Jehovah witness friend

Away With The Fairies

It's been 3 months since I wrote this post and I had every intention of telling them that I wasn't interested in their religion links. I was going to wait until they sent me the next JW links. However, it's been 3 months without contact of any kind. And I received a few more messages a few days ago, with more JW links.

While I'd like to tell her that I'm not interested... It's been 3 months without any contact and it's pretty clear she isn't a friend with no contact and when she does contact me it's with JW content.

Is it ok to block this "friend". Their only goal is to try and convert me and I see that now.

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2058135787/4

Idle Passerby

Obviously, yes!

banie01

Of course it's ok to block them.
If you'd made it clear you have no interest in their prosetylizing.
Then drop them if they continue.

Friendship is a well known recruitment path for all flavours of religion.
It's poor practice but isn't it better than at gunpoint

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3461188/

https://catholicstand.com/secret-converting-friends-family/

Away With The Fairies

I just blocked them. I think it's very clear they aren't a friend. Not with any contact and when she does contact it's with JW material.

I feel bad as we share mutual friends but I'm sure they all got the same from her as well.

Idle Passerby

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

I just blocked them. I think it's very clear they aren't a friend. Not with any contact and when she does contact it's with JW material.

I feel bad as we share mutual friends but I'm sure they all got the same from her as well.

I can't imagine anyone blaming you. If someones using their personal social media for effectively unwanted direct advertising, I'd treat it as spam and block them. They have only themselves to blame for making a nuisance of themselves.

Rubberchikken

A true friend will acrrpt you regardless of your religious leanings and definitely not try to convert you to theirs.
I'd say block and let them go.

antix80

Jw is a proselytising religion.
You said she kept in touch because she was trying to help you with isolation due to covid.
I think the nicest thing you can do is ask her not to send you such material. Blocking is a crappy thing to do to anyone.

Away With The Fairies

antix80 wrote: »

Jw is a proselytising religion.
You said she kept in touch because she was trying to help you with isolation due to covid.
I think the nicest thing you can do is ask her not to send you such material. Blocking is a crappy thing to do to anyone.

She used my fear towards covid as an excuse to care and to start sending me these JW links. She doesn't care. Her main aim is to convert me and I see that now.

tara73

I remember your first post about it and there's not much more advice we can give here than already given. Just block her.

You say you have mutual friends, and that seems to make it hard for you to block her ? Did you talk with this friends to see if she's doing it with them also? Would be interesting for yourself and also in case she's badmouthing you but you'll be on the safe side if your friends know why you don't want to have anything to do with her anymore.

Away With The Fairies

tara73 wrote: »

I remember your first post about it and there's not much more advice we can give here than already given. Just block her.

You say you have mutual friends, and that seems to make it hard for you to block her ? Did you talk with this friends to see if she's doing it with them also? Would be interesting for yourself and also in case she's badmouthing you but you'll be on the safe side if your friends know why you don't want to have anything to do with her anymore.

I didn't talk to friends about this. If she's doing it with me, she's doing it with them, I have no doubt about that. We were all part of a WhatsApp group, so it's easy to get numbers and message people.

I have her blocked now. I have no problem being friends but she's using it as an excuse to push her crap on me. I've heard nothing from her in 3 months and when I do, it's more crap. That's not being friends.

antix80

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

I have her blocked now. I have no problem being friends but she's using it as an excuse to push her crap on me. I've heard nothing from her in 3 months and when I do, it's more crap. That's not being friends.

Look you made your decision to block her. There's no need to defend the decision or trash the girl. Just move on.

Maybe she honestly believes she's trying to save your soul, or thinks the messages will be useful in someone's hour of need. Don't attribute negative intentions to someone trying to do good. I'm sure she would have respected your request if you asked her not to send you JW stuff.

Away With The Fairies

antix80 wrote: »

Look you made your decision to block her. There's no need to defend the decision or trash the girl. Just move on.

Maybe she honestly believes she's trying to save your soul, or thinks the messages will be useful in someone's hour of need. Don't attribute negative intentions to someone trying to do good. I'm sure she would have respected your request if you asked her not to send you JW stuff.

I haven't been trashing her, it's why I came here looking for advice. It's only now I'm seeing it and their main aim is to convert me. I didn't ask for her help and I've helped friends myself and none of my help have included religion or converting someone.

Tork

Blocking them isn't the cleverest thing to do though if she's somebody you're likely to meet again. Jehovah's Witnesses are well used to hearing people tell them they're not interested. I've yet to encounter one who didn't just go away when I told them just that. Why would this woman be any different? A polite text to say you weren't interested in receiving these links would've solved this in a quick and simple way.

Rubberchikken

It’s good that you can see that maybe her aim is to convert you(as you say) in time.
It doesn’t sound as though you want this to happen so blocking her and letting it go from your life is a healthy thing to do.

tara73

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

I didn't talk to friends about this. If she's doing it with me, she's doing it with them, I have no doubt about that. We were all part of a WhatsApp group, so it's easy to get numbers and message people.

not a given. they often have a good feeling which people are not as straight forward to tell them off and you seem to be one of them.

if you havn't talked about it with your friends you don't know. if she did, I'm sure somebody would have mentioned it.
anyway, it's not that difficult to deal with, especially if you're a group and you seem convinced she did it with everybody. just get together and tell her off as a group.

Rubberchikken

I agree ^
If you haven't spoken with your friends about this you can't know what's going on with her/them.

Honestly for your own sake let it go. You don't want to be converted. You don't want to be friends with someone who, you think, is attempting this with you so you've nothing to lose in putting it behind you and moving on.

Good luck

JW's are well used to being asked to stop trying to recruit people, very unlikely they would be offended at you asking them to stop if you did so. If you are interested in the motivation of your friend, as you seem to be, it is important to note that in her mind she is not trying to recruit you for her own purposes, but rather to do you a great favour, so I would not automatically conclude that her only interest in you is converting you, rather it is more likely that she thinks the greatest thing she can do for a friend is to give them such a "gift".

Personally I would not have blocked her unless she persisted in sending me stuff after I asked her to stop, especially if this person is someone who has mutual friends. It is possible that she sent stuff to other friends and never did so again after being told they were not interested and didn't want any. If she is otherwise a decent person I can see mutual friends thinking you should have just asked her to stop rather than blocking her.