Question about talking to JW

by darklight 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  Ding

  Try to ask questions that will get them to think, rather than simply parroting the WT line.

  Silence is your friend.

  If there is a long pause between your question and their answer, DON'T fill the silence.

  If you have asked a good question, this may be the first time they have actually had to think beyond their programming.

  That said, when JWs get backed into a corner with a question they can't or don't want to answer, they are trained to switch topics.

  Usually they will hopscotch the Bible trying to get you into one of their prepared presentations.

  You almost have to be like a cross-examining attorney and restate your question, insisting that you want to hear their answer.

  Be gentle the first time, but if they persist in switching topics or in making comments that don't answer your question, tell them directly that you have to conclude that they are deliberately avoiding giving you a direct answer.

  If they say they will have to do research and get back to you, set up a definite time and tell them that you are taking them at their word as Jehovah's Witnesses that they will follow through and come back to you with an answer.
• 

  Mum

  You won't learn much about Christianity from JW's. I have spent a lot of time with real Christians, so I know the difference. If you want to know how the JW organization operates, read 1984 by George Orwell. Then read The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses by Gary and Heather Botting.

  I recommend college courses on church history, or even the textbooks for such classes from your nearest college bookstore if you want to learn about Christianity and its history.

  The JW organization as it exists today bears little, if any, resemblance to the same at its start when it was known as the International Bible Students' Association. The IBSA consisted of groups doing independent Bible study and was founded by Charles Taze Russell. After Russell died, "Judge" Franklin Rutherford, an alcoholic psychopath, took over. Rutherford created an expectatation (i.e., false prophecy) that the Old Testament prophets would be resurrected before Armageddon. He had a mansion (called Beth Sarim, Hebrew for something like "House of Princes") built in San Diego, California to house the risen prophets when they came out of their graves. Of course, Rutherford lived in the mansion as Trustee of Abraham, David, and the other Old Testament prophets.

  Rutherford also restructured the organization and instituted a hierarchy modeled after the Roman Catholic hierarchy. For every level of RC hierarchy, there is a corresponding JW hierarchical position. When this began, many JW's didn't know which arrangement was "true," and there was a mass exodus of those who wanted to retain the Russell model.

  The JW organization is riddled with a history of so much garbage, lies, and human wreckage that it's enough to make you go into clinical depression.

  Be kind to your JW buddies because they are deceived. But do some research as recommended by other posters herre and ask good questions.

  Regards,

  SandraC