Hey all - as some of you may know, I've been engaged in a pretty big debate with family members as well as internet acquaintances over whether the JW's are a cult. THANKS to EVERYONE who have posted links to threads that have helped me in my dialogue with them - its actually WORKING. The latest is that one of the posters I've been dialoging and he says that agrees with me on many points but he brought up the following response and I ask (HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO THIS) that I have posted below (by the way, the person he references as GQ is me - its my username on that web site):
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"I'm gonna probably regret typing all of this, but it's like 2 in the morning so I'ont care and chances are ain't nobody gonna read it anyway lol. my mother started studying with the JWs in 1977 and got baptisted in 1982. I've been associated with JWs since I was 7 and I've got aunts, an uncle, cousins that are baptisted JWs. in my family there's 4 elders, 2 ministerial servants, and a grip of full time and auxilary pioneers.
I appreciate GQ cause I've been him. one of my aunts got disfellowshipped when I was young and I didn't like that I couldn't talk to her & I didn't understand. I didn't like going to meeting on Sundays and since my dad wasn't a JW my moms couldn't make me go out in field service cause he'd tell her if I didn't wanna go I didn't have to. I rebelled big time.
I can remember embarrassing the heck outta moms because I used to do stuff like cut peace signs in my hair when we had to go to assemblies. in the parking lot I used to play Ice T or 2 Live Crew with the windows down, just wilding out. all the JW kids were square to me & when moms invited them over, I would leave and go to my best friend's house. she tried to get me to study with this young brother & when he would come over I wouldn't open the door.
when we grew up, my favorite cousin & I got jumped on Beale St. my cousin got beat up pretty bad & I had a gun pulled on me. I got knocked down & one of the guys caught up with me. dude pointed a gun at me and pulled the trigger but the gun jammed. some friends of ours that was with us ran up and dude fired at them about 3 times. he put the gun back on me & fired again but the gun jammed again. I got out of that unharmed but had another run in with those guys at Crystal Palace. this time I was with some ohter cats and we got to scuffling again but no guns or knives were drawn this time. got into it again at a bowling alley on American Way. I got sick of Memphis & went to GA
my cousin got sick of wilding out and started talking to my mom. she got to him some kinda way and he started studying. he was changing up on me & it began to piss me off cause when I would come to Memphis we would hit them streets, now he ain't wanna hang no more. I started trying to talk him out of taking his study so I dug up a lot of the very same info that GQ is posting up. I was bitter and selfish cause I wasn't looking at the positive changes he was making in his life, I just wanted my cousin back that used to hit them streets and get at women.
at the end of the day I look at the organization of the world. how everything has a certain order. just look at your bodily functions. what would happen if your heart decided it wanted to beat a different way. if you blood wanted to pump differently, or something simple like your cells having a sickle shape. you get sick when something invades your body or something in your body doesn't do what it's supposed to do. our whole universe has some type of order to it, so why wouldn't God want people to have order in the way we live.
in trying to find myself, i went to a lot of churches even went to mosque a few times but I believed in the bible. the fact of the matter is that on that night when that guy put that gun to my head and that gun jammed, I actually felt like Jehovah caused that gun to jam and it SCARED the heck outta me! I recognized what had happened but I fought it for years and tried to distance myself from what I felt was the realization that HE had revealed HIMSELF to me. I started to pay attention to my family. I was the only one that went to school out of my cousins that are JWs but they are all doing doing FAR better than I am. most of them are married and have been for years and they're all happy. those JW kids I used to ditch, all doing well with nice homes and families. my aunt that was DF'ed has been reinstated and she's doing well.
in researching JWs a lot of the information GQ posted is true, some of it isn't but at the end of the day nothing is perfect, but as a believer in the bible, I'd rather take my chances with the religion that actually uses it and makes you be accountable for your actions. as far as people feeling that JWs divide families & stunt growth, well Jesus himself said in Matthew 10:34-36 - "34)Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35) For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36) and a man's enemies will be the members of his household." of course JWs are imperfect men & we'll make mistakes but Satan caused perfect angels in heaven to give up their positions and follow him so how am I to expect there won't be some imperfection in Jehovah's earthly kingdom? geesh, even one of the men who help spread the earlier kingdom work later turned apostate.
I've had a different experience than a lot of the people posting their stories in here because most of the stuff I thought I was being held from, wasn't even worth it in the long run. I like my life a whole lot better having structure. I'm happier and I'm a lot happier and living in the last days doesn't frighten me at all. matter of fact I welcome it cause this world ain't so nice anyway. if JWs are wrong then so be it, my conscience is clean because I'm living in harmony with the scriptures to the best of my ability & that's good enough for me. for everybody that's chasing what this world has to offer, I pray that you at least have faith in something and recognize that God is a God of order so it would make sense for Him to have an organized religion."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Again I ask how would you respond to this?? He's basically acknowledged that a lot of the JW BS is garbage, but that his friends and family seem prosperous being in the cult. What are good ways to counter this thinking? THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for any thoughts here!!
