A Kinder, Gentler Jehovah's Witness?

While I was waiting for my jeans to dry this morning so I could finish getting dressed, Zac calls down "Mom! Someone's at the door." Dontcha hate that? So I grabbed my pink knit pants that I only wear around the house and went up. (My bedroom and the washer and dryer are in the basement.) Ah! The lovely pair of Jehovah's Witness ladies I'd seen around our neighborhood before we even left for Patrick's Point! How did I know they were JWs? Well....they just looked like it. And I was right...

Anyway, they didn't leave me with any Watchtowers or anything. First off, they said that they'd spoken with Eric, our housesitter, last week and that he'd actually given them the address he'd be after this, but when they went to find him they said there that they thought he was still housesitting. Silly Eric! Giving out more info than is required! Anyway, they started talking to me about natural disasters, and why do I think they happen? Does God cause them? Had I heard that some people were saying it was God's judgment on the earth, or on the sinful people in New Orleans? We were all in agreement that we didn't think that was right. We had a nice little discussion about what God would or wouldn't do, and then they left, saying they'd come back sometime and we'd discuss this further. Huh? No hard sell? No "we're right, you're wrong"? And "you can *become* right"? There was some phrasing of me being "right" that I didn't think God would cause the hurricane to punish people. Where I was very careful to say that I cannot presume to know what God does or does not do, but it is my impression that God does not work that way.

At the end I said that my husband is a Greek Orthodox priest....more to try to ward them off than anything. And one of them said she had a funny story about Greek Orthodox priests when she was in Greece, that she'd share next time! and maybe even catch him to tell it to him too!

These aren't your parents' Jehovah's Witnesses, huh?