SubscribeJuly 29th, 2010
Pushing history and Jehovah Witness’ beliefs about themselves
I learned something new about my sometimes Jehovah Witness visitors that I suppose I would have suspected if I’d thought about it. All new religions have this habit of reading themselves back into history, it helps validate the belief set. Think about which desk is likely more valuable – a desk built 2 years ago or one built 200 years ago. One has stood the test of time, one is just used furniture.
I was working at home and there was a knock. When I answered there was a nicely dressed young woman in her 20s with a little girl of about 11. The elder had a colourful tract rolled up in her hand and after she introduced herself she asked me one of the supposed-to-be-caring questions about how I feel about something happening in the world today. I stopped her and asked “Are you a Jehovah Witness?” She looked a little annoyed that I’d interupted her pitch, but answered “yes.”
I was off. I told her that I found her way of life interesting but that I was an atheist and wasn’t going to be converted to which she replied that she found my beliefs interesting (fuel to the fire), to which I responded by starting to talk about society and its history of millenarian-type organizations and how there are people who start with a desire to believe there is one true answer to all human questions and how a person like that can read any fact and weave it out of existence through the power of narrative, etc etc. I mean I used to teach this stuff to college kids so I did go on a bit. (The tract never did get unrolled.)
I was being polite because of the little girl so all of this was said with a smile and several times I spoke to her directly to reassure her that her friend’s increasing tension wasn’t a sign of danger.
The young woman responded rather well to this deluge of erudition. She smiled through it all, at least until I got to the origins of the JW faith. Hooboy. She believes that the JW’s formed during Jesus’s time. No kidding.
When she said that, I laughed and said “That is soooooooooo not true.” She got mad then. She said “Well I have read and researched our origins and I suspect you have not.” That last bit’s not actually true but, as she was in the process of taking the little girl’s hand and getting ready to make her hasty but dignified exit, I forbear from saying so.
That was fun.
July 31st, 2010 at 12:00 am
Christianity started with Christ. Jehovah’s Witnesses follow Christ.
I always wonder why people mock and insult sincere people who make time to visit their neighbours, then brag about it on the net. If they had the internet in Jesus day, I guess people would have done the same to him. And they would call it “fun”.
July 31st, 2010 at 9:40 am
Sean, if all it takes to be a JW is to “follow” Christ then every person who has ever done something in the name of your saviour, past or present, is a JW, presuming acting in the name of Jesus is what you mean by “follow.” One of my problems with religions like yours is statements like this. Your leadership actually encourages such faulty thinking. To be clear: “Christianity started with Christ. Jehovah’s Witnesses follow Christ” isn’t what you really mean when you say I am a Jehovah’s Witness. The two sentences do not equal each other. Following Christ isn’t the only criteria of membership in the JW family, or you’re going to have to claim the lovely Fred W. Phelps and his vicious followers as your own.
To be a JW there are a number of things a person has to do, believe and say. Following Christ is the barest minimum. Towing your idea of the Christ through the intricate series of your organization’s requirements is actually much closer to the truth. So the actual date of origin of the Kingdom Halls, the New World translation of the Bible, the Watchtower, the Awake!, your doctrine, medical beliefs and eschatology, in fact all the things that turn you into a JW, are hardly two millenia old.
To be specific your ideological origins trace to late 19th century Pennsylvanian religious culture, “last days” Christian ideology and Charles Russell. The rise of end-times sects like yours was a common response to the wildly popular spiritualist movement that got started in New York state in the 1840s and was bringing in to the citizens of the U.S. all kinds of new ideas from people like Swedenborg and Mesmer.
As to making fun of people who “make time to visit” me – actually I have a number of neighbours who visit me and to whom I speak quite civilly. The issue is what it means to “visit.” To visit doesn’t mean to try to sell or to try to convert. So if the young woman comes back and actually wants to visit, then I will be quite nice. I’ll even offer her lemonade. We can sit in my backyard and talk like real neighbours do.
The thing about having a religion that requires you to “witness” (i.e. offer conversion), is that you have to expect to be converted back.
About bragging on the net – have you seen the blogs put up by JWs about their witnessing experiences? If you haven’t then this is another example of the kind of thinking that leads to the frankly erroneous semantic logic that led to your “follow” argument. If you have and you’re blasting me for posting, get real dude.
Finally, in Jesus’ day like our own there are, and there will remain, permanent differences of opinion. There are and were people who simply can’t stand the fact of difference, whether of opinion, belief, act or orientation, and who need to create a narrative response that gives them the right to try and eradicate those differences about during their lives and, if that fails, to “ensure” the ultimate (post-death) destruction of the multitude of persistent evildoers. Me, I’m fine with the fact that you and I will never agree. I don’t mind at all posting your objections on my site. I accept that nothing is going to happen to you in life or after death that will convince you of the error of your logic. Consequently, unless you poke me, I’m happy to leave you be. Can you say the same?
July 31st, 2010 at 9:15 pm
They can be quite pushy at times.
July 31st, 2010 at 9:23 pm
And the thing is I don’t mind that really. What irks me is the objection to being pushed in return.