by yourmomma 449 Replies latest watchtower bible
To be honest this just underlines the fact that women have no value in the organisation aside from their relationship with men. District overseer's wife, circuit overseer's wife, elder's wife - 'status' for a woman is only through her "husbandly owner".
17 years of a women getting sporadically beaten is a price worth paying if it brings a male in the cult.
They pay lip service to women doing the bulk of the time wasting busy work ministry, but that is all it is.
Sapphy-
Well said. Any person with self respect taking a beating in a marriage would walk out, some would sew the offending mate in their bedsheets at night and wham the daylights out of them before leaving.
Another address for the folks from the United States:
U.S. Department of Justice
Office on Violence Against Women (OVW)
145 N Street, NE, Suite 10W.121
Washington, D.C. 20530
By Phone
202-307-6026
Fax: 202-305-2589
TTY: 202-307-2277
flipper commented that Ray Franz, in his book "Crisis of Conscience", stated that many times GB members would not proofread what the writing committee wrote because they'd claim to be " too busy " to read it.
Too busy to proofread what the Writing Committee wrote prior to publication!?!? How could that possibly be? What are they so "busy" doing? It's well documented and attested to that the majority of the GB guys don't even put in the National Average in Field Service. They don't even make all the meetings at their assigned congregations. What the hell are they "too busy" doing?
This is their job for goodness sake! They're supposedly the Governing Body, shouldn't they be governing?
PS: Flipper, you have a PM
00DAD, reading DF hearings of course. It's their version of legitament porn.
OK, as promised, here is a sample letter for anyone who wants to write a letter to whatever organization, shelter or law-enforcement agency. Feel free to alter it however you want and if you're going to be sending them by email, just provide the link and take out the part about "enclosed is a copy of the article":
Dear _____________:
As an organization directly involved in spousal abuse, I am writing to you regarding a disturbing article in the February 15, 2012 Watchtower magazine that is not so subtly encouraging battered women to stay with their abusive husbands. As you may be aware, the Watchtower is the official magazine of 7 million Jehovah's Witnesses and whatever is printed on those pages must be accepted by the members as coming directly from God. No dissent is tolerated.
The article in question gives an example of a woman named ‘Selma' who has suffered emotional and physical abuse by her husband for years. When she tells the Jehovah's Witness woman who is studying with her about it, the article relays that the Witness woman indicates that perhaps the problem is that Selma needs to be "more loving" towards her abusive husband. Incredibly, it also states that the battered wife thought that she needed to "adjust [her] thinking", as though she were to blame for her husband's action.
There is nothing in the article that condemns her husband's action, or suggests that these beatings should be reported to the police, or even for 'Selma' to get counselling or medical attention. The underlying message is that women who have abusive husbands should just ‘suck it up' on the chance that her husband might join the religion (where, I might add, they would be able to continue beating their wives as the religion virtually turns a blind eye to domestic violence).
While the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has a long history of articles encouraging women to stay with abusive mates, it is shocking and disgusting that in the 21st century, they are still promoting this Neanderthal view amongst their members and anyone else joining their ranks.
As many victims of domestic violence suffer from low self-esteem and perhaps lack of education, they are quite often seeking a place where they can feel loved and secure and all too often, they can get sucked into a religious cult like this one where they're loved-bombed, then trained (once again) to believe that as a women, she is less than a man and it is her ‘duty' to put up with an abusive husband.
Since your organization deals directly with women who are victims of domestic violence, I thought it prudent that you be aware of this article. All too often, Jehovah's Witnesses are seen as a benign religion with perhaps some odd beliefs, but nothing more. In reality, the religion is run solely by a group of men whose view of women have not changed much in the last 100 years. They write articles like this with impunity and there are untold numbers of Witness women who have suffered horribly over the years, simply because they are not allowed to question anything these men say.
I am enclosing a copy of the article for you and hope you will pass it on to any others who might benefit from this information. If you wish to verify that this article was written by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, and if you have any questions for them (like why they are still writing articles like this), their phone number in Brooklyn, New York is: 718-560-5000. Ask for the Writing Department.
How about contacting the A.C.L.U. in the US?. If it's already been mentioned ...sorry.
00Dad, They DO LOVE to travel "to encourage" the brethren" 1st class of course. AHHHH to to to far-away places, eat gourmet food and be worshiped at Assemblies, dedications, zone visits and special talks.
The GB I saw frequently seemed to gone about 20% or more of the time.
Thank you Mary, I have been working on writing something like this all day. I am not good at the writing side. This is great, I can use it to work with what I have as well. Thank you thank you.
Thanks Mary,
Will be working on some of these tomorrow. Appreciate how well written your letter is. Will also be tweaking it a bit to send to some of the local media outlets as well. Great job and thanks again!
ISOT
ps - still refer to your project frequently!
