Encountered Witnesses today at Dunkin Donuts, need some advice please

by NotaNess 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Terry

  If it was you, what would be your TOP 5 eye opening issues in a composition of things to give to a witness.

  1.You are proposing to take away from people the most important thing in their lives. Consider that very carefully. It is an act of intellectual violence!

  2.There is no way they can read a few words on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and change their world view. That would be ridiculous.

  3.Belief has nothing to do with facts. Belief has everything to do with lifestyle, companionship, a community of shared purpose and an investment of emotions.

  4.Your best shot is to present an EXAMPLE (i.e. "yourself"). If you aren't a better person, right now, than they are and if you don't have a much, much better life because of your beliefs--you will be guility of the worst hypocricy. You are asking them to trade lives, as it were.

  5.Your own life story is really what you are selling. How does it demonstrate a better life for them to go through what you have gone through?

  6.The Watchtower Organization is their MOTHER! If you defame, ridicule or accuse somebody's MOTHER of evil---what reaction do you expect to get?

  7.Good and honest people are attracted by sincerety, honesty, example, warmth, facts, a mild presentation and GENUINE affection. Can you offer all that, or, just some list of atomic explosions that rock their world. The best remedy for wrong ideas is better ideas. What better ideas can you offer?

  Think about this.

  When you remove Jehovah, The Watchtower, the Kingdom Hall, and their brothers and sisters from somebody's life---you create a giant Black Hole that will be a mile wide. What do you have to fill it with?

  Beware!

  What do you propose to replace each removal with that has EQUAL gravitas?

  If you don't have something better--you are a soul killer.
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  sass_my_frass

  I'm with Terry. What's so great about your life that you need to rock their world? They think they're happy. How about first find out if they're not. If they are happy, you're a big meanie to take away their happiness. It's my opinion that everybody has the right to believe whatever stupid delusion they want. If you want to change anything about them, just go for the stuff that involves inflicting pain on a second party; that refusing blood transfusions kills kids, or that disfellowshipping kills adults. Besides that, I'm a live-and-let-live person.

  So you've gone in the other direction, congratulations. Beware of retaining the old compulsion to convert other people to what you believe to help affirm it to yourself.
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  eclipse

  Terry & Sass said it best.

  Unless someone comes to you asking for info, most if the information you will provide will be seen as propoganda and lies, and will fall on deaf ears.

  I haven't read your profile / bio, so I don't know your personal reasons for wanting to get JW's out of their religion.

  Why do you go to the kingdom hall?

  (from one post you mentioned your experiences of seeing bad behavior at the hall - so I assume you are a regular attender)

  Are you an UBM (unbelieving mate) of a Witness?

  Just curious about why you are behaving like an ''apostate'', when you are not one....

  When an elder asked me where I would go to if I left the truth, I told him, ''certainly not christendom, organized religion has absolutely no appeal to me, why would I jump from the pan into the fire?

  But, some witnesses need religion, so do you have a ''better'' religion for them to turn to?
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  nvrgnbk

  Nota Ness wants to turn everyone to the Lord Jesus Christ.

  He mocks the pain of those of us that suffered real losses to this cult.
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  DJK

  Terry.

  The org is like a raging fire. If you dont throw any fuel into it, it will die on it's own. IMO, all the books and and television documentaries calling the JWs a cult are cutting off the fuel and the result is a shrinking organisation.

  Before I was 17 I knew you couldn't get a witness out of the org. For the most part, it's something they find on their own that causes them to look furthur.
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  Terry

  On a very small scale I offer a tiny story.

  When I was about thirteen my very best friend in the whole world (who was a JW and eventually got me to be one too) told me my nose was crooked.

  It came as a shock. I had never noticed that before. Not off a whole lot, but; just enough to be noticeable.

  Well, that bit of "truth" he offered made me very self-conscious. VERY self-conscious, indeed.

  When I was around somebody (a pretty girl) I liked I had to turn my profile to them and strike awkward poses to avoid revealing my "affliction".

  Cut to the chase: My so-called "friend" had deliberately taken me down a notch to put me on his level by under-cutting what little self-confidence I had.

  Did he do me a favor? No.

  What he did wasn't friendly and it was cruel.

  Today I don't give a damn about my less-than-perfect-nose. But, as a young teenager it meant quite a bit to me.

  Moral of the story: The "truth" ain't never what it's cracked up to be.
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  willyloman

  I'm with Terry on this. And with all due respect, your desire to de-convert dubs is a holdover from the dub thinking that used to permeate your brain (and still does to some extent). For instance, you write;

  Like the saying goes, maybe I'll plant a seed here and there, after all some of you opened your eyes after being exposed to outside info or some real truths to the matter. Y

  This is dub thinking! Plan seeds? Open your eyes? Real truths? That's the approach you learned as a jay-dub. JWs who yearn to be free do so because they've seen poor examples paraded in front of them constantly and they see the big disconnect between the party line ("love is our identifying mark") and the real lack of genuine love among the "friends."

  You lead by example. End of story.
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  Open mind

  Terry said:

  Think about this.

  When you remove Jehovah, The Watchtower, the Kingdom Hall, and their brothers and sisters from somebody's life---you create a giant Black Hole that will be a mile wide. What do you have to fill it with?

  Beware!

  What do you propose to replace each removal with that has EQUAL gravitas?

  If you don't have something better--you are a soul killer.

  Excellent food for thought Terry. I know the OP was re: "converting" JWs at random. How would you apply your thoughts to loyal-dub members of your own immediate family? (Or would you?) Maybe I'll start my own thread.

  Open Mind
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  eclipse

  This is dub thinking! Plan seeds? Open your eyes? Real truths? That's the approach you learned as a jay-dub.

  Willyloman,

  a friendly FYI....the orginal poster, notaness, is not a JW. And to my knowledge has never been one.

  I am still unclear as to why he has taken it apon himself to preach to JW's.

  Perhaps he thinks they would make good converts to his religion.
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  TopHat

  Ask the witnesses, Who they are working for, the Watchtower OR Jehovah....because the GOOD NEWS can be preached without the Watchtower org.