by spirituk 44 Replies latest jw friends
so what does it mean when a baptised jw associates with wordly people? is she a hypocrite? she is lying to her self ? is she lying to other people? is she psychopath? is it wrong? is she confused? does she really believe in jehovah?
do the see us as people of satan? i mean they try to convert us so we must be wrong doers?
i need something deeper
sorry but you dont quite answer the questions i am posting
Hi spirituk
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that bad association spoils useful habits. 1 Corinthians 15:33
"Worldly people" are people who are not Christians.
The kindest, honest and most loving person, if they kept the wrong type of assocation, can fall. I have seen it happen. We are human and want to feel accepted by the people we hang around so we do the things they do in order to be included.
Jehovah's Witnesses warn that if you hang around people who do not have the same standards and morals you will become like those you associate with. Since I have been associating with Jehovah's Witnesses, my standards and morals have risen. I am more aware of what is happening around me. From a personal testimony, this is true. Good association creates useful habits.
From my experience, what Caleb says is wrong. The elders will not disfellowship your friend because she hangs out with "worldly friends" and frequents the club scene. What they will do is warn her that this type of association is not very useful to her Christianity, show her some scriptures supporting the Bible's viewpoint and let her make up her own mind. Christian must choose to obey Jesus. We cannot be forced to do so.
There is a Young People Ask... What about Youth Dance Clubs article for anybody interesting in broadening their knowledge.
JWs are constantly warned of the danger of associating with worldly people. They use the scripture, "bad association spoils useful habits."
They must have some association with them during work or school hours, but they avoid unnecessary association with them after hours.
They view worldly people as essentially "unclean" and as a threat to their spirituality and relationship with God. However, they also view them as possible converts to whom they are obligated to preach so that they have an opportunity to learn "the truth."
Since they are not worshipping Jehovah they are serving the interests of the Devil, but they aren't necessarily Devil worshippers.
If you have a WT-CD, I found it interesting to see how since the late 1990's, the WTS has mostly dropped the phrase "worldly people." I think they realized how it offended people who were not jws to be referred as that, a prejorative basically.
Your question is complex.
Is she a 25 year old that lives at home and sneeks out?
Does she live alone and wants company and all the local JW's are married and exclude her?
Does she live and work with worldly ( tm) girls...thus hangs out with her roommates?
is she a born in and wants to know what freedom is?
Is she questioning her religion as far as associates because she has personal knowledge that some of her JW friends are more worldly than her Christian Orthodox ones are?
In associating with these Russian or Greek Orthodox Christians is she enjoying their ethnicity, possibly embracing her own ethnic origins?
Is she a baptized JW, (got baptized as a child or teen) and says robotic words about her religion, as she was taught, but in her deepest thoughts, does not believe it?
Or...Is she just a girl that wants to have fun?
Just Lois
Keep Your Distance When Danger Threatens
Some Christians have gone astray by getting too involved in business activities, by cultivating close friendships with worldly associates
We must also be on guard against extended association with worldly people. Perhaps it is a neighbor, a school friend, a workmate, or a business associate. We may reason, ‘He respects the Witnesses, he leads a clean life, and we do talk about the truth occasionally.' Yet, the experience of others proves that in time we may even find ourselves preferring such worldly company to that of a spiritual brother or sister. What are some of the dangers of such a friendship?
Watchtower Magazine 94 2/15 p. 23
"Our choice of associates.Of course, some contact with unbelievers-such as at school, at work, and when sharing in the ministry-is unavoidable. It is quite another matter, though, to socialize with them, even cultivating close friendships with them. Do we justify such association by saying that they have many good qualities? "Do not be misled," warns the Bible. "Bad associations spoil useful habits." (1 Cor. 15:33) Just as a small amount of pollution can contaminate clean water, friendship with those who do not practice godly devotion can contaminate our spirituality and lead us into adopting worldly viewpoints, dress, speech, and conduct."
Watchtower Study Feb. 15, 2013 pg 24
I remember being at a relative's house with some JW's in attendance. Around the corner was a place where they practiced Islam....can't think of what they call them now.
I guess the services was over and the muslims were walking home. Me with a group of JW relatives were standing outside. One of them, young and still aglow and wet behind the ears from a recent baptismal dunking proclaimed loudly, "Look at all of those worldly people worshipping the devil!".
I shot this person, her family, and me wife the most disgusted look I could muster.
I'm sure, by now, that the little twit has learned to more carefully verbalize their thoughts.
I was one of those JWs who had many friends who were non-witnesses. I have always worked in very people oriented environments and I am truly fascinated with people, who they are what they do, where they are from, etc.
As far as bad association I had friends who were gay, straight, bi, fornicators, adulterers, you name it. But never once did I judge them on how they lived their lives and they respected my beliefs.
As far as them influencing me to do something "bad", I don't think I am a follower. I am a curious person by nature, but I don't think I am easily lead astray.
I never felt hypocritical because I never hid my associations. If I was at happy hour with workmates and saw Witnesses, I would introduce them to my non-jw friend. I liked to go dancing so no bigge for me to go to a club. Maybe I was a bit brazen :)
I never did the double life and I was never approached by anyone about being seen with those who were not witnesses. I think those who knew me just accepted that I was going to be me....
My non-witness friends are not the reason I left the org. JW routine spoiled my useful habits.
So! As child grown into the org. I had this crap about not associating with "wordly" people excluding for must situations such as school ....but I've always rebelled because even at 8 I knew better than my JW parents. I would lie to my mom telling her I needed to do group assignments for school so that I could go and yes do my HW with my friends but would also spend the afternoon playing together.
Definitely wasn't going down well with my mother but it was contained to her eyes. However it got intensified when I became a teen and I had a job. I also frequented a health club/gym and clearly remembered a couple of times talks coming up at teh KH some local needs even discouraging people from going to the gym...had to indure the ear bashing going home but it all went in one ear and other the other as I sticked to my guns with the excuse that I needed it for my back (I do have back problems and must do excercise to this day) so it all got brushed off my shoulder.
I've always had wordly friend as well as those of JW growing up and that allowed me to be a "normal" person. When I say normal I mean when I left I wasn't socially challenged because I had never associated with wordly people before, at the contrary. Perhaps one of the reasons why didn't really feel the change in my life from being a JW to non being one. So I totally urge people to make wordly friends.
Ah! Something else. When I was 18 I had a car accident and was in hospital for 10 days. There were no cell phones back then or very few as was late 90s and the day after the accident my mom came to visit me and was shocked to see how many people had turned out at the hospital...people she didn't know...wordly people. Even more the voicemails left on the house phone calling to see how I was. I still remember her face in asking me: "Who are all these people???" Is like she expected only JW to visit or call. In fact it was few the 2-3 that I associated regularly, sure they came and called but in general I had more concerned shown from worldly people.
Clubbing: Okay...this I have noticed and I can speak for both my home country and for London where I lived...it's all down to congregation mentality and type of clubs. In my home country there are clubs for latin dancing or ballroom dancing both extremely popular in my culture...those you could go without people twisting their noses at you, just didn't have to go too often...I found it stupid that you could go to one club and not the other or you could go to one room at the same club but not next door, so don't have to tell you I always went anywhere I fancied.
London the same actually bit more relaxed as mentality.When I first moved I frequented a congregation in Fulham/Chelsea so very central and went many times clubbing with sisters who were pioneers and considered exemplary in the congregations. Even some elders came from time to time. The bottom line was: it depended where you went and who you went with and you had to be with them the whole night.
The reason they don't want you to have "worldly" friends is so when you are shunned, or disfellowshipped you will have no friends at all and not know where to go for any help, then you come crawing back just for human companiosnhip or kill yourself. This is a cult, that waht cults do.
