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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?
Maybe by Joining with them in reading the scriptures and bringing new light onto the words they preach...might enlighten them...?
Start by reading the Genesis and what God made us for...Tending and Keeping the Garden with all seeds..that God made Good....and reference Acts 10:15 when they repute that ideal...and ask them where is EDEN or the EDENS that come from following that instruction to the letter of the laws God gave...and shared...Genesis 9:3 comes to bare witness on all.
" I Give you everything"...Now if that is true...and I have no reason to believe otherwise...and it is a free gift from God...that we be helpers, and share like God...and make more of what God gave....then what is wrong if they decree certain plants as being Bad?....if they are to restore something onto God?.....and it is not made with IDOLS of ENGRAVEN Images or with Engraven images on them....for God did not make such a thing...and surely has not given it....as it says nothing of it in Genesis as being made By God.
And what about the dead Blood of the life taken...?
Does God not say that this is for him?..and not to touch it?...and yet they all drive a automobile?...that burns this dead Blood....polluting the creation of God?
I am sure, in your infinite wisdom, and education, You might bring something to the table that is new...in a new way to them..as they might be bringing you the book to read in a new way..they have not thought of???
And the proof is in the pudding so they say....where is EDEN? and if EDEN...then EDENS be the multiple!...as in Multiply!
Take that with you to every House of prayer!...and if they denie you...then they Denie God, Christ, and the Life which has been Given us...freely by God!..see God shares everything!!!...it is not bought, nor is it stollen...when Given!...and walk away, and dust off your cloak.....but continue to sow all seed, and not profane anything God made Good, and Gave you to tend and keep and multiply!
"those who do the will of the Father, shall enter paradise"..is it not said?...so why is it not done?
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?
Slightly more and more-intensely deceived than the typical Christian.
to say the truth it depend where you are, and how people think
not every jw are the same.
also if u remember well, you have the free to choose what you want to do.
it also depend how your family treat you
When I lived in a predominantly African-American neighborhood I would receive visits from pairs of well-dressed middle-aged women (usually around 50 to 65 years old it seemed) and they were always SO NICE, it was very difficult to explain to them that I respected their beliefs and appreciated their kindness but I have absolutely zero interest in hearing about yet another religion.
Does anyone happen to know the history behind why so many JW's are African-American? Maybe I can find that on the omniscient Wikipedia. Or I can just call my buddies Venus and Serena.
Just had a visit from some nice Hispanic ladies. I told them I was a former Catholic and would never think about jumping to another religion. I don't believe in that stuff. I just try to be a good person.
I wanted to know why they follow this religion because they told me they were both former Catholics. Their reasoning was that they were never taught the Bible at Mass or catechism. I told them they were not paying attention because the Mass is nothing but bible verses etc. I could tell one just knew I was going to be struck by lightening.
I feel sorry for their children. It depresses me to see kids having to go from house to house looking like they're going to the funeral of someone very important. I've told the JW's who come to the door that their kids would be better served if they were allowed to play on Saturday mornings.
I find them even more appalling than the typical fundamentalist Christian who believes in Jehovah as described in the OT. The God described in the OT is such a savage and barbaric evil egomaniacal entity that any description of Satan pales in comparison. I cannot imagine worshiping such a God. The God of Jesus is my God . . . no other.
I feel sorry for their children. It depresses me to see kids having to go from house to house looking like they're going to the funeral of someone very important. I've told the JW's who come to the door that their kids would be better served if they were allowed to play on Saturday mornings.
It doesn't go over well.
Me too, me too!
When I was a child of around 10 or so, one of my best friends was the child of JW parents. For ease of identity, I'll just call him "Shane."
I couldn't help but notice that Shane was never allowed to do many of the things the rest of us kids did. Now, I really don't know how much of that came from strict parenting or how much of it came from their religion, but what I do know is that this poor kid was cut-off from the rest of the neighborhood. I'm not sure if he even had other friends.
When I felt the most sorry for Shane was the day after Christmas when all of the kids were outside showing off their new toys. Shane was rarely ever allowed to leave his own yard, so he would frequently stand at the end of his driveway, watching the rest of us play just feet away on the other side of the street - but unable to join in because of the strict rules.
And he never had anything with him - no new toys, no new games. Not even a new ball or new winter coat. It wasn't the lack of money, that I know, but because JW folks don't celebrate Christmas to the best of my knowledge.
Later I learned that Shane was deliberately kept away from the other kids to limit his exposure to other religious beliefs because I overheard his mother yelling at him one day while the window of their living room was open. A little later, I learned that his parents allowed me to associate with him because they had targeted me for conversion. I do remember them sending me home with JW literature, books, and pamphlets which promptly ended up in the trash (my mother did that).
But I still think of Shane sometimes with a melancholy image of him standing there at the end of his driveway - just a few feet away yet totally cut-off and alone.
I have had a lot of experience with Jehovah's Witnesses and have several friends who are still in what they like to call their "organization" (they prefer not to be lumped with other Christians as they consider all others as part of the dreaded "False Religion" or "Babylon" as they interpret the Book of Revelations), and having this experience I can firmly tell you that they are a terrible cult (yes - CULT) that actively ruins their members lives by keeping them uneducated by discouraging any form of higher education (the main reason being that it would actually cause members to immediately leave the group and for the reason they tell their members: that there's no point since the End Times are coming), unable to hold a full-time job due to their door-to-door requirements (which they must meticulously log), by causing them to live in a paranoid state of fear (whether this be of the government, which - in their eyes- is just waiting to persecute them again [they love bringing up only their involvement as minor victims of the Holocaust]; or of non-JWs who will cause them to stray and possibly rape them [see below]; of other religious denominations; of non-approved reading material that can lead them astray; of being disfellowshipped and becoming separated from their families; really, the list goes on), and much more.
These really are real concerns that JWs have to deal with. I'm not sure whether I feel sorry for them or not, as it is their quest for a feeling of belonging to some great secret and their desire to be absolutely certain in their beliefs that lead many to this cult. The children of the JWs suffer the most, as they do not have a choice and are doomed from the start. Basically, the JWs are cult for extremely uneducated and lower class gullible people.
Typical logic can be found in a Watchtower's examination of the Genesis story in chapter 34 of the so-called "Rape of Tamar" in which Dinah, the daughter of Jacob,
went out to see the women of the land.
And Shekhem son of Hamor the Hivvite, the prince of the land, saw her:
he took her and lay with her, forcing her.
(Genesis 34:1-2, SB Fox)
Long story short, Shechem falls in love with her and wants to pay the agreed price for marriage in cases of rape (and more) and even agrees to have all his kinsfolk become circumcised as a condition - which they do, upon which point two of Jacob's sons proceed to attack them in their weakened condition and murder all the men of the city.
Yaakov's [Jacob] (other) sons came up upon the corpses and plundered the city,
because they had defiled their sister.
Their sheep, their oxen, their donkeys - whatever was inside the city and out in the field, they took,
all their riches, all their little-ones and their wives they captured and plundered,
as well as all that was in the houses.
(Genesis 34:27-29)
Their father Jacob is understandably angry at this breach of etiquette and the breaking of an oath and gives them hell for it.
A horrible story, and the way the JWs interpret this is that they picture Dinah as a typical teenager hanging out with the wrong crowd - like in modern times (they love picturing the ancients as acting in typical modern fashion, so as to make a connection with their readers where there is none). Those bad influences - those "women of the land"! And like any girl who dresses provocatively and chooses to associate with "bad" people, she was pretty much asking to be raped. YUP. That is the moral of the story for the JWs according to their literature. Really inspiring, isn't it? So in short - if you hang out with the wrong people (you know, like Jesus did), well.... you know better so whatever happens deserves to happen to you. Tough cookies! I'm not sure if I still have the magazine in question, but if someone is really curious about it I may be able to find it again.
Things like the above interpretation are what really boils my blood when I see this type of horrible bull-crap being foisted on impressionable and unedecauted people - especially on minorities in this country, one of their biggest groups of converts. Their rampant anti-Semitism is rather sickening as well. Whenever they portray a Jew, it is always in the most stereotypical fashion and with a sneer and devious eyes on their face. Lovely stuff, those JWs are churning out. Their persecution complex makes any contact with outsiders a dangerous proposition. Heck, they keep a list of everyone in your neighborhood and whether they are receptive to the JWs returning, whether they are Jews or Atheists, and whether they should be avoided. Kind of scary.
Did I mention that their translation of the Bible is the absolutely worst I have ever come across, and is purposefully translated with a theological bias to make it conform to their doctrine? Ask them if Jephthah sacrificed his daughter to YHWH, then read their translation to see why they think she sacrificed her "chastity" to him instead ha ha!
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..but continue to sow all seed, and not profane anything God made Good, and Gave you to tend and keep and multiply!
what do you think of Jehovah Witnesses?
