BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Pagan when JWs come knocking...

As some of you know I was raised in the Jehovah's Witness cult and left at age 34. Unless you have been "in" you really don't know what it is like to live that life. The next time JWs knock on your door and want to share the "good news" of a paradise earth and everlasting life with you, please do not encourage them. Instead ask them if they would let their child die rather than accept a blood transfusion. Ask them if someone decides to leave JWs will they be shunned and cut off from friends and family as if they are dead? Then turn them politely away and pray (or whatever you do) for them.

(Please read this former JW's story. Have some tissues handy.


Ruth's story:

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I'm sorry for your experience LadyLvsNyt and the experience of Ruth. I'm actually writing an article for the site regarding recognizing cultish behavior.

However, as a member of a minority religion myself I cannot in good conscience call them a cult without more evidence than a website since Pagans are often referred to in such a way.

I don't believe they should proselytize from door to door, but it is part of their belief system. It is part of my belief system to shut the door in their face. To each their own.

I learned the hard way that if you are polite to JW's they keep coming back. So now I just flash my pentacle tattoo and they leave....permanently!

I still try to not be rude, but if you come to MY house, INTERRUPT me in what I'm doing, and then try to cram YOUR beliefs down my throat, I think you're setting yourself up for a rude response. We all know where to find them if we're interested, if we're not coming to them I wish they would leave us alone.

I agree Helen. One woman years ago came to my apartment and I told her I wasn't interested. A few days later she came up to my car while I was going to work and knocked on the window. I told her to leave me alone and nearly ran over her (not on purpose, not consciously anyway).

But a tattoo is a good idea. I was putting off getting one because of finances. I was going to get a horned god on my back, but now you make me want to put it on my shoulder to be easily flashed to types like that...lol.

Dear Trish,
I do not lightly call JWs a cult or do so out of a sense of vengeance. They ARE a dangerous cult according to the "Advanced Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame" or ABCDEF. Here is a pagan website that features this professional tool and explains how it works:

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and the only way a JW won't talk to you is if you admit to having been one and left--usually resulting in a disfellowshipping(I just left was not DFd)or a disassociating(offically writing a letter of separation--I did not do that either--why play by their rules?) and then becoming apostate (teaching against them--me!)
however--you can request of the person at your door that they make a note on the Territory Card/Map that your address be considered a "Do Not Call" or you can call a Kingdom Hall and ask for an elder and make the same request. Then it is still iffy-sometimes the publishers who knock on your door do not actually have the territory card with them but were just given a street to work. And every 2 or 3 years they are instructed to ask you if you still feel the same way--in case you moved and it is someone new there.
otherwise, in the US, JWs won the right to knock on your door in the Supreme Court and they are very proud of that. and they are taught not to take NO for an answer. Pentagrams and black robes didn't chase me away. I even had a guy answer the door naked. I gave Watchtowers to priests! I was tenacious. I grew up on stories of the old timers sticking their foot in the doors!
Ravyn

Ravyn,

I have been very well aware of Isaac Bonewits� cult danger evaluation for quite some time and plan on referencing it in my article. On his website even he admits it is flawed. His new version (2.6 or 2.7 depending on which part of his page you look at) is slightly different than the one you posted. Here it is:

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I have several friends who are JWs, but they do not preach to me. And living in the south, everyone seems to think they can leave their religious propaganda on your car, mailbox, front door, whatever. When they knock I tell them that jesus is a lovely story book myth. I then point to the no proselytizing sign on the front door and tell them to be glad my 6' atheist husband wasn't home to answer the door.

I hate getting the glossy "To Current Occupant" flyers from churches. I can't help but think how expensive those are to get printed, and how the money could go to a better use than trying to get me to convert to a religion that I will never convert to. Or to at least come to their church, which I won't do because I prefer my back yard, the beach, the State Parks, etc... It's just such a waste when they could do some humanitarian work with that money instead... :p

I lived in a town in rural eastern TN that allowed a Revival Tent to set up in the Walmart parkinglot and you had to go thru the tent to get into the store. It was like running a gauntlet! This same town's restaurants accepted various church coupons that they gave out with altar calls! And I had a seriously ill kitten and I was calling to find a vet that could help me on a moments notice and the vet actually asked me which church I attended before he would save my kitten! (I lied to save the kitty's life.)
But JWs are consistent in their proselytizing all over the USA, these other churches it was just in the South. I suspect it might also be in the Mid-west, but I don't know.
Ravyn