Thank you all for your responses and sharing very intimate details of your experiences. Most of you have had to go through so much pain. I can tell you all are very kind and considerate for being willing to help someone in need with warm words of wisdom. I wasn't able to respond yesterday due to a posting limit set by the forums, although I did re-edit a previous post several times in an attempt to respond. I will know more about what is going to happen today. They are coming over for a Bible study this afternoon. I will ask some tough questions, but in a very considerate way. I love them, and hope this doesn't hurt our friendship.
I watched the JW movie that was posted with a YouTube link. It was very sad, but I enjoyed it and it gave me a better insight into how this all works.
[Quote]"If you haven’t already, read the “Bible Teach” book over the course of several days," [Quote]
I have not read it in its entirety. We are about halfway through it. We normally don’t go by the book. I usually have topics for them based on real world occurrences. When we do go by the book, we rarely get past one paragraph because another subject usually comes up. I will say though that when we have a guest JW come to the study, it is dramatically different. I met one gentleman that looked like he was running for president; a leader in the church who I know spoke at some major convention last year.
[Quote] 1) As was mentioned before, Witnesses track the time they spend preaching, some have a minimum number of hours they need to hit to maintain a congregational title.[Quote]
He has told me he is an Elder in the congregation and travels to other congregations to speak regularly. I know they take turns inside the congregation giving the lead, but the service I went to last week he gave the talk.
[Quote]If you told them that you did not want to become a Witness but wanted to keep them as a friend, they would decline and drop you from any social interaction.[Quote]
I certainly hope this isn't so, I really do love them.
[Quote]but on the same token they are told that all non-Witnesses are followers of Satan.[Quote]
This was another thing that really surprised me. We have had numerous discussions about other religions that had an open and caring attitude toward them. We have had conversations about Islamic, Muslim, Taoism, Hinduism, Jewish, Catholicism, Mormons, Baptists, and Evangelists. Those are all that I really recall.
The shocker was last week when we were having the conversation about politics with the new member. I made a comment about the election process and that it shouldn't cost so much (maybe by allotting a certain amount of public T.V. time to a wide range of candidates). Thereby making it easier for the average person to have the opportunity to serve. I said "that way possibly a pastor could run for office". It was met with a negative response although I don’t remember the exact wording and do not wish to mis-quote.
[Quote]Personally I told my family I was not going to be a Witness and shortly after that, one by one they all told me that they would never speak to me again. That was 7 years ago.[Quote]
I am very sorry to hear that. The Church in my opinion is supposed to bring families together, not break them apart. God bless you.
[Quote]hey impala for the horde[Quote]
Pfft, my allegiance is with the Alliance! I've been playing since vanilla, (8 years). A 90 of every class, multiple 90's in a few classes, I'm a WoW millionaire, and play on Sargeras mostly. but also, Frostmourne, Azgalor, Illidan, Wildhammer, and Tichondrius.
[Quote] if you werent serious about getting baptised after a year we were told to move on[Quote]
Being Baptized was never even mentioned, they knew I was Baptized as a child coming from a Catholic upbringing.
[Quote]she started crying, said the blood of my wife and babies would be on my hands if I didn't turn back[Quote]
God bless you, please do not believe there is any truth to that. I am sure you do not, but I cannot even imagine what you are going through. My prayers are with you and yours.
[Quote]I'm sorry mate but a lot of what you are saying just doesn't add up. I'm sorry but I'm struggling with the fact that you could study with someone for 3 years and not know about some of their key policies.[Quote]
I think I have discussed the things I did actually know and those I have not, but I'll re-cap. I obviously knew about the 144,000 ( funny story I actually told a joke to them about that the first time I met them, Why go around telling everyone about Jehovah when only 144,000 get into Heaven, kind of hurting your chances of getting in isn’t it?) I knew that the couple I studied with didn't watch the news or anything other than G rated movies, but I thought that was a personal choice, not something they were told to do. They did tell me that JW's don’t fight in wars. Although nothing was mentioned about firearms. I was never told about dis-fellowshipping, actually never even heard of it till this week. I never heard anything about a governing body or a faithful slave, being politically neutral or anything on the subject. They did mention that they do not do blood transfusions, but again I was under the impression that was a personal opinion. Of course they obviously wouldn't say anything to me about my hair, beard, tattoos or Alcoholics Anonymous, (next month I will be 10 years clean in Narcotics Anonymous) I actually spend a lot of time volunteering at a local rehab.
[Quote] He said, "Make some progress, or the blood of your family is on your hands..."[Quote]
That would be about the same time he found the door.
[Quote]3 years and not knowing their neutrality stance ? about politics ? Local government ?[Quote]
If I knew I wouldn't have studied at all.
[Quote]Even if he/she only had a study once a month thats still 36 studies[Quote]
We have studied weekly since December of 2010, for about 4 hours at a time. They show up at 1:30 on the dot and leave about 5:00. Someone else had originally knocked on the door, but I was passed off to the couple that I study with after a couple visits.
[Quote]what the hell did they talk about ?[Quote]
The Bible. I have a very inquisitive mind.
[Quote] its hard to beleive that poitics / war / neutrality / WT organization and being obedient to them would never come up.[Quote]
Politics and War, yes. I am very political and made countless political comments to which I never got a clear response as to their stance. As for war, they told me that JW's don’t fight in wars because it is a sin to kill, that is understandable.
[Quote]Then after all that has been presented on this thread he/she would still like the study to continue ? !![Quote]
Yes, as long as we can keep it the way it has been all this time. I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid though.
[Quote]I'm beginning to think it could perhaps be watchtower trying to Guage the replies it would get.[Quote]
I am not affiliated with the Watchtower or Jehovah's Witnesses outside of a weekly study and a meeting attendance last week. I would be glad to provide my Facebook info if you are curious as to who I am.
How do I update my avatar on this site? I made a gravatar acct. but it is not updating.
