Positive comments about JW's today, have your heard any recently?

by James Mixon 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  James Mixon

  In the 60's and 70's you would hear these comments from non- believers,

  my neighbor is a JW and they are good people, my sister is a JW and I admire their

  dedication. Today if you ask someone what do they think about JW's you get entirely

  different comments. My sister is a JW and I told her she is in a cult, my neighbor is

  a JW and he's a little strange, what happen to 1975 are they still around don't see them anymore,

  or I don't know a lot about JW's but I know they don't believe in blood transfusion, no Xmas and other holidays.

  Families that know first hand about JW due to the fact there are JW's in their family seldom have any

  thing positive to say today.

  What have you heard?????
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  adjusted knowledge

  I grew up in this "religion" in the 80's and 90's and never heard positive comments from non-believers. When I started working people would tell me stories of how the JW cheated them out of money and they aren't to be trusted. Mostly I would hear very negative things and still do today.
  
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  punkofnice

  What have you heard?????

  Nothing. Nobody cares about a whacko cult. It's only the JWs that think they're greater in the scheme of things than they really are.
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  OneEyedJoe

  When I was still active I'd frequently get people at the door telling us that they appreciate the work we're doing (after telling us in no uncertain terms that they're not interested in a discussion). But I live in a particularly religious area, so that probably weighs in heavily.

  Since leaving, I've told two people I work with about my JW past. The first was mostly unfamiliar with JWs (thought JWs were essentially Amish haha) with the exception of the memory of throwing a surprise birthday party for a friend and being confused by the the fact that it made the JW friend very uncomfortable. So I think in this case JWs were mainly viewed as irrelevant.

  Later, I was in conversation with another coworker and somehow the subject of cults came up (not my doing at all) and while the topic of conversation was primarily scientology, she interjected "Or like the jehovah's wittnesses - I just want to grab them and say 'what makes you think this [religion] is a good idea?'" Obviously from the context she didn't have a positive thought in relation to the cult, and when she said this her tone was that of someone who was dealing with an insane person. (Of course I took this opportunity to pretend I was a JW and make her feel really bad for a few minutes before telling her that I'd left and substantiating her thought that they're a harmful cult)

  So from my limited experience, the opinion of JWs (at least in the college-educated under-30 crowd) ranges from "who are they again?" to "what the hell is the matter with those insane cultists?"
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  James Mixon

  OneEyeJoe: I get that a lot, "who are they again", are they the ones that don't believe in Jesus?
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  Athanasius

  I remember back in the 1970s co-workers would ask me: "Why do your people come by so early on Saturday morning?" I always sympathized with them because I also liked to sleep in on Saturday and hated going out in field circus.

  Other than that most of their comments were neutral. After I left the JWs and changed professions the subject has never came up and I've never had reason to discuss my past religious affiliation with co-workers.
  
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  Vidiot

  Today???

  I haven't heard anything positive spoken about JWs for years.