letters to my Jehovah's Witness cousin

Last Thanksgiving I visited my uncle's family and got into an argument over theology. They're Jehovah's Witnesses, and I'm a conservative Lutheran Christian.

The conversation began with me asking them why they feel it's wrong to celebrate Thanksgiving. I told them my kids had asked, and I didn't know the answer. I roughly know why they object to Christmas. But Thanksgiving strikes me as completely unobjectionable. I'm sure atheists don't like it. But what in the the world could someone claiming to love God find offensive about it?

Anyway, my intention wasn't to attack their beliefs. I just wanted to understand their thought process. Theology interests me. And the JW's have some unique theological perspectives.

With the conversation in full swing, I asked them about some of their other unorthodox teachings and practices. Being the kind of thinker I am, I probed further when an answer they provided seemed weak or in need of clarification.

One thing led to another, and they began to take offense at my questioning.

At one point my cousin challenged me. "You're putting us on the defensive, insisting that we lay out why we believe what we do. What about you? You haven't said anything tonight to defend your beliefs. Why do you believe in the Trinity, or believe Jesus is God? Why should I believe that? Why do you think Lutheranism is right and we're wrong?"

I told him I hadn't come prepared to make such a case, but that those were fair questions, and that I'd be open to answering him.

Over the past few months I've been doing just that, sending my cousin e-mails as ideas have come to mind. Mostly these ideas have been prompted by Scripture passages I've heard read at church.

So far I haven't heard anything back from him. So who knows how he's receiving them.

Basically I'm trying to do what I've heard Greg Koukl describe as putting pebbles in my cousin's shoe. Where it exists, I want to help him experience some discomfort in seeing a disconnect between JW teaching and the Bible. (And I was up-front with him about that.) He's going to have to take what I present to him, consider its merit, and mull it over.

I've created a new blog to record the letters, called "Letters to my Jehovah's Witness Cousin." I think what I've been sending my cousin is worthy of a larger audience. At the very least, I'd like to capture it for my own future reference. And perhaps others will find it useful.

Note: Readers may find it beneficial to to read it in reverse order to follow its flow.