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I don't consider anyone as being pagan. The JW's do. It was sarcasm.
Am I to believe that baptized JW's don't have to knock on doors, and hold bible studies anymore and the Elders are okay with that?
Interesting.
They have loosened up a bit, at least in some circles. From what I read in this thread, it seems they used to have you knocking on doors before baptism. Now most of the JW's I know wait till after baptism before getting people to knock on doors. I studied with the JW's for two years and never once knocked on anyone's door because I didn't get baptized.
I know most Jehovah's Witnesses (and most religious folk) hate pedophilia and pedophiles, and want to protect children, but no matter what the PR Dept of Jehovah's Witnesses says today, thousands of people have been discouraged from reporting suspected pedophiles to the police because of what the elders told them. Sorry folks, that is the sad, cold truth of the matter. These people may be knocking on your door or mine....
I have a lot of problems with the JW's but I hate this argument because this happens in other communities all the time too. I was molested throughout my childhood and all of it was ignored by the adults in my life and I wasn't raised JW. (In fact my parents were and still are intensely anti-religion.) I have plenty of friends, non-JW, who were molested and it was shoved under the rug.
The JW's were also my only support network for the few weeks after I got out of an intensively physically and emotionally abusive relationship. They were the only ones who knew how to communicate with me when I was deaf (from the abuse). One of the first people I told about my abusive situation was one of the Elders at the KH. The other two were JW sisters, but not Elders. The very first thing they did was organize for a place for me to stay so I could get away from the abusive situation. They also personally drove me around (I was totally blind too) to search for apartments and jobs so I could have a more long-term solution as well. I also have numerous friends who had JW's as a support network when they were dealing with their own rape/abuse-related situations.
So I agree there are issues with the WT and GB and so on, but abuse is a lame argument because it happens in secular societies, and many JW individuals are incredibly supportive for people who are trying to get out of abusive situations. The elders who swept abuse under the rug were are individuals who didn't properly know how to deal with abusive situations. It has nothing to do with the WT or being JW.
EX JWs are not always immoral. I happen to lead a very moral life. I happen to believe in and love God. I am not in turmoil no more than wannabe. But I know that JWs are taught that the world is a cruel place; they only look at the bad in people. There are many people in the world who are kind and who help others. There are many people that are more moral than the JWs ever thought of being. I have met them, but I am not taking anything away from a JW who does lead a moral life. But you know what? I found people on the outside to be kinder towards me than the Witnesses. I was actually in shock when I learned this new truth. The reason for this I believe is that these people do not judge me for my beliefs or how I feel about things. They like me for who I am and not because I believe exactly the same as they, which I don't.
I realized this too and it was a cold, hard slap in the face. The JW's didn't really love me. They just loved me because I was a Bible student, JW-to-be.
They gave me clothes. They bought me meals. They offered me a place to stay when there was a good chance I would be homeless. They interpreted countless doctor's appointments, social security appointments, and other appointments. They drove me places I needed to get to. They helped me with an apartment search and a job search. They gave me a safe haven when I had to run away from an abusive situation. They were the first people I ever talked to after 6 months of complete isolation from being totally blind and almost totally deaf. They taught me tactile sign language. They taught me deaf-blind cane skills because blind services refused to teach me cane skills since they didn't believe deaf-blind people could navigate independently. When my world was completely shut off by deaf-blindness, when I had gotten so depressed I even tried to kill myself, they were the first people that opened my world back up. They made being deaf-blind okay.
The JW's that were so nice to me, so helpful, dropped me like a hot potato the second I mentioned acupuncture curing my deafness and blindness because it involves "spiritism." Never mind it cured my deaf-blindness--it's "spiritism"! I watched them go from helping a good friend of mine who is Deaf and has severe Cerebral Palsy, with errands, shopping, getting around, interpreting, etc., to acting like she didn't even exist because she chose to stop studying. These are people who didn't even get baptized. After she stopped studying, I never heard from her again. Before I would run into her a lot between when the JW's were giving me a ride and giving her a ride, or helping interpret for me and her, etc., but after she stopped it was like they completely cut her out of her life. Even when I had serious doubts about the WT material, I was too afraid to bring them up because honestly I needed the support network they provided. But it was completely conditional on the fact that I was a Bible student. They only interpreted for me and helped me and taught me how to do things deaf-blind because I was studying the Bible. It was so heartbreaking to realize these people didn't really care about me--they just cared about successfully converting "another one."
I still see this so much in the deaf-blind community: deaf-blind people that get suckered in by the JW's because they learn tactile sign language and braille so they can cater to the deaf-blind, and the deaf-blind really think they are being loved and supported and accepted as they are (which is often a first for many deaf-blind people as deaf-blindness is EXTREMELY isolating when you don't have that network) but in the end, these deaf-blind people don't realize that if they dropped their Bible study, stopped attending the meetings, etc. all these "brothers and sisters" wouldn't give a flying f*ck about them anymore. It kills me. I still wonder now if I didn't get my vision and hearing back, would I still be pretending to believe in the WT because they were the only people that knew how to talk to me?
Well, they didn't come by this past weekend and they never called. I wonder what's up. I wanted to call and ask but I was afriad that they might've just forgotten and would decide to come pick me up.
Sucks that because of some dumb religion I'm too scared to call my cousins.
Want to know something interesting? Apparently it's against god's law to donate blood or whatever, and I'm donating next friday. Just got to make sure my cousins don't find out. Lol. Shhh.
I feel sorry for your cousins because it seems you are lying to them in word & deed.
Well, I've been going for a while now and I definitely feel the pressure. My cousins have me doing a bible study on saturdays, going to meetings on sundays (boring as heck, I hate it with a passion.). Now they are talking to me about being an unbaptized publisher and going to meetings on thursdays as well (I guess I'm pretty convincing when I tell them that I believe everything being taught. ). This is starting to cut into my time a lot. I wish June would get here fast. I hate trying to please everyone.
There are times when I just want to shout "Enough! I can't take it anymore! I'm an atheist!"
Yeah, don't keep trying. Trust me. Especially if you have a life to live. Take it from someone who's been there.
If I wanted to hear preaching, or about God, I'd go to a church. I neither want or need someone coming up to me and yammering at me about their beliefs. If they do, I punch them.
And if they're really going to follow the directives of their Book, they'll turn the other cheek.
my cousins are JWs and they asked me to start going to their congregation with them. i would feel bad if i said no so i went ahead and told them i would go. i'm moving in 3 months anyway so what the heck. i personally don't believe in anything that their religion teaches nor am i even religious. i just figured i would humor them the last few months i'm here. so my questions: what do you think of JWs? and has anyone else done something similar to what i am doing just to please family or friends?
Ask them if they are familiar with any of this, as it is their own information from over the years.
I have not known an JW's personally and I don't see them where I live now. In California they knocked on my door regularly until I put up a sign saying, "No Watchtower people". What really ticked me off and prompted me to hang the sign was when they came knocking on Christmas Day just as my kids and I were sitting down to enjoy our Christmas dinner. To top it all off, they sent their little boy--about 9-10 years old--to the door alone while they remained on the sidewalk. I gave the adults standing on the sidewalk a chewing out for that. I thought it was nervy, thoughtless and rude to go out proselytizing on a day when they knew people would be enjoying family dinners and would not want to have to deal with them.
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