Stumbling Your Fellow Brothers

by dig692 23 Replies latest jw friends

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  dig692

  I just felt the need to express my thoughts on the matter of "stumbling others" in the congregation. They tell you that you are accountable for your own soul and responsible for your own spirituality, and then they tell you that you can't do something if its going to stumble your brother.

  If a brother/sister sees me doing something not condemned in the Bible but maybe is a matter of conscience and he/she is stumbled...why is that my fault? What makes me accountable for that? Isn't he/she accountable for his/her own self?

  Am I totally missing something here? Just had to express that, thanks.
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  transparentGreen

  I think there would need to be intention (at least logic dictates so). I don't think you can blame a rock for tripping over it, but sticking your foot out in the hallway as someone walks by on the other hand, although funny, would fall under a condemning context.

  But again thats just me...
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  The Oracle

  It's just one of a myriad of biblical and WTirical (an original expression - woo hoo!) contradictions of principle.

  Nothing new here...same old confusing double standards that make no sense when you apply honest logic.

  The Oracle
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  AdaMakawee

  This one never made sense to me, either. I've told this story before but I'll tell it again. One year while I was a reg pioneer, my pioneer partner and I went to the World's Fair in Spokane WA. We paid our ticket and just as we went in the gate, we were accosted by a clown. Now, this clown had on the full costume and paint, right down to the massive oversized shoes. He starts teasing me, and so of course, I joked back with him. Whole thing took under a minute and we were on our way inside to see the wonders of the world.

  I get home and the next day I have a phone call. The JC wants to meet with me. JC?? WTF?? Well it seems the sister was "stumbled" by me "flirting" with this clown.

  This is ridiculous to the point of exhaustion.

  Ada
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  VoidEater

  This is firmly combatted by Matthew 7:5 (remove the plank from your own eye first).

  Krazy is as krazy does.

  It is impossible to account for what others think, let alone what you think they might think.

  Just because Brother or Sister Gotta-Have-Things-My-Way doesn't want their boat rocked is no reason to stop swimming. They need to worry a little more about their own conduct rather than others.
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  Nathan Natas

  There was a WORLD'S FAIR in Spokane? Really? When was this? Were they celebrating the end of the Ice Age?
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  Found Sheep

  One more way to control!!! If they don't have a real reason they can use "stumble" as an excuse to do anything!!!
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  AdaMakawee

  http://expo74.brandx.net/

  When you think about world's fairs, the cities that likely come to mind are London, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Paris, and perhaps even Montreal, Osaka or Seattle.

  But in 1974, Spokane, Washington put on a world's fair that was unique in a couple ways: it was the only U.S. fair of the Bicentennial era and no smaller city had ever hosted a world's fair. During the six months it was open, over five million people—roughly 28 times the city's population—visited Expo.

  mmmhmm they sure did, were you there?
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  Aussie Oz

  i once heard an experience of a wealthy brother who drove an old VW beetle and when asked why not a mercedes he replied, why i wouldnt want to stumble poorer brothers by a flashy car.

  The other day i read an experience where a poor sister in bethel told about Nathan Knorr driving around in a cadillac.

  Go forth and stumble many.

  Oz
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  WTWizard

  This is their way of making "conscience matters" into real sins. You go ahead and get some eggnog, and you are going to have Brother Hounder accosting you for "worshiping the sun". When you explain that you are getting the stuff because you happen to like it, without regard for the holiday, they tell you that you are stumbling others--even if there are no other witlesses in the store besides you and the hounder who barged on you. The same goes for the Easter candy.

  Or, you happen to like a song that is "questionable". The record is inconspicuously stored at home, and the song is in your MP3 player (which itself is inconspicuous). The volume is low enough so the music stays with you. However, the hounder now comes in and hunts through your music collection. Sure enough, that record comes up (even though the hounder had to look several times). Now, you are stumbling anyone that comes into the cancer by having that record (not even in plain sight) at home.

  I think there should be a concept of "private property". The humanoid that dragged me into the cancer had several records in his own collection, and I never got to see all of them (nor was it even my business); yet he is going to tell me to get rid of my records that he doesn't approve of to avoid stumbling others. They are put away, inconspicuous (you can tell that there were quite a few, but reading the labels was difficult unless you know where to look for them). I have seen almost no other witlesses' record collections (and, when I did see them, I viewed it more as a parental control issue rather than a stumbling issue). If adults had "bad" songs in their private collection and the albums were not flamboyantly displayed, it was none of my damn business.