Do JWs Participate in Wars By Funding Them?

by cameo-d 30 Replies latest jw friends

  • cameo-d
    cameo-d

    I think there are a lot of ways to get your hands bloody without actually joining the military or shooting a gun indiscriminately at foreigners in their own country.

    Can you think of ways that JWs are participating in sponsoring wars without "going to war"?

  • MrFreeze
    MrFreeze

    Do you mean by paying taxes? I wouldn't say that's funding war.

    For instance, would you say you are funding somebodies drug habit if you buy something from a convenience store that employs a drug addict?

  • designs
    designs

    If you consider paying Federal Taxes contributing to your country's wars then everyone in that country is accountable. Joan Baez use to withold 20-30% of her taxes owed to protest the Vietnam War.

  • Alwayshere
    Alwayshere

    WTS owned 50% of a company that made war weapons.

    Don't know if they still do, but at one time they were blood guilty.

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    WTS owned 50% of a company that made war weapons.

    Rand Cam Engine Corp..

    They make engines that deliver bombs to their target..

    The WBT$ had their name taken off the stock..

    They probably have someone holding the stock for them..

    http://www.salem-news.com/stimg/october152007/nuclear-bomb-badger350.jpg

    ..................... ...OUTLAW

  • MrFreeze
    MrFreeze

    I did hear something about that Outlaw but I don't think the OP was referring to that.

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    The WTBTS has a stock portfolio. It makes sense. I never thought it was so godly to do all the research and the anxiety with the market falls. Does anyone have any idea what they hold? Friends have invested in mutual funds for green industries and microloans.

    There is no excuse for holding the munitions stock, even if it were for one day. There are probably peaceful uses of the technology.

    I never thought of this. Thanks.

  • wobble
    wobble

    My father was a conscientious objector during WW2. His view at the time was that JW's were not neutral enough for him, so he did not join them until some time after the war.

    At that time ,WW2, they accepted "re-direction" which more often than not meant working in agriculture, but whatever it was, it contributed to the war effort, if only in an oblique way.

    I think the JW attitude is even more liberal now, they certainly would not hold to dad's high standard, and would contribute to the war effort without doubt.

    I suppose they have come a little way from urging people to buy war bonds in their literature, as they did under Rutherford, but their position is far from the "neutral" they like to shout about.

  • cameo-d
    cameo-d

    MrFreeze: "I did hear something about that Outlaw but I don't think the OP was referring to that."

    I was referring to personal responsibility. But what Outlaw says also certainly does apply! If you have sworn allegiance to an organization and proclaimed it as the "Absolute Mouthpiece of God", and this organization participates in and financially profits off weaponry to support the war machine...then that would make your hands bloody, too....would it not?

    Can a congregation be any different from what it's leadership supports? If you are bound by oath to the organization, you support it's ventures as well. Are you not supporting an organization that has lied to you about their involvement in war and killing innocent people?

    Does WatchTower have a hand in contributing to the desolate images on the cover of their magazines?

  • blondie
    blondie

    Christians paid their taxes in the first century to Rome and certainly some of that money was used to support wars. What did the early Christians say about that?

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