Jehova's Witnesses

[jack]

OK, Jehova's Witnesses. NOW we're fully moved in.

They were really polite so I didn't have any desire or energy to get into an argument. Although I wish I'd pushed back on what I think are of the risks of harm from actively proselytising, and the things that I think may be harmful in JW generally (without getting into a big theological debate, or criticising these two ladies).

Comments

[mtbc]

I can imagine that active proselytizing may be an urgent and severe need if one believes that many of those around are in for a much worse eternal fate than necessary and that one may be able to save them? At least I wonder from JWs' point of view of what net harm from actively proselytizing they might be plausibly persuaded.

(My impression as an outsider is that JW's are rather more encouraged to accept seniors' doctrine on matters rather than to actively critically think about it.)

[jack]

I think that makes sense, but the same argument could be applied to many Christians, and in practice, it seems like they treat the "go to heaven/hell" thing as more important than I find it easy to remember, but less important than it sounds. And I think that's probably good, even if don't agree with all the premises behind it. People emphasise different aspects of religion, and religions usually *do* develop over time (hopefully but not always in positive directions).

[mtbc]

Perhaps it's partly about means and goals and what we can trust to God: I can imagine that we're not meant to be doing good works just because we fear for our eternal fate and that many modern Christians may take the kingdom of God on Earth thing more seriously in trying to do good, selflessly help the needy, etc., simply because they love the Lord, and they trust God to ensure that all souls are offered adequate opportunity for salvation without proselytizing requiring great emphasis on our part. More cynically, it might be partly about how much we read the Gospels versus a more church-community-centric Pauline take on things. (Where the JW's fit in with that I really don't know.)

[lavendersparkle]

I always feel really sorry for JWs. The belief that almost everyone is going to eternal torment and you're responsible for desperately trying to persuade them to save themselves must be horrible. I really liked this show about it http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05r3srd

[mtbc]

I would guess that broader inclusivity regarding who gets a nice afterlife, at least among denominations of Christianity and Islam, has approached being mainstream only relatively recently.