How openminded are you now?

DannyBear

Judgemental and closeminded were exact descriptions of my former Jw self.

Recently on another forum, someone posted a cartoon depicting the character urinating on the Bible. I had an immediate revulsion and concluded this was not appropriate, letting the poster know my thoughts. Other's on the forum did not see it as I did. In fact they were very much in support of this posting, as an issue of freedom of thought-expression. These opposing views were made by individuals that I hold in high respect.

Since this incident, I have been going over in my mind whether my reaction was in fact openminded or seriously overly judgemental.

Iam not looking for agreement or backing for the stand I took...but really want to hear, how you folks deal with issues like this.

Are you more openminded, since leaving the cult? Or have you become less tolerant, of those who try to force their conscience and freedom's on you?

DannyBear

mommy

Hey Dannybear,
Everyone has their limits. I think you have to be secure with yourself and decide on your own threshold of tolerance. I may hear a dirty joke and am not offended, but another joke will offend me.
I think of myself as being very open minded, BUT there are some people I will not tolerate. Also I think it is a gauge on who you want your associates to be, what they will tolerate. You will most likely tire of a friend if the views on life are different.
So IMO you can be VERY open minded and still be critical.
wendy

RedhorseWoman

IMO, being openminded does NOT mean that you throw out every principle you had ever believed. It does NOT mean that you must tolerate everything that another person may do. That is not openmindedness, but is rather being wishy-washy and without principles.

Being openminded means that you allow others to express their opinions and ideas, as long as those ideas don't trample on others. Disrespect is not openmindedness.

larc

Danny,

Back to your original example. I think it is wrong to desecrate what other people find sacred, e.g., burning the flag, eating a steak in India, or putting dung on sacred Catholic images as they did in an exibit in a New York City museum.

DannyBear

mommy-rhw-larc,

Thanks for getting the gist of what I was asking.

Thinking in black and white no longer holds any interest to me. Did way to much of that in the org. Jw's are masters at passing quick assessment of someone's worth or value.

This fellow Xandit a fine jw example, posting a correction to me on a new thread...calling me a liar. I don't know him (although I think I may have a pretty good idea now) and had to stop and think where and to whom I made a comment. It was Ozzie's post on 'who is to blame?' I commented to you larc about having success with Xandit convincing him as regards Jw's being a cult. I went back and reread LDH's thread where the discussion with Xandit took place, couldn't find any reference at all to Xandit's admission...so he is right Iam a liar. But what struck me, was his need to shout it out...instead of just responding to my assertion right where it happened. I decided not to give him the satisfaction of a reply....at least not in a new topic format...very proud of himself. Alright already Iam senile and I made a mistake...hang me up by my toenails...cast aspertions...throw tomatoes.

LiarBear

larc

Well brother Bear,

I don't consider making a mistake to be a lie.

mds called me a liar because I told him that he showed no signs of love for his fellow man. He said that he showed his love behind the scenes. Well, there is no way for me to know that, so it doesn't make me a liar. All I can do is evaluate his public statements. As TR said about mds "I don't believe that mds has ever shown a personal interest in anyone on this board....He is like an automaton spitting out interpretation." TR if you are out there, I agree completely with your assessment.

Sassenach

Danny bear,

Please don't take offence, but you posted in one thread a gross inaccuracy of what took place in another thread and you want Xandit to stick to the thread of your choosing?

As for open minded, I wonder, did you think the person who posted a picture of the bible being peed on was open minded? I think you were the one being open minded in that instance. Why was your expression of distaste close minded and the other person's expression of distaste for the bible open minded?

RedHorseWoman said it best:

Being openminded means that you allow others to express their opinions and ideas, as long as those ideas don't trample on others. Disrespect is not openmindedness.

Englishman

G` Mornin`, Wendy,

I think that Danny Bear is saying that, despite leavug the JW`s, he still has a tendency to be critical, and criticism is deeply entrenched into JW`s.

I have a few friends that still carry around witness tendencies, the most obvious one is that they still practise their own brand of disfellowshipping. My ex-wife, who has been DF`d 3 times, stopped me attending my daughters surprise 30th birthday party yesterday because she wouldn`t "have me under her roof", and we`ve been divorced for 28 years!

I`ve also noticed that some posters on these sort of forums, have a tendency to forever be shouting "Liar!" when they disagree with some comment. Now that is a witnessy trait!

Englishman.

philo

Englishman

Hiya dude. I would agree with what you said about witness tendencies if you said judgementalism rather than criticism. It seems nit-picky, but I feel the witnesses judge anyone among them who excersies their critical faculties. They seem to feel that only the writers of the WT may criticise. Everyone else must learn to make sense of life by reading the WT. There is a blissful lack of criticism in dubdom.

I was often called a 'criticial' type as a JW, not often was I called judgemental. People were saying (without realising) that I had failed to subordinate my thinking ability entirely to the organisation.

philo

There is a scripture that says something bad about "argueing about words". Well, I don't like that verse to be taken literally.

So I just wanted to say I find the term openminded is virtually useless. It comes to mean just about anything.

philo

How openminded are you now?

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