is it really worth trying to change their minds?

by homeschool 23 Replies latest jw friends

  • wtfmidoing
    wtfmidoing

    I thought that I was a happy person until I married a member. Now I know that everything is bad and there is a conspiracy behind all worldly thinking. I am told that if you stick your head in the sand (watchtower) that is the only way of happiness. (B.S.!) My response is simple, the world would be a better place with informed individuals that can choose to think for themselves. Please........do not keep this powerful mind controlled group a secret. Tell anyone that will or will not listen what you have found to be true.

  • steve2
    steve2
    I would consider myself a hypocrite if I didn't attempt to warn about what I've escaped. How could I feel so strongly about the loss of Liberty that those in WT have suffered and just be quiet about it? I cannot.

    This is not too dissimilar from the mindset the Watchtower tries to engender among the rank and file; namely, given that JWs are supposed to believe about theirs is the only true religion and that all non-JWs will soon be destroyed, they need to use every opportunity to warn others. If they don't they are hypocrites and blood will be on their hands. Yours is simply applied to a reverse situation, without the addition of blood on uyour hands!

  • gubberningbody
    gubberningbody

    The average JW doesn't have a mind to change. They don't read the mags, they do token service, fake their time and space out at meetings only to wake from their stupor at the end to discuss their hobbies. The only active site in their brains is if you touch the "they aren't the vicar of Christ" site. Then they'll turn you in.

    I think perhaps placing signs near the KH with the www.watchtowercomments.com on them will cause some to hit the site out of curiosity.

  • leavingwt
    leavingwt
    This is not too dissimilar from the mindset the Watchtower tries to engender among the rank and file; namely, given that JWs are supposed to believe about theirs is the only true religion and that all non-JWs will soon be destroyed, they need to use every opportunity to warn others. If they don't they are hypocrites and blood will be on their hands. Yours is simply applied to a reverse situation, without the addition of blood on uyour hands!

    Sounds good to me.

    I'm imitating one of their admirable qualities -- concern for their fellow man.

  • Quentin
    Quentin

    No...my father left the wt for over twenty years. Suddenly, without any reasons given, went back in. Died a strong hard core jw. The why remains unanwered to this day.

  • garybuss
    garybuss

    is it really worth trying to change their minds?

    For them? Or for me? For them . . . I don't care. For me, it's never in my best interest to get in a pissing contest with a skunk. I insist on spending my time with people I like. I insist on doing things that I enjoy. Debating with some weasel word Witness doesn't do it for me.

    By the time a Witness gets around to asking me questions, their mind has already changed.

  • homeschool
    homeschool

    steve2, i TOTALLY see what you are saying. TOTALLY agree as well....except....i think about how I wanna whenever they try to 'warn' me or 'uplift' me or share their cult-like knowledge with me....

    I don't want to have the same effect. My point is to get them outta there, not just make them hear what I'm saying.

  • jwfacts
    jwfacts

    This is a very tough question.

    I often think that my desire to change my family is motivated by pride or selfishness. My parents are happier as they are than if they left and had to turn their back on everything they spent their life working for.

    However, for younger people like your sister it may be better if they left. Where I leave it now is that I have made it known to my family that I don't believe it is the truth. When they are ready, they can ask me why not. But I won't push them or try to force them to listen to me. I don't want my sister bringing up my nephew and neice as JW's, but it is not my position to try and force anything on anyone.

  • gubberningbody
    gubberningbody

    One of the fundamental things people need is the need to be understood, to be validated and evaluated fairly. The crime is that the WTBS and these pansies running the show hide and won't debate with anyone. At least Russell had the cajones to engage. These wankers are worthless. They further insist that NO discussion take place and that it doesn't matter if you have good scriptural grounds for anything. They've crowned themselves as Jesus Christ's stand-in, and said that they are to be obeyed without question.

  • Balsam
    Balsam

    My family, husband, me (wife), and our 3 sons were JW's. My then husband and I had come into the JW's when we were in our 20's. We raised our 3 sons in the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses. Our middle son died as a result of an auto accident and the fact his Dad refused blood transfusion for him to save his life. I and my other two son were so traumatized by this event that it opened the way for us to re-examine the policy on blood transfusions then other WTS policies and teachings which brought all but their Dad out of the cultish religion of the JW's. It took the death of a beloved family member to awaken 3 of us. Even with such a devastating loss my children's father just could not fathom it was possible he had let his son die for nothing. There was no god who required us to refuse blood transfusions it was a made up policy by men who lord over the so called sheep they were herding along in their cult.

    You can't take a person out of the cult, they must awaken to greater truths by reason, and a lot of thought. We can encourage greater reason and thought but if they are perfectly comfortable in the cult atmosphere you will not budge them. My sons have tried to reason with their Dad to no avail, he continues to cling to the lies despritely because to realize otherwise would bring his world crashing around him even more. I divorced him about 1 1/2 yrs after our son died. He never could grasp how all of us could turn away from "The Truth" as he believes it.

    The fact is; helping a person to leave a high control religion is extremely difficult and it works only if the person is experiencing some doubt and willing to act on it and loses the terror and fear they may be feeling.

    Ruth

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