by ttw1981 24 Replies latest jw friends
"It can't hurt anything to go, can it?"
I'm betting that there were several families that thought - or perhaps said - this very same thing prior to attending a Jim Jones 'religious' meeting.
I'm with everyone who has already stated... stay away from their 'memorial' meeting.
Regards,
Jim TX
ttw-- you sound like a very kind person. Thanks for posting here! I enjoyed reading your statements and feelings. I guess, if many of us had it to do over again, we would ask one question of them, and it's a simple one:
'If I became a JW, does the WTS teach that I should limit the time that I spend with my own sister, my brother, grandparents, cousins, old and dear friends and neighbors and even my parents?'
and then I'd ask, 'If I became a JW then some time later decided to leave it, would I be viewed differently by the JWs, even shunned, avoided by people who had become my friends. . .would I be considered a bad association?'
the answers to these are YES. But they hide this until you're fully indoctrinated.
(others have asked similar questions like: Can I do research on the history of JWs and that of their beliefs? [they will then hand you their own books for this] Then ask 'why not go to the library or the internet too'. . .researching JWs in sources other than their own is forbidden.) This is an eyeopener for many people.
The Witness memorial is essentially a "Black Mass", in that the sacraments representing Jesus are passed and refused. The Witness bishop (called "elder") reads a list of the reasons Witnesses are "true Christians" if they refuse Christ.
If you've never been to a Black Mass, it might be interesting to go and see it. The outline of the bishop's speech is available here. You might take a copy along and follow along. It should make for an interesting "book study" with the Witnesses following the mass.
oh, go if you want to go. It's a stupid meeting, but you'll learn something about JWs and they can't MAKE you be a JW if you don't want to be one. They don't have any power unless you give it to them. If you're just curious, there's no harm. One poster recently told of taking her mate to a meeting because he was curious. Afterward he understood her and the whole religion a lot better. And he was by no means going to become a JW, in fact quite the opposite after he attended the meeting. The love bombing happens, it might even be sincere, but it won't last.
The one thing I think that all Christians who attend the KH should realize while 'respecting' (in form anyway) the way that the JWs do things, is that NOT taking the 'emblems' with a bunch of non-christians is in no way a rejection of Christ. They are to be taken WITH other Christians and in the correct way for the correct reasons. You are not obligated as a Christian to eat every bit of unleavened bread or wine that passes before your nose. You eat if for a reason and with purpose.
Now, that is not to say that JWs are NOT totally rejecting Christ-because they are-they do it consistently and deliberately. They are not biblical Christians. And they are participating in a 'black mass' in the sense that they are purposely and consciously rejecting the sacrifice of Christ.
So, if you (any lurkers) are morbidly curious (I am, this year ought to be an interesting one), go, inflate their numbers-its not as if they don't do that anyway! You might want to try to park outside the official parking lot, so you can make a quick getaway or an early exit if it disgusts you or bores you too much.
Don't eat the stuff, it just feeds their persecution complex, and its quite big already.
