So last night me and my mother had a long 2 hour conversation on all sorts of stuff.....
mainly......truth, faith, the bible and apostacy
I asked her if the bible could be used without any other book. She of coarse said yes. I asked her why didnt she just use it instead of all the other literature. She said that while the bible interprets itself that people need the guidance of other books to show how it interprets itself. Fine I said...if that is the case then what about all the people that lived before the time of the JW's literature...say about early 1800's....are all those people wrong and going to die at armageddon? they didnt have the literature you do in order to interpret the bible and neither did her biblical examples....
she was stumped...she couldn't answer it.....
but wait there is more....I asked her if truth changed and she said no but sometimes our perception is mistaken so what we originally believe to be the truth could be found out later as false. I said that was fair. Then she said she wasnt looking for for truth because to her she has found it..so I gave her an example.
example: person wears green glasses that helps them see better but gives everything a green hue. they say because of this that the sun is green and they know that is true because thats what they see. we know that if they would take off the green glasses that they would find out that the sun is really yellow. but what if the person says well these glasses have served me and help me see why should I take them off because you say so. the moral of the story was just because you seem to have found "truth" you should still examine things if given another idea on what could be true. (my mom didnt have much to say on that example either)
so then we talked about how truth was truth no matter where the source was. I said if a person you despised had truth and proof to back it up would you not want the truth just because of who relayed the information (we got stuck on "messengers" but thats another story)? she said she didnt know. hey thats a start. so then I asked to read her something (I had the source unknown to her...so of coarse she was thinking it could be apostate material)
what I quoted her actually came from the June 22, 2000 Awake:
Name-Calling
Some people insult those who disagree with them by questioning character or motives instead of focusing on the facts. Name-calling slaps a negative, easy-to-remember label onto a person, a group, or an idea. The name-caller hopes that the label will stick. If people reject the person or the idea on the basis of the negative label instead of weighing the evidence for themselves, the name-callers strategy has worked.
So I read that and asked if she agreed with it. She really wanted to know who wrote it but I said that wasnt imprtant. I then asked if something was truth then it could stand up to opposition. She said yes. So I asked again if she agreed with what I wrote. She told me she would have to think about it and asked for a copy. I wrote it on a peice of paper for her to look over and read. then I said that I would make a deal with her. I would read any book she wantd me to read if she would do the same for me. I told her that it would not be a vulgar book and would not be filled with sexual stuff and that everything would be proven and documented in it. She asked if it would be written by someone she would consider an apostate. I said perhaps but then asked about the paragraph I read again. She said she may take me up on my offer after she has thought about it. Then it was late so we went to bed on that note.
Basically if she agrees with that paragraph she has no reason not to read CoC (which is what I am going to have her read if my offer is taken).......but if she doesnt agree with it then I get the pleasure of telling and showing her it came from an Awake. Either way I think it will have some bearing.
Wish me luck......