Jehovah witnesses
I used to have conversations with them, but never let them into my home. I heard what they had to say, and then said good day.
After doing my own research on religion, I no longer waste my time talking to them. But then again, I've not seen one for about 3-4 years.
Hey Joy,
Have I spoken to one recently? I have one that lives in the apartment complex that I live in. She and her husband live on the third floor and I live on the first floor.
She has spoken to me and I've spoken to her. She is a very caring lady who knows her place and my position on her beliefs. However, we still get along.
I have not been visited by them in years and really do not expect to be visited by them. However, should it happen, I'll be glad to correct them on what they do not know of their own religion.
I've met a couple of nice JW's.
The JW brainwashing made them look as mad as whistling kettles, but they were nice enough otherwise.
They were kids that had been chosen to "spread the word" as far away as Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Now that is some serious indoctrination!I guess they were late teens or young adults, but they were kids either way. Naive and indoctrinated.
I feel sorry for anyone wasting their time like this.LOL Yeah, to me a 30 year old is still a kid. I guess cause my baby is 31. Thing is, they are taught to go door to door. A lot of people won't receive them. We are suppose to do that, but, if some one wants to hear, they will go to church, or ask. No body wants to be pushed into anything. I wonder if those poor younguns knew what they were getting into going door to door. I hope every one was nice to them. But then, maybe that's why they sent younguns out.
Unfortunately they probably copped a very hard time in Darwin at that time.
Total and complete annoyance. Many years ago when I lived in a different town, they were at my door constantly and wouldn't go away when I politely declined to listen to their spiel. Then I took a new job and wound up being friends with one of them. At her wedding, I was surreptitiously looking around to see if any of her relatives were people that were at my door when I let the dogs out to chase them away!
I don't hate them, and I don't blame them for following the rules that they're taught by the religion. I don't, however, want them showing up at my house!
Honestly.. My neighborhood seems to have a pushpin on their map of the area, or something; because they're roaming around here far more than anywhere else I've lived (or, from what friends, say, more often than they show up at some other people's homes). I sometimes wonder if because the street is a circle and doesn't have much traffic, they just like walking around here. (Or, maybe, they think this quiet little suburban neighborhood needs more saving than other places! )
In the past it's always taken two times of telling them politely, "I don't talk about my faith with anyone." Once isn't enough, so I have to repeat it. Fine. At some point, though, they started being pushy with that little booklet they hand out. I refused, and once someone opened the storm door after I'd closed it and said goodbye and put the booklet in my door. At the point I was ready to kill them!!
I mean, I answered the door (nice enough). I was polite twice (also nice enough). I politely said, "Have a day back" or else made some friendly comment about the weather they were walking around in. (Nice again.) That was IT, as far as I was concerned. When that last one crossed the line and threw the booklet behind my front door, after I'd already said, "No thanks" (again polite); I lost it.
Inappropriate as this was, I was seeing red and feeling like I wanted to murder them! I took out my anger on the booklet, and then I crumpled it and pulled and crumbled it as much I possibly could, marched out to the car parked not far from my house, and stuck it under the windshield wipers.
They were within earshot at the neighbor's house, so I said in a loudish (but not yelling) voice, "DO NOT LEAVE THESE IN MY DOOR EVER! I DO NOT WANT YOUR CRAP!!"
Well, I don't know if they still come around my neighborhood any more, but they don't come to my house. I don't know... It was that opening the storm door thing that made me lose it.
So, I don't hate them. I even feel bad for them a lot of the times. Still, until they see a sign on my house that says, "I'm interested in hearing about your religion. Come in"... I'm through being polite to them, and they'd better not knock on my door.A couple of JW encounters that were memorable.
Two young JW's standing in the Darwin heat in 14 piece suits......I felt very sorry for these kids, they were early twenties. and being lectured like schoolchildren to not "mess up" the bus by a JW bus driver in America.
We all told him to get stuffed!My big memory of JW's is with a tea party I had instead of a birthday for my preschool daughter. She hadn't been in school long, so I didn't feel comfortable having a birthday party (gifts, etc.). Her birthday is right after Christmas. I invited all the little girls in the school. Two were from JW families. One mother started grilling me, "but is it a Christmas party?" I said, "No. It's a tea party." She kept asking, and then she started with, "Will there be a Christmas tree in the house?" "Where?"
I don't know how often I said, "It is not a Christmas party. It is a tea party." Finally, I just got so sick of being grilled over an invitation to a four-year-old (that I thought was a NICE thing ), I said (again), "It isn't a Christmas party. Yes. We have a Christmas tree in the house. It is a tea party. If you want to come, come. If you don't, don't." (They didn't come. )
All she had to do was decline the invitation but instead she decided to grill me (and I mean "grill") over and over. So, again, it comes down to that you can't even try to be polite. I mean - really - it was going to be about 10 four-year-old girls eating tea cakes and punch and playing with fake food and dolls.Are they really that much more civilized? I beg to differ. Take a close look at the world around you. Methodology might look different, but it's still invasive and they still do what they want and how they want. There are still stonings happening based on religious beliefs. There are many actions that are carried out in the name of religious belief and sending people out to recruit and prove that their belief is better still exists.
I'm not here to start a debate with you or hijack your thread. Though, I've been know to do that to others. I'm much more of a make peace not war type of person.
I bow my head, and exit this thread. Thanks for a thoughtful topic tonight.
Maybe I missed that habee.
I hit a lot of threads yesterday and my day ends at a different time of course so I do miss the odd post from the USA.. There was this man who despite his disinterest in them, the JWs keep coming back.
So he waited until they sent 2 female JWs to his door and as soon as they knocked on his door he striped naked. Then he opened it and said. "Hello, do you want to come in"
According to the story (BTW the women were two aged ladies) he had never seen two old women run so fast in his life!
He also never saw them again!
Although I'm not thrilled to see them walking around the neighborhood, I don't really even mind that they knock on the door. I'd rather they didn't, but "whatever".... (I've often felt bad for them - walking around in the hot Summer weather with suits on, etc.)
What I mind is when they say who/what they are, and I say (very nicely), "I don't talk about my faith with anyone," they don't just take that for an answer. I don't care what it is - if someone starts talking about the weather and I tell them, "I don't talk about the weather," I expect an, "Oh, OK. Have a nice day".
But, it is aggravating to have someone who believes whatever they believe presume to come "a-preachin'" to me. I don't mean to seem self-righteous, but I know the kind of person I am and have always been. I don't want anyone appointing themselves "guardians of my soul", because I'll take care of my own soul, thanks. I mean - people who believe in Jesus (and that whole thing) talk about how Jesus taught people to be humble. Well, it isn't humble to think you have the right to try to preach to people who aren't in a church or synagogue and who are minding their business in their homes. It's also not humble to presume they're wayward if they don't believe what you do.Perhaps, those people understand that the reason you're knocking on their door has more to do with what you want as opposed to what they want.
Spot on the money!
Aww - and you said you were scared to tell your husband you have left the faith.
http://www.exmormon.org/
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/exitletter_1.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ja … sing-spain
Are we getting it yet?
Leaping well beyond Islamic doctrine that would have you respect and acknowledge the Bible as a holy book worthy of such in the eyes of a believer despite it a holy book of another religion, you declare the Bible a 'dead book' with your previous declaration offering your definition:
"it would be living then it would give responses with reasons, wisdom and arguments."
And, despite the fact that there are verses in the Bible that do not represent it as morally or ethically acceptable, there are other verses that do indeed respond with reason, wisdom and good arguments.
That said, we all can agree there are verses in the Quran and Hadiths that respond with reason, wisdom and good arguments just as there are also verses depicting deplorable moral and ethical behavior.
But, you have failed to acknowledge this and instead take the position of aggression and hostility, exhibiting the very same verses in the Quran and the Bible that portray the morally and ethically challenged behavior we find unacceptable.
- lambservantposted 14 years ago
0 - RFoxposted 14 years ago0
For two years I lived in a small town at the end of a cul-de-sac surrounded by JW's. Interestingly enough not once did their canvassers come down our street or knock on my door. It was obvious we weren't JW's as our house at Christmas was decorated to the nines. Quite funny actually to have the only decorated house in the street.
My duplex neighbours at the time were devout JW's and they were great friends. We would walk our dogs together all the time. They would take my dogs on extra hikes during the day while I was at work. (This was the kind of place where you don't lock your doors. So they could enter my house any time they liked. hahaha....imagine that!)
My friend would tell me about her big JW conferences where they would rent out hockey arenas etc but she NEVER talked about the religion itself or tried to convert me. Maybe because I am a Buddhist I am beyond saving.
All in all they were one of the nicest couples I've ever met and I'm sorry I lost contact with them when I moved.
**On a really funny side note they even took my dog tubing behind their jet ski on the lake we lived near! Best neighbours EVER! This one comes in audio tape
- just_curiousposted 13 years ago0
This may be so, but Jesus never knocked on doors. His "urgent" message is still urgent, but the means to deliver that message in not necessarily door knocking.
But then, what the message IS, and what the JW's say it is differs greatly also. Be sure you have the right message, before you start knocking.
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