Jehovah's Witness'

[MrsFabuloso]

Thankyou everyone, sunflowa girlie in particular. You have opened my eyes to new concepts
I did think of ome more q's to ask as I was reading (which I should have written down...) but I'm not in much of a posting mood so I will come back another time to ask
Thanks again!!

[Traveller]

Thank you so much Sunflowa_girlie, I really enjoyed reading your posts.

I have a friend who is a Jehovah's Witness and she had a serious PPH after the birth of her first baby. The doctor's reccomended a blood transfusion but she asked for a 2nd opinion and upon establishing that she would feel terribly ill without it, but would not be in any actual danger, she refused.

For her 2nd baby she had an elective cesarean and again had a major PPH. However this time she had made sure she was in a hospital will a cell saver machine which reused her own blood. She was very well after this birth.

However I was very sad for her that there were something like 14 people in the room for her caesarean, according to her husband most of them were there to see it all go wrong so they could say "we told you so". I felt so sad my beautiful friend was viewed as a disaster waiting to happen for her beliefs.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

However I was very sad for her that there were something like 14 people in the room for her caesarean, according to her husband most of them were there to see it all go wrong so they could say "we told you so". I felt so sad my beautiful friend was viewed as a disaster waiting to happen for her beliefs.

Thank you for sharing your story

Sadly this is often the case when dealing with doctors/surgeons - blood transfusions have been given 'just in case' for so long that it can be viewed as a safety net. I'm sure parents who choose not to vaccinate will understand the ridicule they face from certain medical professionals, and it doesn't matter how much research they have done into the subject.

On a happy note though, more often than not the JW pulls through without a blood transfusion, which has turned some of our most vocal opposers into great allies when it comes to blood transfusions!

I wanted to say thankyou to everyone who's posted in this thread - I feel that everyone has been very respectful, which is not always the case, so it's very refreshing! By the same token, I have attempted to be sensitive to others beliefs as I realise they most likely won't be the same as ours, particularly in regards to Christmas - however if I have offended anyone, please let me know

Nettie - not sure about Christadelphians TBH! I've heard of them, but only rarely, so I don't actually know anything about their beliefs. I would be interested to learn however!

[Nettie]

No Christadelphians out there?

[Peg]

No Christadelphians out there?

I used to work with a Christadelphian. he was a lovely boss, a really nice person. We used to have bible discussions and i learnt that their beliefs are quite different to mainstream christianity...even moreso then JW's

it was quite a few years ago now so my memory is hazy, but i do remember one of their main teachings is that they dont believe in the Devil...who is a fairly prominent bible character. They believe that 'satan' is actually the evil inside each of us.

they do view themselves as christians, they dont know much of the bible, they dont have bishops or priests specifically but similarly to JW's all members are teachers (except for females). they have a 'creed' which are their fundamental teachings which are used as the basis for their meetings. At their meetings individuals will be assigned to give a talk and it can be about anything so long as the talk abides by the creed and does not introduce new ideas or change the existing creed in any way.

they are also a very small community and tight knit... similar to a bretheren type community. There are only 5,000 in either the whole of australia (or possibly just victoria, my memory is a little fuzzy on that)

[Lulu]

I have a massive issue with Christadelphians.
Mainly because they had a place of worship near me with the sign out the front

"God hates homosexuals".

ETA - oh sorry, it was actually "God hates Homosexuality"...my bad

[Glamourcide]

Ooh, just stumbled across this thread... I will stick my nose in and ask a couple more 'silly' questions as DH and I often get visits from some lovely JW's (they usually come every Sunday arvo to discuss some teachings with us) and our last discussion has me a bit confused...

I'm just wondering specifically about the concept of heaven and hell, and the idea of an 'afterlife' in general? What is the JW stance on this one? On their last visit, we got conflicting stories - the young lady spoke to me about heaven and hell, and how everybody goes to 'sleep' when they die, awaiting resurrection and judgement, and that those who are faithful and 'good' will go to Paradise... but the man who visited with her was having a separate conversation with DH (about the same topic) and said his belief was that we die, that's it, no soul, no memories, no thoughts... I just don't think I understand? I mean I get the bit about going to 'sleep' and awaiting Judgement Day, but if we are resurrected as 'clean slates', then what are we judged upon?
Sorry if I have this waaaaay wrong or I've misunderstood something that was said I hope I'm not being disrespectful at all, I'm just genuinely curious and really want to learn more - as I said, we get lots of visits from the JW's and we're always happy to learn more and discuss their beliefs and teachings, and DH and I are greatly interested in learning all about this stuff from the perspectives of all different religions, I was just hoping to clear it up a bit
TIA

[Dansta]

i have two questions - after seeing Berenice post about how she doesn't vote - did a quick google search and it says that jehovahs witness are discouraged to vote how come? (i dont mean to offend i just wondered why)

the other is all the jehovahs witness churchs/places of worship i have seen seem to be very fenced in - more then other Christian places of worship and was wondering why that is - or if its just the ones i've seen?

[Glamourcide]

^ The JW bloke who visits us on a weekly/fortnightly basis was discussing this with us just this weekend gone. He said it was because he believed Church and State should be entirely separate, and that God's law is the only one he feels compelled to follow - that, and he thinks it's ridiculous that we are forced to vote when we're a so-called democracy, so he kind of does it on prinicple, too (he and DH get on like a house on fire, they're both very interested in NWO and government conspiracy theory so sooner or later our conversations turn to that ). I could well be wrong that this is what most JW's believe, but I for one agree with it But voting or not, and being forced to in Australia, is a topic for a different thread entirely!

[Peg]

i have two questions - after seeing Berenice post about how she doesn't vote - did a quick google search and it says that jehovahs witness are discouraged to vote how come? (i dont mean to offend i just wondered why)

the other is all the jehovahs witness churchs/places of worship i have seen seem to be very fenced in - more then other Christian places of worship and was wondering why that is - or if its just the ones i've seen?

It pretty much has to do with our allegience. We beleive that when we get baptized we are declaring our allegience to Gods kingdom. 'Thy Kingdom Come' is a very well known christian prayer.

If we were to become involved in the politics of this world and start voting for human leaders, we are in effect denying our allegience to God and his rulership. We've voted for Jesus and his Kingdom and therefore thats what our vote is. I believe Jesus would make a far better ruler then Mr Rudd if you know what i mean.


With regard to fences around the kingdom halls, i've been to numerous halls that do not have fences. But like all properties, secrurity is fairly important and if fences are erected, i can assure you its not to keep everyone out. Our halls are open to the public for all our meetings and most kingdom halls will display the times and days of the meetings, so everyone is welcome to attend. The gates are always open when a meeting is in progress.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

Ditto to Peg - JW's are always neutral because we believe that no man/woman will ever completely fix the worlds problems, the only one who can do that is Jehovah. Everyone else always has an ulterior motive

WRT the fences, the Kingdom Hall I go to opens the gates for people to come in but closes them during the meetings - we're in a fairly high crime area and there's nothing worse than coming out from the meeting all upbeat only to find your window smashed. It's definitely not meant to make people uncomfortable

[shellbell3]

Thanks for sharing, I always find it so interesting to learn about other religions.

Lilias, I had 2 woman at work that were Jehovah's Witness' and they were always more than happy to answer questions, I always had many!

Best thing too was they would work xmas day cause they didn't celebrate it, meant others could have it off!

[Nettie]

Thank you for this thread. I work with JW colleagues and it has given me some more understanding into their beliefs.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but does anyone know about Christadelphian beliefs? They seem similar to JW (don't celebrate Christmas, will not gamble, etc) so I thought it might be a good spot to ask!