by M.J. 49 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Gumby said:
I was an elder and I never went out on christmas day because I knew people would be with their families and would be celebrating christmas.....and the LAST thing people want at their doors is a stupidass Jehovahs Witness with their magazines denouncing christmas.
I think they should lock up every Jehovahs Witness who has the gall to invade people privacy on a day as special as this.
Gumby
Exactly Gumbro. I refused to bother people on that day.
Juni
Are they asking people to visit www.ScrewChristmasYouFilthyPaganWhores.com to find out their stand on christmas?
As an active, believing JW, I said that I refrained from
going out in door-to-door work on Christmas, Thanksgiving,
Halloween, and New Year's Day, Mother's and Father's Day
also. Only agreement I got from others was Halloween and
"Yeah, you should just offer a quick encouraging magazine
on those holidays, then leave."
Yes, most pioneers and others go out and see it as a
special day to catch people at home. That's devotion, but
I always figured the message would be to interrupt family
time with a religion that doesn't believe in the holiday.
I stuck to my guns and did not recruit on those holidays.
Now, I don't recruit, it's easier to see the folly of interrupting
time with family.
Memorial Day at the gravesites,
I had a Service Overseer that arranged this. They all came back saying how
wonderful the event was, only focusing on the positive responses. There was
no way I would join that, my wife either. I would love to hear some of the
negative responses or from the folks who didn't chase them away, but later
read the literature. This is totally invading people's space at a vulnerable time.
Some came to my house once on Christmas - you should have seen the shock on their face when I told them I was Hindu! (I'm not)
I went once because I got pressured into it (I was a new elder). Very few dubs showed up. The elder conducting the meeting kept it short and told us to remember people were busy today so keep presentations brief. Just showing up at their door on Xmas, he said, was witness enough.
We got a mixed bag. A couple of people were pissed and implied we were invading their space on a special occasion. I'll never forget one woman, who looked us up and down as though we were homeless people and said, "We're having our Christmas!" Then she shook her head and with a look of disgust closed the door.
One man invited us in for coffee and we accepted since it was freezing outside. He was there with a young boy who was seated on the floor, playing with new toys he'd just unwrapped. The man was clearly lonely and greatful for company of any kind. He told us he had to take his son to his wife's house in about an hour for their big family Christmas (to which he was not invited to stay). It was clear he was very unhappy about the whole situation. Later, the elder who talked me into going out said re-told this story at every opportunity, as "proof" that "Jehovah blessed our efforts that day." Which is funny, because as far as I know he never called on the man again.
Many people weren't home. I attributed that to church attendance, or traveling. I can't say it was the worst day of FS ever, but it still felt "icky" to me. I always felt that way about holidays, that dubs needed time off, too. The next year at Christmas, I planned a vacation and took the kids to an amusement park 500 miles away. That became an annual event for our family.
Later, when the kids got older, they all wanted to go skiing on Xmas day with all the other dub kids. So i organized ski trips and we went with them, drinking hot mulled wine in the lodge in front of the fire on Christmas day while the kids enjoyed themselves. I never regretted it.
I remember going when we lived in Arkansas, but didn't get past the 1st house, they were the most sociable people I ever met, It wasn't unusual to spend 2-3 hours in service and not get past 2-3 houses. Of course that was in1967, before people knew about all the mispredictions.
This is TOP ranked for JW/WT news right now and deserves it's own thread but it dovetails nicely with this ongoing thread.
"I'm not out here to solicit a member to swell our rolls," he said. "We're looking for the ones who want to hear our message, not the ones who want to argue."
| no holiday for Jehovah's Witnesses ( quicky register add comments at page bottom) Virginian Pilot, VA - 1 hour ago PORTSMOUTH — He was full of good cheer, but as James Brooks proselytized door to door on Monday morning, the Jehovah’s Witness was sure as can be that ... Christmas is no holiday for Jehovah's Witnesses
 By STEVEN G. VEGH, The Virginian-Pilot © December 26, 2006 | Last updated 11:05 PM Dec. 25 PORTSMOUTH — He was full of good cheer, but as James Brooks proselytized door to door on Monday morning, the Jehovah’s Witness was sure as can be that Christmas is not a Christian holiday. "I'm convinced that Jehovah - God - and his son, Jesus, are not pleased with the traditional Christmas celebration," said Brooks, a former Methodist and retired insurance agent. "It's not his date of birth." But Dec. 25 is a national holiday, which made Christmas morning a rare occasion for Jehovah's Witnesses to evangelize folk who wouldn't be home on an ordinary weekday. House-to-house evangelizing is a signature practice of the Jehovah's Witnesses movement, which dates to the 1870s. The denomination counts 1 million members nationwide and about 25,000 in Virginia. There are 31 Jehovah's Witnesses congregations in South Hampton Roads. Brooks, an elder in the Churchland congregation who evangelizes 70 hours a month, said Witnesses do not seek to be Scrooge on Christmas. "Nobody is happier than we are that Christ was born, born in a manger," Brooks said. "The big deal is not so much that he was born but that he willingly died for all mankind." Witnesses consider Christmas a pagan-inspired holiday with no basis in Christian Scripture, said J.R. Brown, a spokesman at the denomination's headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y. Brown said the Bible gives neither the date of Jesus' birth nor any command that the event be commemorated. Witnesses also are aware that Christians began marking Dec. 25 as Christmas only in the fourth century, probably to compete with year-end pagan celebrations in the Roman Empire. "We try to pattern our worship after first century Christianity when Jesus was on Earth, and he never taught his followers to participate or join in the celebrations," Brown said. "When Jesus was training his disciples, he put more focus on his death rather than his birth." On Monday morning, about 30 Witnesses in dress clothes mobilized at a Kingdom Hall, or church, on Shoulders Hill Road in Suffolk for a quick spiritual reflection and canvassing assignments. "We're going to encourage people to think about what the holiday is really about, which is Jesus Christ," said Wilton Evans, an elder. "The reason we are here is our love for God." He reminded canvassers to roll with the demeanor of those they would meet. "If people want to talk, we'll talk," Evans said. "If not, we want to be very brief and not interrupt any plans they have for this day." Brooks, 66, and his wife, Judy, were assigned to Armistead Forest, a neighborhood of tall trees and ranch and colonial-style houses in Portsmouth. "Good morning. We're both Jehovah's Witnesses encouraging people to look in their Bible," Brooks said on their first stop on Two Oaks Road. Alice Hewitt, the home-owner, listened patiently and assured the evangelists, "I'm active in my church." After chatting a minute or two, the Brooks es thanked her and left. The Witnesses' Christmas day canvassing was "fine with me," Hewitt said afterward. As for Witnesses' disbelief in celebrating Christmas, she said, "I can't say that I'm familiar with that at all." Amid a morning drizzle, the Brookses went door to door, immensely polite and offering copies of the Witnesses' magazine, The Watchtower. "Some people, amazingly, think we don't believe in Jesus; I don't know if you've ever heard that," Brooks said at one home where a resident listened through a storm door. "Of course, we do!" As a heavier rain put an end to the morning's outreach, Brooks said the evangelizing was less about challenging other people's beliefs than connecting with individuals who already were spiritually curious. "I'm not out here to solicit a member to swell our rolls," he said. "We're looking for the ones who want to hear our message, not the ones who want to argue." |
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=116645&ran=214819&tref=po see if this will link to article where you can register and add your comment
I was wondering if I would receive a return call on Christmas morning and was mentally rehearsing what I would say, wavering between surprise at their willingness to interupt a special day for our family and sadness at their devotion to an organization that denies them (now) the chance to celebrate the birth of Christ. I would have invitited them in, given them some goodies, and shared with them what the Bible REALLY teaches about serving Jehovah. But, they did not come....
