Couple of JW Sisters came to my door

Qcmbr

First of all want to thank you all for informing me of the good the bad and smurfly about JWs - I was so stoked when these two sister's knocked on my door. I apologise now - I was a smug git - in fairness they conducted themselves impeccably in the face of me.

This is how it went (paraphrased to highlight 'clever' bits I said and downplay swathes of conversation when I said silly things. Also since this is a rough gist it misses the kind things we all said that kept the coversation friendly - i.e. this will read pretty clipped and vicious but it wasn't we spent most time laughing at shared areas of religious life - this just highlights key bits where I tried to expose their weaknesses without focusing on my own.)

They started with the Awake and started to talk about how awful it was that terrorism was with us and how it is a sign of the end.
I agreed that terrorism was bad and then noted that terrorism has always been with mankind and always will be.

They said did I believe in Armageddon and that the end was coming.
I said yes but that no-one would know when it was and that it was strange that the JWs had suggested 1975, 1914 and 1875 amongst other dates (though I conceded that the JWs couldn't be blamed for 1875 or 1914 as Jehovah hadn't chosen them until 1918.)
They agreed that many over zealous people had predicted dates but that they didn't do that any more.
Fair point.

I asked whether they believed that the JWs were inspired.
No - Yes - we are led by the Spirit of Jehovah.
Do you believe in visions and prophecy.
No.
What do you mean by inspiration then? How does it manifest itself?
You are led by Jehovah.
How? A voice?
No a feeling (now I must admit that floored me somewhat - I did not expect that response!!!) and through the scriptures.
Are other christians who feel the Spirit and use the scriptures as a guide inspired?
No.
How do you know? (I then spoke about my own missionary experiences of finding people who felt what I felt, read what I read but believed differently to me.)
We just do.
Why do you believe in no visions?
Queue scripture - charity remaineth.
Do you do lots of charity then?
Yes.
You have soup kitchens?
No we minister door to door and we help out in disasters.
So charity to you is preaching?
Yes.

How do you feel about the masonic connections of Russell?
We don't mind.
Do you care that the watchtower is a masonic symbol?
No.
I thought you didn't want anything ungodly - for example you don't have christmas trees do you?
We don't have any pagan symbols.
Well you do..your wedding ring is arguably pagan in origin.
Silence.

Why do you believe you are right and the thousands of other christian churches with their scholars and interpretations are wrong?
We've tried the teachings and proved them.
But you may have peaked too soon, the born agains may have a much better answer - did you try them?
No.
So what is it that makes you believe you stand out from the crowd?
We don't go to war or take part in governments.
Like the Amish?
No - they have removed themselves from society - we stay to preach.
Like the Catholics, BAs and Mormons?
The catholics don't preach?
Well they do and their missionary work outstripped everyone elses - at least historically - that's why the west is largely Christian.
But they don't do it now.
Yes they do, they have missions all over the place. Anyway - LDS also preach. What else makes you different?
We have the correct interpretation of the bible.
Based on what? You can't get the dates right, you disagree on whether you must abstain from blood or whether you can have fractions.. your interpretations of scripture aren't any better than other churches.
We at least read our scriptures.
I can think of loads of Christians who do the same.

You're at my door asking me to come to church.
No we aren't we are here just to deliver the message.
So you don't want me to become a JW?
No - Jehovah does.
So you would be unhappy if I turned up?
No of course not.

Would you agree that the hardest thing for most people to do is to give up their cherished beliefs - especially when faced with absolute proof they are wrong?
No - I had to do that to join the JWs.
So if I came to you with irrefutable proof that the JWs were wrong would you leave?
No. Would you leave the LDS church. (Good riposte!!)
Damn straight I would. I'm not wasting my time following things that aren't true. So how did you feel in the mid 90's when the generation change came along? Did it rock your faith.
Only one of the sisters remembered it. No - it was new guidance and Jehovah's organisation was getting clearer instruction all the time.
But you don't believe in revelation. This looks like just changing doctrines to suit to me.

We said a lot more (one and a half hours - which I said should bump their hours that week.) and we agreed to a rematch with the Elders and the reasoning from the scriptures book. They haven't called back one week later :( I don't think they will.

To be fair I gave them a good chunk of hard questions and they didn't wilt.

karen96

You're at my door asking me to come to church.

No we aren't we are here just to deliver the message.

So you don't want me to become a JW?

No - Jehovah does.

So you would be unhappy if I turned up?

No of course not.

This made me laugh! How many times are dubs being judged by how many they "brought into the truf"?

And no, we are just here with a message that we would gladly cram down your throat on a weekly basis until you either vomit us out of your home, or we take over your life and independent thinking!

karen

Dune

I'm surprised they stayed for that long.

most of the time, they'd run off your porch and call an elder, lol.

Personally, when i went/go door to door i try to get a yes or no answer from the householder, anything else and i try to leave, lol.

LDH

Great job!

These boys can talk themselves out of ANYTHING!

GetBusyLiving

Nice job Qcmbr!

GBL

daystar

Yes, excellent job!

Nathan Natas

A broken record won't quit either; it will skip andskip and skip and play the same thing over and over and over, that doesn't mean it is "intelligent." There is no evidence of any intelligence in what the two Dubs had to tell you either.

I'll bet they congratulated themselves for their sterling defense of the faith in the face of opposition. Polly wanna cracker?

renando_stimpy

I credit Jehovah's Witnesses for my new love of the Bible,

I was so sick of being walked all up and down in circular arguments it sent me crazy, I just had to have some comebacks..

Since then I have had a bit of practice and the last visit I had a great comeback, one of them said "yes" and the other said "no"

Victory Is Mine !!!

Well done for sticking up for yourself.. It a shame more people don't, or rather don't know how..

MinisterAmos

Whenever I ran into someone like you I just told them "I have to do this or they will disfellowship me, my wife will leave me and my children will never speak with me again".

I did that at least once with Elder/Pioneer D. right next to me but he didn't understand as he was still learning the language. Kept the same stupid grin on his face even after I explained to the homeowner that he (the Elder) was my retarded older brother.

Shawn10538

No. Would you leave the LDS church. (Good riposte!!) So, we have a Mormon ex-JW here? That is really funny if true. Good luck with that, I'll just get back to my Santa Claus Cult now where the real truth lies. Man, I'm glad I'm not a Witness anymore! Oh, say, and about Santa's golden plates you wanted to see? (Similar to Smith's plates, but these ones are the TRUE plates of gold written, not in Egyptian, but in ancient Icelandic!) You know, Friday is not good for me either. I have some hours to put in at the north pole. Can we reschedule for the 47,000th time in a row? You just keep catching me at bad times. In any case, you can only come to see the curtain behind which the gold plates sit. God only allows me to actually see the plates themselves. You just have to have faith, don't you know that? Anyway, I'm glad that the several hundred thousand actual sightings of Santa and his reindeer from all over the globe each year actually prove conclusively that Santa is real. Do Mormons even have that much evidence? Someone here, and I'm only assuming at this point, may need to catch up on some missed South Park episodes... call me crazy. No, really, call me crazy for believing in Santa and that the LDS is not just as ridiculous as all that and more... Shawn

Couple of JW Sisters came to my door - mini rumble