....and of course were there to 'encourage me'. I was asked what I thought when I saw all the bad things going on in the world and about how close we are to The End. I replied "Jeff, I simply do not believe that it's going to happen in my life time." He was momentarily stunned and said "well, when have things ever been this bad before?"
I said "um....I'm pretty sure that the world was in a lot worse shape during the Great Depression when they had 25% unemployed, and then on the heals of that came the Holocaust."
He then switched tactics and started talking about how the Witnesses have 'covered the globe' with their preaching. Thanks to this site, I know that that's a crock of shit. I said "What about China where there's over a billion people there? What about all the Islamic countries? Are the Witnesses preaching on a regular basis there?" Again, he was stunned and didn't know what to say to this, so he immediately turned it around and said "Well actually, we don't think that it'll be preached that much in countries like that. Besides, China knows who we are because they banned us." To which I replied "I think they've banned more than just the Witnesses. They're a Communist country and they do not believe in 'freedom of religion', that's why they ban it."
Again, all I got was a blank stare.
We then got on the subject of the resurrection hope. He said how wonderful it was that we have this hope as no one else offers it. This has always annoyed the shit out of me and I said "Jeff---every single religion on the face of the earth offers their followers a hope of seeing their loved ones again. Witnesses are not the only ones who have this hope."
He was yet again, shocked into silence, mumbled something about us being part of the King of the North (I had to gently correct him that the Society has always taught that we live with the King of the South).......Anyway, he ran out of answers pretty damn quick, invited me to the Memorial and sce-daddled out of there.
This is the first real conversation I've had with an elder since I left and I'm amazed at how much I've learned since then. This elder is no dummy when it comes to other things in life. He's smart as a whip on the computer---borderline genius I would say, but he simply had no rebuttal for anything I said. And believe me, I was being as nice as I could be.
His reaction to my comments just reinforced the obvious: That Witnesses are brainwashed into believing whatever 'Mother' tells them to believe and when they don't have an answer, they simply turn and walk away.
Wonder if he'll count me as a Return Visit.