Why Talking to Jehovah's Witnesses is Hard.

by runForever 3 Replies latest jw friends

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  runForever

  When we are talking to a Jehovah's Witness we might think we are talking facts with them but we are not. They are looking through a lense

  of assumed facts they have already concluded as true. For example: "if these are really Christ's brothers as the governing body surely we should listen to them". We can never argue with their idea directly because that is how the evidence is pointing to them and they don't know their presumed facts are wrong. So in short we have to create another reality so to speak for them not through trying to destroy their presumed facts but showing them "new" ones. After all how did Jehovah's witnesses convince us? By trying to discredit all of our facts or did they start building their own story?

  They did it through creating a new narrative first and in some ways that is what we have to do with them.

  This is just one method of talking with Jehovah's Witnesses and it always depends on the situation.
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  Kitledge

  Engaging a JW in a sincere discussion is usually one-sided- they are right and we (non-JWs) are wrong, regardless of those little inconvenient things called facts. At their meetings and in their literature, they are incessantly indoctrinated with what they refer to as the "truth" and these ideas are reinforced in their minds everytime they are gathered together. That these doctrines are 'fluid', that is, subject to change and/or revisions, makes no difference. They remain "truth" even though such teachings might have been structurally gutted and re-structured in a new form.

  On that basis alone, it is impossible to have a productive discussion as their minds are closed to other viewpoints. A closed mind is a terrible thing to waste.
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  Apognophos

  I'd suggest looking at it from another perspective. For most JWs, the religion is where people go who want to shut their brains off, forget any worldly ambitions they had, and just join a club that makes them feel secure. So if you start talking to a JW who is not showing evidence that they are willing to examine the facts, then you just find a way to politely end the conversation. Their manner of responding has already told you what you needed to know, which is, "I'm all set, thanks, I want to stay in this religion."
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  Vanderhoven7

  Apognophos: Good point. Only the WT can change an FDS-loyal JW's mind, not the truth, not God and certainly not the Bible. The Bible looses all it's corrective power (2Tim 3:16) since it was written solely for the anointed.