It’s Not Proselytizing, It’s an Invitation

By on August 14, 2007 9:33 pm in Brooklyn Heights

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Last weekend our neighbors from the Watchtower were out in full force and knocking on doors in Brooklyn Heights to “invite” us to “Follow The Christ” to the annual District Convention of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. (It’s this weekend at Assembly Hall, 973 Flatbush Avenue, if you’re interested and not otherwise occupied by “worldly acts”.)

While we’re on record about the whole “door knocking” issue, that’s not what caught our attention or motivated a post.  What has us intrigued is that JC has, much like Jay-Z and Diddy, adopted a new handle — “The Christ”. Judging by the handout we received he’s also upgraded his image with a very Kenny Loggins “Danger Zone” era look.  Which begs the question has he also traded in his sandals for Capezios? We just hope he hasn’t taken to referring to himself in the third person (i.e. “The Christ doesn’t like broccoli.”).

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  • GHB

    I’m Jewish, but I know a Christ when I see one and that is not a Christ!

  • Tilly

    This is a really cute Christ. He looks a little like Pierce Brosnan with a beard. Adorable. He would kill at bars.

  • bhb reader

    Looks more like an old Kenny Loggins album cover to me ….

  • http://adsformyself.blogspot.com Tim N.

    I don’t know, I thought he looked vaguely like a young James Brolin… not exactly a recommendation.

  • Artie

    Was there once an agreement that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had with the neighborhood not to go door-to-door?

  • bhb reader

    I don’t know, Artie, but when they offer me interesting reading materials, I always offer them this week’s US or People magazine in trade!

  • ABC

    you’ve mentioned the Witnesses “knocking on doors” before. Are they actually knocking on doors? I’ve lived here for 16 years and nobody ever knocked on my door. I’ve been offered reading material now and then, very politely. I have no issue with that (altho I’d prefer the People magazine!). Is this an issue?

  • cranberry

    they rang my buzzer very early, i buzzed them in thinking it was my friend and they were up the stairs and at my apartment door in seconds flat, it was creepy.

  • nabeguy

    I don’t know if there was ever a formal agreement, but the door-knocking definitely has abated from its peak way back in the 60’s and 70’s, when you could count on it about once every 4-6 weeks. In fact we used to joke that you could always tell a Witness because of the limp they had from getting their foot slammed in so many doors. They’ve always been polite and well-spoken, but as Cranberry has discovered, they tend to keep the same hours as the milkman. By now, I’m sure they have a pretty good idea of the neighborhoods preference for sleepwear.

  • wellhucuditbe?

    ROTFLOL!

    Love your honest observations concerning the artistic renderings and the invitation work – we’re just making sure no one is missed …

    And Jesus can be perfectly handsome too ;^)

  • Prince

    I grew up in the far-away suburbs one block away from a JW temple, and my experience was that they left us alone. I figured they hit up my parents back in the ’70s.

    As for any diva-like behavior from the Son of Man, he IS a Superstar. By that photo, a superstar of gay porn.

  • http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a242/magarmor/teesorama/madeinbrooklynsm.jpg MadeInBrooklyn

    When I lived on Hicks Street in the north Heights in the late ’80s/ early ’90s they buzzed our building’s buzzers quite frequently.

  • No One of Consequence

    Isn’t it sacrilege to draw Jesus in such a way that he looks like a child molester?

  • CJP

    BHB Reader… your offer of magazines to the Jehovah people resonated with me. Years ago a pair of young guys came knocking on my door inside a building on Montague and asked if I wanted something that would “help understand humanity and build goodwill” or something to that effect. I declined their magazine but said “if YOU guys want something that will help YOU understand humanity and build goodwill hang on.”

    I returned with a copy of Penthouse and said “check this out.” Needless to say they split!

  • Beavis

    They don’t make Jews like Jesus anymore.

  • graciouspeacock

    I realize it’s late summer and attitudes can be pretty glib in this heat, but there’s a more important issue here.

    I’ve spent about twenty years living in this neighborhood, and Jehovahs never knocked on their neighbors’ doors or handed out flyers on the street before. it sounds very aggressive.

    In fact, there was always a sort of tacit rule that it wasn’t done–whatever their ‘work’ was so as to live in their self contained universe, it was done outside the neighborhood (following a similar principle perhaps that pimps, drug dealers, white collar criminals and others share who instinctly know they don’t want to shit where they eat).

    As long as they didn’t sermonize from your doorstep or a public corner and try to bring you into thier fold, we all had a fairly peaceful coexistence.

    That seems to be changing. They posess over a billion dollars in brooklyn heights real estate, pay no taxes, rarely patronize any of the local shops and will spend very little in local restaurants. While they are quiet and clean neighbors, they remain mysteriously cloaked in their own self sustained community, bound together by a fairly rigid tract of beliefs, and believe all others to be heathen in one form or another.

    It’s a shame, really. I’ve come to a point where I resent the intrusion, the dogma, and the sheer oppressiveness of being in the shadows of this dark religious community that does not want to mingle with non Jehovahs and where the members rarely lead any sort of independent life. it’s come to remind me too much of the problems going on in the world at large, with the blind leading the blind and religion–the quick fix–being not just the opiate, but the guiding force for the ignorant masses.

    I don’t expect anyone on this blog to understand this, but perhaps before reveling in the shallowness of whether the new version of “the Christ” looks like the marlboro man–ha ha, someone thinks they’re being so cute and funny!–consider that some find it invasive to be accosted at their doors or on their own well known residential streets by people who have been given nothing but tolerance and respect from for years.

    It’s really not so funny for many in the neighborhood.

  • nabeguy

    Intrusive maybe, but aggressive, hardly. They’re carrying copies of Awake, not Uzi’s. And how anyone’s been able to live in the Heights for 20 years and not be approached in some way by one of them is a miracle almost as worthy of a genuine JC sighting. I agree that their “otherness” can be a bit creepy at times, and I agree that they could do more to support the neighborhood businesses other than Michael’s Town Liquors (I swear I’m not making that up) and Fascati’s but generally they’re harmless. It’s not like they’re making pods in the Watchtower. And, boy oh boy, they do keep a clean and tidy sidewalk!

  • steve

    There is a lot to be said for clean sidewalks, and I think it says a lot about a property owner who keeps his or her sidewalk clean. It is usually a sign of a responsible, good neighbor who regards others. On Montague Street, for example, there are numerous examples of buildings with dirty, smelly sidewalks. Mostly this is caused by merchants who don’t bother to wash up after leaving their trash out for collection. When you get to the Bossert, it’s a different story . . . perfectly clean

  • Vishnu Jones

    Ummm…. Miss Peacock, perhaps that was Homer’s point.

  • http://www.silentlambs.org Danny Haszard

    Warning!

    The Watchtower organization allows convicted pedophiles to go knocking door to door to as part of their belief requirement.

    Jehovah’s Witnesses have a BIG child abuse pedophile cover-up crisis.

    Pedophilia is covered up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses on a scale worst than the Catholic priest scandal.Not only do they deny it but the Watchtower has instructed the Kingdom Hall elders to go after all whistle-blowers.

    The JW’s exploit an obscure 2,000 year old bible passage and demand that there be TWO witnesses to every act of child abuse committed by a Jehovah’s Witness.This fosters a code of silence and a “pedophile’s paradise” in the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

    The ‘Two Witness’ Take-Down is a subterfuge exploited by Jehovah’s Witnesses that is selectively enforced by elders who play favorites and fast & loose with the truth,an excuse to ignore and suppress evidence at whim.
    IS A JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES PEDOPHILE KNOCKING at YOUR DOOR?
    Learn what you can do about this outrage at
    http://www.silentlambs.org

    Sexual Abuse and Child Abuse Among Jehovah’s Witnesses
    http://www.exjws.net/sexabuse/index.htm

  • Suzy

    This is probably coming a little late, as I just stumbled across this thread 4 months later, but I had to respond to graciouspeacock’s post.

    I lived in Brooklyn Heights ten years ago. I used to hear back then that same tired rhetoric about how Jehovah’s Witnesses do not spend any money in the community and never eat at local restaurants, etc. I am a Jehovah’s Witness, and dated (and later married) a guy who worked at the WT headquarters. We ate out almost every night. We discovered Noodle Pudding when it first opened and became regulars. I used to get coffee and a muffin at Cranberries every day, and I think 75% of their clientele worked at the WT. I am on this site because we’re planning to visit friends in the heights this weekend and I wanted to find a good restaurant to take them to. (Although we may just go back to Noodle Pudding.) :)

    Hundreds of thousands of JW’s visit the WT headquarters to tour them every year, from countries all around the world. All of these tourists support Brooklyn Heights’ local economy. It is absolutely absurd to continually accuse them of somehow harming the neighborhood by not fraternizing local businesses. How do you know who is a witness and who is not? Are you taking a count at each restaurant? If you did, you might be surprised.

    I love Brooklyn Heights, and so do many of my friends who work at the WT headquarters. It’s one of my favorite places in the world, and my memories of living there are some of my best memories. Whatever you may think about Jehovah’s Witnesses (not “Jehovahs”, by the way) we are people the same as you, and are allowed to have the same feelings about a neighborhood that you do.

  • Separate Church & State

    While it is nice to hear that you spent personal money with local businesses (and I can recall seeing more than a few of your church goers getting loaded at the Henry Street Alehouse, so I know you are not lying), it doesn’t take away from the fact that not a penny of taxes is paid by your church (or any church for that matter), and you all sure have a TON of real estate holdings in this neighborhood.

  • bereansoable

    sence your view is so correct and on target why dont you remove all religion or personal ideas from the world so you can have your narow minded perfection ,because you know the world is out to get you. you have to fight you know you how no control so let it eat at you become unreasoning and illogical and gripe like a old man

  • Jonas Von Groucheau

    Was that last comment in English?

  • bornhere

    I’m sure something is meant by bereansoable (that is very hard to type), but at least it made me kind of laugh through my confusion (and it took less time to slog through than the stupid Heights video thing).