I never defend them; not ever.
Do you ever DEFEND Witnesses?
by GetBusyLiving 36 Replies latest jw friends
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Toronto_Guy
Its a very good question...
After I was df'd I met with one of my former Bible Studies, and she was quite surprised that I had changed my tune so much! lol...I explained to her why I no longer believed what I did before, but I did it in a diplomatic way. I tried to help her to see why I used to believe it, and why others like my parents still believe it.
I do believe that alot of non-Witnesses have misconceptions and strange ideas about Witnesses that are not always necessarily true. I try to be balanced with people. I tell them the things I felt were good, or the aspects of being a Witness that I enjoyed, but ultimately I show them why it can't be the Truth the Witnesses say it is.
toronto_guy
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AlanF
I used to. But having come to know their disgusting policies on child molestation, seeing the way they continue deliberately breaking up families, seeing their instransigence with the blood issue, and many more destructive cult practices -- never again.
AlanF
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ColdRedRain
I only defend JW's when their beliefs aren't known. That way, there won't be a populace that's ignorant about their beliefs and get to be curious about them.
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iiz2cool
On several occasions my ex said "When you attack the Watchtower, you're attacking me!" I could not make her understand that she and the society were separate entities, and that she is not responsible for their actions, only hers. Most of the things people bash about the Witnesses are matters of organizational policy but many JWs take such criticizm personally. I don't know why, as most have no voice in matters of organizational policy. Any defense I would make of a JW would be to say they're misled and controlled by the society. Even then, each indivudual should have some common sense, and not do everything some stupid publishing company tells them to.
The only time I defended the JWs was before I was one, so I didn't know better.
Walter
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blondie
Defend them as a group or as individuals?
Defend their beliefs as a JW/WTS monolith or defend some ideas they might have right in spite of themselves?
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GetBusyLiving
I just meant defending the regular rank and file dubs who don't know any better, NOT the governing body and certainly not the doctrines.
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avishai
How do you react when you hear 'worldlings' bashing witnesses?
Sure, if they're dead wrong in what thery're saying, i.e " I hear they use mormon baby blood in their memorial crackers"
and I'll also defend individual witnesses who are being unfairly bashed.
Listen, we were ALL poor Jw's at one point. The WTS sux, I'll not defend their policies, but unreasonable histrionics only helps their cause and makes me look stupid. Compassion should be the order of the day, many of us still in are still being horribly abused and thats the tragedy. I think there's often a tendency to go "Woo-hoo I'm out, screw you guys!!!" But think about it, there's thousands, millions being abused, and if not, bored to death just like you were right now.
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Narkissos
Sometimes the basic intellectual honesty (which the WT lacks so badly) requires refuting exaggerations, misrepresentations or plain defamation about JWs. Doing so actually gives more weight to warranted criticism imo.
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undercover
Defend them as a group or as individuals?
I have defended people that I know who were JWs and good people at heart but I don't defend the rules, the doctrine or the organization.
Usually when I have to defend an individual it's because a "worldly" person didn't have all the facts or didn't understand how it all worked. How could he? He's never had to deal with it like we have.
And then again sometimes I have been the one to bash certain individual JWs because back when I was in, I didn't have the nerve to, especially when it came to certain elders. Even if they were assholes, I had to remember that they were God's servant. Now I know better, so I don't have a problem speaking my mind about them to someone who asks if I know "So-and-so, who's a JW".