"Recovery" Could Benefit By Following My JW Grandfather's Advice

by steve2 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  steve2

  Recovery is new to this forum. He inevitably uses a confrontational approach, requesting - demanding? - that people show him why the Watchtower is wrong. He makes his terms of reference quite clear and is dismissive of people's attempts to show him why the Watchtower is wrong. I couldn't help but think of how my maternal JW grandfather would have responded to someone like Recovery when my grandfather went door-to-door from the mid-1920s to his death in the mid-1970s.

  My JW grandfather used to take me door-to-door during the late 1950s and early 1960s when I was a young 'un. Occasionally he'd be confronted by a born-again Christian who would fire questions demanding he "show" them from the Bible why he claimed to have the truth. He knew the game they were playing because nothing he said could convince them. His answers were never good enough. I remember what he said to me when we would walk away from the doorstep of yet another born-again Christian who had tried to bait him with questions:

  "The trouble with their questions is they don't listen to my answers; they just keep firing questions; that's all they do. If that ever happens to you Stephen just stop answering their questionxs and suggest they take the time to read our publications and find out for themselves."

  So, Recovery, the shoe's now on your argumentative foot. Please do the same: You're good at baiting posters but, like the born-again questioners my grandfather and I came across in the door-to-door ministry, you have shown yourself incapable of listening. Get off your high horse and read Mr Franz's books yourself.

  Just as it was not my JW grandfather's job to attempt to answer the questions of people who were determined to prove him wrong, it is not our job on this forum to answer the questions of people such as yourself who appear determined to prove ex-JWs wrong. Thank you.
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  Aware!

  I hope he/she realizes that we do care about him/her. Why else would people take the time to answer his/her questions?
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  steve2

  Valid point Aware! I suspect though he is applying an infinitely stricter standard to the answers he demands from ex-JWs than the standards he has come to (have to) accept from the Watchtower Society. At least with us, he can engage in rude language whereas his attitude would never be tolerated by the Watchtower Society.

  You have to also wonder why, if everything is so well-answered in Jehovah-Land, Recovery feels drawn to this forum to engage in pointless sniping. I do credit him with at least responding to some of those who respond to him. In that regard, he is a cut above the usual pro-JW apologists.

  His sweeping lumping together of everyone on this forum let's down any powerful points he may be trying to argue.

  Time will tell whether he has the capacity and humility to take the feedback on board or whether, anonymous and half-in,half-out of the organization, he stubbornly works through his own doubts with a kind of confrontational small-mindedness.
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  Sauerkraut

  In all honesty, often it's less about the many false doctrines, but the attitude of JWs that irritates me. The "we know better, you're misguided and of Satan" attitude. The "go ahead and remain in your filth". The condescending, short sighted, narrow minded attitude of people who really know little but think they're experts in cosmology. Recovery is a perfect example of this. And this is from someone who is still officially an active Witness. Often it makes me cringe inside when I deal with fellow Witnesses, I have to feel ashamed for them and their attitudes.
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  Phizzy

  Let's, hopefully, not put him/her/them off, JW Apologists are as rare as rocking horse s**t on here, and they do so much to expose the religion and its doctrines for what it is, much to the benefit of lurkers who may be wishing to leave the JW's or are having serious doubts.

  They are damned annoying true, especiallywhen they come on here and dictate what we can and cannot do, Recovery asks us to bebate, then will not answer simple questions, hardly the true spirit of debate.

  Probably a hit and run anyway.
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  Fernando

  A hit and run is my guess too.

  How sad...
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  Recovery

  No, this is not a valid comparison. Go to the faithful and discreet slave thread and you will see what I mean. I didn't get hardly any scriptural arguments. All I got was "this isn't a true doctrine...because *(insert better private interpretation of what it means)*. That's fine and dandy, but I just cannot accept an interpretation of scripture without some kind of scriptural harmonization.

  I do not ignore or dodge questions. It becomes monotonous answering questions that have nothing to do with the subject you want to discuss. One second someone wants to discuss who the anointed are, then they want me to prove that the Bible is God's word, then they want me to disprove the Trinity, hellfire, immortality of the soul, etc.

  It is entirely unfair for people to expect me to answer such an overwhelming amount of questions unrelated to what I'm trying to discuss. If you had a scriptural argument against the FDS, repost it or point it out to me in that thread.

  Someone asked why my name is Recovery. Well, it is because I am sort of a recovering apostate. When I read the essays refuting 607, 1914, God having an organization, etc. I was ready to leave and quit the organization. I was ready to stop pioneering. I was depressed for many weeks since I thought I had found out 'the truth about the truth'. My life long goal of Bethel, I almost threw out the window. I recently did a lot of my own research and found that these articles were nothing more than clever lies and half truths designed to deceive the minds of unwary JW's.

  That is why I am here. And I do not care who does not like it. BTW, I am not ignoring/dodging questions (I am now restricted for 11 hours from posting)
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  King Solomon

  The condescending, short sighted, narrow minded attitude of people who really know little but think they're experts in cosmology.

  Well, they ARE experts on cosmology, if by 'cosmology' you mean that knowledge taught by ancient Babylonians and Egyptians circa 1,000 BC. They ARE experts on the state-of-the-art as it existed then, what with the water canopy concept, firmament (with the stars, Sun, Moon attached), the pillars of the earth, 4 corners of the Earth stuff, etc.

  Not surprising, as anyone (like Recovery did) who says, "the Bible entirely harmonizes with science" reveals they are COMPLETELY ignorant of science, whether it's human anatomy, climatology/meterololgy, astronomy, ecology, biology, botany, entomology, etc, etc. We've gone down that road in MANY recent threads, so it's a long row to hoe to overcome all of the weight of the body of knowledge disproving the veracity of that statement.

  Recovery doesn't understand and/or accept the principle of "burden of proof", though, so I don't hold out much hope for him. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot (you all know the rest)....
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  mrsjones5

  Recovery, by your actions here (terrible debating skills and touting of your questionable blog) no one here takes you that seriously. You're not original, you're just fodder, the flavor if the month. It is enjoyable watching you repeatedly put your foot so far up your ass that you're unable to get it out and I'm sure many a lurker is enjoying it just as much as I. You haven't proved anything, you won't receive anything folks on this board say. But thank you for being here, it's been fun.
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  King Solomon

  Oh, and we'll be watching to see how many links to your blog you post to this high-traffic site, just to increase your blog's ranking in search engine results. We've seen that one recently....