by JH 15 Replies latest jw friends
On another thread, Elsewhere said that he didn?t like going door to door, especially since he didn?t believe in what he preached.
I was a little surprised by his statement because I, on the other hand, did believe in what I preached. I don?t think I would have been able to preach something I didn?t believe in.
Did you believe everything that you preached?
Yes, I believed it all. The only thing I had difficulty with was that little children would be killed at Armegeddon.
Try everything.
This is why i tried to avoid service. Hard to talk up something you think is crap.
No, I didn't believe in everything so I didn't preach the stuff I didn't believe...at least at the end. I didn't believe in Adam and Eve as real people and thought the story was an illustration of the nature of mankind. I wouldn't defend the Watchtower's version of creationism although when selling magazines this type of question never came up.
I had problems with the blood doctrine as well and either said things that I knew I wouldn't follow or was evasive with the truth. By the time I had real problems with WTS doctrine I had stopped going out in FS. I hoped for some sort of reform (about a year) but gave up on that hope and quit altogether.
3rd
No, I didn't believe in everything so I didn't preach the stuff I didn't believe...at least at the end.
That was me too. I got in trouble with the CO once because someone reported to me that I told a householder that in no way did I believe that only JW's would be saved at Armageddon. We argued about it and finally he just told me to avoid the answer to that question, and it was okay to believe what I believed.
Not for a long time. I either believed it or figured mom could explain it if I really wanted to know. The old "the WTS has all the answers if I decide to look I could find them". Service became a lot more hateful after I started descenting in my views. I didn't really have the mags read for service ever and always figured I would get caught by someone from the group asking if I read x point. And I thought maybe I would see someone from school who would say the wrong thing in front of someone and then it would be realized that I was no longer a perfect example..
One time someone from the cargroup ended up in a discussion with a gay guy who of course took exception to the witnesses condemnation of homosexuality. At that point I had come to view it as not being wrong and I was so thankful I had not been on that call. I could not have hypocritically argued the points, or kept my mouth shut while others did so, over something I no longer believed in--all to prove "wrong" someone I would have seen as a kindred spirit..
I couldn't go out in service now because i don't believe in 1914, the FDS, the "annointed". I don't believe that blowjobs are bad, and i believe that if you can get disfellowshipped for smoking (na i don't smoke), that you should be disfellowshipped for being obese (no i'm not overweight either). Because they are both the same thing. So it'd be hard to go preach door to door now, going and telling all the little kids that you'll die if a girl decides to give you a BJ or somethin....thats just evil, something all the little boys look up to =D
I believed everything I preached...and when I stopped believing it, I didn't preach it. I stopped asking for contributions many years before the WTS went to the voluntary donation. I stopped offering the Creation book, and the Trinity brochure, and even the NWT.
The Greatest Man book was the only one I could feel good about.
Craig
JH: yup, I too believed what I preached in the door-to-door ministry as TRUE.
I can't say I enjoyed going 'door-to-door', but I did honestly believe in what I preached.
Naive? Indeed.
I had some doubts about the Daniel chapter 4 chronology (the seven times) and a few other things, but I hadn't actually concluded that they were wrong, so I still taught them.
After I figured out that 1914 was baloney, I tried to avoid mentioning it out in service; there was one time, however, when the householder started talking about how everything had gone down-hill starting in 1914, and so I couldn't help responding that it was a marked year in bible prophecy. Thankfully, I never had to go back on the return visit on that one (it wasn't my door).
