Jehovah's Witnesses Annoyed by Pushy Atheists

The latest edition of the Jehovah's Witness magazine, Awake complains of what it calls "new atheism." The periodical warns that atheists are no longer content to keep their disbelief to themselves. Instead, they are "on a crusade... passionately trying to persuade the religious to their point of view."

"Those atheists keep showing up at my door, usually at dinner time," complains Norman Tent, a Jehovah's Witness in Brooklyn. "They act like their way is the only way. How can anyone be so arrogant?"

Devin Millstrum is one of these New Atheists. "I don't mean to be pushy," he explains, "but I can't just sit back and watch people condemned to suffer for what seems like eternity every weekend in church, even on perfectly nice days."

Millstrum describes his door-to-door mission as a calling from Jesus, his landscaper. "One day he said to me, 'Mr. Millstrum, you're so laid back and rational. You should share your philosophy.'"

Since then, Millstrum's been spreading his message everywhere he can. "I like canvassing Manhattan," he says. "I can honestly promise people when they die, they'll go to a better place: a hole in the ground slightly larger and cleaner than their current apartment, with no walk up."

Not everyone is receptive, but Millstrum doesn't get discouraged. "When the time comes that I'm called home, by my wife, and I go to meet my Maker's Mark on the rocks, I can rest knowing I have done my best to spread the word."