I have smoked, I quit, but now enjoy alternatives such as e-cigs, snus, and even the gum. I find that nicotine has a nice mental enhancement, has several medical benefits and actually may help individuals to relax and focus. Now the question is this, why does the WTS have such a fetish with nicotine? I'm not talking SMOKING but using the drug itself? Caffeine is very similar to nicotine, and yet that "drug" is approved for WTS usage. When I was in I saw many who were obese, is that not a sin and cause for disease/body damage? What about prescription drugs, why are those kosher - because they are scripts??? Has anyone definitively found out WHY "nicotine", not so much smoking, is a DF'ing offense??????
Why the fetish with NICOTINE???
by sinis 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
undercover
I can't find the references but when the WTS first made smoking a DFing offense it linked nicotine to spiritism. They went to lengths to "research" the word "pharmakeia", linking it to spiritism and then linked nicotine to the pracitice of spiritism.
You won't see that referenced these days however. Now they ride the 'smoking is bad for you' coattails and use the argument that you're polluting the body that God gave you and you can't serve him wholesoled if your addicted to anything.
-
sinis
...so if someone did not SMOKE, but took the gum or even liquid form of nicotine would they be DF'd in today's cong????
-
Pams girl
Yes Sinus, my study teacher, while encouraging me to quit, told me I would not be allowed on FS or indeed inside the KH wearing the patches......luckily for me I got out soon after so it never came up. Nicotine, in any form, is a DFing "offence"....
-
undercover
I think (again, I don't have the references handy) that using nicotine, in whatever form, is a DFing offense. If one is using the patch or gum to quit, then that would probably be okay, but if one is using chewing gum for the fix...and they were crazy enough to advertise it, then one could be brought in for a JC meeting.
Chewing nicotine gum and using other non-apparent methods would be hard to police and prove however. Most smokers get caught on the two witness rule. You could chew nicotine gum all day, keep the wrappers hidden, keep your mouth shut about what you're chewing and it would be hard for anyone to prove anything.
-
sinis
Interesting. I know they pull the spiritism card out, but I wonder if that could be countered? Seems like a retarded rule, as I always thought it was...
-
FatFreek 2005
Our friend at JWfacts has a very good list, with references, of all (or most) disfellowshipping offenses. I didn't see any reference to the eCigarette or the nicotine gum, etc.
However, Watchtower's argument will be the addictive part of the nicotine, despite the fact that it is not an illicit (in U.S., anyway) drug.
Why does tobacco have such a grip? Researchers have discovered a number of reasons: (1) Tobacco products can be as addictive as illicit drugs. (2) Inhaled nicotine may reach the brain in just seven seconds. (3) Smoking is often woven into a person’s life by its regular association with eating, drinking, conversing, the relief of stress, and so on.
Yet, as Earline and Frank have shown, it is possible to quit this harmful addiction. If you smoke but want to stop, reading the following articles may well be the start of a new way of life for you. Awake!, 5/10 p. 3
Len
-
sinis
The same agruement could be made for caffeine, food, prescription pain killers, prescription anti-depression drugs, etc. I don't think there argument would hold water if you cornered them on it... I wonder how their legal would respond...
-
leavingwt
Sinis: MOST fundamentalists are obsessed with controlling/prohibiting anything that might be FUN.
-
sinis
I agree!! ;)
I'd probably still be smoking, but I was having problems breathing and my spouse said I smelled. Now she doesn't complain, which means if she is happy, I am happy... she actually likes the tins that the snus packs come in, and the smell. She said it reminds her of the smell of cigar tubes/cigars that her now deceased father used to smoke.