I was at university the other night in the computer lab, cruising this site, well a fellow classmate who has been in my class since Sept and we have become friends, walks past, looks at the site I am on and says, "I noticed you are on a JW site, did you know I am a JW, are you one?"
I was shocked. I turned to him and let loose,
"No I am not a JW, but have many family members that are. I am concerned because so much of what I am reading tells me that they are a cult"
"Oh no (laughing) we aren't."
"Who says?"
"Why, (stammering)....
"I have been reading so many scary things about your religion. There is the date switching, 1914, 1975, etc"
"Oh no, that was cleared up."
"huh? but I have learned that the bible says a false prophet is a of the devil and for man to prophesy and then NOT have them come true is a sign of a false religion"
"We don't say the dates"
"ho ho ho but you do, here, let me show you actual articles from your religious magazines."
(I showed him some from this site. I used THIS site to give a 'witness'....lol...he was so nice still though but unsettled)
"and then there is the shunning that you practice...."
(we had a big discussion about that and whether or not it is biblical. I told him it was sick what JW do to families, he said...)
"It is really really hard to get df'ed nowadays. Your attitude has to be 'I don't care what you say, I won't talk to you, do what you want with me. But if you are sorry for what has been done, then you won't be disfellowshipped"
"ahhhhh but that is a lie. You have been fed wrongful information my friend. I know (wink wink) of someone df'ed bec they left an abusive relationship, JW hubby was jailed etc, they df'ed her when she finally met someone she loved and married him. Do you think that was fair? What about df'ing ppl that disagree with the teachings of JW, ones that change their mind about wanting to be a JW? They are not allowed, I think they are called 'apostates' or something like that"
"I don't know"
"You JW's always do that. Bury your head, I don't know it, or say it will be ok."
"But we are ordained ministers of God"
"WHO ordained you?"
"Our religion"
"Exactly, men, not God, not even the state! How long does it take you to get ordained?"
GET THIS! "4 years of rigerous studying"
(I hardly knew what to say) "But I have heard of children that are not even of legal age being baptised??"
"I am not saying that everything about our religion is right, it is still changing."
"Fair enough, but there seems to be some pretty big problems....hay, did you know about the UN scandal or the pedophile scandal in your religion"
"Um no."
"Let me enlighten you........." (Told him the stories)
"So you really believe that this organization, wait how many are you?"
"6 million"
"Ok, that 6 million will live forever, and billions will die....hah! There are more muslims in North America than JW in the whole world!"
"No we don't know who will be destroyed, some will, but not all, we don't judge"
"But my friend, you DO. But you absolve yourself of responsibility for your actions through denial. What is shunning then? Do you not clump all churches into one big 'false religion that will be destroyed' category? Do you even know exactly what the churches in your community do?"
"JW are world known for being the first ones to aid in any disaster"
"I have never heard of them doing that, but I hear of the Red Cross, The salvation Army, churches, and besides what does your church do for its local community anyways other than irritate ppl and sell mags and books?"
Anyways, it went on and on, I let him have it about all that I could think of in 1/2 hour. We discussed door to door work, what humanity means, the 2 laws that God summed the law into and said THIS is the whole obligation of man, the fact that the bible was written by MEN, how it is all about perspective, that JW are fed a negative view of the world so it is easy to believe that it needs to be destroyed, how long ago the bible was written, customs/traditions/holidays change etc.
Great discussion. I was reminded how naive they are and how little they know what is really going on in the world and their own religion. Unreal how selective information only is feed to them. I forgot how onesided it all is and I hope I reached him and planted a little seed of doubt. I was surprised how easy it was to pick apart his beliefs now. I have turned into the kind of person I use to dread meeting out in service!!!!!!!! I told him about this site, to check it out. I hope he does, he is a really nice man. Back in class, we were still talking and my other friend said, "Whats up?" He interrupted and said, "Don't ask, don't get her started on religion, she knows what she is talking about and can talk circles around you. (laugh laugh)"
This thought is to you _________, please think, examine and research. Love Jez