This One Needs Your Comment!!

by V 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  V

  Currently on WASHINGTON POST:

  "A Label that Carries Baggage"

  http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/richard_mouw/2007/09/a_label_that_carries_baggage.html

  A JW has posted this:

  As a Jehovah's witness, I could write and write pages in answer to the Doctor and the bloggers. That would be a complete waste of time and energy. Jehovah's Witnesses are following a command from Jesus Christ quoted in Matt. 28:19, 20. We endeavor to find people looking for the truth from the scriptures. Listening to "ex" witnesses expecting to hear honest remarks is a fools errand. Anyone that has been put out of the christian congregation, was put out because of an un-repentant attitude. That is truly sad, because our God,Jehovah, does not desire for anyone to fall way. But it happens. It happened to many of Christ' followers and also many 1st century christians. Labeling us as a cult is the doctors perogative. It doesn't mean that he is correct, only that he has an opinion of us. He is not correct but none the less. Jesus was also mislabeled and rediculed while on earth. He went about his business of preaching. As his true disciples, we shall continue to do the same. We invite all honest hearted people who want to learn about the wonderful future for our planet and all righteous people, please search out a local Kingdom Hall and talk to the witnesses. We are nothing like our haters have described. Go to www.watchtower.org for accurate information about Jehovah's Witnesses.
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  flipper

  Personally, I think all organized religions are "cults". Just my opinion
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  steve2

  Here comes a cliche - but I actually mean it: I disagree with the earnest JWs judgemental comments, but I accept he has a right to express them. Over and out.
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  Mary

  Jesus was also mislabeled and rediculed while on earth. He went about his business of preaching.

  Yes, now let's look at that a little closer. Who mislabeled Jesus? Why, it was a group of men, convinced that they and they alone had 'the truth', who squashed any independent thought on how their man made laws should be interpreted and that the only way to please the Almighty was through them.

  Gosh, why does this sound so familar?
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  Kudra

  I commented!
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  BizzyBee

  Here's the article by Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary:

  A Label that Carries Baggage

  For a movement to be considered a religion in its own right it surely must have a relatively coherent worldview, a system of thought, that is different on some very basic matters from other movements that want to inform us about our relationship to the divine. From that perspective Mormonism is a religion; it has a fairly robust worldview that distinguishes itself from, say, traditional Christian and Jewish understandings of reality. The Jehovah's Witnesses, on the other hand, do not constitute a religion as such; they are defined by things that they reject in Christianity, such as the full divinity of Christ in particular and in their idiosyncratic interpretations of various biblical passages.

  Our attempt to get clear about these definitions is muddied by the prominence of "counter-cult" evangelical groups, who use the term "cult" as a disparaging label. Any group that we especially want to condemn that has any link to Christianity we call a cult. Given that reality, the label has come to carry a lot of baggage. I prefer to think of major and minor religious movements.

  Dr. Mouw certainly makes a relevant point - JWs are all about rejecting traditional Christian concepts. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is beside the point he is making. Eliminating Christian precepts wholesale (and even ruthlessly) creates a vaccuum, which the WTS has filled instead with petty rules, capricious false predictions, mean-spirited criticism, lifeless rhetoric, self-aggrandizing pomposity and relentless exhortations to work harder. Did I mention sly, shoddy, disingenuous scholarship?

  Most teachers of religion undergo an intense course of theological study that exposes them to the fundamentals of history, anthropology, philosophy, science, logic, psychology, etc., providing an indispensable context for their beliefs. Even at the tip-top of WTS hierarchy, there are no true scholars. Their 'research' is done only to ferret out esoteric information that supports their preconceived constructs.
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  golf2

  "...was put out because of an unrepentant attitude". The elders did me a huge favor by determining I wasn't repentant. My repentance wasn't good enough for them. It was then and there I discovered, this is it, this is no longer for me. My wife unhesitatingly stopped attending meetings. She knew me better than the elders. Soooooooo, these know it all elders killed two birds with one stone, it was a blessing in disguise!!!!!!
  
  
  Golf
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  yknot

  Ahhh a future member of JWD. Remember when you felt so devoutly, when you didn't think to question and all labelled apostates where the spawns of Satan. Then of course you became one, whether through stumbling, asking a question, making a mistake and asking for forgivness directly vs confessing to a clergy JC, or maybe the Eldums just didn't like you. Yet here we all are......awaiting the arrival of many new brethern!
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  Vernon Williams

  I posted.

  V
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  Elsewhere

  Here is how I normally respond to a guy like that:

  Please provide an example of a lie told by an exJW.