“My challenge to you is to try and find some positives in this thing that you feel such vitriol for.”
Ok, interesting challenge. I don’t feel vitriol for the witnesses but I’ll join in on this since I do see some negatives to the philosophy/religion. However, I can’t think of anything that doesn’t have some positives and negatives except for pumpernickel bread but that’s another thread.
Positives I see with Jehovah’s Witnesses:
Take their book the Bible seriously, if nothing else (that could be a positive or a negative depending on your perspective, but I find it a positive in the sense of at least owning up to what you say you believe in)
Are so unusual in some ways that they in my experience they tend to be sympathetic (but not necessarily empathetic) to other “outsider” religions and peoples
Help each other out in times of crisis (illness, home burning down, etc.). The witness I’m with on a daily basis had a good friend (also a witness) who died of leukemia. The congregation organized help for that person on an ongoing and long-term basis. Good thing she wasn’t in the midst of being shunned though…I mean that, without irony.
No devout witness has killed another human being in a war, so far as I know, as it is against their beliefs
Exactly. Why would Jehovah let his earthly representatives keep screwing things up and hurting people? It makes no sense.
I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’m also not saying that I am inspired by God in all my actions. Why should I take anything the JWs say as being “the truth” when they have already shown they’ve been wrong about a number of topics?
I like individual JWs just fine. I don’t think they are bad people. I think many of them are victims of the organization, and I feel bad for them that they are wasting their one chance at life trapped in a cult that wants to control so many aspects of their life and discourages them from important things like contact with loved ones or pursuing higher education or a meaningful career…
I suspect a big reason for that is because the JWs are discouraged from associating with “worldly people” such as you and I unless we show interest in converting. They will be polite, but they’re not supposed to be friends with us. Members who show evidence of questioning the teachings are as we have been talking about in this thread shunned. They are supposed to only listen to information about the organization that the JWs have published. Naturally, under those circumstances, they will be close knit with other organization members. What else could they do?
