Missing Link,
So, you are not against acting lovingly toward your enemies, you are just against others doing it out of a sense of obligation to God?
Personally, when someone treats me kindly even after I've done something against them, I really don't care why. That's just me.
I n my godless world love IS natural
What world is that? Have you checked the news lately?
Mary,
I applaud you for that. That's awesome. The best defense is a good offense.
People like Lady Liberty and others have every right to be disgusted and angry with family members who shun them.
Of course they do. I don't deny that. Nothing wrong in that at all. But the fact remains that without their blind loyalty to men, many of those relationships could be restored. Am I wrong?
Your idea of simply 'turning the other cheek', I don't think is very realistic.
Not only that, I believe it to be sometimes impossible. But, with God all things are possible. I really believe that.
However, I'm not really suggesting a turning of the other cheek as much as I am arguing for an offensive approach to JW's, as long as it is done out of kindness. There are now millions of ex-JW's. Now, that's a powerful force.. mostly untapped I might add.
Now, what prevents most of the millions of EX-JW's from seeking out active members when it is convenient and kindly asking them questions that they have no rehearsed answers for?
I'll tell you, it's those nasty and burdensome feelings of disgustedness, or feelings of one-upmanship, or wanting to discredit them, or wanting to embarrass them. In short, a lack of love and genuine concern for our enemies. It is our anger that is the deal-stopper to face to face confrontation.
JW's pride themselves for having all the answers, we all know that. They simply are not used to feelings like "I have no answer for that". It disturbs them. Many won't get on the internet, but they will ALL talk to a stranger about their faith.
A few months ago while on the other side of town, I called a JW to my car door while he was out working some territory. I asked him a question about his faith and he started trying to leave. I asked him not to, so he tried to stay a little longer. Finally, he nearly threw a tract at me as said, "here, this will explain it". Of course the tract had nothing to do with what we were talking about.
I could have gotten angry, but, I felt sorry for the man. This was an invitation, not a dissing. That Saturday morning I dressed up my whole family and we met at the local Kingdom Hall in that area just as they were coming out of the Hall. We were greeted with "hello brother" by several. I explained to one of the elders that we attend such and such Baptist Church and that we had met one of their members who had abruptly left without answering our questions. I asked if this was normal. They said it was not and that he was probably new. I then asked if we could come in and ask a few questions. The elder tried to explain that he was about to go door to door. I kindly explained that we could save him the trouble since we were already there. He agreed. Him and what appeared to be a MS invited us into the conference room.
I started off by telling him that we were new Christians and were interested in various faiths so that we could properly witness to people. We discussed Catholicisim, and how we could not see a basis for viewing Mary as a Mediator. He agreed and stated that there is only one Mediator. I told him that we agreed but had run across a quote from a WT. on the internet that read: "Christ does not act as Mediator toward them [the Great Crowd]. 2/15/91 WT pg. 15 par 11
I let him kick that around for a while and then we explained the meaning of the old testament sacrifices. I then showed him how we are only saved by the blood but the blood is only accessible by the the New Covenant. After establishing that he was not part of the new covenant, I then asked him if he could provide me with even one scripture showing how his sins are forgiven OUTSIDE of the new covenant. We patiently waited as they ravaged their Reasoning Books.
After a while he said he'd have to do some research. I then asked what was the purpose of them coming to our doors if they could not explain how a person can have their sins forgiven?
We ended by pulling out a copy of Johannes Greber translation of the bible. I read the elder part of the forward where it says that he translated it with the help of spirits and how at times the letters would appear before him on a wall to give him the correct translation. He stopped me and asked me if I knew what God thought of the occult. We both agreed that it was against God's commands. I then pulled out 5 references from previous WT literature where the WT quoted from the Greber bible and asked him how his church could quote such an abomination.
The MS offered that it must have been apostates embeddd in Brooklyn. I asked how he could be sure that there were not imposters there now misleading. The look on the MS face was one nothing short of fear. His eyes seemed to be bulging. I know that those two men had never heard much of what I presented that morning.
At this point we wrapped it up and I gave him my cell phone number so he could get back with me on that scripture. Of course that call never came.
There is no reason why many ex-JW's can't do things exactly like this if they get over their hurt a bit. What would happen if tens of thousand of ex-JW's descended on Kingdom Halls asking such questions? What would happen if we all made it our business to put our hurt feelings aside and carried a few quotes around in our wallets or purse?
I dare say that there would be trouble in Babylon. We should have a special forum on this board for experiences like Mary's and mine, so we can learn from each other.
