The WTB&TS best defense against apostates

by Gregor 22 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Gregor

  The other thing I noticed was the spokeswoman of the two began by reading the scripture about wars and turmoil from her NWT Bible. I never saw a piece of literature but they probably had some in their bags. Yes, I expected more engagement of my questions, but instead I got the deer in the headlights look and they quite quickly started to "qualify" me. Sales people will know what I mean by this. They were not interested in a discussion. Could it be that the Watchtower dogma has become so fragile that they have been taught to move on if they can't close immediately? Any customer resistance means, "This is a goat. I'm moving on until I find a sheep" ?

  Thanks for that YouTube. Great guy. It described my encounter pretty much on the money. (Except for the born again angle of course.)
• 

  CoonDawg

  I LOVE living in a gated community. We NEVER get witnesses here...except the ones that cut the grass for my neighbors....LOL
• 

  amicus

  I've been in my area for about 2 years now. I live in a metro-type area. There is a kingdom hall down the street. I have not encountered not one JW in the mininistry. I see mormons everyday. but the Large army of JW's preaching to save mankind....NONE NADDA.

  I see a Witness perhaps once every 6 months to a year. On rare occasion I see one I used to know, they either don't recognize me or pretend not too. I've never been df'ed just did the fade. I smile, take the tracts they pass out, never magazines any more, just tracts and politely excuse myself. Mormons I see far more often and they are much more interested in engaging me in some type of discussion. I see Baptists from some local church more that Witnessess nowdays.

  I'm home (semi-retired) probably 23.5 hours a day. Front door open, back door open, stereo on doing some project or another around the house. It's like the witnesses went *poof*. It's not that they are avoiding me either, they are avoiding my middle class neighborhood. Can't say I blame them, going door to door was one of the harder things I ever forced myself to do. I used to sing to myself when Pioneering, "People are strange, when you're a stranger. Faces look ugly when you're alone. Women seem wicked when you're unwanted. Streets are uneven when you're down".

  Used to crack me up that Jim Morrisons lyrics helped me to maintain my sanity.
• 

  yknot

  I don't know about yall but over the last 8 years we have moved away from knocking & talking. So unless you have an Elder (who is not your relative) by your side all you do is 'rap' the door once, place a tract nearby & leave. Most of the studies are not from knocking but from personal acquaintances. Several are doing studies with weaker KH members.

  Also if the pew report is correct, with us being one of the 'fastest' growing religions but lacking retention.....this means more & more householders have already had JW experience and qualify as apostate.
• 

  Switch

  The Witnesses really do try to avoid confrontation at all costs. If someone starts asking loads of questions, they're supposed to pick one subject and tell the householder that they'll come back and discuss it in length with them. You might have the rare pioneer that can actually find their way around the Bible, but the majority rely on memorizing the presentations that the WTS provides for the magazines, books and tracts. If the householder doesn't want to listen to their little memorized speech, then they move on to the next door. For those of you that have been out for a while, the scenario goes like this:

  Greeting...repeat a couple sentences of memorized subject....ask question....read suggested scripture for the answer....pull out mags/brochure/book with related subject and offer. I might have a KM a few months old around here if you wanted to see an actual presentation. But this is how the witnesses are doing it and not many are being inventive and deviating from it.
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  WTWizard

  If they practiced fully integrated honesty and came clean about any bad teachings they had when they were spotted, they might be apostate-proof. But, once you start hiding any bad teachings with even worse ones, it takes little for apostates to start picking them apart.
• 

  iceguy

  They probably did'nt know the 1914 generation change. I think sometimes changes like that go right over the heads of many jw's.
• 

  Gregor

  Yes, the 1914 point that I thought would really make them squirm was greeted with a blank look. They were both old enough to have been adults in 1995. I suppose they may have become JWs since then but I tend to believe it just went over their heads. They seemed to have a mantra about "New Light" and immediately pointed out that even the apostles didn't understand how Jesus was going to be their savior at the time. I think they are prepared to a certain extent to defend the inconsistencies of the org.
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  amicus

  I don't know about yall but over the last 8 years we have moved away from knocking & talking. So unless you have an Elder (who is not your relative) by your side all you do is 'rap' the door once, place a tract nearby & leave. Most of the studies are not from knocking but from personal acquaintances. Several are doing studies with weaker KH members.

  Also if the pew report is correct, with us being one of the 'fastest' growing religions but lacking retention.....this means more & more householders have already had JW experience and qualify as apostate.

  There you go, that explains why I rarely see Witnesses at my, and my neighbors doors.
• 

  Quentin

  ...KM a few months old around here if you wanted to see an actual presentation. But this is how the witnesses are doing it and not many are being inventive and deviating from it.

  It's been dumbed down then...It was like Terry said, also, unless you had Harry with you dismanteling mailboxes, you would knock several times, hard, or ring the bell more than once...hoping whoever answered the door had questions, or objections...so you could whip out the "Green Phantom" giving a proper witness.

  Unless they slammed the door in your face, set the dogs on you, you might spend fifteen, twenty minutes standing on their stoop...if you were with my father, made his living selling cold call insurance, a person could pass out from the heat before he was done... Thoes were the days....

  Been in this town over twenty years, except for running into a few jw's I knew, haven't seen any working the doors...Plenty Morman's come around....