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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: It's Saturday Morning - here they come
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kankucho
Shipmate
# 14318
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
I've spent time on Saturday morning chatting to them, usually when I have nothing else to do.
I often end up turning the evangelising opportunity on its head and ask them whether they would like to join the Church of England. They politely decline.
chances are the only people who do engage them in conversation are those with something of their own to sell.
That's certainly true for me. My lot gave up street proselytising as a bad job decades ago. But our constant prayer is to attract people into our lives who want to encounter the law of Myoho Renge Kyo. So, when someone proactively comes to my door to talk about the meaning of life, the universe and everything - job's a good 'un. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself" – Dr. Carl Sagan
Kankucho Bird Blues
Posts: 1262 | From: Kuon-ganjo, E17 | Registered: Nov 2008
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Spiffy
Ship's WonderSheep
# 5267
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Posted
I've recently fallen in with a crowd of young (22-25) andro lesbians. Mostly because they all tend bar at my favorite watering hole (an easy gig for kids who haven't had much encouragement in education to get). A significant number of them are also disfellowshipped JWs, which has lead to some interesting and hilarious conversations regarding growing up in two completely different churches. One of my friends was a pioneer in her teens (door-knocker) and frequently recorded well over the 70 hours of preaching activity a month required to maintain that exalted status, in addition to helping out on other important projects and basic clerical tasks assigned by the Elders.
Disfellowshipping in the JW sense means a letter is sent to every Assembly Hall you've ever dealt with, even if it's as small as donating $5 to their building campaign, and that letter is read out in the weekly service telling everyone to cease contact with you. Including family members.
And of course, one of the easiest and fastest ways to get disfellowshipped is to be queer.
I really do feel pity for them and their works-based theology and strict codes. But I still get myself redlined every time I move by telling the first JW who knocks, "I am not going to join your church if you're just going to kick me right back out again."
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Looking for a simple solution to all life's problems? We are proud to present obstinate denial. Accept no substitute. Accept nothing.
--Night Vale Radio Twitter Account
Posts: 10281 | From: Beervana | Registered: Dec 2003
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
People's mileage will vary, but most JWs I've known have been pretty normal and not that different from anyone you might run into in your standard non-conformist Protestant setting ... apart from the theology of course.
This, I suspect, is why they tend to come in for some stick, because they're effectively operating in the same territory but with a different paradigm.
It's interesting that if you look at Orthodox and some RC websites in other parts of Europe you'll find that they don't apparently make that much distinction between JWs and Mormons and other 'marginals' and groups like the Pentecostals and independent evangelicals who are Trinitarian and seen as much more 'orthodox' by the rest of us.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
Felafool: Best comment by country mile.
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Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican't:
I've spent time on Saturday morning chatting to them, usually when I have nothing else to do.
I often end up turning the evangelising opportunity on its head and ask them whether they would like to join the Church of England. They politely decline.
My grandmother would always tell them she'd be glad to take and read some of their Watchtower literature if they'd take and read some of her Presbyterian literature.
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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que sais-je
Shipmate
# 17185
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Grokesx:
quote:
I realise that we lucked out and am very much not advocating the JW world view, having spoken with less engaged/engaging JWs, but as with most things not all doorsteppers are the same.
I don't think you've lucked out at all. Based on my wife's experience, Kingdom Halls are for the most part full of perfectly nice people. It's the institution that sucks.
That is true of almost every large organisation I've ever dealt with - religious, trade union, political, educational .....
I'm not sure how you avoid that. The job of the managers of an institution is to keep it flourishing which justifies all sorts of chicanery.
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"controversies, disputes, and argumentations, both in philosophy and in divinity, if they meet with discreet and peaceable natures, do not infringe the laws of charity" (Thomas Browne)
Posts: 794 | From: here or there | Registered: Jun 2012
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Stoker
Shipmate
# 11939
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by Mark Betts:
simply mean the Faith as we receive it, rather than someone who comes along in the 19th century, and throws everything away and invents his own version of Christianity.
I have no reason to believe such a man - what Authority does he have?
But it is wonderful if it occurs in the 3rd century? It fine is done in the 16th or 17th century? It is good when it is done so one man can swing his willy anywhere he chooses? This is not a road successfully taken by anyone without being challenged. Most all religion can be distilled down to "I believe what these blokes wrote about what that bloke said and how these other blokes interpret it." There is no "Authority" other than what one chooses to accept.
Slight tangent, but I assume you mean Henry 8th and the Reformation?
Slight point of order, but the reformers can't seriously be compared to JWs founder Charles Taze Russell:
The reformers stripped away false teachings, man made doctrines and obstacles to real faith by encouraging people to read the word the themselves.
C T Russell bought in false teaching, man made doctines and obstacles to faith and his legacy discourages people from reading the word for themselves.
So basically , lilbuddha, you're talking rubbish.
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Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Posts: 428 | Registered: Oct 2006
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Stoker,
I do not have a horse in that race, but what you are talking could easily be argued from the Roman Catholic/orthodox side as protestants deviating from the Truth. The JWs could argue they were stripping clear the rubbish.
Your argument is not an argument at all. Of course you believe your choice the most correct, but so too does everyone else.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Stoker
Shipmate
# 11939
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Posted
Not so lb,
The source documents and indeed source of truth for any christian denomination is the Bible. The test has to be wether folks are encouraged to see and understand what it says for themselves, rather than through a particular lens - which may be a church, a religion or other writings.
Here's an example, I have had a look into JWs, the founders have made lots of weird claims about the end of the world and when it will be (last prediction was 1975) no biblical basis, just crackers!
Posts: 428 | Registered: Oct 2006
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
[tangent]Hmm. The main thing that reading the Bible for myself, and not just the bits of it that certain authorities like to major on, taught me, was that etiher there was no way the perfect word of God, or God is a homicidal maniac. I've chosen to take the former line as a tentative conclusion.[/tangent]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Mark Betts
Ship's Navigation Light
# 17074
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Posted
If anyone's interested in a real insight into the goings on in the world of the Jehovah's Witness faith, I've found an excellent blog detailing a man's conversion to "the truth", and his doubts, which would lead to him eventually converting to Eastern Orthodoxy.
Don't worry, he's only got as far as the third part, which is the fiasco after 1975 - I don't know if or when he'll write the next part, but here's the story so far:
Part 1: The Journey from Jehovah’s Witnesses to the Orthodox Church
Part 2: Life at Bethel, the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Part 3: When Prophecy Fails — The 1975 Fiasco Viewed from Inside Bethel
One thing which occurred to me is how similar all this is to what happened in the Worldwide Church of God. I'm not speaking from personal experience, but I do know people caught up in that movement (and it's subsequent fragmentation after Herbert Armstrong's death) - they believed the Great Tribulation would begin in 1972, where "true" christians would all fly out in silver jets to a "place of safety" for 3 and a half years!
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"We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary."
Posts: 2080 | From: Leicester | Registered: Apr 2012
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