There's something I don't quite get (page 2)

nancy drew

the goal is that after their all destroyed the witnesses get to take all their stuff until it runs out and then turn into a planet of savages.

garyneal

Perfectly timed topic as I was thinking the exact same thing while I was out walking on my lunch break.

They actively discourage education in favor of "kingdom interests" and yet they very quickly tap the services of an educated brother or sister. "You know Brother So-and-so is a lawyer and he helped us with our legal issues." Gee, I wonder how did Brother So-and-so get his legal degree without tapping 'the world.'

Of course, someone already mention life saving blood fractions that come from stored blood donated by 'worldlies' because no witness is allowed to donate blood.

They have no institutions of higher learning, unless you count that Gilead school. They do not, as an organization, perform any charitable work or social functions and yet they criticize the churches that engage in any of this.

The way I see if, this world was given to us and we are suppose to use it as we see fit to better mankind. But this message is lost to a witness who believes that the only betterment of mankind will come once the new system arrives. Meanwhile, they're wasting the life they have now.

Lozhasleft

What kind of New World are the JWs going to have when all they can do is wash windows but don't have any idea how to manufacture windows?

StAnn
Lol @ this ...dont worry there are scores of Double Glazing Businesses over here owned by JWs...they'll sort the windows!!
Loz x

pirata

w83 8/15 pg 18, par 9:

As witnesses of Jehovah living in this system of things, we cannot actually "get out of the world." (1 Corinthians 5:9,10) So we can appropriately use the world in balanced, proper, limited ways. For instance, since we pay our taxes, we are entitled to certain services furnished by the governmental "superior authorities." (Romans 13:1-7) We properly use postal, police, and other lawful services, such as transportation systems. For what purpose? For proper living and to carry on the God-given work of Kingdom witnessing. But since we are not to use the world "to the full," all such things are used only to the extent that they serve Christian interests.

Pistoff

Witnesses benefit from civilization, higher education and defense, without being willing to lift a finger to contribute.

Instead, they will talk about corrupt government, laugh at leader's atttempts to better the lot of the average person and pine for the 'new system'.

I agree; they need their own country, so they can deal with people like themselves, selfish and hypocritical.

Nathan Natas

A loyal Dub would explain that the exclusive property of this world is EVIL, and it is from EVIL in all its forms that we must separate ourselves.

Jehovah's squeaky-clean organization may protect pedophiles and alcoholics, wife-beaters, liars, hypocrites and people leading double lives, but you will not within the congregation the kind of pernicious, blatant EVIL that you will find, for example, in the Boy Scouts.

Mad Sweeney

This topic is one of the (many) things that aided me on my path of discovery that the Borg has lied to its members.

The world isn't primarily evil with a few "sheeplike ones" out there waiting to be found and converted to the JW way of thinking. The world is primarily comprised of good, well-meaning people who are shaped in equal parts by their culture and their own free will, contributing to the global society in which they live.

I see more love for fellow man in one week around my workplace than I would see in a year at the Kingdom Hall. It became so obvious that "Satan's world" was a lie that has taken on mythical proportions in the Borg that I just couldn't stomach it anymore.

dgp

I think paying taxes is one of the aspects of this matter, but not the only one. I find the explanation given by the WT, according to Pirata, terribly lacking. And I think that's a point that needs clarification just to make clear what my point was here. Paying taxes does entitle you to governmental services, like it does anybody else. But that is not the point. Someone had to devote his time and mind, his life (her life, if you want) to devising ways to create those goods and services. Someone had to go to college to find a way to create this new medication or that new procedure that saves a Witness' life (or any other person's). The idea that all those travails are futile is terrible, in my opinion.

The most obvious damage is how it makes good people ruin their lives, let every opportunity go. There should be a way for people to preach their religion and NOT waste their lives away.

It also gives the witnesses a distorted vision of life, that facts disprove every time. Do you remember that big lie, the one that went like "You need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this system of things", back in 1969? How old are those people now?

But every time a witness sees the world, he or she has to see that some worldly out there did very well, and that those efforts were not futile at all. How futile hast it been to vaccinate children? I wonder how it can be that the evidence can be right in front of your eyes yet you fail to see it. How can any witness truly consider the worldlies as below him? THAT IS THE POINT.

pirata

dgp, I agree. I misread your initial post as more of a question than a statement.

One day I drove by a church that had grown so much that they had to double the size of their parking lot. I commented on that. The Witness I was with just shook their head and said 'false religion'.

I once pointed out how succesfull someone was in their field. The response was "If we focused on worldly pursuits, then we could do just as well."

Those are both cases of using a thought-stopping phrase to calm an uncomfortable or conflicting thought.

By acknowleding that the worldlies efforts were not futile, the JW would be admitting that perhaps his or her efforts are futile. Denying it calms the cognitive dissonance.

garyneal

Someone had to go to college to find a way to create this new medication or that new procedure that saves a Witness' life (or any other person's).

Someone also had to go to college to think up creative ways to perform 'bloodless' surgeries or try to come up with some alternatives to blood transfusions.

*sigh* These statements are lost on witnesses. I've tried arguing how it would be in the societies best interest to encourage higher education, especially when someone does it in the medical field.

Brother so-and-so went to college where he specialized in learning about blood and how the body uses it. Through his knowledge, Jehovah was able to use him to come up with a 100% alternative to whole blood for blood transfusions. What a wonderful provision Jehovah has made for us as he is using his God given abilities to train doctors everywhere and encourage more witnesses who are interested to become doctors. What a wonderful witness he has made.

Think you'd ever hear something like that at the next assembly?

There's something I don't quite get

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