Can somebody give me some info. about JW's. Basically, my dad converted to JW a few years ago and I will not be any part of it cause I think it is more of a cult then a religion. He tries to tell me I have not done research about it and when I tell him all I have done he makes up excuses of why I am wrong. When I tell him I have talked to many friends who are baptized as JWs he tells me they are not "real JWs". He is a very narrow minded person. He is also a hypocrite. Can somebody give me some info., anything will do. I was also wondering what the rule about drinking alcohol was? Cause he always drinks. Thanks, Ben.
Can somebody give me some Info. about JW's
by Maby 6 Replies latest jw friends
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Seeker
Hi Ben,
Sorry to hear about your dad. It's hard to talk to someone in his situation, since JWs will teach new ones that they will get hassled about their religion by their family and friends. So when you point out facts to him, he just filters this in his mind as you hassling him -- just as the JWs said would happen.
He discounts what you learn from other JWs because he assumes (I'm only guessing here) that your contact with them is online. JWs are taught not to associate online, so those who do are often looked down upon as bad examples, or weak JWs.
As for drinking, JWs do not forbid alcohol, but the do condemn drunkenness. In practice, however, it's a fairly common vice, and unless his drunkenness becomes widely known, he probably won't have any problems from them about it.
If he's new to JWs, he won't know all their past mistakes. But if you hang around here, you'll learn some things that can be used to show your dad. There is going to be a Dateline NBC story about how child sexual abuse is being covered up among JWs. When that airs, perhaps in another month or so, it may open people's eyes to some wrongdoing among JWs. Maybe your dad will notice.
We wish you the best, and we know how hard it is to go through what you are enduring.
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jolly_green_giant
You came to the right place looking for info. Most of the people on this board are ex-JW's and have done a lot of research.Many appear to be pretty intellegent. A lot of JW's are narrow minded individuals and many are hypocrites. They are allowed to drink alcohol, but not to the point of intoxication.
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cornish
Hi Maby
When your dad refers to doing research on Jehovahs witnesses he is referring to reading their own latest literature and learning about Jehovahs Witness through publications like their knowledge book which is studied by all new converts. Most of Jehovahs Witness literature is heavily sanitized as to create the watchtower society in the best possible light and hardly unbiased toward themselves,: Witness converts very early on are encouraged to view the watchtower literature as the only trustworthy source of information and all outside sources of information as being suspect and since then all things outside of the watchtower are controlled by Satan the devil not to be trusted, of course sometimes the watchtower does quote scholarly influences from the world but very often they are quoted completely out of context in order to appear to support watchtower viewpoints. The best way to prove the watchtower as a fraud is to use their own literature as when you see their publications through their history you can check and compare it to their more recent publications you can see evidence of lies cover cops in their history in compete u turns on former view points and their own literature proves that they have lived up to their own definition of what a false prophet is. Most Jehovahs witnesses know very little about their religious history although they do have an official history book about their religion it is a complete sham and in reality very few witnesses know very much about the religions true history and hardly any witnesses have ever read any of the publications written by for instance Joseph Rutherford and his ramblings about the evils of vaccination and so on.
Jehovahs witnesses through a process of indoctrination lose their free will and become puppets to the dictates of the governing body in the Brooklyn New York headquarters who they see as God's spokesman an amazing illusion of reality is built up by the watchtower for a new Witness the carrot is that they hope to receive everlasting life on a paradise earth, nothing that money could ever buy and the stick is that they will only get this if they follow the dictates of the organisation otherwise they will suffer complete destruction at Armageddon which is always perpetually just ahead. -
soylibre
Just to confirm what the others have said....JW's only view their publications as being trustworthy for research....and like someone else said, "it is heavily santized" if not sterilzed...they are usually narrowminded, often not reading much besides their own literature.... You are right in one thing, they are more of a cult than a religion....they practice shunning of those who leave their organization, they aren't encouraged to seek higher education, they are discouraged from associating outside of their group and so forth. As far as alcohol goes, it isn't forbidden, "in moderation", but I have known several who were alcoholics....one lady I knew used to drink first thing in the morning and last thing at night....elders were aware of her "habit" but it was never addressed...."everyone has a different intoxication level......whose to say what hers is?" I believe that was the excuse they gave.
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Maby
Thank you for your thoughts and views, and for all the info. you have given me. I totally agree with all of your views. Cornish, that was very nicely put, thank you. I found that many of the publications I have read that were put out by them were just somebodys opinion, and then they would just throw in a general quote from the bible and try to make a point by it. Seeker, just to straighten things out a bit. The people that I have talked to were not online. They were all friends that I went to High School with. Once again, thank you all for your help, this info. might help me get a little bit closer to winning the crusade.
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Maby
Oh yeah, one more thing, if anybody has anymore info. about the NBC Dateline Story. Like when it will air or anything like that please let me know. Either post a reply or you can e-mail me at [email protected]. Thanx, Ben.