My wife, who now thinks I am not competent enough to discuss spiritual matters with the kids, thinks that I could really benefit from discussing matters of the Bible with this NASA engineer who attends meetings at her kingdom hall. Apparently, he is quite knowledgeable in the Bible and has a good grasp of their doctrines. At least according to her as I never actually spoken with the man at length but I do know that he is an elder. She told me a few days ago that while she was out in field service she asked him if he were willing to come to our house and speak with me and asked if I was okay with it.
My response, (paraphrasing) “If he is willing to come over and have a friendly discussion about whatever subjects we may have of mutual interest, sure. If he is willing to even have an open discussion about the Bible, sharing what we know, sure. If he is coming to try to teach, preach, or proselytize I’d rather not.” As we all know, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not good at listening and when in a discussion about religion they tend to look for ways to respond to your statements rather than listening to them. This is a flaw that I too am trying to correct in myself and I am evidently making progress since even my wife has stated that I tend to listen more and be more ‘open minded’ (her words) than I used to.
Personally, though, I can’t help but think that this brother is probably not really interested in speaking with me and may even feel a little obligated since the only reason he is even considering it is because my wife is asking it of him. I don’t know if she feels that there is some glimmer of hope that I might come around or if she just feels that Brother Smart Engineer would be a more suitable person to share the things I am learning about the Bible with. Somehow, I doubt he knows anything about the Bible beyond what the Watchtower publications tell him. Things such as no original copies of the writings, differences in biblical canons between various religions, the anonymous authorship of the gospels, or even the approximate years in which the various books are written are probably unknown to him as they are to most Christians.
I just told my wife that while I appreciate the gesture I can’t help but question the motivation of this visit and helped her to relate by asking how she would’ve felt if during the time I was attending church I invited someone from the church that she barely knows to come to our house to speak with her. I think she got the message and told me that she understood but I made it clear that if he still wanted to come over to get to know me, he was welcomed. I also suggested that we could meet in a more neutral location if it would help. She also suggested that she would’ve like to eventually be able to host get-togethers at our house for her witness buddies, no doubt in an attempt to be more a part of the group. This, I am sure is also part of the motivation behind her wanting me to meet Brother Smart Engineer.
Has anyone in the group ever had this experience either as the person that your loved one wants to ‘help’ or as the elder, publisher, etc. that was asked upon to meet with such a person like myself? If so, how did you feel about it? If you were the publisher, did you follow through? If so, how did it go? All comments are welcomed.