Hi gang,
I went to visit my parents last weekend, taking my lovely wife and her mother (who is visiting us from overseas and happens to be a sincere devout Catholic and a wonderful person, and speaks almost no English).
Recently my mother mentioned (via telephone) that she wished my father would buy a new computer (theirs is a vintage 1987 IBM PS/2 25 Mhz) so at the last minute I decided to give them one of the old ones I have sitting around, complete with 17" monitor -- a kind of "peace offering".
During the day and two nights I spent preparing the system, I decided it would be nice to include the "WATCHTOWER 2003 LIBRARY CD-ROM" -- again, a "no hard feelings peace offering" (this was my first mistake).
Then I decided to "complete the historical record" by giving them all the scans of the books from the 1940s and 1950s as well as Watchtowers from 1920 to 1949 (this was my second mistake).
At that point I decided that since they still were under the incorrect impression that my Web site was "filled with lies" and was "organizing people to stop Jehovah's Witnesses to stop knocking on their doors" and a half-dozen other lies about the content of my site, and it was clear that they didn't know what was actually on my website, that this would be an opportunity to set the record straight: so I copied all the HTML files into their computer as well (this was my third mistake).
We arrive Sunday afternoon, and I'm setting up the new computer (and noticing that my dad is more "suspicious" than thankful -- he did not thank me) and as I'm showing him the ropes, I told him "I installed the WT 2003 library, I figured you would want that."
His response (concerned and suspicious tone): "Where did you get that???"
Me: "Oh, I forget, maybe from [name of former-JW best friend removed]"
Dad: [silence]
Me: "oh, and since you collect watchtower books, I thought you would like to have them in electronic format on your computer, you now have all the old Watctower's from 1920 to 1949 and the books from 1942 to 1959." (as I click and show him all the icons I have set up in the Windows Start Menu, right next to the "WT Library 2003" icon.
Dad: [silence]
Me: "Oh, and to set the record straigt, here is a local copy of my website, I want to proove to you that it only contains WT quotes and put an end to all the lies and rumours about it being apostate."
Dad: "I don't need to see you site again, I've seen it before, you try to get people to have JWs stop calling...
Me: "What the HECK????? That is exaclty the type of thing I'm talking about. I have heard of a site like that, but it is not mine!!! My site only has Watchtower quotes, a scrapbook of quotes. Look: here is my site [click click click] there is nothing like that here, I'm certain of it! I would never put anything like that here."
Dad: [refusing to even look at the screen]"Well, you must have a link to that type of site"
Me: "Impossible: I have very few links, and all of them go only to neutral sites, like the guy with the music for all the kingdom songs, or the complete text of the SiS books. LOOK [click click click]..."
Dad: "I don't need to look, I've seen it before..."
This started about a 90 minute discussion where my dad had his "elder's game face" on. Highlights include:
Dad: "Yes, but WHY do you do this? What is your reason, what is your motive?"
Me: "It doesn't matter, it is my hobby, this is what I do, I leave the motive, interpretation, etc. to others. I just collect quotes, nothing more and nothing less." [I realized afterwards I should have asked him "why do you collect stamps? This is my hobby and it is no different! Darn. The things you think of after the fact! :( ]
Dad: "No, you are nit picking. And it is because you are bitter about what happened [referring, I assume to my 1st wife leaving me because I wasn't attending meetings "to protect her spirituality"]. And I find it OFFENSIVE. I am offended by it.
Me: [sincerely]: "Well, I am truly sorry if the facts and truth are offenseive to you..."
Dad [cutting me off]: "No, no, no, that's not it."
Me: [sincerly]: "Then what is the offence?"
Dad: "I BELIEVE in this organization(tm). I know about the old changes you have on your website. I believe that the corrections PROOVE that Jehovah is guiding his people; in fact if there were no corrections, that would be MORE of a concern to me. What offends me is that me and your mother and your sister and [eldest brother] and [missionary in the Dominican Republic] brother are out there trying to help people learn more about THE TRUTH (tm). And lets say we find someone that shows interest, and they decide to research a bit more about THE ORGANIZATION(tm), and they get on the internet, and find your website, and say "hey, these people have all the problems and changes" and they get confused and say "I don't want to have anything to do with them" and decide to stop studying. And THAT is what offends me. You are undoing all the work that the rest of your family is doing."
Me: [doing a vicotry dance on the inside, becuase he has admitted that my website, using only Watchotwer's own words, stops their cult indoctrination process]
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So there you have it. My dad admitted that My Quotes website can stop people from joining Watchtowerism, by merely providing a full disclosure and factual information. I didn't have the heart to tell him that according to email I have received, it has also been instrumental in getting elders to leave the Watchtowerism trap.
Oh, he also mentioned that he was offended that I was asking for donations ("buy me a coffee"); offended that I am selling the books of the 1940s and 1950s on CD, and offended that I "was trying get get JWs to stop their door to door ministry" (he still refused to accept that I have nothing at all to do with that other website and do not have any links to it). So I told him I will soon remove the "donation" request, although I could not understand why he found that offensive! I also decided (but did not tell him) that I will continue to sell the Bookshelf CDs; it provides a valuable service and covers the cost of my webhosting and my time.
Oh, 30 hours later, when we were leaving, he remembered to say "Thanks for the computer". So the manners that he taught me when I was a child did finally kick-in!
~Quotes, of the "doing God's work to Advertize, Advertize, Advertize the words of the Watchtower (god's true channel of information to mankind) to all newly interested ones" class
P.S. I suspect my dad is now taking a crash course in Windows 2000 so he can learn how to delete all thost nasty old publications and my nasty website off the computer.... heck he should probably wipe the hard disk and start over, it is probably already infected by the "Satan the Devil is the Ghost in the Machine" virus!!!! ;)
Quotes website can "confuse newly interested": so says my Elder/Father
by Quotes 26 Replies latest social family
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Quotes
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Satanus
Yep, that is one demon infected computer, even w the wt cd on it. The demons probably subtly changed the society's material.
S
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iiz2cool
I don't see what the problem is. Many times, when I was still a JW, we went from door to door offering older publications that contained "old light", and we did this knowingly. We were offering the "Holy Spirit" book right into the 1990's. Were we apostates because we knowingly distributed inaccurate information??? So I don't see where there's a problem doing the same thing in electronic format.
It's not your site that's confusing people. It's the contradictions in Watchtower teachings.
Walter
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unbeliever
Quotes,
I have printed off quotes from your website and showed them to mother and she ripped them up and said they were demonized. She would not put the ripped up pages in her trash can but went across the street to a local park and put them in the dumpster. I wanted to point out to her how the dubs use emotional blackmail and cited some examples like the woman who would not let her son around her DF'd parents. I told her it was word for word out of her own literature but she did not believe me and said I put an apostate twist on the story. She would not even check it out. After that happened I resolved not to discuss dub issues with her anymore. There is no point.
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undercover
It's not your site that's confusing people. It's the contradictions in Watchtower teachings.
That sums it up quite nicely.
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RevMalk
that's great.
By the way, I've probably never said it before, but I absolutely LOVE your site.
I think it's probably the best we've got out there today!
Rev
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Nathan Natas
HA HA HA!
Doesn't your father know that demons reside in the BIOS?
He'll never be able to get rid of them by reformatting the hard drive!
BWA-hahahahaha! (especially evil laughter)
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Emma
should probably wipe the hard disk and start over, it is probably already infected by the "Satan the Devil is the Ghost in the Machine" virus!!!! ;)
Just wait until he gets sick or has some type of difficulty. Then it'll be time to get rid of the computer 'cuz it's demonized!
Emma
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johnny cip
quotes; i fact when your not around it will , pester your dad , to test some of your info. maybe in a week month or year. but he will dabble . he won't tell you . i've used info from your site4 and many others on my dad. even tho he's still a jw. i love to bring up a new wt mag were it says their were teaching the truth for the last 125 years. i pop off a few false teachings , and in his heart he knows they are lying in new mag. you can even see it in his face. that's right when a new intrested one does a little testing from what , the wt tells about their history. and sees some of the crapola, if they are not hooked yet . they can discern clearly the wt is a LIAR...... AND THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT !!!!!!!!!!! yes you have helped many . even my dad... john ps. when dad tells me i'm taking quotes out of context. i love to go into his own library 68-present. and read the whole chapter. the context most times is worst than the quote. then i ask him remember when you forced me to study this book and everyone was almost dancing around how these false teaching came straight from jehovah>> how faqst you forget DAD...
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Room 215
Nice work Quotes! Although I know it's never pleasant to tangle with one's parents who we love dearly, but are simply too scared to peer through the portal that you left ajar for him. ``Confuse the newly interested" will they? Damn right, and will cause them to ask lots of questions of their teachers and elders that will have them squirming, since, if these are not yet baptzed, they'll be forced to make a show of having some sort of reasonable answer, and not simply bully them into quiescence or issue veiled threats as they would with a baptized JW.