Oracle, I dont doubt what you say one bit, but 2 of those things could be considered religious and thus it would hit right hard against the "separation of church and state" Understand where Im coming from.
The same arguments could be made against any church that teaches judgementalism, hell fire, or many other things. The trick is trying to find a loophole that doesnt seem to offend the other churches 'freedom of religion" yet could still withstand constitutional muster.
The education issue is very important because it has been proven in numerous studies that a higher education leads to a much increased chance of a happy successful life.
Now how many religions actually discourage and/or outright ban higher education? darn few outside of the JW's
half-way house for ex-Jdubs
by tula 54 Replies latest jw experiences
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Junction-Guy
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The Oracle
I hear ya Junction Guy.
Your point about the discouragement of education is a good one.
It is painfully obvious why the dubs discourage it.... Education will lead to an awakening in most people.
Generally I don't think this lawsuit idea will fly, but I applaud the idea.
The Oracle
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Junction-Guy
It probably wouldnt regretfully. The worst case scenario we would want is the churches to end up siding with the JW's in a constitutional case. It happened in the Stratton Case probably due to the way the case was pursued.
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tula
Oracle, I had not thought of lawsuit. Do you think that is what it would take to make a change?
I was thinking more like government taking the lead through social depts. or even insurances taking the lead.
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emy the infidel
Coffee is right, they set up rules instructing the members what freedoms they can and cannot exercize, but will defend this by saying "no one forced them to remain in the organization".
But bringing this up is good Tula. It highlights the destructiveness that can result from stress involved in being a JW. Lurkers probably know the issue all too well, and blame themselves for it.
Lets hope that they will read this and a light will come on, 'hey maybe it's not just me afterall!'.
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shopaholic
The study does not shed light on the question of symptom or defense mechanism, but suggests that either the Jehovah's Witnesses sect tends to attract an excess of pre-psychotic individuals who may then break down, or else being a Jehovah's Witness is itself a stress which may precipitate a psychosis"
What is the religious composition of the 7,546? If 50 are JW's, what about the other 7,496? It highly probable that there is a religious group represented with a higher count than the JW. If at least 51 of the remaining 7,496 were active Catholics, does being a Catholic precipitate a psychosis as well? I agree that the JWs are a destructive cult but these stats prove nothing.
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tula
hi shopper!
The stats are old. I was hoping someone might know of some updated info on the issue of cults/(namely JW) and mental health.
"From the figures gathered in the Table it is clear that members of the Jehovah's Witnesses movement are over-represented in admissions to the Mental Health Services of this State. Furthermore, it is clear from the Table that the incidence of schizophrenia amongst them is about three times as high as for the rest of the general population, while the figure for paranoid schizophrenia is nearly four times that of the general population" (p. 558).
Certainly if psychologists were beginning to do detailed work on cult influence leading to mental illness that long ago, there must be some current figures to take this to another level of proof.
If you can help, please do.
Thanks for joining in.
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purplesofa
off topic a bit
but here is a link that stayyoungandbeautiful posted on another thread. It has some interesting info on nutrition and behaviour, Schizophrenia being part of the discussion.
purps
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jgnat
I'm leaning towards rosalee on this one. The only "statistics" I've seen on representative Witnesses came from prison populations (where the prisoner would have recorded his religion on admission). Some of the illnesses listed are hereditary and if indeed there are more with the Witnesses it might be a case of attraction rather than cause (providing structure, recruiting the vulnerable).
I would believe that more Witnesses are depresed and on anti-depressants than the regular population. I would be most interested if a researcher would do a study of medical files for incidence. (Most family doctors know which of their patients are Witnesses because of the blood doctrine).
I'll repeat Scully's warning. Play nice.