My friend and I had an adventure at the Jehovah’s Witness district convention on the weekend. Our goal was to pass out tracts to those leaving the event.

I was surprised by how large the event was—probably a few thousand people. One person told me all the surrounding states were represented. We sat on a bench outside the venue, waiting for the convention to conclude. After a few minutes, a guy came up to us and asked if we were planning to hand out literature. How he knew why we were there, I’m not sure (there were other events going on in the same area). We answered in the affirmative; he just told us we were wasting our time.

When people began leaving the building, my friend and I opted to stand at different doors of the venue. Within a few seconds of getting started, a guy began yelling at me, angrily telling me to leave, running around blocking me, and ripping tracts out of the hands of people who had accepted them. Other Jehovah’s Witnesses who were acting as crowd control/security personnel finally convinced him to settle down and leave.

After a few more minutes of unsuccessfully trying to pass out tracts (no one would accept them), some other guys came over to me and calmly explained that they had rented the facility, and that they would call the cops if I didn’t leave. I agreed to leave, and a couple of them escorted me out the gate. I was trying to talk to them as we walked out, but they didn’t seem all too interested in talking. One of the guys remarked that the New World Translation is the most accurate translation available, and promptly ran away. The other stayed with me, and we had a great conversation. He was friendly, and I managed to go through the Ten Commandments with him. It struck me as ironic that the JWs often try to demonstrate that Jesus is not God by quoting, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19), but this guy still thought he was a good person. I think this is people’s greatest obstacle to understanding the gospel, and their need for it.

When the conversation ended, I told the man that I had parked inside the event center’s gates, and needed to go back to my car. As he walked with me, we saw that my friend was surrounded by a group of JWs in suits and sunglasses. When this group of guys had started blocking him from passing out tracts, he had launched into an open-air sermon. In the meantime, they had called the police, who arrived a few minutes later.

While we’ve not always had positive experiences with the police upholding our constitutional free-speech rights in public places, these cops acted very reasonably. They contacted the property managers, who informed them that the JWs rented the arena and the parking lot, but that the sidewalk surrounding the events center was public property.

Unfortunately, by this time most of the people had left. With the JWs in suits and shades leaving us alone, more people took tracts, but most still declined. We had 200 tracts; we only passed out 6.

This may seem like a waste of time, but I don’t think it was. It’s my hope and prayer that even those conventioneers who turned down the gospel tracts saw how desperate the leaders were to prevent them from seeing any alternative ideas to their own. I hope they ask themselves if they should really believe in a religion that apparently would fail to hold up as truth in the face of even the slightest scrutiny—one little piece of paper. I hope they see the blatant hypocrisy of leaders who require their adherents to distribute literature to get into heaven—and many times invite themselves onto private property to do so—trying desperately to stop us from passing out literature in a public area.

They’re going to have more conventions in the coming weeks, and we hope to return, and try open air preaching. I didn’t get to see much of my friend’s preaching, but he said it’s more effective than passing out tracts. If you wish to try to witness at a convention, you can see the schedule here.

One recommendation: Contact the authorities first to find out what is and is not considered public property.