Edinburgh Residents targeted with handwritten letters from child members of Jehovah's Witnesses brand the move 'sick

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/edinburgh-residents-targeted-with-handwritten-letters-from-child-members-of-jehovahs-witnesses-brand-the-move-sick-3153697

Residents in Leith who received handwritten letters through their door from Jehovah’s Witnesses members as young as ten-years-old have branded the move ‘sick’.

It has emerged that residents in Leith and other areas of the city have been targeted by the group – notorious for door-stepping – by letters written in multiple languages.

The man, who had also received a leaflet from the group, who claim to be the ‘one true faith’, said in his comments the move was “sick”. He added: “This is indoctrination of a 10-year-old child. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a dangerous cult.”

full article available on link above. 

Well I suppose the children have to get their hours in or they will counted as 'inactive' publishers. The Org needs to keep it's number up somehow. 

 

BUT if the letters are hand written and then put through doors, they could pass on the Virus, so this might be illegal,  

[TrueTomHarley]

If he would be equally outraged at a child expressing support for his school, love for his country, support for some local cause, rallying for some local politician, selling Scout cookies, knocking on his door offering to shovel snow, & such things, then he would be consistent. However, I think most other people would tell him to get a life.

Come come, 4Jah, you still claim to be Christian. Srecko may think evangelizing is child abuse, but you should not. What if he made no mention of jw.org, but just encouraged Bible reading, or just spoke of God and Jesus? Would you be as upset then? You’re just snarling every time you see JW.

 

[Srecko Sostar]

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Srecko may think

Why you call my name in vain? :)))

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

If he would be equally outraged at a child expressing support for his school, love for his country, support for some local cause, rallying for some local politician, selling Scout cookies, knocking on his door offering to shovel snow, & such things, then he would be consistent. However, I think most other people would tell him to get a life.

Children want to be like adults. Adults want their children to be like themselves or something bigger and better. Children imitate adults and accept suggestions. I think these mentioned children of JW parents are doing what their parents suggested to them.
Sometimes it can be nice, cute, funny, fun, delighting adults and the like. This child's letter, which is presented in the topic, has at least two elements. It begins with a good introduction, then turns in a direction that is religiously marked because the child mentions the Bible in a way that is characteristic of religiously oriented people, someone who is engaged in Bible study. In other words, the sentence sounds like it was written by an adult, not a child.
This is followed by a completely strange wording that invites the recipient of the letter to go to JWORG. This is where the child's mind, children's openness and naivety completely cease, and the influence of propaganda begins.
So, I don’t mind children writing letters to their neighbors at a time when their surroundings are affected by some trouble, if their parents want it. It is a kind of social engagement, though religiously colored. Everyone is looking for their own meaning and purpose of life, their own way out of the problem.

Given that this is related to WTJWorg, then this kind of action through letters can only be seen as a way of acting of a religious organization and its members who stopped going from house to house and found a substitute way of preaching.

[TrueTomHarley]

2 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

This is followed by a completely strange wording that invites the recipient of the letter to go to JWORG

Do you think so? I would submit that the entire letter is strange, and all of it might trigger outrage from an intolerant person.

Suppose you were an atheist, for example. Would you not find the 2nd paragraph as objectionable as the third?

Suppose you are a “traditionalist” who thinks the role of children is to have fun and play games. Would you not find it really weird (and therefore “cult-like”) that a ten-year-old hopes to “comfort” you? Why, the ten-year-old down the street called you an old fart. That’s the kind of conduct you anticipate from 10-year-olds these days.

“Comforting” neighbors is not the expected role of a ten-year-old, you will say, but rather that is the role of adults. Then you will hope they don’t notice that you have nothing to comfort them with.

So the letter is all “strange”—not at all what one would expect from a ten-year-old. The reason you find no fault until you reach the third paragraph only reflects your stance that points of view different than yours should not exist. 

You will allow Christianity but only if it doesn’t carry the 1 Corinthians 12:12 stigma of the body, in which all members are unified and work seamlessly together. You don’t like it that body members should be attached. You especially don’t like it that the body should have a head. If the “body” consisted of amputated limbs, eyes pulled from their sockets and ears torn off the head, you would be okay with it. 

In short, you are apparently prepared to tolerate Christianity, but only your version of Christianity, in which each member celebrates their independence, in which “everyone does what is right in his own eyes,” the Judges 21:25 type of Christianity. Never mind that God speaks of that period as primitive and undesirable.

That said, I’m glad my own children are raised and out of the house. I have no idea how I would train them today. Homeschooling advocate John Holt used to say the reason children go delinquent is that they are shut out of the adult world under the guise of “protecting” them.

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

8 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

the 1 Corinthians 12:12 stigma of the body,

Tom , I do hope you know that this scripture was being spoken to and about the True Anointed ones.  Only they are the true Body of Christ. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

8 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

in which each member celebrates their independence,

MR Russell, when he started the Watchtower, stated that THERE WAS NO NEED OF AN ORGANISATION. 

It is he, just a man, that your Watchtower / JW Org use as a foundation. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

8 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Suppose you are a “traditionalist” who thinks the role of children is to have fun and play games.

And you don't think children should have fun and play games ?  You don't think children should be allowed to live a 'childhood' ?  Of course not, because your Leaders tell you that children must be kept away from the real world.  You don't want children to build up their own spiritual immune system....  

You want children to be dictated to by parents, that are dictated to by Elders, that are dictated to by , , , the GB / Leaders of the W/t / JW Org.  

You seem to want this idea that JW parents make their children sit down and copy, 50 copies of a dictated letter. Then those JW parents can happily fill in those lovely little 'ministry forms' for all their children, reporting all the hours their little ones have 'happily' spent doing the GB's will. And you call this serving God. 

And that is all apart from the legality, even from the Org's viewpoint, of posting letters through people's doors, during a serious virus problem.  I do know for sure that the instructions from the Leaders of the Org, is NOT to put things through people's doors, but to post letters through the postal system.  I don't think the article makes it clear as to how the letters were received. 

 

[TrueTomHarley]

37 minutes ago, 4Jah2me said:

And you don't think children should have fun and play games ?  You don't think children should be allowed to live a 'childhood' ?  Of course not, because your Leaders tell you that children must be kept away

Why do you ask me a question and then answer it yourself? You are such a shrill bonehead.

In fact, when we homeschooled our kids, we integrated them into the overall community, while still keeping our own standards. Both served as volunteers at the public library, for instance. My son joined the local lapidary club (stone carving), where the older ones made a great fuss over him. My daughter took part in a dance troupe that would give performances at local venues. It was a small African dance troupe, and sometimes my wife would say to people, can you spot which one is my daughter? (Everyone else was black, though there was also an Asian) I don’t say that Witnesses typically do this, but no one ever gave us any grief over it.

I worked with both of them in the ministry. One quirky axample involved an old communist. I had found him while working alone, and he wasn’t very nice—“religion is the opium of the people,” and so forth. But I asked him a lot of questions and a conversation ensued. During that conversation I leaned he took pride in his collection of antiques.

I stopped by a few weeks later with my daughter, then around 10. He was even nastier than before. “So what do you want?!” he barked. Just as sharp, I shot back, “I came to show my daughter your antiques!” Without a word, he opened the door, invited us in, showed us as a tour guide his Edison phonograph and a dozen other ancient items, and could not have been more pleasant.

[Srecko Sostar]

1 hour ago, 4Jah2me said:

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Suppose you are a “traditionalist” who thinks the role of children is to have fun and play games.

And you don't think children should have fun and play games ?  You don't think children should be allowed to live a 'childhood' ?  Of course not, because your Leaders tell you that children must be kept away from the real world.  You don't want children to build up their own spiritual immune system....  

Not to mentioned Sunday Ice Cream money (after KH meeting). It is good to learn children about charity and sharing with others. But, is it really proper to do that with Institutional Cartoons of Company who have real-estate riches, stocks, etc?

 

 

[xero]

42 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Why do you ask me a question and then answer it yourself? You are such a shrill bonehead.

In fact, when we homeschooled our kids, we integrated them into the overall community, while still keeping our own standards. Both served as volunteers at the public library, for instance. My son joined the local lapidary club (stone carving), where the older ones made a great fuss over him. My daughter took part in a dance troupe that would give performances at local venues. It was a small African dance troupe, and sometimes my wife would say to people, can you spot which one is my daughter? (Everyone else was black, though there was also an Asian) I don’t say that Witnesses typically do this, but no one ever gave us any grief over it.

I worked with both of them in the ministry. One quirky axample involved an old communist. I had found him while working alone, and he wasn’t very nice—“religion is the opium of the people,” and so forth. But I asked him a lot of questions and a conversation ensued. During that conversation I leaned he took pride in his collection of antiques.

I stopped by a few weeks later with my daughter, then around 10. He was even nastier than before. “So what do you want?!” he barked. Just as sharp, I shot back, “I came to show my daughter your antiques!” Without a word, he opened the door, invited us in, showed us as a tour guide his Edison phonograph and a dozen other ancient items, and could not have been more pleasant.

The crusty old atheist reminds me of a long-standing call I had w/a chip engineer at intel. I suspect she was either high functioning autistic or aspergers, in any case on the first call I made a presentation and she was emotionally flat during the magazine presentation, so I stopped and asked her "Am I boring you? Would you prefer I stop?" and she said w/the same deadpan "No. Please continue, this is interesting." Then she set me a schedule to visit her. It was not surprisingly mathematical in precision. I was expected to be at her door at 10 AM every other Saturday (no excuses). We never got much past the magazines, as after a year she moved out of state, but it goes to show that you can't tell what's happening inside someone when the exterior is less than inviting.

[Srecko Sostar]

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

5 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

This is followed by a completely strange wording that invites the recipient of the letter to go to JWORG

Do you think so? I would submit that the entire letter is strange,

It can be. From first sentence to the last. But, keeping in mind that these are JW members, then it stops being weird because the ideas came from someone within the System. It can only be strange that people on the outside don’t understand the JW System :)).

As I said, it is good for members of society (of different ideologies) to connect, at least through children. Because an individual often needs the help of the wider community to be able to live. Sometimes the whole community finds itself in a situation of being affected by a natural disaster and if they do not act, how much so, mutually it will be harder for them to overcome the crisis. Physical or mental. So, it is not bad for children to be involved in humanitarian matters, but with measure and with what children are and should be ... The future of a better humanity. And not under the control of the System that makes them future adults who will blindly follow GB.

[Srecko Sostar]

56 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

 I don’t say that Witnesses typically do this, ....

That is true.