by skeeter1 45 Replies latest jw experiences
his attempts to convert me seem to gain full speed towards the end of each month. Perhaps this has to do with the pioneering requirement?
Ah, so perhaps he really does know you don't want to hear it, dear Skeet (peace to you!) but needs to "count the time" so doesn't really CARE? Makes sense... especially if his mortality is staring him in the eye. Sort of like "catching up" on the old 401(k)...
Again, peace to you... and hope you get through to him on this!
A slave of Christ,
SA
My favorite way of handling JWs is to invite them to a discussion of their beliefs. Suck them in with interest then hammer them with questions that attack their foundations. This will stammer them. JW logic is easily shattered; a simple question or two and it unravels before their eyes. This should work if you want to stop the harassment, as JWs aren't taught to think for themselves.
Your dad will then fall back on his Watchtower pubs (which is where the grade-school logic originated) and that is when you can perform the coup de grace. JW literature is filled with double-speak, twisted reasoning, strawman argumentations, and more. But the amazing thing about what they print is that many times it is true. You will read in the WT where it is a conscience matter to vote, how divided households should raise their children in both religions, why religion should never come between family members, that all of us should investigate our beliefs and then follow our own conscience as to our path, etc.
Your dad will not be familiar with these thoughts because we he reads them it is through WT-tinted glasses. But you should still force him to read it. After all, it is from his own religious journals.
If he survives this battering of his faith, your relationship with him may have hope. Mostly, this tactic will cause the injured JW to flee from your presence, never to be heard from again. But, still, it could work...
Free at last, I do that when he comes to visit. it doesn't work. He hammers me for days, and I hammer back. We have very little interaction, other then lobbing blows at each other's viewpoints. I am sick and tired of it. He only has a few years left, and I can't spend any "normal" time with him. And, neither do his grandkids.
Skeeter,
Sorry about that. I was speaking from my personal viewpoint. I love to debate and discuss, even with those who disagree with me. I think it is my way of expressing the freedom I enjoy for the first time in my life. I actually prefer to discuss issues with those of differing perspectives. If you are tired of the back and forth, then don't do it. If he has the right to act out of conscience in shoving his faith down your throat, then you need to act out of your own conscience and refuse to swallow.
Rights and freedoms go both ways, brother.
My sincere apologies, dear Skeeter (peace to you!), but I sense that perhaps I've offended you in some way? If so, please know that I truly did NOT intend to do so, but only to offer another perspective, and so will bow out.
Again, peace to you!
A slave of Christ,
SA
I'm unwashed and have a OCD old man too, but he mostly keeps his trap shut about religion in my presence now.
What I did, was get him to agree, one king at a time, quoting WT rags, to all of the lengths of the reigns of each of the Neo Babylonian kings, then added them up one at a time quoting the rags again, getting him to agree that the calculation was correct for every one.
When I got to the end of the calc and he realised he was in the crap, he asked where I got my information from. I reminded him that I had just quoted all of it from his own rags and that he had agreed. He asked why is it important? He was just trying to change the subject by finding anything he could accuse me of. I just told him that I would discuss that after he shows me his list of kings to show where the mistake is.
He has tried every excuse he can think of to get out of showing me where the mistake is. I ignor the lot. If he tries to weasel his way out of it using some trick he has accused another religion of, I pounce on the double standard. He has to feel guilty that he hasn't answered my question until he gets his arse into gear and answers it.
He will wait months, or years, before he forgets and talks religion again, but I have 'King List' tattooed on my forehead and he gets headbutted with it at every opportunity he gives me. I refuse to talk about any other WT topic. If he wants to save my arse from his killer god, he has to answer MY question, and if he doesn't get around to it smartly and his WT god kills me, that's his fault for not answering MY question promptly, with honesty and integrity, and without trying to bully me into some shonky explanation by a bunch of old farts in Brooklyn. I don't follow men.
Guilt, guilt, guilt.
Never answer his questions. Never let him change the subject. Never change the subject unless it is to talk about something really important, like fishing, sport, gardening ....
