Of course. JWs rely heavily on attracting people based on their self-interest. In fact it's one of the strongest tactics Christianity as a whole used. They're so obsessed with preserving their own life that the first thing that graces their lips when starting their door to door spiel is 'do you want to know how you can have everlasting life?' The reasoning sounds selfish because Christianity appeals to selfishness. The ultimate goal, no matter how many try to delude themselves into believing it's some grander purpose, grander good, or grander relationship, really boils down to saving their own asses. And it's something I recognized as childish, and that I didn't need an eternal cookie or an eternal spanking to motivate me to help other people. Especially since I didn't really actually believe what the bible was selling anyway.
Well that answers a lot of questions. You were studying a book you really didn't believe in with people for whom you had no respect or appreciation for the time they wasted on you...
I think we understand.
They were isolationist and echo chamber because the organization is built around immediately scorning anyone around them that refused to share their beliefs. Writing them off as worldly unbelievers they wouldn't help unless it bolstered their own numbers, that's why JWs are one of the least charitable Christian organizations out there.
This is amusing....how do we "scorn" people who do not share our beliefs? We have neighbors, school friends and work colleagues who do not share our beliefs and we certainly do not scorn them. If we "wrote them off" we would not bother to knock on their doors to offer them the opportunity for a better life, both now and in the future. We naturally gravitate to those who share our interests and beliefs.....do you not do the same? Do you scorn us?
By "the least charitable" do you mean we have no soup kitchens or charity drives? Do you realize that our 'soup kitchens' are in our own homes for those who need a feed. Do we support 'hand to mouth charity'?......NO we do not, because Jesus didn't advocate that. He advocated supporting those who are of our own faith first.....then we can help others out where we see a need. Do you know how many people we help just in our door to door work? If we come across people at their doors who are ill or in need of some assistance, and we can offer it to them personally...we just don't go around blowing a trumpet about it.
Being charitable requires coming into contact with people outside their faith. New ideas, growth and learning is tiny in Kingdom Halls. Even when I left in the 90's, it clung to 70's culture, dress and mannerisms. Nobody talked about the world around them, because they've already written it off a weigh station to their own afterlife. It was sad.
Considering the amount of time we spend out in our neighborhoods talking to people of all faiths and backgrounds, that statement is a joke. We prefer to teach a man to fish rather than just handing him a fish. There are no 'rice Christians' among us. We make no apology for that. We don't have charities for people (who have no intention of changing their life-style,) to abuse.
Actually the broken families I referred to is once a friend of mine went 'missing' for a time, because he was in such an unhappy and abusive marriage that he was seeking a divorce even against his JW parents (and their congregation elders) disapproval. His parents knew where he was, but they let their daughter, who left the church, wallow in worry about her brother. Beliving he was missing. Because they thought that, in his time of 'weakness,' she would lead him astray. That sort of cult-like behavior, and I do not use that term lightly, should sour anyone to the organization. Because that kind of crap happens over and over again.
One sob story and immediately the people you speak about represent the entire brotherhood? Seriously. One sided sob stories are a dime a dozen on the net. People need to get over themselves and move on.
They were when I left. I still have the Life/Creation book which called Evolution a scientific hoax and talks about the brevity of human existence and literal creation event. All known to be scientifically unsound statements even when it was published, let alone today.
We were never YEC's. Genesis 1:1 and verse 2 onward, we believe are talking about events that happened perhaps millions of years apart. There was a creation event and then there was preparation of planet Earth to support life. The creative "days" were not 24 hours long, they were eons of unspecified time. Genesis 2:4 calls the whole period of creation one "day".
We count the Bible's specific genealogies to estimate the age of man. But it matters little in the big picture how long we have been here. God has his schedule and it is seeing its fulfillment in the timing of events happening in the Earth right now. We are deep into the time of the end and there is only one 'ark' of salvation. The greatest tribulation in the history of the world is about to be unleashed....believe it or not.....
There's already been entire threads devoted to soundly rebutting the JW doctrine on blood to actual medical data. And that you still cling to it after being shown pages and pages and pages of evidence against it is more a testament to your cognitive bias than anything. So I won't bother trying to dredge up that subject. You can refer back to the pages of people you never replied to in your own thread.
You can't be serious. "Soundly rebutting"? I think that the transfusion business itself has been soundly exposed as a money making exercise. Ever priced a single unit of blood? Ever had doctors explain how dangerous blood transfusions are?
This was posted on the Australian Government Website.
https://www.blood.gov.au/media
Blood is not the safe, life-saving product it is claimed to be. If you can use the phrase "increased mortality and morbidity" in connection with blood transfusion and still claim it is safe, there is something drastically wrong with your comprehension.
With all that said, and your constant attitude and replies as they are, I really can't see us having any sort of productive conversation beyond this point. So I'm going to do us both a favor and put you on my ignore list. I hope you have a wonderful life, even being trapped by your own hands.
Well I guess time will tell and we will just have to see who has the wonderful life...won't we?
Bye.