My Pet Peeve #15: Excessive Persuasion
No means no.
DISCLAIMER: Apologies if I sound too offensive to a certain party in this writeup.
Hi guys, Howard here. I’m trying my best not to create any hate towards a certain religion, but this is just my honest feelings through experience.
TL; DR: If I declined your offer to join your community, you jolly well stop asking me so many times, for goodness sake!
For the context, I was invited by a few friends to attend a few events with them on separate occasions. These few events I was invited to all happened to take place in a place of worship, coincidentally. I only agreed to join them just for the event, that’s it. The thought of worship and prayer didn’t come to my mind until I went in to the ‘event venue’ with these friends. Here’s where things didn’t turn out as simple as what I thought. It began by ‘newcomers’ getting to know the ‘regulars’ through the friends that invited them over, followed by the first phase of their religious service, then the real deal (which was what I intended to come for — the event itself!), and the final phase of their religious service.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind sitting through the whole service (which sandwiched the event) together with these friends that invited me over to the event. But here’s where I think they might’ve crossed the line; they would repeatedly persuade me to join their religion after the end of the event, even if I had said no to them. Come on, when I tell you I’m not interested or have no intentions to join your religion, please stop convincing me again! Not like I’m going to lose anything if I declined your offer; it’s ultimately my choice. I don’t know if this is a fair comparison but it’s akin to salesmen or insurance agents trying to sell you their products to make business!
Sucks to be a non-religious guy like me to join their event in a place of worship. If they’re trying to convince someone that already joined another religion to join their religion, things might turn out awkward between both parties… But still, please respect my decision even if it doesn’t favour you. There’re always a bunch of people that come to a place of worship only for events or even as tourists, ya know. So please stop asking others to join your religion repeatedly if they declined you. Howard out!
P.S. I’ve initially wanted to name this writeup as “Brainwashing”, but I realised it might be too harsh for a title so I’ve changed it to a milder one.
