Knock, Knock

     Today is Sunday and I wanted to write about religion. As I try to begin this chapter, I ponder what practicing faith in other countries is like. I wonder if anyone knows about faith in America since there are some that believe that we live in a world of sin. I remember an incident when I was visiting Ahmed one lazy afternoon.

     The West is full of new religious movement. The Latter Day Saints traveled to the West to get away from the lynch mobs in the East. People complain about Mormons here and they take up a huge portion of the population here. 

     We also have Jehovah's Witnesses, Nazerenes, and Scientologists. The list probably goes on and on. People from other countries may not have heard of them and do not know what to do when these people are knocking on their door to spread the word. 

     I am a little surprised that they wouldn't know because of the missionaries who travel to other countries. I am not too surprised based on the stories I heard about missionaries who are murdered in other countries because nobody is interested. Nobody is interested in them here. 

     Back when The Latter Day Saints were relatively new here, they were chased from state to state. John Smith was in jail when a lynch mob killed him. Then the temple in Nauvoo, Illinois was burned down. My great grandfather Peter Maughan was a miner there when this happened. 

     They took pilgrimage to the West to find there new Zion. Peter was the first Mormon pioneer in Preston, Idaho and established Maughan's Fort, which is now known as Wellsville, Utah. A person being annoyed with certain religions is nothing new here. In fact, there was an anti-Mormon movement here. During this time, there were Mormon and non-Mormon stores.

      Occasionally, an anti-Mormon movement arises. People will complain about a new temple. Nobody is ever happy here. Why would anyone be surprised when they complain about a Mosque? 

     The main faiths who knock on doors here are Jehovah's Witnesses and The Latter Day Saints (aka, the Mormons). People see the Mormons when they are riding on their bicycles. The Jehovah's Witnesses use a car to get to their destination. Those are some differences. Another huge difference is that Mormon's wear a suit whereas the Witnesses are more casual. 

     They visit people in apartments. I don't know why, but that is the main place that they are drawn to. Perhaps it contains more people? Who knows, but I do know that there are many immigrants and refugees in a majority of the apartment complexes in Boise. 

     The one Ahmed lived at had many people from the Middle East and Africa. White Americans were few and far between. The Mormon's have knocked on his door before. They knocked on his friend's door when they first arrived in America. 

    Believe me when I say this, they make Americans uneasy just like they have in the past. Our reason is that we hate them. Many Americans believe that all Mormons are child molesting polygamists and their magic underwear just adds to the strange equation. We do not like them peddling their religion at our door.

     It makes me wonder, though, what an Arab who is new to the United States is thinking when these guys are knocking on their door. Obviously, they do not feel threatened because they answer the door. The problem is that they do not know how to make them leave because they are trying to be polite. 

     The day I was hanging out at Ahmed's home, I was upstairs in his room. We heard someone knocking on the front door downstairs. He told me to stay where I was and he went to answer the door. 

     I listened as I was getting ready to leave. I overheard them talking about some type of cleansing and I had to stifle my laughter. I just knew it was a Jehovah's Witness. I peered down the stairs and noticed that they were wearing casual clothing. 

     He tried his hardest to tell them to leave. They kept asking him questions about where he was from and what faith he practiced, He told them that he didn't practice anything and that he had somewhere to go. 

     When they finally left, I came downstairs grinning at him and chuckling. He said that he thought they were Mormons. I glanced at the fliers in his hand and told him that they were Jehovah's Witnesses. 

     He was baffled at what I said they were. He asked me how I knew the difference. For starters, I heard what they said. There was something in their statement that made it obvious they were not Mormons. Mormons dress in their Sunday best, while these two individuals were wearing business casual. Last, but not least, the magazine in his hand was Watchtower. Watchtower is the magazine that Jehovah's Witnesses hand to everyone. 

     As he tried to pronounce, "Jehovah," he asked what this was. I told him that it was new religious movement. He became more puzzled at the label. So, I explained it is Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and Nazerenes. 

     He began repeating the names and the label. Remembering the popularity of Michael Jackson, I told him that Michael was a Jehovah's Witness. I don't know what was going on in his head at that moment. It made it evident to me that missionaries did not go into Arab countries.