The Tobacco Bombshell...

by Snoozy 16 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Snoozy

  Back in the 70's JW smokers where given 6 to 12 months to quit..

  I remember one witness in particular that had come up to Missouri from Arkansas to try and make a living for him and his wife and daughter. (All JW"s). Well they had previously tried to earn a living in Arkansas by picking cotton and doing other farm labors. They could barely keep food on the table.

  When they had came to Missouri and settled he landed a job at a gas station. One of his jobs of course was to sell cigarettes. Well he did that for a few years and they were finally able to have plenty of food on the table and often had witnesses over for dinner and they had a book study in their home.

  Then the magazine came out with articles on smoking..witnesses had 6 months to a year to quit. The articles played around and hinted that a good witnesses wouldn't even produce or sell tobacco but that was after all a personal choice. (You know how they say the "Personal choice thing".

  Anyway Brother faithful to the end and sister loves and daughter who's every other word out of her mouth is Jehovah..decide that in the best interest of their conscience could no longer sell cigarettes to people and risk their getting a deadly disease because of it.

  He told his boss his position ..this is the same boss that had bent over backwards to allow this brother to work around his JW meeting and field service schedule. Well the boss just told him he couldn't bend any more..in the best interest of his business he would have to let brother loyal go.

  So they tried the housecleaning for a while and it just didn't work out. They had to pull up stakes and go back to Arkansas with their tail between their legs. Back to the bare essentials home with relatives they had known before.

  So their hopes and dreams of any kind of a decent future for their daughter were smashed. And you know what..all the time he had been putting gas in cars that were polluting the earth and peoples lungs..

  I'm waiting for a magazine article put out by the JW's telling their people they can no longer sell gasoline...or paper ( Cutting down trees)..or alcohol.(Drunken stupors) .or anything else that can harm people or the earth..

  Should I hold my breath?

  Snoozy...who came accross the article in researching another topic and remembered the bro and sister... and feeling sad for them.

  Link: http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/changes/the-tobacco-bombshell.html
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  besty

  wow I just edited the above post - that shouldn't happen :-)

  http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/changes/the-tobacco-bombshell.html
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  Snoozy

  Thanks it was driving me crazy trying to edit it. I finally replaced it at the bottom and now it is OK..

  I don't know what I did but it kept putting the whole article in blue..

  Snoozy..an X smoker..
• 

  leavingwt

  Snoozy, good story.

  Except the part about cutting trees for paper.

  I commented on this topic on another forum. Linked below. (Warning: The video has salty language.)

  http://www.jehovahswitnessrecovery.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1745&p=23324&hilit=paper+trees#p23324
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  rebel8

  There is no safe amount of exposure to tobacco smoke; it kills when used as directed; 50% of habitual users worldwide are killed by it--the other half experience nothing or illnesses/disabilties from it and then something else kills them first....in the meantime creating illnesses in others.

  As a cancer survivor, I hardly appreciate the comparison to alcohol, paper......those things can be used safely in moderation....safely for people + the earth.

  The OP is what you call "fake science".
• 

  WTWizard

  I agree that smoking is dangerous, filthy, and it kills people that use the product as directed. However, that was only a part of the clerk jobs--pumping gas was the main job, and if there is selling cancer sticks or lottery tickets as side work, that is acceptable (there have been washtowels clearing up that position at times).

  However, there will always be those who will create problems where none existed. These come up with the "stumbling" excuses. You can sell cancer sticks as a part of your job, so long as you are not the owner of the store, but it might stumble others into thinking it's acceptable and so you should really not. And we will continually hound you until you make that concession, giving up your right to sell cancer sticks as part of your job. Thus, another worker forced to quit, another full-time pio-sneer, and more poverty and stagnation.

  This is a common problem--that "stumbling others" issue. You see that with gambling issues like handling lottery tickets. You see it with drinking alcohol and coffee. You see it with people eating foods that are part of a holiday promotion (name that food, name that holiday). You see it with music tastes--they pry to find you have questionable music, and then tell you that you are stumbling others with it. You see it with movies--the story of the hounder watching a movie and bothering someone's conscience is common. And so many other things, that all that's left is the sterile life of a witless.

  Truth is, people that think as Jesus would have had them thinking do not stumble like that. If I make a decision to not smoke, I am not going to change that decision because I see a "brother" selling cancer sticks. If I am not going to gamble, I am not going to change that because a "brother" has a lottery ticket. If I do not like today's sissy music, I will not listen to it because you choose to listen to it in the privacy of your home (when it's really none of my business what you are listening to, unless you choose to recommend a group or song). And so on. The whole issue of stumbling others is a symptom that the religion is not Christ-like in nature.
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  ilovelamp120

  Thanks leavingwt, for that link. I've been getting into heated debates over recycling, for awhile now, but have lacked some useful info. I'm a flight attendant and every country we fly to we recycle alot of the waste on board. However, it's a useless endeavor, because it seems recycling is (for the most part) a North American enterprise. Most countries we fly to take our well sorted garbage and dispose of it in large gargage bins.

  Now I've got some new amo!!!!
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  lisavegas420

  Growing up in KY...the tobaccy capital, many witnesses stopped going to the meetings when they were told to stop growing and or working in tobacco and find another way to support their families.

  lisa
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  Room 215

  Whatever we think of smoking, and I'm definitely an opponent, I must say the earlier WT policy towards smokers was much more enlightened, 1.e.: treat the smoker as a spiritually weak person, provide counsel and support in helping him/her conquer the addtion; meanwhile disqualify him/her from parts on teh meeting or in any position that sets him/her up as an example. Whatever else he/she is, a smoker is not a WICKED preson and should not be treated as such. The cynic in me suspects that the WT leadership is far more concerned with the superficial appearance "look what a smoke-free, holy bunch of people we are; not one smoker at our conventiones!) than they are with a person's well-being.
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  jeeprube

  Back in the day we had an elder in our congregation that we called Fat Bastard behind his back. Bro. Fat Bastard, as you can imagine, was overweight. Every day like clockwork he'd go to McDonald's and buy a bag full of greasy, fat filled sandwiches and devour them....paper and all. I used wonder how this man could hand down judgment on the smoking issue, while he was clearly a glutton. After all, isn't gluttony specifically named in the Bible?