Wow! Thanks for the really kind comments! (*Sits down*)
I'm sure that fact that you have never been a witness is helping you open some doors of her mind.
Yes, Latte, I'm sure you are right! I realize that she is probably shunning folks who WOULD LOVE to tell her the truth--so it's actually up to the non-JWs to take advantage of our position of being listened to. I am very happy to do this. Heck, JWs wil even come to MY door, and agree to come and let me ask them questions! Such an opportunity! I don't even have to search for them (but too bad the JWs don't come around here as much as the Mormons do). Sometimes we don't know a good thing when we see it. We often look thru the wrong end of the telescope.
Bebu, how did you become so knowlegable about jw's? You would have been my nightmare householder!
I have already studied their shabby theology. But fighting with theology alone is so tiring. JWs are familiar with these arguments and have made rabbit trails and usually go nowhere (well, I get tired of them, anyway). I avoid these now as a first or second line of attack (I've been glad to read the things that puzzled posters while they were dubs, though; they are duly noted and will be useful later on). ... It reminds me of Indiana Jones in the Raiders of the Lost Ark, who is attacked by 20 arab swordsmen. He is exahusted by the time he's finished them all off--and then, the swarthiest sworsdman of all shows up doing flashy sword tricks. Indie surveys the man and wipes his brow. Then Indie slowly pulls out the gun he's had in his belt all along... bang! ...Everyone's got a style and method that works for them; if it isn't working so well, it's easy to adapt.
BTW, I haven't dug nearly as deeply as many here into certain particulars. I appreciate all the articles, scans, videos, and posts which are the sweat of dedicated researchers. They provide the ammo for everyone to use as best they can. (And God bless the internet, the bane of the WT!) Any 'success' I might have, I owe in great part to their work.
You should be encouraged, Emma: there are a lot of folks, mostly Christians who are concerned about the dreadful scholarship and theology, and also challenged by the scathing attacks by the WT, who have done a lot of research and expose's. The late Dr. Walter Martin is well-known as a Christian apologist. He had a sharp mind and was a terrific speaker. He wrote a book called "The Kingdom of the Cults", but he seemed to be especially interested in the JWs. A great number of apostates have left on account of the research of such as these. ...So, despite the fact that they aren't crawling out of your woodwork, there ARE non-JW people who know very well what's up in dubdumb. But unless they have relations inside the dub (like jgnaut and others here on the board), or have have an ex-JW friend who is confiding in them, or have have discovered a discussion board like JWD, they may yet be unaware of the emotional implications of doubting JWs and apostates/faders.
(NOTE: Happythoughts, who no longer posts here, had come here for the express purpose of learning more about JWs. She was not a JW herself... and then after she understood the cult of the WT, her goal became that of helping her dear, devout JW friend get OUT. She carefully asked him some challenging questions, and then directed him to this site (and a few others)... It has only been 1-2 weeks now since he has left the borg--it only took 2-3 weeks of reading around. ) Again, God bless the internet!
So, please encourage the non-JWs in your life to learn a little more; it innoculates them from the borg, and increases the hands on the task... build up the army nightmare householders, I say. Make it a "social issue" of setting captives free! )
I can just see your neighbor running back to the elders and them warning her about "apostate" material and keeping in step with "present truth" (now that's an interesting phrase) and not worrying about the old beliefs because of the light getting brighter. Maybe hearing that will help her to see it really is a coverup.
I tell her that I would love it if she would take the information to the elders, so that I could get my questions answered! I look her straight in the face and say this earnestly, saying that this might really help! For herself, she would never ask or question a thing. But since I'm holding her to her own professed high standard, she can't really back out. If she tries, I'll tell her that if she believes that Armageddon IS real, and if she REALLY cares about me, she'll do whatever it takes to get my questions answered so that I and my whole family won't perish. I'll shame her into this, if that is what it takes. Who said that negative enforcement was always a bad thing??? And yes, benext, maybe she will see it as a coverup. That is how I will tell her I see it, if they won't/can't answer, and tell her to tell me to "wait". Sorry, buddy, it's my eternity you're asking me to gamble. I have every Biblical right to be as certain as I can not to follow false teachers. She cannot argue with this!!
...Actually, she encouraged me to write the Society with my questions. I told her that I DID write the Society about 10 years ago, and no one ever replied (of course, why would they want to reply? I had met Jean Eason, an ex-JW while living in Kentucky, and she had told me that the WT had intimated that pets also were not to eat unbled meat. Eason's JW friend wrote and asked about her cat, who caught and ate birds and mice. The WT's response to this friend was, "Please keep an eye on your pet." My letter to the WT related this exchange and asked, "Is the WT truly asking people to make sure their pets don't eat unbled meat?? And to watch over their pets??" ...I am sure that they must have, somehow , lost my letter... )
...I've been thinking. I could never really be called an apostate; it cheapens some of the heart-breaking experiences of those who truly deal with shunning. It's like saying I want an honorary purple heart, without the bullet. I don't want to be shunned. So I must revise this.
Perhaps I am an apostate-paraclete. ... an aposta-clete? That sounds intriguing, and kinda fun! It can work, I think, and it seems more accurate. (Just so long's I can perhaps join an apostafest, one day.)
bebu, "A-C"
