I have to confess I didn’t do it right, and I regret my mistake.
The other day my wife and I were at Walmart. A rather large older man approached me. In his hand was visible one of those cheap and manipulative gospel tracts so fashionable with fundamentalist Western Christians. I groaned inwardly and braced myself. What I should have done is turned around inside myself and prepared to evaluate his presentation as an instructor. It was awful. He came across as arrogant and intimidating. I should have threatened him when he approached my wife that way.
The experience stuck in my craw until I realized why it bothered me so much. It wasn’t the social faux pas of evangelizing so aggressively in Walmart, but the intimidation. There was no discernible compassion; this man was just trying to notch his holy gospel gun.
In the future: I need to assume the position of leadership more reflexively. This guy was a boor and needed to know that his approach trashed the gospel.
I had an very similar incident happen to me (not involving the wife as much), where I was too charitable, which caused some slight embarrassment. I should have shut things down immediately; that’s what I get for being willing to discuss things with a religion merchant.
I inadvertently got a Jehovah’s Witness lady into trouble. She and a partner used to come see me on Thursday mornings one summer. We’d hang out in the garden and chat about God’s generousity. I gave her flowers and herbs from my garden and she brought me plums from hers. She was a lonely, mousy little thing and she stayed longer every time; I could tell she was terribly unhappy & lonely. But we got a little too friendly, I guess, because after a while it was new people who showed up – men – and when I asked about her they glowered and told me, essentially, to forget about her, they were had been ‘put in charge’ of ‘my case’ LOL! I told them I was more comfortable with Susan, and asked, politely, if she could come back. The answer was no. I showed them the door and no JW has ever come around here again.
Christine, I’ve seen that myself in a different setting. Their organization is hierarchical and very strict on tests of orthodoxy.