Ok the Jehovah's witnesses are far worse than Mormons! I was at the mall and saw like 8 or 9 Jehovah's witnesses women walk in! And started handing their dumb magazine to everyone! I told them you are a cult! And they said oh no we are not! And everyone is going to die at armogeden!

And I said it still hasn't happened at all! And this is a mall! They can't take no for a answer at all! And I told the mall security and they told them to leave! They are a dangerous cult and I told everyone no don't take that! They are a cult!

I was in a cult called the church of Christ! And it ruined me up! My grandpa and all his kids are still part of it and it will make you so judgemental and thinking everyone is going to hell but not me!and the Jehovah's witnesses said we believe in Jesus and I said no you don't!

I was trying to keep people from going in this dangerous cult! They suck and Mormons do also

Jerry Coates wrote:
Stupid magazines? How? Jesus said that the message must be preached in all the earth.JWs are in most countries with literature in 930 languages. Who else does this? It is easy to say "stupid" without proof. I'm a math teacher.I need proof.

Brainwashing means the person can't leave. I teach math. Is that brainwashing? My students can leave if they wish.
One lady said she was having a free home Bible study with JWs. The free study fit her budget. Home meant not being embarrassed at church. Bible study? We all need to know more of the Bible. Maybe we ought to look more into JWs.

Jerry coates Wrote:
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> We all need to know more of the Bible.

I disagree. We all need to know more science. Now *that* would be useful.

> Maybe we ought to look more into JWs.

Yes, let's look into a fact-denying, behavior-controlling, failed-end of the world prophesying - nutcase cult.

Oh, wait, let's not.

We do not need JWs seeking converts here.

If you report them to mall security they'll tell them to leave. Malls are private property so their 'free speech' isn't protected there to go tracting.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2018 01:49AM by crazyhorse.

Jehovah's witnesses don't care! We are worldly to them and going to die! 1914 passed and no end of the world! Just ww1 and my great grandfather was in France in 1918 then, Jehovah's witnesses are a bunch of judgemental, arrogant people! And they are aggressive!

I remember when 1975 was the big year that Armageddon was supposed to come. Afterwards the JW's were so embarrassed! Many of them dropped out. JW fizzled and almost died, but they found a way to make a comeback. Now they don't set dates anymore.

Not only do they believe that we are going to die... but They are going to help Jesus slaughter us.

Then birds will eat the bodies.

Yay!

From what I understand JWs are an exclusive, inward looking and quite high control cult and that the organisation entertains no thoughts of compromise.

The scc on the other hand seems to have a strategy to try and make itself softer and to seem comparatively normal. For example messages from HQ showing solidarity with chrisians at Easter, the constant watering down doctrines. Why, the current Ensign has an article about mohammedsism which clearly trys to draw parralels between it and the scc and that both, confusingly, are somehow legitimate. For the scc I think the marketing strategy is about blending in but still being special. But of course this leads to questions about integrity (amusingly another article in the current Ensign).

Mormons stalk specific individual no matter what they say or where they go. This can go on for a lifetime.

JWs approach strangers randomly. They don't keep records of their unwanted contacts and they don't enlist full time detective sorts to chase down innocent victims who only want to be left alone.

JWs also have strict controls over who can get baptized. Unlike Mormons, as we know, who rush people into mo fonts before they know which way is up. First, (unless things have changed when I wasn't looking) JWs do not want you to be baptized before age 18. Second, they expect you to study their teachings and be able to answer dozens of questions about them correctly before they will give you permission to be baptized.

If they disfellowship (ex) you, only the elders (sr men in the congregation, also unlike Mormons to whom adolescent males are "elders") are allowed to contact you and even then only if you are interested in being reinstated. If not, if you want to leave, they will shun you forever. They don't want to drag you back kicking and screaming.

When knocking on doors, which it seems like they do far less often than previously, if a person states strongly that they are not interested, JWs are trained to just leave (if someone doesn't then they are going rogue on that). Their take on it is that they are now mostly only looking for those who are desirous of being part of their group, as far as I understand it last time I knew for sure what they were up to. That is why, I think, you see them standing quietly on the street with their magazine racks now and they may make eye contact and perhaps voice a greeting but they do not physically approach passersby and do not try to start conversations, as far as I have seen, and they are often in several of my favourite weekend haunts (weird! are they following me? ha!) so I would notice if any acted differently. It's definitely a different technique than previously. Maintain visibility, do not engage, it would seem.

I left the group quite a long time ago, after making it plain I had no interest in participating any longer. I had been in several congregations, and went back East for a year to be a missionary for them. So I knew a lot of JWs (and liked most of them). Even those I counted as good friends dropped me like a slimy rock once they heard about the big 'D'/ex. They are "not allowed" to even speak to a disfellowshipped person. They will get tainted, you see. And may find themselves also d'd for fraternizing with the enemy or something like that.

One friend back East (whom I had helped out of a giant pickle one time for which she was very grateful) did actually write to me once, which shocked me that she would "disobey" and contact me. She asked me why I left. I really appreciated that she reached out to me but for reasons I don't remember (likely procrastination, not knowing what to say, not wanting to get her into trouble) I never answered her. But my absolute best JW friend never kept in touch. That actually still hurts. I loved her absolutely. I was her bridesmaid. She was an exceptionally beautiful girl and I was beyond flattered that she would let me stand in her wedding photos! The best compliment I have ever received was when someone once thought we were sisters. (It was a little old lady with cataracts, ha).

So, the programming does run deep. It can override people's love, courtesy and natural inclinations to be a reasonable human being.

But I have been far more devastated and distraught during my Mo time. I found them way less friendly or inclusive than JWs. And etc.

Not to say, though, that JWs aren't judged and taught to judge in extreme ways.

They are just not "so much worse" than Mormons. I always marvel when I see exmos say that - which happens here quite often. It may seem that way from the outside looking in but I've been on the inside looking out of both groups and I say not true. I think there is a lot of misunderstanding of JW doctrine. It made a lot more sense to me, and is far simpler, than Mormon doctrine - an elusive beast to me at the best of times. Wait - there were no best of times for me in that organization. But my relatively rational experience with JWs made my Mormon interlude even more strange than it may otherwise have seemed. Like - it just never made any sense to me, plus was no fun, plus so much judgement.

Again, not saying JWs are so much better, especially when it comes to scare tactics and judgement, but they are not so much worse than Mormons.

I grant you it's largely in the eye of the beholder. But that's my experience.

I saw a man tracting in front of Wal-Mart Friday afternoon. He was a nice-looking older man who looked like he was waiting for someone to pick him up. We chatted briefly about the flower display (his "hook," I suppose,) and then he offered me a religious tract. I declined and reported him promptly to store personnel. He wasn't there by the time I left.

As Amyjo said, stores are private property and they don't have to tolerate those who tract or otherwise solicit.

A man was also in the parking lot doing the grocery cart scam (M'am, do you mind if I take your cart? And oh, by the way, can you spare some change?) I don't like when strange men approach me in thinly populated areas, so I told him that I needed him to get away from me, which he promptly did. I would have reported him as well, but at that point I just wanted to get home.

They have a table set up at the MSP airport in the light rail stop at Terminal 2. I have never said anything to them, and I have never seen anyone talking to them either. BUT they are persistent as they are there more often than not. I am sure they have permission from MAC (airport authority) to be there, but still.... WTF??

JWs stepped up their presence here in the last couple of years. I've seen a couple ladies sitting on the sidewalk on folding chairs with a pamphlet rack next to them several times a week last summer. I keep hoping a bicyclist will come barrelling down the sidewalk and "accidentally" wipe them out but it hasn't happened.

I also see them regularly sitting in a park next to a biking path. One time they actually had 2 pamphlet racks, and nobody talking to them the 2 times I went past. It seemed a little bit pathetic.

If only there were one planet for every individual. Then, freedom would not offend, ever. Until that time, for God is apparently not as wealthy as some believe, we have to endure imperfect situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-6o_yJ4zv8

If we must endure, we at least have a right to complain about it.

After all, you don't seem to be troubled over complaining about complaining.

I don't much care how people spend their Sundays (or any other day,) but I'm not a fan of aggressive recruiting. I don't want religious recruiters knocking on my door, or stopping me on the street, or outside of a store, or inside of a store to share their message.

There are plenty of other ways to be inviting to a given community. Take out an ad, send out fliers, host a community festival or charitable event. All of those things put your church out there without bothering people unduly.

What Mormons (JWs, etc.) fail to realize is that what is normal to them can be quite offensive to others. I want to enjoy the privacy of my own home. I want to go about my business without being accosted by others with an agenda, especially on private property. I consider religion to be a private matter. Not something to be shoved on others.

Harassing people is not a way of winning friends or attracting interest in a religion.

I absolutely agree too that leaving pamphlets, magazines, leaflets in hospital areas anywhere is beyond the pale. I've been taking a family member to numerous hospital visits in the past year and I have been shocked to see a lot of JW literature on tables in waiting areas, even near treatment rooms too. I thought that wasn't allowed. They are in different languages as well, with no English versions. Quite a change. It really irks me to think of vulnerable, anxious, stressed and sick (obviously) patients and family who are being taken advantage of, like sitting ducks. So inappropriate. I think/hope I would have said that if it had happened when I was a JW. I remember that we were definitely told to be aware of not being that annoying (in different words, of course). Not that the elders/leaders would have listened to a female anyway (they *are* even worse than Mormons in that regard). But maybe I would have tried.

I've wanted to remark on this next observation before but was worried it would come across as racist somehow - is it completely inappropriate to even notice or mention race? Kind of a hornet's nest it can be. But. I note that by far most of those I see doing the new, to me, thing of standing unobtrusively with the magazine racks (instead of holding them up in their hands and approaching passersby, as we used to do - not that pleasant from the JW's point of view either, let me tell you, but you're press-ganged into it) are Asian (sorry for the convoluted sentence - it's getting late and my brain is frozen). I could be drastically wrong and if so I apologize - obviously I mean no offence - but maybe the WatchTower Society (JW organization) is targeting non-Caucasians now? Maybe the previous market is saturated? Or maybe it's something to do with the area where I live - many Asian people here now. But no matter where I go the magazine-displayers are Asian. The two main areas where I stray on weekends though have significant Asian populations so maybe my observation/conclusion about it is totally off, the areas in question perhaps skewing the stats on it.

But my point is that it could be a strategy by the Corp to pull in new people who may be vulnerable in a different way.

I seriously despise being taken advantage of. I detest seeing it happen to others.

It's so too bad that what could be a decent enough message in any of these groups (love, peace, happiness, eternal bliss) gets distorted by all the add-ons that can make life a lot less pleasant for both adherents and the sitting ducks they want to preach to.

Having a brother who is JW, I know how truly horrified these folks (many of them) are over the "end times," and satan having a grip on this system.


""""Kathleen, you've got to listen to me before it's too late!""""


Poor man.

They cannot enjoy life. They live in absolute terror.

Do you think that they would go through this nonsense day in and day out, if they weren't terrified?

They are a sad lot, folks. They are taught that unless they are out doing the Lord's work every day, they'll get left behind. And, they pay for all that printed crap out of their own pockets. They will tell you they don't, but they do.

They thrive on verbal abuse, because that way they know that they are doing the Lord's work, and they double down.

If you see an exquisitely handsome and vey educated man, camped in front of the post office with his little kiosk of pamphlets, smiling broadly at you, he could be my bro.

Please don't be mean to him.

I know what you mean, Cheryl. I also know the fear in their little hearts. I see them as the victims, just like we were.

Ladies,my wife feels the same way you do and I agree with her.

I have family in a cult to called the church of Christ and they never tract ever and think they are the only ones going to heaven and everyone is going to hell!I hated going to church with my grandpa! The sermons were always how evil the world and sinners are because they don't go to the church of Christ!

Jehovah's witnesses and Mormons break all the rules! They are both cults and do not care about your privacy at all! They want you to convert to their way! Annoying people Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses are! And so many Jehovah's witnesses die from not taking blood transfusions!

I'm sorry for your brother, kathleen.

And for you.

I've seen best friends as well as married couples and parents/kids slide into irreparable breaches due to the JW religion. It's crazy how loyalty to an organization/corporation can supercede close family ties and the best of friendships and marriages. And the sacrifice is held up as evidence of great spirituality and guaranteed happiness into the eternities. What a tragedy.

I wish I knew what the answer is. It is so hard to explain to outsiders how these things work and to try and reason with someone caught up in it. Maybe age and distance can make a difference for some as they attain greater perspective but certainly not the majority.

To think, or know, that those at the top actually know it's a scam, or a very big, very bad mistake at best, is beyond bearing.

Jay dubs and mormons hate each other due to competing ideologies. Half of my extended family are jay dubs and the other half are mormons. Makes for interesting family reunions.

God, what is that even like?

It's contests on the issue of whose got the bigger priesthood...

The name of the church also defines their duty. I don't know for a fact that there are set in stone weekly or monthly goals that need to be met, in terms of doing their Jehovah witnessing, but it makes sense that there are, or at the very least, recommendations...

It's my impression that going door to door, proactively seeking to contact their targets, isn't as much fun as a JW as it was for me, as an elder. So I have formed the impression that it has become allowable for JWs to get in their Jehovah witnessing hours by sitting out in public with a display of literature. Jehovah witnessing lite...

I bet the ones who still go door to door look down on those who witness from a static position. Jehovah likes them better...

Yes, EOD, set in stone. At least it was when I was in. So many hrs a week. Every week. Took up at least one Saturday. And you have to keep a written record and report on yourself every week. They keep track and if you don't make the hours you lose a certain degree of "status" as a "publisher" (of the "Good News"). Then you get scorned and harangued, at least by leadership.

Being very obedient by nature, I went out quite a lot, especially when I went back East, wanting to be a missionary. I was always that missionary-way inclined, even before joining them, so was happy, at first, to do it (until they tried to separate me from my family - which I've discussed here before).

Not being "active" enough can easily drive a wedge between people. I had an "inactive" JW boyfriend (can you imagine being kept track of and defined by how many hrs you went door-to-door or stood on street corners, like there is no other way to live life or other calls on your time and attention)? I was very fond of him (and still think of him!) but we separated when I took off to be a missionary. I don't know how he felt about it - we never discussed it - too bad I didn't realize that perhaps love in a personal relationship is more important than knocking on the doors of unwitting strangers. Then again, maybe I'd still be a JW if we had married. (Eek, scary thought - being a JW I mean, not marrying him). We just accepted that it was a so-called higher calling and it seemed inevitable that because he wasn't as "faithful" as I was (their take on it, not mine) we couldn't be together. He ended up marrying another JW (with the same name as mine; that actually quite hurt me and I had a lot of regret - what a sinner I was!)

So yeah, tracking your witnessing time, keeping stats on you, calling you out for being inactive, that part wasn't fun and it embarrassed and depressed people who didn't like going out (just about everybody, contrary to what non-JWs may think). That is one part I acknowledge is worse than Mormonism, at least in my experience.

But it's not all worse.

Cults will ruin you up i second that.

Isn't that like breaking one of a malls rules!??

Yes, malls are private property, and they generally don't allow any kind of soliciting.

Jehovah's witnesses also go to hospitals a lot and the people there kept calling them and saying you can't leave your watchtowers here! But the Jehovah's witnesses never stopped ever! They only care about their cult and everyone not a Jehovah's witnesses will die they think

laundramats, doctors offices, apartment and motel sitting rooms, public libraries and wherever there are bulletin boards or waiting rooms. I just throw that stuff into the nearest dumpster. It's best not to throw in into an open wastebasket without shredding it first because someone might drag it out and display it again.

Mormons are not better. Some of them pull these same stunts if they think they can get away with it.

An excessive fear of religion.is a mental illness.

The Jehovah's witnesses think everyone is going to die anyway. Many Jehovah's witnesses already have from not taking blood transfusions and many are shunned for no reason, but the Jehovah's witnesses won't tell you that! Like Mormons won't tell you that you will give all your money to a scam!

When they tell you that they know their church is true, go ahead and take their magazine. Then ask them where the bathroom is. Then tell them that you know that you've got to go really bad and that you're going to wipe your ass with the pages from the magazine. Then smile and thank them for the directions as you turn and walk away. They won't forget you nor the image you just put in their mind.

You would likely be the first to strenuously object if someone were to even suggest doing this to one of your faith's magazines, never mind actually carry it out. Why so quick to fantasize about it happening to believers from a group you don't belong to? It's OK in that case?

I was waiting at the bus earlier this year and a JW man came up to me. He was super aggressive, and so I was as well.


When a woman JW came up to me I was nice to her but threw away the pamphlet. I didn't need it.

They were making the rounds in my neighborhood last weekend. There were two sets of them, one for each side of the street. They didn't leave a pamphlet on my door when I didn't answer this time.

They leave us alone. 3 generation military family, have a US flag outside, Air Force flag on other side of porch, car and trucks are covered with patriotic stickers
They are anti military, won’t salute a person, flag , stand up for the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance, etc