Update from Jersey via Droid
Things have been boring around here since I finished at the gallery. The highlight so far was going to the 2010 Jehovah's Witness District Convention with my cousin and her family. It was fun to spend that amount of time with them considering we don't see them often. The convention I found interesting because I love studying religions. The more we learn about others the more we find we are the same (in religion and in life).
There were quite a few things discussed that I don't agree with mainly the call to forget education in exchange for witnessing. I can understand doing this if you feel called to spend your time in service of God. But to sacrifice your dreams and aspirations because some people belive it is the end times due to some flawed calculations (dates are not concretely known) is not something I feel is right. Dreams and goals are what push people to be the best they can. These same dreams are what get people through hard personal tiimes. And honestly if these are the end times, I am going to fight to fulfill my dreams before I run out of time.
One major thing that really got to me was the picking a choosing of biblical verses to suit their points (proofs as they called them). Many times it was just part of a verse not the whole and used completely out of context with the rest of the passage. When proving points you can't use lines of words out of context because they make your argument sound better. In context those same words could invalidate your argument. Nothing like using your words against you. Let me clarify here that this is a problem with Christianity as a whole even my religion, Catholocism, does it.
But the one comment that had me wanting to leave was a comment about how the bible is the true holy book. This was followed by a call for all to go convert Buddhists. I have studied many religious philosphies and Buddhism is that a philosophy. Through the many different teachings or schools one can find a great way to draw closer to God and to live better. Many of the most spiritual Christians I know have incorporated many eastern philosophies into their ritual prayer. Meditation an eastern tradition has been used by many Christian monks to still their minds in preparation for communication with God. The eight fold path of Buddhism (a philosophy mocked in a brochure advertised at the convention) is one to rid oneself of worldly affairs. This need to become detatched from the materialistic secular world is a cornerstone of the practice of Jehovah's Witnesses. For them to single out those applying Buddhist philosophies is hypocritical (this goes for any number of other Christian faiths).
Much of what I learned this weekend was confirmation that many people buy into stereotypes especially those of blind faith and are afraid to find the truth before teaching them as truths to others. Thankfully my cousin and her family are very open minded and willing to learn the truth correcting what they had previously been taught. At times it is hard to be corrected but until you do the leg work to find the truth you will be teaching and living in ignorance (religiously, politically, interpersonally, etc.).
There were quite a few things discussed that I don't agree with mainly the call to forget education in exchange for witnessing. I can understand doing this if you feel called to spend your time in service of God. But to sacrifice your dreams and aspirations because some people belive it is the end times due to some flawed calculations (dates are not concretely known) is not something I feel is right. Dreams and goals are what push people to be the best they can. These same dreams are what get people through hard personal tiimes. And honestly if these are the end times, I am going to fight to fulfill my dreams before I run out of time.
One major thing that really got to me was the picking a choosing of biblical verses to suit their points (proofs as they called them). Many times it was just part of a verse not the whole and used completely out of context with the rest of the passage. When proving points you can't use lines of words out of context because they make your argument sound better. In context those same words could invalidate your argument. Nothing like using your words against you. Let me clarify here that this is a problem with Christianity as a whole even my religion, Catholocism, does it.
But the one comment that had me wanting to leave was a comment about how the bible is the true holy book. This was followed by a call for all to go convert Buddhists. I have studied many religious philosphies and Buddhism is that a philosophy. Through the many different teachings or schools one can find a great way to draw closer to God and to live better. Many of the most spiritual Christians I know have incorporated many eastern philosophies into their ritual prayer. Meditation an eastern tradition has been used by many Christian monks to still their minds in preparation for communication with God. The eight fold path of Buddhism (a philosophy mocked in a brochure advertised at the convention) is one to rid oneself of worldly affairs. This need to become detatched from the materialistic secular world is a cornerstone of the practice of Jehovah's Witnesses. For them to single out those applying Buddhist philosophies is hypocritical (this goes for any number of other Christian faiths).
Much of what I learned this weekend was confirmation that many people buy into stereotypes especially those of blind faith and are afraid to find the truth before teaching them as truths to others. Thankfully my cousin and her family are very open minded and willing to learn the truth correcting what they had previously been taught. At times it is hard to be corrected but until you do the leg work to find the truth you will be teaching and living in ignorance (religiously, politically, interpersonally, etc.).
Comments
Post a Comment