Have you ever had a stranger strike up a conversation with you on a bus or other public transportation? Be wary the next time this happens: it might be a Mormon who's participating in an organized effort to proselytize on buses. That's what's happening to the unfortunate riders of the Stagecoach bus company in Lancashire even though there's a policy against commercial or other viewpoint promotion to passengers.
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."
Source: The Guardian
It's not just this one person, by the way. The bus service says that a number of drivers have reported incidents like this recently. The company's policies only prohibit commercial solicitation, though, not religious conversations. This is, in principle, reasonable because you don't want to create a blanket prohibition on people talking to each other.
However, that's only "reasonable" insofar as we assume a context of individuals striking up causal, spontaneous conversations with each other. I'm not sure that it really applies when there is an organized effort by a large group to evangelize to bus passengers specifically because they are a captive audience.
And that's exactly what seems to be happening:
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."
Robert Preston's reaction here is utterly reprehensible. Why should I or anyone else have to move away from an unwanted and unwelcome evangelist? Just how far can I even go on a bus? No, I reject that completely.
First, it's wrong for a group like this to be organizing specifically to proselytize to a captive audience like this. It's inappropriately aggressive and arrogant in a way that setting up a table in a public area is not. These Mormons are deliberately making it harder and more uncomfortable for people to say no, to move away, or to otherwise avoid their unwelcome advances.
Second, it's wrong to put the onus on those who don't want to be approached. It's the evangelists who should have the responsibility of moving away when it's clear that their religious advances are unwelcome. I shouldn't have to change my seat simply because I don't want someone pushing their religion on me.
Finally, I wonder if they are even honest about their intentions. Do they state up front that they are only sitting there and starting a conversation because they want to proselytize, or do they keep that information to themselves in order to deceive the person into thinking that this was just a casual conversation that happened to stray into the subject of religion? Frankly, I doubt that they are that honest -- the entire program and set of tactics reeks of dishonesty.
Stagecoach has indicated that they would contact the organization and I hope that they make it unambiguously clear that such behavior is not welcomed by the passengers and is thus also not welcomed by the company either.
Why does it keep happening that we have incidents where religious believers fail to recognize that normal standards of decorum apply to them, even when it comes to their religious beliefs?
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