Interesting thing happened today with my father the PO..... (page 2)

knock knock

------What if the angels sent the man to your table?------

Or, what if the man WAS an angel utilizing the Theocratic Warfare Stratagem just to test the human?

i'm of a similary mind to nathan natas (love the knorr pic) on this, although i wouldn't frame it necessarily as "fear" of people; perhaps it's better called "social etiquette awareness". i hope you're considering the possibility that your dad simply felt uncomfortable trying to persuade an emotionally driven person (actually a leader) from his position, or perhaps that he didn't feel like ruining his lunch with you.. those of us who have our doubts often start out by simply becoming reasonable, and this situation looks more like that than it does like a fearful retreat from a potentially strong adversary. isn't it possible that he's strong enough to argue effectively but doesn't feel like it - perhaps because of some deep-seated doubts about the whole thing? i can still easily show the baptist preacher why political neutrality is the christian position, or that his triune god-concept is yet to overcome the fact that jesus publicly disagreed with jehovah but acquiesced to his (differing) will, among many, many other points of doctrine. i doubt your father became an elder (let alone PO) without that same ability. perhaps your father has felt, at a fundamental level, that what his group believes isn't right with reality.. ---(ps: does anyone know how to make line breaks? do i have to do a "/b" or some html thing??)----- one more thing: i'm sorry if i'm offending those who have become christians of another sort. i don't want to disrupt anyone's religious bliss or happiness; i'm just keenly aware of the kind of thinking that led to my becoming a witness and i hope those who have become freed from one form of mental captivity are not falling into another by that same type of thinking...

AshtonCA

I remember being embarrassed when my mom would mention the name Jehovah in public. She was a very loud person when she talked and I used to cringe when she'd say something about the watchtower or whatever in public. We never prayed in public as my mom said that it was wrong to do it as a show. We hardly ever prayed as a family at home either, and she was anointed and my dad was an elder. Go figure lol I guess I had parents who didn't act like all the other parents who forced their kids to act a certain way.

Now I am excited to share my faith in public. I actually have a Christian fish on my car and a Cross hanging on my mirror. We do pray in public and we are working on being a praying family. I guess the difference for me now is that I LOVE being a Christian because I love Jesus and finally understand who he truly is and what he truly means to me in my Christian life. I'm no longer embarrassed and actually kinda wanna shout it from the rooftops if I could get away with not being thought of as a nut :)

Ashton

carla

My jw was recently asked about his 'holidays' by someone, I thought it was because I was standing there that he replied with an 'ok' and didn't go into a 'I'm a jw......". I was thankful he didn't because I sure don't want people thinking I am one! Glad to see other jw's are obviously not so proud of their jwism they don't mention it either! and a PO no less!

oneairhead

Thank you all for your responces! I will definitely try some of them on him. I love it when others share their experiences of active witnesses doubting and being stupid so I was excited to share mine. I am not active but still in. I need my family and hope that one day they will see the light.

One

truthsearcher

Please keep us updated on any further conversations with your dad.

uninformed

Fear of man is a snare.

Your father is embarassed to be a witness, just like almost all of them are, except at the Kingdom Hall. There they can act like brave men.

One of my biggest gripes about 'my fellow elders' was that they would give a kid hell for standing for the national anthem at school, but when they would go to a ball game or a car race, they would always make it their plan to be already standing up or they would be at the bathroom or the food line when the anthem was played.

Bunch of chicken sh--ts.

Brant

Johnna

"One of my biggest gripes about 'my fellow elders' was that they would give a kid hell for standing for the national anthem at school, but when they would go to a ball game or a car race, they would always make it their plan to be already standing up or they would be at the bathroom or the food line when the anthem was played."

Yeah... my Dad was a servant (before the elder arrangement- mid 60's) and we went to a "roller derby" game in San Bernardino with another brother who was a servant and his daughter. I guess I was probably about 12 years old. Well you're right, about 5 mins before the game was about to start, my Dad and the brother got up to "go to the bathroom" and left us there. The national anthem started and me and the girl just looked at each other as we sat there. We felt as if we were abandoned by spiritual deserters in the battle for the truth! As kids it made a very bad impression on us.

primitivegenius

hell maybe jehovah did send that gentleman over......... to show you that your dad has doubts. the first chink in his armor............ use it wisely

Interesting thing happened today with my father the PO.....