You didn’t provide a link. Did you expect us to Google it up?
And yes, a lot of Dopers might be diametrically opposed to JWs, but the real hatred comes in because the JWs are committed to going around and knocking on people’s doors. Even if we have a sign up. Most of us are opposed to ANYONE who goes around and knocks on the doors of everyone. It’s the BEHAVIOR of JWs that gets the hatred. Quit the behavior, and you’ll lessen the hatred. I’m a day sleeper, and my husband works odd and rotating shifts. It doesn’t matter how polite you are when you greet me. I’m going to hate you for waking me up. You started the encounter rudely, don’t be surprised when people dislike it.
Leave me out of your religious practices and beliefs, and we’ll get along better. I don’t care if you feel a religious obligation to witness, I don’t want to be witnessed to, and I especially don’t appreciate someone waking me up to witness to me.
And yes, I have answered the door in just my glasses, my flipflops, and my panties, carrying a gun. I’ve never fired a gun, mind you…but I used to live two houses down from a Baptist church, and every time they had a door-to-door campaign, they’d ring my doorbell, several times.
You’re doing it wrong, you should be enjoying this twofer. On the one hand, you have a tailor-made miracle: “It’s a miracle no one was injured.” On the other, imagine the mileage you can get out of this tale of persecution. Kingdom Halls the world over must be banging this gong.
You don’t need us to feed your persecution complex, you manufacture that by the metric buttload right at home.
Are you OK dougie? I ask in all seriousness, because I’ve always known you as a mostly reasonable poster (unless I’m confusing you with someone else) but this OP is right out of left field and bordering on fucking loony.
I just ask them to prove the Bible was not written by humans, and who created the place for God to be, then come back. Over many years non have returned.’
I don’t know how much attention you’ve been paying at the meetings, but the entire world is diametrically opposed to Jehovah’s Witnesses. [Matthew 24:9]
It’s not a bad thing though. It’s evidence that 2 Timothy 3:1-5 is accurate, and is happening right now.
Instead of scaring Witnesses off, behavior like this man displayed serves to galvanize the faith of those who read their Bible.
Naive of me to ask, maybe; but is this genuinely what these folk believe, or are you taking the piss? It just sounds so amazingly convoluted, even by the standards of religious doctrine.
Uh…people ARE shocked by this man’s insane act. Heck, a lot of posters argue the SDMB is anti-gun; why would we be FOR this shooting incident? But the key word in your post is “insane.” We do not connect this man’s behavior with anyone’s rational response to JW proselytizing, least of all the idea that SDMB derision somehow inspired this moron to shoot at people.
What we’re making fun of is the idea that the Straight Dope caused this shooting incident. Also, the guy’s terrible accuracy.
Then how can you connect it to anything, if it’s thoughtless?
Am I happy about the reported events? Not really, but I’m not all that sad about them either. Let’s break it down:
NOBODY got hurt. I’m happy about that.
B. An idiot who grossly overreacted and misused a gun has a good chance to spend some time in jail. Yeah, that’s something to be happy about also. The JWs were no threat and were leaving anyway.
iii. Maybe missionaries and witnesses of all sects will take away from this the idea that most people do NOT want them knocking on their doors and change their tactics. I think this would be a good thing also.
Look, I have no problem with someone practicing their religious faith unless they start practicing it AT me without my consent. Then I get annoyed.
The better solution, instead of reaching for the nine, would have been to tell them you’re a Satan worshipper and invite them to come choke a chicken to death with you next full moon.
It worked for me. I still chuckle, after 30 some-odd years, at the look on their faces just before they turned and [del]ran[/del] walked very quickly away from the door.
The OP and this follow-up post are just a shining example of the black-and-white thinking that permeates JW-think. If you are not a JW, you are part of the evil world, and there is NO difference. If you point out flaws and inconsistencies in our beliefs and practices, you are no different than a nutjob who tries to shoot us when we come to his door. If you aren’t a part of our “one true organization,” then you are in the bonds of Satan. Atheist, Baptist, Satanist - makes no difference in the JW mind.
The same thing applies to news reports and Internet material. Any information that is not glowingly positive toward the Witnesses is seen as an attack, and results in an often mindless, knee-jerk response. I’ve been defending an OP in a thread about the TV show *Community *that was less than glowing toward JWs for over two years now. The post consisted of a list of things that Troy (a character in the show who is ostensibly a JW) would not do if he were a real JW. I can’t tell you how many times JWs have just popped into the thread with a one-time, drive-by post saying something like “this list is all wrong.” When asked to specify which items on the list are wrong, they either respond disingenuously by claiming that things that are strongly discouraged among the Witnesses are actually “permitted” (and what they mean is that, though strongly discouraged and likely to result in sanctions, they can’t actually get disfellowshipped for these actions), or else they disappear completely and never respond. No intelligent discourse from the majority, no desire for the facts to be known. If it doesn’t look good for their organization, it’s a satanic attack.
We see the same attitude in the OP here. If you disagree with us, if you don’t care for us knocking on your door on Saturday mornings, there is no difference between you and a guy who actually tries to kill us. It’s all Satanic “persecution.” The possibility that the Witnesses could actually be wrong about some things, or that there might be hypocrisy in their organization, especially among the leadership, never enters their mind, because they have been trained to practice an Orwellian type of doublethink that allows no negative concepts to enter.
As far as any of us having to “defend your philosophy in front of a judge,” I’d love to see JWs do so. Prove your absurd chronology about 1914 in a way that would hold up in a court of law. The main interaction that the Watchtower seems to have with judges in recent years is when they are executing settlements over child molestation cases in the congregations that they covered up.
I don’t like anyone knocking on my door selling anything to me or witnessing etc. I tell them politely that I’m not interested and go back in. Then I may swear and rant for a sec about how much I hate fuckers annoying me. I would never want to actually hurt them and do not support this guy in the OP in any way.
This incident is on the guy himself and nothing more. The OP is using a very broad brush to make a quite stupid point.
“Yes, please [begins to unbutton shirt] do come in, I would love [leers and waggles eyebrows] to discuss God’s Word with you [runs tongue over lips, jerks hips]!”
Sounds like a news story about 4 idiots to me. 1 is now in jail and 3 will use it to as a reason to keep peddling their fantasies. Overall I’d call it unsatisfying.
I’m a JW, and I’ll say - it irritates me as well when reasonable lines aren’t drawn. Black+White don’t work too well. There’s people who take things too seriously everywhere, and the same goes for Witnesses. I actually had a sister (what we call women in the congregation) tell me that she believed that after Armageddon, the world would be instantly transformed into a giant Edenic garden. Only about 3 seconds of reasonable conversation trying to disabuse her of this incorrect notion was tolerated. Thereafter, she just kept to herself and wouldn’t talk anymore. People believe what they want to believe, facts or no.
This may be the feeling you get based on your interactions with Witnesses - but it’s certainly not a majority opinion in my neck of the woods. Not everything comes direct from Satan. It’s his world, he influences things, but he’s not directly reaching out and attacking people. I believe that anyone saying otherwise doesn’t have the critical thinking ability necessary to parse out the reality that the Witness theology is trying to teach. So they just go overboard with extreme fallacies unsupported by either facts or scripture.
Again, true, but not exclusive to Witnesses. It’s just a close-minded human type of thing. You’ll get more of it with religious people, be it Witnesses or the people who go to the faith-healing mega seminars.
I just got back here after reading the old thread (the whole thread, not just the linked to post) about the guy in his undies chasing a JW mama and her daughters away with a sword. Frankly, I’d have used the double ended dildo to avoid any possible weapons charge myself. So, perhaps I’m posting while, um, in a mood now.
That being said, it seems to me there is one thing all religions, sects, denominations, etc. (hereafter r/s/d/e have in common. They all believe that THEY are right and the other guys are wrong. And if you mention an excess by one member of a r/s/d/e to another member of the same r/s/d/e, they’ll tell you “Well, he’s not a real Christian/Jew/Pastafarian/Free Will North Synod Orthodox Presbyterian/Muslim/Hindi/Atheist/Zen Baptist/You Name It/etc.”
