Are JWs Usually Anti-Semitic?

[Austin]

Chrystal-J, do you know anything about the "Bible Students"? I work with three of them and my boss is an former Bible Student, now a fundie-lite.

They seem to have some connection to the JWs, but it's not very clear to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Student_movement

The Bible Students that I work with never talk about it. My boss talks about himself and his Christianity sometimes, but the Bible Students don't say a word. I just know they're Bible Students because my boss told me that they were and he was once one, too. So it seems they're not big on proselytizing. Or maybe they're just lousy Bible Students. . .

[readergirl]

It's been a long time since any religion salespeople (JW, Mormons, Etc) came to our neighborhood. For some reason we're more likely to get Kirby vacuum guys pounding the pavement here.

One time the JW's stopped by my parents house, Dad was outside doing yardwork. He told them "You want to talk about God? I don't believe any of that crap. But my wife does, and I know she'd love to talk to you." So the JW's hightailed it to the front door and tried to get Mom to talk to them. She was so pissed at Dad for that!

[Chrystal-J]

Austin,

From what I've gathered after my split with the JWs, it looks like the JW Organization began as a group known as "Bible Students". Their leaders at that time were Charles Taze Russel and Nelson Barbour. Their teachings were influenced from Adventism--which is a Christian based faith that has a strong "end of the world" emphasis. When the "Bible Student" leader (Russel) failed regarding his "end of the world" predictions, the "Bible Students" broke away from Charles Taze Russel. After that, Russel created his own group, which became the Jehovah Witnesses. That's my understanding of the relationship between the "Bible Students" and the JWS. But, the break was way back 1880's. But, being that both groups were founded with strong a "end of world" emphasis, I would think both groups would still have that in common. I don't know much about the Bible Students--they were never mentioned in my studies. The current day JWs are very big on publishing the magazines and distributing them. Bringing in new members gets any JW a gold star/praise, so I can see why some are so pushy. But their beliefs are ever changing (part of why I quit). And very controlling (also, part of why I quit). I don't know if the Bible Students are the same in that regard.

Hope that can help some.

[Maul the Koala]

Ah the JWs. I get approached by them when I'm waiting for the bus in my neighbourhood. Generally most of them will go "I'm giving away a magazine!" and will hand a copy of The Watchtower. They have the bus schedule memorized (since it goes in front of the Kingdom Hall) and go all the way down with a car, handing out copies of The Watchtower to people at each bus stop before the bus gets there. I had one come and read Bible quotations to me about health and then hand me a copy of The Watchtower, wishing that I would remain in good health.

Growing up we had one visit by the JWs and then we didn't have them for quite a while. I must've been around 6 or 7. My grandparents were staying with us. The doorbell rang and my grandmother was in the middle of doing her hair so it was all sticking up every which way. She told my mom she'd get the door and it was two JWs. They started talking and my grandmother goes "I'm so sorry, but we worship Satan here". The JWs ran back to their van, relayed what was said to the driver. Our house is in the middle of the street and the driver did a U-Turn so he wouldn't drive by our house. They left us alone for quite a few years after that.

Then we had a JW boy in all my classes until I was in grade 9. He was insulting the other boys as boys in junior high tend to do. One of the Indian boys told him "My people tell your people to stop knocking on our doors".

[Katiebug]

The JWs around here are aggressive ones. If you're dumb enough to open the door, they'll shove limbs in the door to prevent you from closing it again. When we see them going around the neighborhood we try to avoid going outside. None of the houses in our neighborhood have attached garages so if you have young children to load into car seats they tend to pounce on you at that time. They'll send kids up the driveway to knock on back doors/kitchen doors too or to see if anyone is in the yard. At least once I had to threaten to call the police to get them to leave our property. Now that we have a child I won't even answer the door if I can see it's them.

Fortunately since they come in as large families in vans, we can see them swarming the neighborhood - it's usually not a surprise when they're out hunting for converts.

I don't mind the Mormons. They're polite young men, they come around maybe once or twice per year and they're not pushy.

[NurseShannon]

Not usually....and this dude sounded like a douche.

[NurseShannon]

Oh and you can't be df'ed or shunned for not going out in service....lol

[NurseShannon]

It is after being baptized the real pressure/brain-washing begins. They didn't reveal their secret teachings (about altered bible) until you were baptized, so I never learned about the really kooky stuff until I quit associating with them and read about it at ex-JW sites.

THIS is the funniest thing I have EVER read about JW's. I was baptized in 1993...I didn't learn anything different after the fact that I didn't already know!

I may not go now, but I have a firm grasp on what they teach. I was a 4th generation JW...I just don't see how their teaching are any "crazier" than anyother religion. It's all, in every religion, about fear and control!

[Chrystal-J]

Oh and you can't be df'ed or shunned for not going out in service....lol

The rules for disfellowshipping are arbitrary. I knew a lady who got DFed for smoking cigarettes (yet drinking alcohol is perfectly fine). One of the reasons I quit the JWs is that they make up the rules as they go along. What's okay one day, is wrong the next.

The JWs used to celebrate Christmas (I found the pics on the net of the leaders at a Christmas party). But, if you're a JW today and celebrate Christmas--you will be disfellowshipped. You used to be able to fade away and not be shunned, but the rules for that are changing too. Now they recommend shunning "inactive" members (which include those who don't go out on field service). That's a new thing they started recently.

[Chrystal-J]

THIS is the funniest thing I have EVER read about JW's. I was baptized in 1993...I didn't learn anything different after the fact that I didn't already know!

I may not go now, but I have a firm grasp on what they teach. I was a 4th generation JW...I just don't see how their teaching are any "crazier" than anyother religion. It's all, in every religion, about fear and control!

I was a bible study student for 17 years (thank goodness I was never baptized) and was never told that John 1:1 was changed in the New World Translation to fit Watch Tower teachings. JWs re-write the bible to fit whatever it is they're selling at the time. In 1975 they told their followers that they should sell their houses (and give the money to the JW Organization) cuz the end of the world was going to happen THAT year. Many people ran up their credit cards and gave all their money to the JWs, then ended up broke over their false teachings. As far as baptism, there were numerous things I was told I couldn't "fully understand" until after my baptism (ie, would not be explained to me).

They are much worse than most religions because they use their members then toss them out the door when they can't use them anymore. There are numerous churches that do NOT do that.

[Pixiedust1960]

My Sister in law is JW and we were discussing Josh Dugger. She was like " he is sorry for what he did and has asked to be forgiven". That was before Ashley Madison. I'm not sure what she thinks now