wabigoon;
Good evening, I hope that you and your fine family are all well tonight.
Way back in the day I worked with a couple that were professing JW's and all I can recall being different about them was they didn't observe Christmas or Easter.
There are some doctrinal differences for sure though, one of which is they use a translation that interprets the sixth Commandment as "Thou shalt not kill" and not "Thou shalt not commit murder", which is a huge difference in my view.
As mentioned in other posts, I grew up in a pacifistic church and that was one of the reasons I left the church in my teen years.
When I started attending again in my early '20's, it was not at a pacifistic leaning denomination, as apparently my wiring doesn't lean that way.
Anyways a wee story about them visiting and the pacifism.
One hot Okanagan summer day when I was much younger and somewhat more inclined to stir the pot for the sake of stirring, a pair of them came to our apartment where we lived then in the town south of us. One was a younger lady and one older, it could have been a mother and daughter but that's a guess at best.
They wanted to talk to me and I said I'd grab my Bible quick, did that and in fairly short order opened up the 10 Commandments to see what their version said.
When it came to the 6th Commandment, I stopped them and said, "Wait a minute, does that mean no killing whatsoever?"
The older lady assured me that it did.
I asked her, "Even if someone attacks you? Say you defend yourself and in the process kill your attacker, is that wrong?"
She assured me with even more conviction that it was wrong and she would meekly submit as instructed...
Then I looked at the younger lady first, then at the older lady and asked, "Well if someone attacked this young lady and you defended her, and they died in the process, that's still wrong?"
Again she most assuredly and vigorously said it would be wrong and she would not protect the young woman in any way.
Then, being me and all, I turned to the young lady and said, "Well if I'm there, I'll kill them deader than yesterday, sleep like a baby after and be ready to meet God in the morning...."
That sorta ended the visit right then and there..
I do believe the young lady was grinning a fair bit more when she left than when she came.
As a husband and father, I'm entirely prepared to defend my family with whatever means and to whatever end might come of it, so that's where they and I diverge in our beliefs.
All the best.
Dwayne
