Reverse-Witnessing leaves me mentally and emotionally drained...

by ILoveTTATT 28 Replies latest jw friends

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  ILoveTTATT

  Hi dear friends!

  I am doing some stealth reverse-witnessing, and I have succeeded in at least two people seeing TTATT, one being my friend and the other being my dad (although my dad has a longer route to take to exit the WTS, and I have to slowly chip away at the illusion)...

  The illusion of JW's is very strong. They give an illusion of being moral and decent people, and that may be true just because the majority of the people they attract are just being deceived, or I really like to believe that and hope for the best.

  What I hate and leaves me emotionally drained are JW apologists. It is extremely hard for me to listen/read their replies and not be shaken sometimes; I have to slowly leave the fear of "you will die at Armageddon"...

  I have anonymous accounts on Facebook, Yahoo, and others.

  One particularly tough reply to answer to is related to the blood issue. I mentioned to a JW in an e-mail conversation about the ban on vaccinations. Her reply was that A.H. McMillan had written about vaccinations in his book Faith on the March.

  She said that since 1944 the WTS required all their representatives to be vaccinated. (She gave no proof).

  Since the ban was lifted on 1952 (and we have the WT to prove it), how could this have happened?

  Supposedly 1944-45 was when McMillan went to prison and explained to some in prison who were in solitary confinement because of refusing vaccinations. (See Faith on the March, pp.188-189)

  What I understand is that, there was no specific, organization-wide BAN on vaccinations, just that a lot of Witnesses who read the magazines understood it to be so.

  Can someone clear this up for me?

  What can I reply to her?

  Also, what can help me not be so shaken by my reverse witnessing and JW apologetics? It's hard, very hard to refute a half-truth/half-lie. There has to be a ridiculous amount of well-thought and well-presented evidence for me to "concede" to one side the victory or defeat.

  ILTTATT
• 

  RubaDub

  Perhaps including a stop to the local donut shop in the morning will give you a sense of peace and well-being.

  You can trade experiences with some of the pioneers on your recent activity and experiences.

  Rub a Dub
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  ILoveTTATT

  Ha! Good one!! There should be apostaioneers!! We should go for coffee and donuts!! Lol
• 

  Watchtower-Free

  JWfacts.com has things laid out very well .

  I think allot of JW critics don't spend enough energy on the completely silly and indefensible "Overlapping generation" doctrine

  I have NEVER heard a JW able to explain/defend cogently . Especially if you ask them to use the bible to answer.

  I ask allot of questions on Yaho answers .
• 

  ILoveTTATT

  Watchtower Free: the thing is, I try to comment on something that is relevant. For example, the reading this week is Romans 13-16. I commented, based on jwfacts.com, that the understanding of "superior authorities" changed twice, going from "original" to "different" and back to "original"...

  But, whenever I can, I will introduce that question.

  Thanks for the suggestion!

  Can someone help me answer my question? Was the ban on vaccinations an actual society-wide requirement, or was it just a series of strong statements, similar to the extreme discouragement of higher education?

  ILTTATT
• 

  Narcissistic Supply

  JW's engage in ambient abuse and gaslighting. I don't think there is a defence. You must save yourself and the only control you have over a jw narcissist is the narcissistic supply that you give them.

  Give up bro. Work on yourself.
• 

  ILoveTTATT

  Narcissistic: 2 people, in three months. It's two lives. However, I agree that I won't save everyone, and that it takes its toll. Maybe I should just try and enjoy my life... maybe I should try to pace my reverse-witnessing. It's becoming an obsession.

  On the other hand, practice makes perfect. Just ignoring their rants could help. Most of their arguments are very sneaky.

  ILTTATT
• 

  Giordano

  Banning vaccinations: http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness6.htm

  An early leader of the Jehovah's Witnesses, C. J. Woodworth, maintained a continuing opposition to vaccinations. He seems to have believed that vaccination caused animal blood cells to be injected into humans. This he regarded as equivalent to eating blood, an activity that is forbidden in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). The group banned their members from having vaccinations from 1931 to 1952.

  An unknown number of Witnesses were disfellowshipped because they disobeyed their leaders on this matter. The following condemnations of vaccination were published in the Jehovah's Witnesses' periodical, The Golden Age, from 1921 to 1935. This magazine was first published in 1919: "Vaccination never prevented anything and never will, and is the most barbarous practice...We are in the last days; and the devil is slowly losing his hold, making a strenuous effort meanwhile to do all the damage he can, and to his credit can such evils be placed...Use your rights as American citizens to forever abolish the devilish practice of vaccinations."

  Early 1940s: The policy of the Jehovah's Witnesses towards vaccination seems to have changed during the 1940s. "...Of the approximately 4,300 American Witnesses who were in prison as conscientious objectors" during World War II, "only a small minority concentrated in one prison refused to submit to the vaccinations [which were] compulsory for all inmates." According to A.H, Macmillan, a WTS leader at the time, "...our boys...considered [vaccinations] the same as blood transfusions..." He intervened with the prisoners and convinced them that there were no scriptural objections to vaccination. 1952: The official teaching of the denomination changed. They published a question from "G.C." of North Carolina, in the Question from Readers section of The Watchtower. G.C. asked: "Is vaccination a violation of God's law forbidding the taking of blood into the system?" Their response was: "The matter of vaccination is one for the individual that has to face it to decide for himself....And our Society cannot afford to be drawn into the affair legally or take the responsibility for the way the case turns out."

  The WTS seems to have feared legal repercussions in the event that they continued to recommend that members avoid vaccinations. The Watchtower response also stated: "After consideration of the matter, it does not appear to us to be in violation of the everlasting covenant made with Noah, as set down in Genesis 9:4, nor contrary to God's related commandment at Leviticus 17:10-14. Most certainly it cannot reasonably or Scripturally be argued and proved that, by being vaccinated, the inoculated person is either eating or drinking blood and consuming it as food or receiving a blood transfusion. Vaccination does not bear any relationship to or any likeness to the intermarriage of angelic "sons of God" with the daughters of men, as described in Genesis 6:1-4. Neither can it be put in the same class as described at Leviticus 18:23-24, which forbids the mingling of humans with animals. It has nothing to do with sex relations."

  This easing of the prohibition on vaccination came just in time. Mass vaccination campaigns against polio almost wiped out the disease between 1955 and 1967. The biblical quotations cited above: Genesis 9:4: Leviticus 17:10-14: Genesis 6:1-4: Leviticus 18:23-24: bullet 1961: The Jehovah's Witnesses took a neutral stand on vaccination; they neither endorsed nor prohibited the practice.
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  Jim_TX

  RE: Apologetics -

  Perhaps you are doing it the wrong way. Instead of YOU doing all of the research, tell THEM to do the research, and present it to you - proving their point.

  That way, they are expending their energy - and time. Of course... you may need to have your own research at the ready - to be able to refute them.

  Personally, I don't know how someone could stand to keep reading that swill. (I believe that someone used that word here, and I liked it!)
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  jgnat

  There are a few suggestions for how you can approach your project without burning out.

  1. It is not your responsibility or your obligation to wake someone up. Provide the information and mentally release them to do with it what they will.
  2. Treat offensive people as object studies in human behavior. Whatever makes them tick? What do they care about?
  3. Take apart these apologetic rants to figure out what is really wrong with them. What trigger words are used? How is the false mixed in with the true? Become familiar with the logical fallacies. (Rhetological Fallacies)
  4. Figure out how much time you want to dedicate to this project, and don't exceed it. Use a physical gesture (such as putting on or removing a hat) to set yourself in and out of battle mode. When out of battle mode, refuse to be goaded back in. This technique is used by professionals in the people industries to keep from burning out.

  "The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right." Hannah Whitall Smith, 1902