Penal:
1 : of, relating to, or involving punishment, penalties, or punitive institutions 2 : liable to punishment <a penal offense> 3 : used as a place of confinement and punishment <a penal colony>
Is punishing someone for changing their religion against international law
by ldrnomo 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
yesidid
threat of physical force or penal sanctions
I think the above are the operative words.................and...................
they don't use either.
-
WTWizard
To keep people from switching out of that religion, they initiate threats of force (shunning, tampering with their family lives, using family members against the defector in various unethical ways, and death threats come Armageddon) to prevent them. Quite often, they initiate force by mercilessly hounding the would-be defector into staying in and expanding their "service" to the congregation. Those cockroaches do not know when to quit.
Even those who wish to stay a witless, but at a constant level, they hound and harass. I have been hounded to do field circus--the first year, when September started, they wanted me to resume heavy field circus (I had been going out weekday afternoons, and it was only September 3, which happened to be early in the week, and they were p***ed because I had yet to do field circus that month). And I don't know how many times I have been kept out in field circus at least an hour after I wanted to go in (and initially planned to do so)--they would tell me insistently that, now that I am out, I should stay out longer. Implied was the threat that, if I went in anyway, that I would be a defector and not faithful (and hence that I would be destroyed). Dying at Armageddon because I wanted to go in at noon instead of 4 PM or later, when I had to work that evening.
-
KAYTEE
Yes, it does sound like ethnic cleansing doesn’t it, but will it be sorted out?
KT
-
Meeting Junkie No More
This is very interesting.
Something jumped out at me whilst reading the article in the August Watchtower about How You Can Find a 'Good' Religion. Weird title for starters...not true religion, but good religion. That was the first thing that I noticed.
But then, further into the article, one of the questions it posed as to how to guage a 'good' religion was whether that religion removed members' names from their membership rolls, if those persons didn't live up to the Bible's moral standards??? PARDON ME??? Remove members' names from their membership rolls? Is that how they are now trying to portray disfellowshipment? LEGAL has to be involved in the wording of this particular tidbit, from my vantage point.
I think the Society is facing an uphill battle. Human rights laws, in regards to a person's decision on whether to change or abandon any religion they were once involved in, are evolving everywhere, and the WTS, I think, won't have a leg to stand on to continue doing what they're doing in terms of shunning. It's only a matter of time...
-
Meeting Junkie No More
This is very interesting.
Something jumped out at me whilst reading the article in the August Watchtower about How You Can Find a 'Good' Religion. Weird title for starters...not true religion, but good religion. That was the first thing that I noticed.
But then, further into the article, one of the questions it posed as to how to guage a 'good' religion was whether that religion removed members' names from their membership rolls, if those persons didn't live up to the Bible's moral standards??? PARDON ME??? Remove members' names from their membership rolls? Is that how they are now trying to portray disfellowshipment? LEGAL has to be involved in the wording of this particular tidbit, from my vantage point.
I think the Society is facing an uphill battle. Human rights laws, in regards to a person's decision on whether to change or abandon any religion they were once involved in, are evolving everywhere, and the WTS, I think, won't have a leg to stand on to continue doing what they're doing in terms of shunning. It's only a matter of time...
-
JeffT
UN rules (if put into practice) would only apply to government sanctions. A religion is still going to be free to define its own membership standards. I think that the WTBS position on disfellowshipping is morally reprehensible, but I have a gut feeling that using the government to bludgeon a religion into somebody else's idea or correctness is just as wrong.
-
rebel8
define: penal sanctions
It means if the GB doesn't stop the shunning policy, they all get Bobbitized.
srsly, a few yrs ago there was something the UN published about shunning being a violation of human rights too.
-
freeman
I have a friend that I’ve lost contact with for some time now, but his life story is directly related to this thread.
My friend, Adam is closely related to Suharto; ex-dictator of Indonesia (now deceased). In fact Adam was raised as a child in Suharto’s palace. He told me that he would like to one day visit Indonesia again, but he can’t because he literally has a death sentence on him. His crime? He was raised a Muslim and changed his religion, that is his crime deserving of death.
Adam is related to Suharto, also the Grandson or great Grandson of the King of Java, a nephew of the UN ambassador of Indonesia, raised in the royal palace, and yet his very life would be in jeopardy if he simply returned home for a visit.
I remember some time back, (not sure in which publication I read it) the WTS was lamenting over the fact that it wasn’t allowed to kill apostates like back in the good old days.
SICK!
“Religion is a snare and a racket” ; just maybe the Judge had a point
Freeman
-
isaacaustin
Yes I remember that WT...it says we are limited by the laws of the land on God...so we can only shun not kill anymore...
The WT is definitely a snare and a racket!