My Quora Answers: Part 2

Q:Are Jehovah's Witness cult members anti-politics and anti-military because of their organizations failed attempt to join the United Nations?

A: They are not ‘anti’ either. They are simply non-participants, recognizing neither as the path through which God’s kingdom will ‘come’ and his will be done ’on earth as it is in heaven.’ Nor did they ever try to join the UN, though they did once register as an NGO out of someone’s bright idea that such gave them better access to documents and library materials. That person has been confined to the Bethel basement peeling potatoes for decades now.

A: The ‘superstition’ has benefited far more people than it has harmed. This is because courageous doctors have sought to accomodate it and in doing so have recognized risks and vastly reduced ‘unnecessary’ transfusions that amount to little more than ‘topping of the tank.’ It is the only conclusion one can come to upon reading sources such as New Scientist’s article, ‘An Act of Faith in the Operating Room,’ in which the act of faith is not withholding a transfusion; it is giving one.

https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2008/05/new-scientist-a.html
 
 
A: They haven’t changed or removed one, save for a few that all modern scholars have agreed are spurious—ones that do not appear in the oldest of manuscripts.
 

A: Some of them will use such questions in the way politicians do. Ignore it and just use it as a platform to say whatever they want to on the topic. This is especially so if the question is ridiculous.

JWs are among the very few faiths that will not pick up arms (weapons) for any reason. They have solved racism (JWs in the U.S. are almost exactly 1/3 white, 1/3 black, and 1/3 Hispanic). Everyone should be as ‘evil’ and ‘abusive’ as they. Then this world might have more of a future than it does.

You should get treatment for your OCD.

 

A: “That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth.” (Psalm 83:18, ASV)

Do you think there is an angel recognized as “the Most High over all the earth?” Or do you think it is God revealing his name?

 
A: Yes. Because as a people, they are trustworthy.
 
 
Q: Do JW churches not have clocks or windows inside? If this is true, what is the reasoning behind it?

A: They have both clocks and windows. The clocks are so people can tell what time it is. The windows are to look through and let in natural light. If there are fewer windows than one might expect it is because vandals have been known to break windows.

 

Q: What is your opinion of Serena William’s decision to leave Jehovah’s Witnesses?

A: I’m not aware that she did. In view of a series of posts I wrote about her, I rather doubt she did. Since those posts were written she went on to get baptized: https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2019/01/the-serena-williams-child-doesnt-do-birthdays.html

A: Some tire of the message that God’s kingdom is the only answer to man’s distress. Some begin think the politicians will yet pull off a solution, or if they don’t, we’ll all go down together. Some become like Demas, who left ‘because he loved the present system of things.’ Some fixate on the flaws, real or perceived, of their fellows and lose sight that JW is a system of worshipping God. Some decide there is no God. Some are unforgiving. ‘If errors were watch you watch, O God, who could stand?’ says the psalm. Errors are what people watch for today—society is geared that way—and for such people, nobody stands.

Some do have regrets and some return.

 
A: Within a family they generally do.
 

A: There was once a time when writing to only those persons relevant was not interpreted as attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of everyone else.

A: The movement hails from the late 19th century, is seen to be a return to first-century Christianity, and they were originally just called ‘Bible Students.’ Charles Russell, a Pittsburgh businessman, played a role in gathering a small group together. To understand any unfamiliar Bible verse, they would look up and compare all other verses dealing with that topic, writing down the result, in this way letting the Bible interpret itself.

 
Defending Jehovah’s Witnesses with style from attacks... in Russia, with the book ‘I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why’ (free).... and in the West, with the book, 'In the Last of the Last Days: Faith in the Age of Dysfunction'

My Quora Answers: Part 1

Probably, some are real. But, most of them are disingenuous. Some, maybe even AI generated. Still—why not answer a question? Use Twitter (X) skills. 140 characters, later 280, forced the windbags to be concise. Do it here.

Since they are disingenuous, ought one use the line of Paul to Elymas? “O man full of every sort of fraud and every sort of villainy, you son of the Devil, you enemy of everything righteous, will you not quit distorting the right ways of Jehovah? (Acts 13:10) No. Not unless you also can strike with blindness the way Paul did. Just answer the question. If they are too taunting or stupid, (which many are) let them slide.

Many are hot-button issues, taking the form of ‘gotcha’ questions, that are not heard in the Kingdom Hall, where people in general are quite content.

 

Q: Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses love the earth more than heaven? 

A: When you step on a cloud, your foot goes right through it. That doesn’t happen on earth.

“As for the heavens, they belong to Jehovah, But the earth he has given to the sons of men.” (Psalm 115:16)

 

Q: Why do Jehovah's Witnesses not go to hospitals for medical treatment? Is prayer considered more effective for healing?

A: No. They like prayer, but they don’t imagine they can go into hospitals and clear them out with prayer. Humans weren’t supposed to die at all, doing so only as a result of the first man pulling the plug on himself long ago, and consequently all his offspring. Since then, someone has likened life to boarding a great ship heading out to ocean that you know is going to sink. Usually, there is foundering along the way.

It is only when the cause of that original death is removed that sickness will be removed as well. (Romans 5:12) To be sure, prayer connects one to a higher source. The resulting better mood can aid recovery from illness, but no one imagines it a silver bullet. And, of course, Witnesses go to hospitals as readily as anyone else.

 
Q: Saints look forward to a NEW heaven & earth, says 2 Peter 3. What do Jehovah’s Witnesses say about that?
 
A: The ‘heavens’ above could fry you one moment, freeze you the next, drench you thereafter, and there wasn’t a thing you could do about it. Thus, ‘heavens’ made a good Bible metaphor for government. For the most part, such is still true of human government; they impose conditions on you, but power to change them is negligible for most. ‘Earth’ likewise becomes a symbol, not for the planet itself, but for the people on it.
 
A: They use email and voicemail.
 
 

A: To them, if it makes sense to you. Away from them, if it doesn’t.

Recognize the ‘cult’ label is affixed these days to anyone straying too far from the mainstream, and often for that reason. People who decry brainwashing the loudest are less concerned about brainwashing than they are brainwashing that is not theirs.

The definition of cult has much changed over the years. It used to be that if you fell under the spell of a charismatic leader, separated from society, and began to do strange things, you just might be a member of a cult. That definition is expanded today into any non-conformist group, as though someone else is ‘controlling’ them to do be that way.

A: No, he was the guy who said (and practiced): ‘If you stop and kick every dog that barks at you, you’ll never get very far.’
 
 
 
A: Some acknowledge that they know their Bibles quite well, but think it would be nice if they kept it to themselves.

Alas, they run up against Jesus observation that, ‘People light a lamp and set it, not under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it shines on all those in the house.’ (Matthew 5:15)

If you have good news, you don’t just sit on it. You tell others.

A: It is always hoped that a disfellowshipped one will return and many of them do. Disfellowshipping is a last-ditch attempt attempt at discipline, when all other avenues have failed, to ensure that members adhere to the biblical standards and conduct that they have voluntarily signed on for. Of course, anyone can tire of them and leave on their own, but if they insist on bringing unacceptable conduct into the congregation, trouble ensues. More on disfellowshipping here:

https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2018/08/the-trump-card-of-christian-discipline.html
 
 
A: Learn to mind your own business.
 
 
Q: Do Jehovah's Witnesses have humanitarian aid programs in addition to their door-to-door ministry?
 
A: Besides being a significant source for literacy in lands where it is poor, they are well known for disaster relief, prompting taking care of their own, in catastrophic times. They thus provide a good example for other groups to follow, for there is no reason that anyone cannot do as they do.

In recent years, some critics have attempted to spin this exercise of brotherly love as a lack of concern for anyone else. They do this even though they themselves would—say, in the event of an earthquake—check on family members first, never dreaming that anyone would frame that as indifference to the suffering of others. Jehovah’s Witnesses are a family, frankly not large enough to fix everyone. If opponents refuse to acknowledge that love of God can form the basis of family, that is hardly the Witnesses’ fault, is it?

The above is an excellent example of ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime.’ What is the good of criticizing the Witnesses over this? Emulating them is a better idea. Alas, people without Bible principles tend to be slow to roll up their sleeves. They also tend not to get along, so cooperation is amongst them is difficult. Yet, all they have to do is adopt the Bible principles that Witnesses have, and all would be fine.

 

******  The bookstore

 

Defending Jehovah’s Witnesses with style from attacks... in Russia, with the book ‘I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why’ (free).... and in the West, with the book, 'In the Last of the Last Days: Faith in the Age of Dysfunction'