Google this topic and you will find many people asking for advice on how to stop evangelists from visiting their homes. While there is no foolproof way, here are some helpful tips. It is recommended you research your own municipality's laws or consult an attorney to get official advice.
In the spirit of prevention, please note you can take these actions to prevent unwanted contact from starting, if you have contact information for specific organizations that may target you.
These tips mainly apply to the United States.
These tips mainly apply to the United States.
What Not to Do
- Threaten them with physical harm unless the law allows you to do so in that particular moment (i.e., defending yourself from violence).
- Make assumptions about your local laws and rights.
- Give in to emotional responses that cause you to behave in a way that is not in your long-term interests.
- Assume saying you're an atheist, witch or Satanist will scare them away. (Sometimes it encourages them.)
- Answer the door partially or fully naked. (This, surprisingly, is a pretty common thing people do in an attempt to repel preachers.) This is an example of an emotional response that may not be in your long-term interests if they report you to law enforcement for exposure.
- Be offended/respond with anger the first time they contact you. Visits are permitted unless you have asked them not to. Many are taught they will be executed by God or punished with eternal Hellfire if they do not heed their holy book's command to evangelize.
Free Speech
Soliciting
Unfortunately--right or wrong--some cults tell adherents they can ignore those signs as long as they do not ask for money.
Trespassing
- Disregard your personal opinions and wishes in regards to what the trespassing laws are; find out what the laws really say and follow them exactly in case you need to engage your legal system (courts, police) in stopping their visits. Skipping this step is not in your best interests. Read your local laws about trespassing and understand:
- What the legal definition of soliciting is and is not
- What the legal definition of trespassing is and is not
- What the laws require a property owner or resident to do to stop/prevent trespassing
- Based on what you learned about your laws, place a sign on your property, in a prominent place, that says whatever the law requires. Do not give in to emotion, i.e., threatening visitors. Do exactly what the law says to do.
- If the visits continue, notify the individual that he or she is not welcome on your property, and that you will consider further visits illegal trespassing.
- Notification of an entire group of people may be insufficient for this purpose.
- Follow up with a letter sent by registered mail with return receipt. Keep a copy of the letter and receipt in your home.
- Log every single incident of contact, including the time, date, nature of the contact, names and what everyone did and said.
- If the visits continue, you may be able to place the individual under citizen's arrest. Do not touch the person. Immediately call 911 to have the police complete the arrest. But before you do any of that, understand your local laws.
Unwanted Contact by Calls, Emails, etc.
Phone Calls
Register all of your phones on the National Do Not Call Registry. Calls from evangelists may not meet the definition of telemarketing (if they are not asking for money), but it does not hurt to cover all bases just in case your scenario ends up meeting the definition of telemarketing at at some point in the future.
Use your phone's blocking feature whenever you receive any unwanted calls.
- You can mark unopened mail "refused" and return it. Obviously, this only helps if you didn't open it. Some organizations use local churches as their return address, so you may be able to recognize them that way.
- You can remove yourself from marketing mailing lists. However, there is a fee to do so and this does not guarantee your preacher will stop contacting you; they may not be using marketing mailing lists.
Check into removing yourself from search engines and public directories. Google yourself to find out where your address is listed. If you can change settings on an account to remove your address or make it private, do so. You can also contact some sites to ask for your information to be removed, or use a service to do so. Here is an article with further information.
Email
Do Not Contact Request Letter Template
[Date]
[Recipient
Name]
[Recipient Street Address, City, ST ZIP Code]
[Recipient Street Address, City, ST ZIP Code]
SUBJECT: NO
TRESPASSING NOTICE & DO NOT CONTACT NOTICE
Dear [Recipient],
Consistent with my rights as a resident of private property at the above-mentioned address, I hereby notify you that I do not wish any members of your organization to enter my property at any time now or in the future.
Please immediately notify your members to comply and note your permanent records.
Some cultists go to gates or apartment lobbies, ring every bell until someone answers, and then use that entry to visit every home past the lock. Check your building's or community's rules about this. Isn't the person only allowed to visit the person who buzzed them in? Aren't they trespassing if they visit others? What action are you able to take in this circumstance?
Should any members of
your organization visit my property in the future, please be advised that I
will utilize all legal means available to stop these visits, including, but not
limited to, citizen’s arrest for trespassing.
[insert a citation of applicable laws here]
I also am insisting upon no further contact by any means, including, but not limited to, telephone, email, and mail. I will utilize all legal means to stop and prosecute any further contact, should that occur, including, but not limited to notifying your Internet Service Provider of the unwanted contact and filing complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, if applicable.
Thank you for
respecting my wishes.
Sincerely,
Your name
