Current Events > Do you ever have Jehova's Witnesses' come to your door?

(+) Yeah! (+)

spanky1 posted...

If you're in the religion or out but still look back fondly or respectfully on the religion, the points you're countering can come off as untrue because of the harsh tone. But they basically are true.

Things cannot be "basically" true they either are or aren't.

JWFacts helpfully organizes quotes and passages from JWs' very own publications that show a full picture of the practices and doctrines for JWs. These articles aren't some crazy apostate person's ranting, they're methodically taking JW articles and quotes and going through them all in a logical manner.

Not using these links, I grew up around these guys and am quite familiar with how they operate.

Also for celebrities like you listed, it's common knowledge that they operate under relaxed rules, and aren't held up to the same standards as the rank and file.

What rules are being broken that would require them to be relaxed? Serena williams is a celebrity but witnesses are allowed to be celebrities. Theres literally no rule saying they can't. Appearing on TV and being rich are not a against the rules. Serena is married to a non witness but even that is allowed. Its not encouraged but it is allowed.

yeah but I just tell them I can't open the door to talk because the cat/dog will get out

spanky1 posted...

Also, here's a cartoon made for children straight from the actual JW website, produced by the JWs, that is all about a child choosing to isolate themselves from friends at school. This is the short trailer for it because the full thing is 13 minutes long, but it gets the point across, and you can find the full thing if you want:

https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/children/become-jehovahs-friend/videos/Become-Jehovahs-Friend-Trailer-Who-Should-Be-My-Friend/

I've found their children's cartoons to be pretty informative on the religion, because they really do show off the insanity in a very simple way for everyone to understand, and the fact that they're aimed at children makes it hit even harder.

Trust me I've been shown plenty of these. The kids regularly are shown interacting with other kids in the videos, playing games with them at recess and talking to them on the bus. Now do they sleep over their house or something? No they don't, but that doesn't necessarily equate to isolating themselves.

Im not sure what version of isolate you're using because the way you're wroding it is implying they don't talk to any non witnesses at all or avoid communication with the outside world or something and that is demonstrably not the case.

I really don't wanna de rail the thread with this so I'm not gonna continue ad infinitum but you aren't being entirely truthful about what you are saying, you are coloring phrases and wording things to misrepresent certain elements of your criticism. If you don't like them fine, but you shouldn't have to stoop to that to make your points.

And here's another video made by JWs posted on their official website, this time a live action production, showing how parents should treat a child who is no longer a JW. Spoiler, they shun him, not even going so far as to pick up the phone to talk to him or return a text:

https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/VODBiblePrinciples/pub-jwbai_201611_1_VIDEO

If that doesn't set something off in your cult radar, nothing will.

Toonstrack posted...

Trust me I've been shown plenty of these. The kids regularly are shown interacting with other kids in the videos, playing games with them at recess and talking to them on the bus. Now do they sleep over their house or something? No they don't, but that doesn't necessarily equate to isolating themselves.

Im not sure what version of isolate you're using because the way you're wroding it is implying they don't talk to any non witnesses at all or avoid communication with the outside world or something and that is demonstrably not the case.

I really don't wanna de rail the thread with this so I'm not gonna continue ad infinitum but you aren't being entirely truthful about what you are saying, you are coloring phrases and wording things to misrepresent certain elements of your criticism. If you don't like them fine, but you shouldn't have to stoop to that to make your points.

Just a heads up that I'm not the original post you were replying to originally, but I do agree with his sentiments.

And yes, there is a semantic issue here. I myself never intended to convey a point saying where they aren't allowed to literally talk at all to an outsider. Yes, you can be friendly at work or school or whatever. But the point being made is you're highly discouraged from making friendships with people outside the religion. To me that is social isolation.

Not much use in responding to Toonstrack. They're often going on about stuff they don't understand or have any firsthand experience with but insist that they're correct. They've done this about JW stuff before on this site in fact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Also just @Toonstrack just wanna say sorry if any negative feelings were built up here. I don't think anything really productive comes from these message board back and forths, and nobody really changes their opinion. I don't know if you're a JW yourself or if you're just JW adjacent, but as long as you're happy with it then it's no biggie. All I would say is I do hope you can see that there's a reason many people like myself and others come off as angry sometimes, and that's because the religion can be harmful. But anyway, I don't like trying to push people who are otherwise happy with it to change anything normally. Like even my parents, they're totally in, but I've never spoken up against the religion around them, because they're happy with it and that's fine by me. This is just a dumb message board so sometimes it's just easier to rear back and get goin' hardcore like this.

The JW cult should be shut down

I never claimed to be one, but I will say I've known many and I have close to a few of them. I'm mostly just trying to keep things honest and up front.

Its everyone's choice what lifestyle they wanna live.

The thing about the Js and Ys isn't really a witness thing though thats just kinda how everyone operates when dealing with old names

As for shunned family members, yeah if they are adults they avoid contact with them. Thats not really an exclusive thing to JWs either. You can get shunned from a community, a family, etc. They are pretty serious about it

To my door? The fuckers moved in DIRECTLY beside me. They're my apartment neighbors.