by minimus 51 Replies latest jw friends
He said ?among the legal community witness?s are well known for having no tolerance for child molesters.?
Incredible! Let me guess ... he's never visited the Silent Lambs website?
I don't usually discuss my incredibly insane past.
The only time it comes up -- is if I talk about my kids shunning me. People naturally want to know how come. I tell them they are in a cult that I left. They ask, "Which one?"
I say "JeHoover's Witlesses".
They back away and say, "Ohhhhh!"
Love
ESTEE
As an outsider, I know how my friends and I viewed JWs, before I learned about them, just in the last 6 months.
Most think they are just one of many ignorant minority religions, each of which selects particular bits of the Bible to give most importance to. They are also looked upon as naive, anti-social, and similar to double-glazing salesmen, pestering people and trying to sell them something they don't want.
They are just considred a bit weird, and no different to dozens of other small religions. I have never met anyone who knew much about how they behave or what they believe. They are certainly not considered wonderful people by the general public, they are just ignored as pests.
Some people get really angry about them, either because of them disturbing our weekends, or because they have allowed people to die for a mistaken belief.
Sometimes they are made fun of....I used to make fun of them after they were at my doorb
The first thing that came into people's minds when I told them about being a JW was the fact that we didn't have Xmas or birthdays. That thought then triggered the fact that JW's don't allow blood transfusions for their kids. It seemed to me that people felt sorry for us and for our kids especially.
The reason many stay as Witnesses is because they feel "special". They may've had no education, wealth or prestige but because they are Witnesses they feel superior to everyone else.
If they had the wonderful reputation that the WT would have you believe, dont you think we would have experienced in on FS.
They were just not interested, not in the message, us or what we believed. They couldnt give a damm we always reconciled that it was satan that had "blinded" them. NOT TRUE
They just had more sense
We put on a show, we werent real. We smiled cos we had too, not cos we loved them.
Probably not, but the situations more complicated than it looks at first glance.
SeymourButts said:
I have yet to meet a single person (non-dub) that has thought they were "wonderful".
Well, it depends. When a "countercultural" person meets a "fringe" Witness - someone who's too "weak" to abandon the Golden Rule, for instance - they're likely to be favorably impressed. Likewise, when a SuperDub™ meets a fanatic from another church, the "worldly" fanatic may well be impressed by the SuperDub's "witnessing zeal" or familiarity with the Bible.
My son's girlfriend works for just such a "spiritually weak" Witness - a sister who's much more interested in the plant nursery she's running than the very latest blink of "new light." Yet she's a devout Witness by worldly standards, which are more about depth of emotion than "works".
gently feral
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Have The Reputation THEY Think They Have?
Yes. Among themselves but nowhere else.
The rep JWs have to me as a non-jw is based on many door to door battles:
1/ Liked their zeal and dedication to spreading the word. Hated the fact that the only word they seemed to spread was doom and gloom and please come and help us tell more people about doom and gloom.
2/ Disliked the inability to argue intelligently (yea I know I'm a biased twit) because they seemed so drilled that they couldn't see any other side to that viewpoint. As a missionary I felt I wasn't there to squish other's beliefs but to first of all understand their worldview ie everyone is right through their own spectacles and teaching is as much about understanding as it is about replacing ideas with new ones.
3/ But the thing I hated most about JWs...None of them wanted to go to heaven - every single one I talked to wanted to live here on earth with that lion and the beach ball. I wanted to shake them up and say - why don't you aspire to anything more - have you lost even that hope.
4/ I thought their women were really cute but really scary and clever.
5/ I admired the stand they took on silly issues like christmas and assemblies because they took the stand - I like ppl with balls - even when they are fighting a lost cause(IMHO) - kinda heroic.
A couple of months ago the local PO told me that witness?s are "renowned among attorneys for their stance on child molesters." I said ?renowned for what?? He said ?among the legal community witness?s are well known for having no tolerance for child molesters.? I even got him to repeat it twice, which seemed to get him a little jacked up. I kid you not.
Damn. Can I have that guys number?
