Jehovah's witnesses

The BBQ Pit
1

This was going to start out as a much milder rant, but as I thought about it I became more angry. Here’s to catharsis.

A little backstory first. I have a friend from my high school days named Amanda. Brilliant girl. In our psych class she was heads above the rest. Showed a real knack for the subject. After graduation her and her high school sweetheart had an unplanned kid and things got stressful. He became abusive sometimes, loads of anger problems. He was a pretty good guy normally, just stressed. I talked to her off and on, told her that I had been through similar anger problems and to give him a little time. If it kept up or got worse, she should leave. I lost track of her after I moved to a neighboring town.

Enter the witnesses. One day while I was at work, Amanda and witnesses showed up and talked to my fiancee. Now I can’t shake them. I’ve talked to them about what they “teach,” a big mistake I know but they were slinging some really stupid shit and I felt the need to call them on it. To my credit, they don’t send the young ones to my door anymore. Just the elders. But now, every wednesday, I know that they will stop by simply because they know that I’m at home. If I’m not, they come back the next week, sometimes trying different days but usually wednesdays.

It’s wednesday. I’m waiting for them to come and thinking about our talk that we had last week.

If my friend had been in anywhere close to her right mind, she would’ve sent you packing. You caught her when her guard was down. Now she wastes her mind reading the bible when she could be going to college. Sometimes I think that if I hadn’t lost touch, maybe she wouldn’t have fallen for your schtick. That’s not what really bothers me though.

Jehovah’s witnesses, you don’t pass faith on to people. You peddle in fear. You prey on weakness. You tell people that the end of the world is coming and only you can help them find heaven. You tell me about the earthquakes and the terrorists and the diseases and how those are signs of the end. You tell me that you help calm people so that they can lead full lives for god.

You don’t help people. You’re the idiot parent who gives a kid a blankie and tells them that you’ll protect them from the monsters under the bed instead of telling them that there are no monsters. You tell them scary stories so they’ll need you and your protection.

I’m not buying your shit. Get the fuck off of my porch. Give my friend back her life and leave her alone. Take your watchtower and your sick version of god and shove 'em where the holy light won’t find 'em.

2

While I’m sure there are assholes of every faith (and no faith) out there, I have to add a “me too!”

Similar story, only in mine I knew the guy better. Total sweetie in high school, a bit of a cocky shit, but all the girls really DID think he was God’s gift to womankind, so who was he to argue? Got a girl prgnant not long after graduation, married her, they had a couple of kids and he “found” the J.W.'s. Somewhere along the way, he started beating the crap out of her and molesting their kids.

Now, his beating the crap out of his wife and molesting their kids is his problem, not his church’s. But the reason for my “me too” Pittting is that every time she tried to get help, every time she went to her Kingdom Hall for moral support, legal aid or simply to cry on someone’s shoulder, she was told to suck it up and be a better wife so he wouldn’t get so angry. Divorce was simply not an option to them, nor was counseling outside the Hall. And all of their internal counseling boiled down to, “He’s your husband, he has dominion over you. Stop making him mad.” And once they sent a delegation to ask him to be a little nicer. :mad:

Fuck. That. Fuck. Him. Fuck. That. Kingdom. Hall.

She’s dead now, if anyone cares. He now has sole custody of the daughter he molests and the son he beats. Fucktard.

3

Reading the Bible is not a waste of time.

4

I eagerly await the arrival of the Usual Equivocators.

5

Have you informed the authorities?

6

Well, she’s not in the living room or anything. She died during premature labor after she “fell” down the stairs 7 months pregnant. If you mean did I call protective services about the kids, then yes, repeatedly. As did many of our friends. Apparently he knew exactly the right things to say to convince them we were cranky interfering neighbors. And then he moved away, so we don’t know what’s happened for the last few years. :frowning:

7

Is this a rant against JW’s or your friend or your friend’s boyfriend?

I’m a little confused about how your friend became a JW. Did the boyfriend get her into it?

My thoughts (for whatever they’re worth):

1.) Your friend’s SO sounds like an asshole.

2.) It’s not your fault or responsibility if your friend became a JW. Whatever the issues are that drove her to an abusive partner and what seems to you like a cultish religion have little or nothing to do with you.

3.) It’s not necessarily a bad thing that she became a JW. I know that sounds like an absurd thing to say but it may be something that works for her on some level that you’re unaware of. If she’s happy then she’s happy…and as trite as this may sound, it’s her life.

4.) If you want the JW’s to stop coming then you have to telli them to stop coming. I know exactly the kind of loop your in. Once upon a time in my young, belligerant atheist phase I also thought it would be amusing to invite a couple of JW’s in and have a little fun with them by debating scripture. I quickly found that it wasn’t as amusing or as vindicating as I imagined it would be. They struck me as more naive and kind of passive than malicious or bigoted. They were misinformed but they meant well. Eventually I just had to tell them they were wasting their time and that I never had any intention of joining them. I told them I respected their beliefs and wished them luck with their mission but that our meetings were over. They didn’t put up any protest and they never came back.

You don’t have to be rude, but you do have to be clear.

5.) As to the fear mongering. That’s pandemic to religion. The JW’s have no monopoly on it.

8

I just have to chime in and say that although I am no means a defender of organized religion, I have a friend who is a Jehovah’s Witness, and she has talked to me about her faith. (I had told her that I professed no belief in God.) She invited me to a service, which I attended, and where I was treated warmly by everyone. She and an elder then came to my house in an attempt to persuade me to believe. After an hour or so it became apparent that we could not come to an accord, and they left, after telling me to get in touch if I wanted to hear more. That was all. No pressure or anything. I mention this just to suggest that perhaps you are painting them with too broad a brush.

9

I don’t know if you’re being completely fair to the religious. If you believed that you had proof that the world was going to end, and that people were in danger, you’d want to let people know too. Also, maybe your friend is getting some sort of comfort out of studying her religion, and she’s happier doing that than studying for a college class. Of course it’s possible that she’s been brainwashed, but it’s also possible that she just “grew into” being religious during the time you lost track of her.

10

Dio, my friends SO is not an asshole. He was a good guy in school and as I understand is a good guy now that his life has stablilized. The rant is mainly about the fear and paranoia that they come to my door selling.

She got into the church because they stopped at her door and asked her what they could do to “help.” The woman that stops by every wednesday tried the same crap when she saw me at my job. I was a wee bit stressed; the department has been snakebit with disease and death leading to rough shifts and a lack of breaks. She asked how I was doing and when I said “fine” she replied “You don’t look fine.” Funny how the help they offer only comes when you join the church.

As for religion not being a bad thing for her to find, I wanted to think that. Unfortunately she now has the glazed eyes of the religiously sedated. Everytime I see her now, she looks tired and beaten. Even when her SO was at his worst she never looked like she does now.

As for painting with too broad a brush, I’ll specify this to the fuckwits that come to my door. When god’s love wasn’t enough, they shifted to god’s protection racket.