While I am in no way a Jehovah's Witness, I don't agree that they 'misinterpret' the Bible any more than anyone else...Everyone who believes in the Bible 'interpret'it in their own way, and to assume that someone else's interpretation is wrong because ut doesn't jive with your own is subjective, and that hardly applies to soemthing that is constantly subjected to different views...Or do you believe that the Bible is literal, (as though that weren't just another intepretation), in which case you'd have to maintain that the Sun revolves around the Earth, etc... Also, if you understand that the Bible is a compilation of works accumulated over centuries, and that it is not comprehensive, nor was it regarded as such by all of the church fathers who put it together (hundreds of years after the life of Jesus), but actually lead to significant debate, the value of it as a literal text is even further reduced.
Macbeth, Perhaps the idea that "Jehovah's Witnesses" misinterpret the Bible has something to do with the fact that they made their own translation to conform to their already held beliefs, and that their translation violates the fundamentals of Greek grammar in many places to do so. Do they have the right to believe whatever they want? In our country, we all do. What they've done, however, is the religious equivalent of arguing about what the meaning of is is. I don't see anything wrong with pointing that out. backwardhead, I've sent you an email as well.
Being a Christian is a personal journey. For me it is being "CHRIST like", you know WWJD(WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?). I live every day striving to please the LORD and not the world. Making personal scarfices so, it is easy for people to see I am set apart from those who do not believe in the LORD. When you are a christian in my view your life should reflect it. YES LOVE, HOPE AND FAITH is what GOD wants from us. For me being a christian means I have to strive to do all three every day. To know the LORD for yourself is an awesome experience. Having an intimate relationship with the LORD will help answer personally what a christian is for you.
I have found some very helpful pamphlets that helped me understand Christianity. They're printed by Chick Publications . Okay, I am just adding a little comic relief. No need to flame me, but those pamphlets crack me up. I'm always finding them on the ground in the worst parts of town, with McDonald's ketchup on them or some such. As for humanism, I'm suprised to read about it in a somewhat negative light here. I am naive, I'll admit, but I've heard people refer to the New Testament as the ultimate humanist document. I don't think humanism has to mean "humans at the expense of a belief in God," but rather it can mean "humans are intrinsically and individually incredibly valuable and equal to one another." JMHO.
