I tried to understand you CLee, I really did. At first, I thought you were just bitter. Then, I thought maybe you were a conspiracy theorist, but I don’t think that anymore. I think you’re just terribly misinformed, and you’ve taken what you heard and ran with it, developing some strong ideas and opinions that aren’t founded upon much…
The tl;dr version: Go ahead and not like Witnesses, go ahead and not like our beliefs, go ahead and attempt to convince others of your views. It’s your prerogative. Just don’t do it while standing upon nothing. There’s plenty of things for you to legitimately dislike, but to imply cause-effect relationships, to outright state completely untrue things, to create a false perception and then claim it is ours, makes you look like a bitter angry person.
Your post, here, is so full of incorrect assumptions about the perspective of other people that I can’t imagine you wrote this without a preconceived agenda or a hardcore bias that’s closing your mind to other possibilities.
Using the term “marks” implies that we’re akin to a shady salesman, and that we mark people who we feel are more likely to fall to our persuasion/coercion. It implies that A) witnesses view others as less than themselves and B) witnesses view other people only as potential converts and C) our only goal with witnessing is to convert people to our way of thinking, and that there is some benefit for ourselves in doing so.
This is wholly false, though I can see how it might appear to be that way, looking from the outside in. Our only goal with door-to-door witnessing is to “declare the good news of the kingdom of god”. If an individual wishes to know more, we expound upon that. If it appears to us that someone has a particular need (recently lost a loved one, feeling depressed and lonely, struggling with an unwanted addiction) then we will cater our presentation of “the good news of the kingdom” to how accepting God’s way of living will benefit them, or how God’s love may bring them comfort during a time of pain. This is not done with any sinister intent; we truly do not have the goal of swelling our ranks. It is satisfactory to us to simply bring Jehovah’s name to your door. If you don’t want it, that’s fine, at least you heard it.
Some individuals within the witnesses are more “zealous” than others, and will push the issue perhaps a bit too far. This rightly annoys people such as yourself, but is NOT an indication of ulterior motives.
This is awfully presumptuous. You don’t know anything about the OP’s general attitude towards non-witnesses; you only know how he reacted to this single incident, and his emotional involvement. You know the phrases - broad brush, generalization, etc. They’re not good things, and while his reaction involved a little bit of it, your responses are very cogent, thought out, comprehensive examples of broad-brush generalization with the goal of painting witnesses in an extremely negative light. Not cool.
I’m not even sure I follow your train of thought from idea > point in this area.
Are you equating the hatred you assume all witnesses share for guns to the hatred you assume all witnesses share for LGBT people? Are you then setting up that hatred as a tenet of our faith, and contrasting it AGAINST: pushing spiritual beliefs unbidden, voting, participating in political functions, etc., while suggesting that we’re jeopardizing the freedom we have by behaving in such a manner? To me it looks like a string of unrelated statements, that while individually might be true, have nothing to do with the issue at hand. That’s called a straw-man argument.
Again, you’re assuming a perspective that simply doesn’t exist. You’re saying that not only do witnesses feel that we are terminally under appreciated and persecuted, but that we enjoy being in that position. That’s also called a straw-man argument, mixed in with ad-hominem. And what’s the purpose of “we can’t win this one” - what’s the battle that you’ve given up? I didn’t see any such surrender, only lots of arguing.
It doesn’t work that way. Maybe you’ll succeed in convincing others to your point of view, that of deriding the witnesses for holding a perspective and mindset/attitude that is genuinely awful. But really…stick to the facts, not your interpretation of what they must mean about our motives.
Again, you start with a true statement about your opinion of a witness coming to your door, along with a plausible inference that others share the opinion, but then follow it up with a completely erroneous assumption peppered with disingenuous commentary that never happened. It’s an ad-hominem straw man. There’s nobody out there who would bring such a message to their neighbors, witness or otherwise. It’s absurd. Your assumption of our perception is incorrect.
We tell each other no such thing. We are nervous as hell each time we knock on a door, knowing full well that most people don’t want to hear it. It’s our moral obligation to do so, and we’ve been granted the legal right in this country, so we’re going to do it. The “service” does not cost you your privacy or peace and quiet - though the initial visit may feel that way. The cost is not exorbitant, because there’s nobody to “pay”. You either choose to live your life one way, or another way. Your way, defined by your own morals, or God’s way, according to the morals he stuck in the Bible. Again, your assumption of our perception and attitude is wholly incorrect.
We’re not Amish. We’re fully living in this world. We simply choose to not participate in the mechanisms that guide it, because we believe them to be influenced by Satan. The world is full of wonder, beauty, and love, along with terror, ugly, and hatred. Witnesses aren’t asking you to carve yourself off from the world. Again, straw-man.
Who asked you to? “Isolation” is different from “limit your association with, in order that your faith not be eroded”. Shaming one’s family members is not suggested, endorsed, or acceptable. Disfellowshipping only happens when someone accepts Jehovah’s standards, makes a vow to live by them, and then reverses course publicly. Someone who simply believes differently is not shamed, unless that individual Witness doing the “shaming” patently misunderstands the mindset of love they’re supposed to espouse.
Nor do we, and you simply won’t find any legitimate proof that Witness children suffer or perish at a rate greater than the general public. Refusal of blood products does not equal wholesale negligent slaughter. We take advantage (more than average) of modern medicine - mostly because we won’t accept blood. Doctors treating Witnesses are employing the latest technologies, and experiencing plenty of successful outcomes.
Then don’t. We don’t want to annoy anyone either, but again, we’re morally obligated to bring the message, welcome or not.
We text…WTF are you aiming at with that one? As to the rest of it, the go right ahead. As mentioned above, if you publicly declare that you intend to live your life according to God’s standards as laid out in the bible, then do so. If you don’t wish to do that, FINE - nobody’s forcing you to. But until you tell us to bugger off permanently, we’ll continue to bring a message which you apparently feel is aimed directly at you. It’s not. You’re the one comparing yourself to it, not us. You’re the one feeling judged, we don’t judge. That’s God’s job, we’re just here doing what he asked, because it’s a demonstration of our faith and love for Him.
Why on earth would you imply that we do not share this sentiment? Or that we expect you to forego what you’ve mentioned here? You are again setting up a straw-man.
This is where I thought maybe you were a conspiracy theorist. Nobody’s directing our every action or thought. And your feelings regarding political contributions are understood. Why do you refuse to accept that Witnesses hold a different view? We believe it’s throwing a whole lot of good at nothing; trying to dig out a mountain with a spoon. A mountain we believe will soon be fully removed by God himself. It’s not a personally harmful, or generally miserable mindset. Quite peaceful really.
And Jehovah’s Witnesses as a group are not shrinking. So, again, facts please.
It’s not all that bad, come one now. There are things to be avoided, however they do not induce panic or terror or cause us to live in abject fear. Your statements make it seem that they do. The “imaginary dangers and temptations that cause no mortal harm” - just like the fruit adam and eve ate, right? We believe differently, and our belief doesn’t harm you, in fact, it doesn’t even make us unpleasant people. People aren’t dying for foolish reasons, not are we denying simple cures.
No, it’s not exacting or rigid. Have you been to any Wordly prisons? Again, your assumption of our perception that the world is ugly, hate-filled, paranoid, and small, is simply incorrect.
Look CLee, you’re seriously mistaken in your reasons for disliking JW’s. Your feelings are based entirely on just that - feelings. You’re the one painting this dismal scary picture, and then claiming it’s all Witnesses can see.
Stop it.