What's your take on "stumbling"...

by Frequent_Fader_Miles 24 Replies latest jw experiences

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  jwfacts

  It reminds me of the Aesops fable. Stumbling is an impossible situation as you will always offend someone.

  The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey

  A M AN and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”	1
  So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”	2
  So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”	3
  Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours—you and your hulking son?”	4
  The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the Donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the Donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.	5
  “That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them: “PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”
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  emptywords

  when I was going through a problem with someone at the kh, one elder said there is no excuse to be stumbled .
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  WTWizard

  Here are some other ways to "stumble your brother": Buying a CD and listening to it in your home or on headphones, so no one else has to listen to it. (Anything other than a Kingdumb CD.) Watching a slightly dirty movie in your own home. Buying Christmas candy for personal consumption, even if it is marked down 50% after Christmas. Having a fuzzy dice decoration in your car. Reading a worldly book on your computer or at home. Drinking one beer at a bar (not enough to get drunk by any means). Going inside a disco or nightclub. Getting Internet, especially if you are going to look at those horrible educational sites. Having nice things (that would be materialism, and would stumble others into not donating to the Kingdumb work). Having things that look nice (also gives the appearance of materialism).

  I guess they haven't heard of the latest way to stumble others: Independent Thinking. That idea is not new--even though there are groups of people emerging that are trying to make that become widespread (it was Aristotle's original idea, not some modern group's). Independent thinking means you are responsible for any action you volitionally do. You are not responsible for what anyone else thinks: If you go to that disco or bar, others are responsible if they choose to likewise go since they have the choice to not go. If people are independent thinkers, they will do things only because of the consequences of those actions and not because of someone else doing it.

  The "stumbling" is one more way to keep the flock in "bicameral" mode (bicameral mode is where someone or something tells you what to think or do, and you merely follow rather than self-leading). People in bicameral mode are highly susceptible to being stumbled, such as by apostate Web sites or someone's actions that are questionable. Independent thinkers, on the other hand, will not be swayed by such material or actions. So what if someone in the Kingdumb Hell is taking horse! It's not my brain and liver that will be ruined!
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  keyser soze

  The last DC I attended, there was a part on the program that dealt with the issue of stumbling. There was a demonstration with a couple that was having company over. They had alcohol lying around the house and decided that they should put it somewhere where it couldn't be seen, just in case the people they were entertaining didn't drink; it might stumble them. It was absolutely the most ludicrous thing I had ever seen.
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  noni1974

  You would have to be pretty weak in your faith to be "stumbled" by someone else.