IsaacJ22: The literature often acknowledges a humbler or gentler point of view out of one side of its mouth while condemning it right from the other side of its mouth.
Most people would call that being two-faced. Others would call it hypocrisy!
Is The WTBTS' View Of Homosexuality Softening?
by JW GoneBad 39 Replies latest jw experiences
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bottleofwater
No. It is not softening.
What matters is not what the literature says, but what most Jehovah's Witnesses believe...
And the best way to see that is by looking at the study edition of the WT.
Jehovah's Witnesses are supposed to hate homosexuals and that homosexuals choose to be homosexual.
How many times have your heard "he's not gay, he just has inclinations..."? So he's straight?
Retards.
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factfinder
I agree with Aussie Oz too.
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144001
I doubt that the Watchtower has become flaccid on the subject of homosexuality. The WTBTS' hatred of gays/lesbians is still fully erect and not in need of Viagra.
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lifestooshort
WTBST is teaching the flock how to be two faced by example.
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lifestooshort
I thnk it stands for Non Practicing Gays...
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Quendi
I'll share my experience with the WTS and its homophobia. When I was haled before the judicial committee, the atmosphere was one of unrelieved hostility. I was told that I was "spiritually sick" and needed to change my life and attitude or face everlasting destruction. My meetings with the elders often degenerated into arguments as I continually challenged the assumptions the organization made about LGBT people. The frustration they felt was evidenced by the anger they showed when I asked questions they could not or would not answer. And don't even get me started on the entirely inappropriate questions I was asked. All of this under the pretext that they were seeing if I were truly "repentant" of my "gross sin" and could be forgiven.
Then came the constant refusal to reinstate me and for reasons that had nothing to do with my original "offense". Like the Pharisees who 'strained out the gnat but gulped down the camel', the committee trumped up all kinds of trivial reasons to deny my reinstatement. But what became clear to me was the real reason for their denials was pure, undiluted hatred and homophobia.
So no matter what seemingly conciliatory statements appear in the literature about homosexuality, I know from personal experience that neither the WTS nor its appointed officers give a damn about LGBT people. They demand that we either be NPGs (non-practicing gays) and entertain no hope of ever having a partner and a strong, loving relationship with him or her, or if we pursue what are our true feelings and desires that we leave the organization of our own accord or get disfellowshipped. In both cases, however, no comfort, aid or understanding is extended to us. We're considered and treated as second- or even third-class human beings.
I told my judicial committee that the worse thing a person could be in this organization is a gay man or a lesbian woman. Such individuals were considered to be worse than pedophiles, thieves, murderers or other fornicators. We were obvious sexual predators intent on seducing the young men and women in the congregation. We were obsessed with the idea of having sexual relations with anybody of the same sex. And it was clear that we had no real love for God and his ways. The silence which greeted my accusation was evidence enough that I had stated the plain truth. That has always been the thinking in the organization, and the chances that it will ever change are as good as a leopard changing its spots.
Quendi
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144001
So no matter what seemingly conciliatory statements appear in the literature about homosexuality, I know from personal experience that neither the WTS nor its appointed officers give a damn about LGBT people. They demand that we either be NPGs (non-practicing gays) and entertain no hope of ever having a partner and a strong, loving relationship with him or her, or if we pursue what are our true feelings and desires that we leave the organization of our own accord or get disfellowshipped. In both cases, however, no comfort, aid or understanding is extended to us. We're considered and treated as second- or even third-class human beings.
Quendi,
I think your experience is unfortuantely a very common one for gays in the organization. I grew up as a Witness, and my parents had certain Witness friends of the same ethnicity, which is a rather extreme minority, so they were very close to us, like family.
When their son became a young adult, he came out of the closet, only to find a world filled with extreme hate, and, unfortunately, the primary haters were his own family, who referred to him as "Satan," among other things.
A few years later, the father in this family died, and I attended his JW funeral. His son showed up at the funeral, along with his boyfriend. His mother turned her back on him and shunned him when he approached her. His sister called him "Satan," at the funeral and in front of others, including myself. No one at the funeral, other than myself and my sister, had the decency to even speak with him. At the time, I was still a teenager, but I was nevertheless extremely shocked and saddened by what I saw.
This scene made me sick. What kind of mother could treat her son this way, on the occasion of his father's passing/funeral? What kind of sister would label her brother as "Satan," simply because he is a homosexual? This ugly exhibition of intolerance/hate only served to reaffirm my feelings that the WTBTS is both wrong and evil.
I can't even begin to imagine the horrific experiences that have been endured by gays/lesbians in the WTBTS organization. I'm confident that your experiences (beyond those you've shared) were also horrible, and I hope you have healed emotionally since leaving the org and will continue to heal until this bad experience is entirely behind you.
An organization that teaches its members to hate their own children is nothing but a disgusting cult.
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Band on the Run
There have to be many gays at Bethel. A certain percentage of any group will be gay. They just don't want to admit. Gay Witnesses are going door to door and giving public talks. The statement that violence towards gays is a natural reaction enrages me. I can just picture Jesus of Nazareth binding a gay Jew and organizing the stoning party. When I was a teenager, the messages about sex confused me. I wanted my parents approval but no person with an ounce of sense believed what they did. They taught that women deserved to be raped. I wanted to kill them. A woman had to provoke a rapist. Until the day I die, I will remember a conversation with my JW cousin about women and rape. A notorious rape occurred at the bus terminal in NYC. My cousin said she wore a short skirt and deserved it. I was wearing a mini skirt and used the bus terminal five days a week.
My Bethelite father told a Catholic friend of my mother that a nun brutally rape at our local church deserved it. Not an ounce of compassion or awareness that rape is a crime. They don't live in the same world as other people. I've often thought how bad relationships must be between the sexes in WT land. As a young teenager I knew more about sex --factual stuff--than grown adults in the Witnesses. There were so many misconceptions. I feel sorry for people so alienated from their true selves. Most men do not believe women have to be tamed. There was no concept of partnership or true love.
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Philadelphia Ponos
Nothing printed in the "Public Edition" should be taken seriously. The 'doctrine' and 'direction' comes from the "study edition".