Oh, and Islam is just as bad as the WTS. The only difference is that Islam does have to worry about practical things. Their civilization was once above that of Europeans. They had to take care of practical matters. Therefore, you don't see people wasting their lives away. They do live in fear and submission, but that's a different thing. I think Islam is what the WTS would be if they were many and had control of several countries.
Question From Readers reveals dependent state of JWs
by sd-7 35 Replies latest jw friends
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pirata
According to a recent talk given by a member of the writing committee, Questions from Readers are no longer questions directly from readers. He stated something to the effect of 'The Governing Body, who are also readers of the Watchtower magazine, decide on what questions to raise'.
It would probably be more honest to call the QFR "Reminders from the Governing Body".
A lot of the recent "is it okay to..." questions seem to come after some JWs raise enough of a fuss about a matter that it needs to be addressed in print. The Caffeine question above arose from one such a fuss (as I heard about the fuss quite a while before the question came out in QFR). I wouldn't be suprised if the same thing happened with toasting, some got offended/stumbled and made an issue of it.
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maninthemiddle
Oh, pirata you have to tell me more. What kind of fuss could there be about caffeine?
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flipper
SD-7 - Wow. Just wow. I'm virtually speechless. For once. It certainly shows how deep the cult mind control was working on witnesses even in the early 1950's. The mind control has been there all along intimidating these people by putting them under fear . And developing the co-dependent nature in JW's to get all direction from the WT society. Really pretty scary- when you think of an organization exerting THAT MUCH fear and control over others
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doublelife
I have to agree with some of you that I too thought these question were from the GB and not from the readers.
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WTWizard
These are examples of spiritual immaturity. A spiritually mature person does not need everything they do to be what they are told. Spiritual health is being satisfied that you did all you reasonably could to fulfill your purpose in life, whether or not you believe there is an afterlife. And, that is just about impossible if you rely on external authority to tell you what you can and cannot do.
I say: So what if the Bible is mentioning trimming the Christmas tree? Do you feel like setting one up? If you do, you should set it up (assuming you can afford one). Are you bound by a former vow? Are you still a believer in that religion? If not, is the vow still consistent with your new beliefs? If so, you can make it anew. If not, then you are no longer bound to it--and, if the vow was to God (and you find out that God doesn't forbid it or He has welshed on you), it is proper to discontinue it. By all means, carry life insurance (unless you are single, no dependents, and no prospects--if you are, you would be wasting your money on life insurance). And it is proper to take pictures and make images of things, if you feel like it.
Your conscience should not be polluted with all these rules. If you stumble someone, that is not your problem--that the person was looking up to you instead of themselves for leadership. Probably the only thing your conscience should properly dictate is to decide whether a given act is good or bad for yourself and/or society. Training your conscience to those standards, like Jesus was trying to do with people, would do more good than training it to the Washtowel standards (which usually forbid doing what is good for yourself and society, and require doing what is bad for yourself and society).
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aSphereisnotaCircle
But I have always had serious doubts if these "questions from readers" were not really just made-up fakes by the writers at Brooklyn.
I agree with Jwoods, they are not questions form readers.
The are questions the GB think the R&F should be asking.
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Mall Cop
Hey guys, lets not forget Minimus. He's got the society beat when it comes to asking questions. Maybe he was secretly one of the ones who did the Question from readers part.
Blueblades
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Cadellin
At least the questions from the 1950's sound like a real person might be asking them. For the last couple of years, the QFR have been canned, recycled topics that can be easily answered by referring to the appropriate topic in the "Bible Teach" book, along the lines of "Does the Bible teach that all good people go to heaven?" It's basically become just another article.
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designs
Do any remember on the old Walter Martin radio show that his wife would call in as a Joe Public caller. The QFR were kinda like that