There is a Jehovah\u2019s Witness \u201cKingdom Hall\u201d less than a mile from my house \u2013 less than half a mile if you cut through alleys and back yards. So it should come as no surprise that this morning \u2013 while I was preparing for tonight\u2019s Imbolc circle \u2013 I finally got the dreaded knock on the door.<\/p>\n
There were two middle-aged men and a very young boy, who handed me the customary copy of The Watchtower (I can never see that name without hearing a Wiccan calling \u201cHail, Guardians of the Watchtowers of the East, Powers of Air, we invoke you and call you\u2026\u201d). The younger of the two men started into his spiel about how God is going destroy all the \u201cevildoers\u201d and reading scripture to support his argument. He threw in a couple of references about environmental stewardship, to which I agreed \u2013 doing the right thing for the wrong reason is still doing the right thing.<\/p>\n
As I stood there listening, I was conflicted about how to respond. Part of me wanted to say \u201cexcuse me, but I have to get back to preparing for tonight\u2019s Pagan fertility festival in honor of the Goddess Brigid.\u201d Another part wanted to start attacking the concept of the Bible as the literal and inerrant \u201cword of God.\u201d And another part wanted to scream \u201cyou worship God your way and I\u2019ll worship mine!\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, I settled by saying that I appreciated that they had found a path that was meaningful to them, that I strongly believed the Bible is a collection of writings by and for a particular group of people at a particular time in history, and that since we believe such very different things about the Bible, any meaningful religious dialogue wasn\u2019t possible.<\/p>\n
They offered me one of their books, which I declined. I have a great respect for books \u2013 even those I disagree with \u2013 and I didn\u2019t want to take something I wouldn\u2019t read.<\/p>\n
I think I was respectful while being true to my beliefs, and for catching me unprepared like that, I suppose that\u2019s all anyone can expect.<\/p>\n
Even if part of me did want to shock them out of their coats and ties\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is a Jehovah\u2019s Witness \u201cKingdom Hall\u201d less than a mile from my house \u2013 less than half a mile if you cut through alleys and back yards. So it should come as no surprise that this morning \u2013 while I was preparing for tonight\u2019s Imbolc circle \u2013 I finally got the dreaded knock on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n