Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: SMITHJ@mps.ohio-state.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Who do you say Christ is? (and other questions) Message-ID: Date: 11 Sep 89 06:34:20 GMT References: Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 83 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , kodak!isctsse!mcmahon@cs.rochester.edu (Brendan McMahon) writes: > About a year ago there was a knock on our door and lo and behold who was there? > A Jehovah's Witness. Slowly over the course of the year my wife has been > getting more and more into the bible. For this I should be, and am thankful. > She is currently metting with this person every other week. The trouble is > that JW's are very anti-Catholic. But what can I do. She says she just wants > to find out the real truth, and it can't hurt to investigate all sides from > all angles. So despite being deeply troubled over these mettings, I can > only allow them to continue. Ask her if you can attend the meetings. My wife is a Methodist and we alternate between going to her church and mine. (Granted that the MC is not as different as the JW.) The main thing here is that you take an *active* role in her faith. When you go ***don't*** be hostile no matter how much slack they try to give the Church. Ask questions if compelled but do so in a humble and knowlegde-seeking manner. If for some reason she or the JW object to your attendence than I suggest you have a serious problem. As anti-catholic as they are they may be trying to brainwash her against the RC religion by spouting the old Mary-worshiper rhetoric. > This is where things currently stand: > She says she is ready to be baptized as soon as she finds out which Christian > church is the "true" church. She has eliminated the Catholic church mainly > because of the trinity doctrine (influenced mostly by the JW's "Should you > believe in the trinity" publication.) Thankfully, I have been able to show > the flaws in the JW's beliefs, so she isn't ready to become a JW. Thankfully > because I don't know if any family could survive such opposing religious > view points (although I know there have been Christian/Jewish marriges). > The main thing that she is struggling with is the Divinity of Jesus. > The JW's say that Jesus is not Divine, not God, not worth of worship, > because he was just a man on this earth and is just a spirit higher than the > angles now. If you are like me (also an RC) you know less about your religion than you should. I was faced with this problem when my wife started asking questions such as why do you cross youserlf, etc. It's important that you can answer these questions when your wife asks them rather than having her get them from her JW friend. I won't mince words: some such faiths resort to outright lies in an effort to lure people away from more traditional christian religions. Talk to your priest and see if your church has any eductional sessions on your faith. He could also recommend a book on the subject I'm sure. Let your wife know that you don't think it's fair that she isn't giving equal time to her husbands religion when she is taking advice from a stranger. > I am ready to suggest to her that she stop getting instructions from this > person because they (JW's) are obviously not Christ's true Church, and > suggest to her that we start attending different denomination's services > around town. (I would just attend an early mass beforehand.) Despite the > recent posting "Protestantism as the Church", I don't feel the differences > between Protestants and Catholics are nearly as sharp or conflicting as the > JW's. Anything I can do to steer her out of that approach will be a > great relief to me. I am terribly upset by the fact that all these religions who profess a faith in the Trinity and follow the teachings of the NT can't get their act together and see that it's about time they unified againt the spread of cult religions. While the Catholics and Methodists are busy arguing over whether to take Communion weekly or yearly the Jehovas and Mormons are taking people to hell in a mighty large handbasket. -- They have one big advantage over us: *they* know where they're going. Has your family tried 'em, Powdermilk? /* Jeffery G. Smith, BS-RHIT (AKA Doc. Insomnia, WMHD-FM) * * The Ohio State University, Graduate Physics Program * * 3193 Smith Lab, Columbus, OH 43210 (614) 292-5321 * * smithj@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu */ [This comes very near to being ad hominem attack. I we would very wary of accusing a faith as a whole of lying. There are lots of people who get overenthusiastic, and say things they probably shouldn't. This fault occurs among orthodox as well. It is probably best that we should simply see whether we find their position true or false, and not get diverted by calling each other liars. This is particularly true if you are intending to lump the Mormons in the same group. I don't know any JW's, so I can't comment personally. But the Mormons with which I have dealt have been in general intellecturally honest people. --clh]