Voting is now a conscience matter , Read out at Meeting Last night

by JWFreak 57 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  ''If you live in a country where you will be persecuted for not voting, you may go to the voting booths, just dont put in a ballot (if the booth is private), or do not mark your ballot with anything that would be choosing a political party.''

  Give the appearance of compromising your godly principles publicly while standing firm for pure standards of worship privately.......

  Now that is a bass-ackwards policy if ever I've seen one.

  If you were with a group of rapists you go through humping motions as long as you didn't penetrate, I suppose.

  These people are ethically clueless.
• 

  Sparkplug

  They have basically told the JW how they ought to feel regarding voting. They, in reality, have not left much, if any, room for the conscience to actually work.

  If I'm not mistaken, the same position is taken on holidays and birthdays. I don't think they come right out and say it is a disfellowshipping matter. However, once again, I think that they take the same route, which is telling the JW's how they Ought to act and feel towards the holidays and birthday celebrations.

  In this way, they have successfully manipulated a person's feelings on the matter and further, if a person actually chooses to vote or celebrate a holiday or day of birth, and this becomes known to the congregation, the congregation can "mark" the person.

  Conscience my ass.

  Right but if I recall when I was young marking was just the same. Later when we had talks saying we were not to publicly mark someone...it was done hush hush and the person was treated as if df'ed. Still the same. Might as well have been as dead to the congregation as I am. My brother keeps saying the congregation has changed....but until they come back and say...we were WRONG. WE WERE wrong and clear the name and all the names of the people they f***ed over, I cannot see how they have changed at all. This admit no fault thing is full of crap. For instance.

  Say back in 1975 a family left because of all the BS. Well the family's family still left in looks at them and looks down at them as if to say...oh they are the ones that left because they were not so humble, they did not have the right attitude. I really feel the society should clear it up. So that the family who saw through the BS could be looked on by their family as being a bit ahead of the times. Smart, a pioneer so to speak, a freethinker.

  Times have changed. If whole countries can change and whole regimes can fall and customs can end and the world around the JW's can grow up..why oh why can't they? It is not so damn hard to say...We were wrong. We like anyone else do not have all the answers, but we do strive to serve God the best we can, we have a lot of healing to do, and we will provide the best resourses we can to do this.

  I cannot see the WTS falling from that. People are silly they won't give up their faith overnight...but why not start over and give them a fresh and healed faith if you REALLY are there for the people and care about your sheep. (so to speak)

  This is madness.
• 

  onacruse

  zico and BlackSwan, you both touch on the "way" it's done. Technically, you can't be df'd just because of celebrating a birthday, or voting, or for not attending meetings (how many "violations" could we list?). However, any such non-conforming behavior puts one in the category of, at least, being a 'spiritually weak' person, and, more importantly, of possibly having 'apostate thinking.' That's what gives the elders the opportunity to grind on your ass.

  And, as for voting and joining the military: I remember a brother about whom it was announced: "Brother ___ has, by joining the military, demonstrated that he no longer desires to be recognized as a Jehovah's Witness." I asked about that afterwards, and I was told (off the record, of course), that the elders would much rather have df'd the guy, but headquarters had made it clear that doing so would put the organization at risk of being charged with treason.
• 

  sspo

  It seems that voting is ok in some country "it's a conscience matter" but not in others such as The US.

  One thing they always bragged about was their earthwide unity in their teachings and practices.

  All the changes that Ray Franz talked about in his book that were discussed in the 80's, now one at a time they are

  implementing, in the mean time 1000's have lost their lives due to their unscriptural policies.
• 

  SPAZnik

  Dear Brothers and Sisters, tonight on our menu we'll savour a scrumptious arrangement of Forked Tongue, marinated in frog sauce and flown in special from Brooklyn. Bon appetit!
• 

  Sparkplug

  in the mean time 1000's have lost their lives due to their unscriptural policies.

  even if just a few. That is what makes it so evil. They admit no fault. Nor correct it. Just do it in "the way". That really changes nothing. It just keeps them out of legal harm.
• 

  OUTLAW

  So now you can vote...???...How many Jehovah`s Witness`s died in Malowi because they coudn`t buy a political party card?..And now it`s all right???...WBT$ has killed more Jehovah`s Witness`s than any other organization on earth.....The WBT$ are hypocrates..Jehovah`s Witness`s are willing morons,waiting to be killed by the organization that "Owns" them...OUTLAW
• 

  jambon1

  Times have changed. If whole countries can change and whole regimes can fall and customs can end and the world around the JW's can grow up..why oh why can't they? It is not so damn hard to say...We were wrong. We like anyone else do not have all the answers, but we do strive to serve God the best we can, we have a lot of healing to do, and we will provide the best resourses we can to do this.

  There is more chance of John Barr taking down his trousers at morning worship and licking his own @rse, whilst showing off a madonna tattoo emplazoned on his plodder, than the above happening.
• 

  Sparkplug

  So now you can vote...???...How many Jehovah`s Witness`s died in Malowi bcause they coudn`t buy a politicl party card?..And now it`s all right???...WBT$ has killed more Jehovah`s Witness`s than any other organization on earth.....The WBT$ are hypocrates..Jehovah`s Witness`s are willing morons,waiting to be killed by the organization that "Owns" them...OUTLAW

  Hello! Do you see me standing ON my chair? I am so mad. Dammit. Freaking ....freaking....

  *******I need to sit down and calm down***
• 

  greendawn

  "The Christian congregation doesn't intervene in this area, which is guided by a christian conscience and private life, and does not in any instance result in sanctions or restrictions of service privileges in the congregation." they are apparently making clear that they will not impose any sanctions. The new light from jehovah apparently came too late for many that suffered dearly because of not voting, others suffered for not undertaking an alternative to military service before this rule changed.