by Zoos 20 Replies latest jw experiences
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
Testament to good values. Good universal values can be cherry picked out of the bible.
Hearing my mother talk about meeting her mother in the paradise tempered my strong desire to help her out of the church at all costs.
I will second that your response was very touching...
pbrow
Well done Zeus.
Good on you! How would a JW treat an inactive person in similar situation?
What a nice person you are Zoos!
You did the right thing IMO.
If there truly is no God then whats the harm? To refuse to pray leans on giving too much credence to things not believed in, right?
You did the right thing, and you didn't add to his pain, knowing he just has a little time left.
It's the everyday kindnesses that mean everything to someone at the end of their life.
So far it seems that people feel this is a binary situation: either grant the man's religious wishes (and thus be "good"; I mean "bad") or engage him full-on in a vigorous unyielding debate about the existence of his imaginary invisible friends (and thus be "bad"; I mean "good").
Fortunately as an atheist you have no Judge that you must account to, and that includes me, so I won't judge you either.
You did what you did. It was neither good nor bad. Tomorrow is another day.
You did good, sometimes we have to put our pride, beliefs, etc, aside in order to do the right thing. And this is ddefinitely one if those moments.
Good Karma Zoos. What do you do crush the mans faith just to make a point? No... you did good!
I've been called to pray, it all feels cultishly weird like talking to myself, pulling up old phrases from bygone days. I avoid the situation where I might be called on to pray and have said no before but there are times we need to do what we need to do.
You did a good thing, comforting an old man. No deities were offended, because there are no deities.
Occasionally, I am asked to "say grace" when visiting non-JW family. (Obviously, the occasion never arises with JW family.) I just smile and thank them for the courtesy and say something like, "Actually, I'd prefer to give Uncle Joe the honor." If pressed, however, I'd probably do the same thing you did. There's no point in "taking a stand" and ruining someone's day over ancient myths and superstitions.
Thank you for sharing this. It made me think of my father who is a JW getting old. He would not ask me to say a prayer. He probably wouldn't even see me. If he did he would ask me to "come back to Jehovah" and we all know what that means. Bow down to the men who rule over Jehovah Witnesses without question.
What you did was not easy but very loving and merciful.
