

certainly abusing privileges may require different actions than abusing people, but the word abuse still holds the same meaning in each case. Privileges are violated. Or People are violated. Besides, I don't think Joey is saying the samething as you here. We'll see.

And it's not about not talking to people on a bus. It's about not soliciting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solicitation

It sounds more like not talking to me. Afterall what action will they take if missionaries hop on a bus and someone starts asking them who they are, what they do, can he/she go to church with them?

[_Chap]

Afterall what action will they take if missionaries hop on a bus and someone starts asking them who they are, what they do, can he/she go to church with them?

I like to think what would happen to a missionary who reported that he had spent his time sitting quietly on a bus in the hope that someone else would start a conversation with him about religion.

Is that the kind of thing you did on your mission? Get many baptisms that way?

[_Some Schmo]

I actually LOVE it when someone starts talking to me about their religion. I honestly do. If they start the conversation, I see it as an invitation to tell them everything that's wrong with religious belief. (Funny, however, that people are far more interested in telling you what they believe than they are hearing what you think... so much for "sharing").

But I appreciate that not everyone is like me in that regard, and think that it's fully within the right of any company to attempt to protect its clients from unwanted solicitation.