July 5, 2023
When I was out front in our Yarden, (the whole lot is growing food for us or other critters), a Jehovah Witness fellow came by with the usual invitation and handout. Steve, a housemate, was there and we got talking about JW’s and such. I told him of their sorry state, of how they believe that only 144,000 people (JWs, of course) are going to Heaven. And because there are several millions of them, it’s a competition as to who is going to ‘make the cut’. So that poor man is going door to door, not only for our sakes, but mainly for his own. What a sorry way to live. Their whole lives are focused on this (un)holy competition. They do nothing else, assuming a tradition of biblical ignorance and fear.
Which brought to mind the only other door-to-door regulars, the Mormons. They have even a more implausible ‘back story’. But I don’t feel sorry for them and indeed, they have my respect. They are living their faith and are helping others. Having lived among them I know what a blessing they are to those around them. What they believe is soon overshadowed by what they do. That’s good enough for me. They are entirely different from the JWs in my mind.
It’s what we do that counts. Don’t ask me what I believe, but how I live. Don’t tell me what you believe unless you’re ready and able to show me that your actions prove it. Who cares what you think if it makes no difference? It’s a sorry admission that Christianity has been fixated on the one and not the other. “What do you believe,” is all that we’ve heard in church. We’ve killed over it. What a perversion and tragedy. Jesus wasn’t killed for what he thought, but because of what he did. Neither was Ghandhi, or anyone else of importance. But it’s so much easier to believe in someone than to follow.
Does your doing support your beliefs. How? How not? Life is too short to not ask this simple question.
Anthony
