Two elders approached me yesterday afternoon while I was doing a bit of work on my car. Unsuccessful at reaching me in my home (mostly because I don't answer the doorbell when they come) they saw me outside and decided to stop to talk.
The conversation did not go especially well. First, I told them that my reason for inactivity in the religion was because I felt no closeness to God, and that reading the Bible did not make me feel any closer to him (if anything, it tends to put more distance between me and the Big Guy). The response of one elder was typical for JWs - "well, you need to develop a relationship with Jehovah, to pray to Him". That, after I just finished saying that it was an effort I had made repeatedly to no avail. I guess their answer was to simply try again.
I wished the conversation had ended there, but after some continued discussion, I got a bit worked up and let loose on some real concerns - their perfomance based way of worship, where it's the outward show that only seems to matter. I mentioned their heavy load of 5 meetings per week plus other activities. One of them assured me that their congregation was different, and that if I wanted, I could attend just once per week. I knew such an assurance to be inaccurate, since the jws there would soon begin to question why one would attend only once per week. In my three decades as a JW, I had never known the religion to be tolerant of missing their meetings.
One of the two elders was particularly alienating. First, he asked me "what do you do in your spare time?" seeming to imply that, since I told him that JWs have too many meetings and must canvass the neighborhood on weekends, a load too heavy for me to carry, that somehow I had become some lazy-ass bum who sits around. The way he asked the question also gave me that impression. I assured him that I was quite busy.
This same elder later came out with an odd diatribe against Muslims, stating that they "kill those who leave their religion". I can't even recall what prompted that statement, but I expressed great dissatisfaction at it, especially since my sister-in-law is a practicing Muslim and, as I was quick and adamant in pointing out, as fine a person as I'd want to meet. I added that she is extremely helpful in caring for my aged mother. Also, I responded that JWs kill those who leave their faith to join another, in a spiritual way by their practice of disfellowshipping and shunning, and that, in a past issue of the Watchtower, they even spoke of "Caesar's Law" as preventing them from doing even more to such persons. I told him that just a small precentage of Islamic radicals are responsible for terrorism (they weaved that theme in) and I strongly implied that the JW practice of shunning was of a similar mindset.
Then, the other elder said, after I objected that God was planning the death of 6 billion people at Armageddon, that there are millions who have AIDS and are dying because of their own behavior. I found that comment to be extremely ignorant.
I also voiced my concern over many of the incorrect dates for Armageddon that the religion has put forth over the years. Their counter was the usual one jws are taught to use - that the disciples of Jesus also were speculating as to when the end would come. I mentioned that Jesus quickly resolved that issue (Acts 1:6-8) and that the disciples did not make public announcement of their speculations.
Looking back on the conversation, it confimed my reason for avoiding contact with Jehovah's Witnesses elders. They become quickly adversarial even though they are supposedly there "to help". Their thinking is that they are right and you are wrong, and nothing will change that until you see things their way. Their cocksureness in their belief that only they are approved by God is amazing. They remind me of the Pharisees, who were so sure that they were the few who were pleasing God.