Fantastic quote on jwfacts Sparlock article

by cedars 115 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  King Solomon

  Hamsterbait said:

  You can find plenty of examples in the literature, if you can be bothered finding it FOR YOURSELF, as I dont pander to the mental laziness of JW apologists.

  I love debating with liars and hypocrites like you however, as it is such fun to see you dig your own grave deeper, both on the board and with Jehovah, who doesnt get sad when you disobey his counsel on association, he gets MAD, and when he gets mad he gets MEAN and starts killing people.

  LOL! Dude, I'm a life-long atheist, never was baptized (just raised in JWs from 6-12), but faded by moving to live with a non-JW parent. So save the apologetist charge for someone who didn't live their life and didn't become a doctor, etc.

  Your argument is without point: obviously they can change policies however they want, with many different methods. However, this isn't one of them, no more than creating a drama showing an example of a policy constitutes changing the policy. Fleshing out the policy on a DVD doesn't constitute a change in policy, it's simply depicting the policy in action.

  Now, if you find conducting objective analyses of the facts to be so objectionable, consider seeing if you can get reinstated into "the Truth": they ALSO have little regard for distorting easily-verifiable facts, which any JW would reasonably do by pulling up the 1994 Awake!, only to find the quote was cherry-picked, taken out of context by ignoring the admonishment to consider the stumbling effect on others. Quote-mining instantly undermines the author's credibility, whether the author is the WTBTS or a WT critic, as removing quotes out of context is a "foul" regardless of who does it.

  You can't use the rules of debate only against the "other" guy and not expect the same rules to be applied equally to you... That's how it works in the REAL World.
• 

  james_woods

  I don't see why we are beating the dead horse into a pulp over this:

  The magazine article plainly indicates that there is room for "conscious decisions" in this area.

  The Sparlock video makes no reference to any room at all for conscious consideration.

  The two are inconsistent. Probably the people who made up the Sparlock cartoon were not aware of or had forgotton the earlier printed article.
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  sabastious

  Yes, apparently there was a time in the history of the Writing Department when calmer and more reasonable heads prevailed.

  That quote was not reasonable, it was just slightly more reasonable than the current position. The 94' quote still admonished the parent to make the "right" decision and disallow, which comes at the cost of the child's happiness and ultimate well being regardless of whether others are judged in the process.

  -Sab
• 

  00DAD

  The subject of a "conscience decision" is interesting. When I was a young JW an elder in my congregation explained the difference between a WEAK conscience and a STRONG conscience this way:

  • STRONG CONSCIENCE: you make your own decisions as to how you apply Bible principles in your life
  • WEAK CONSCIENCE: you are overly concerned about and/or easily stumbled by the decisions other Christians make as to how they apply Bible principles in their life

  According to this distinction, how you would characterize the consciences of the leadership of the WTBTS?

  00GLAD I'm not drinkin' the Kool-Aid any more!
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  breakfast of champions

  I have a feeling that this article is from the same era as the more moderate stance on higher eduacation. It's a shame they've reverted to a more fundamentalitic, cultic stance; but in the end, I hope the zaniness helps wake up my family!
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  sir82

  Curiously, it was also right around 1994 (give or take a year) that the "higher education is a personal choice and no one should condemn another's decision" article came out.

  The pendulum has swung back and forth between liberalizing (late 70's, early 90's) and hard-line conservatism (early 80's, 2000 - present) many times now.

  Currently the organization is as far-right as I can ever remember, going back to my childhood in the 60's. However, I see no indication that it will swing back to the left any time soon.
• 

  00DAD

  Jehovah's Chariot is on the move!

  Since it's not actually going anywhere, they gotta' give the ILLUSION of motion by making changes.

  They have themselves described it as "tacking" the way a sailor will make way upwind.

  It's all bs.
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  james_woods

  Curiously, it was also right around 1994 (give or take a year) that the "higher education is a personal choice and no one should condemn another's decision" article came out.

  Interesting observation.

  It is amazing how they can make completely contradictory proclamations from one year to the next and simply think nothing of it.
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  cedars

  KS - As I've made very clear, I don't value your opinion because I find your views on faders like me who try to speak out against the Watchtower offensive, and I also don't like your condescending and patronizing manner when people disagree with you. Your unprovoked attempts to intimidate and character assassinate me on the ASL thread didn't exactly endear me to you either. For these reasons, as I've already mentioned, I have no interest in getting into a conversation with you, and I'm not really interested in your opinion.

  However...

  ...I have been giving some thought to what motivates your activity on this forum, and I would appreciate some answers (if you feel so inclined) to put me in the picture.

  This isn't something for me to comment on, it is just something you may wish to comment on - particularly since I don't appear to be the only one who looks on you as an apologist (at least on certain issues).

  My question is this...

  If you left Jehovah's Witnesses at the age of 13 without getting baptized, and you're now a retired doctor...

  • What happened two and a half months ago that motivated you to start posting on this forum at a rate of nearly 30 posts a day, on a subject in which you were never really that involved?
  • Given that you were never actually a Jehovah's Witness and have only childhood memories of the religion, what prompted you to look into it in such detail decades later to the point where you now appear to consider yourself an authority on the subject?
  • To stress again, you left as an adolescent decades ago (assuming you are of normal retiring age) so why the sudden fascination? We have another poster, james_mahon, who is much younger than you and left at a similar age more recently, but we don't see him on the forum nearly as often. So what gives?

  The above questions aren't meant to provoke or intimidate you, they merely illustrate why some like myself appear to have a problem taking you seriously - especially given the fact that you are so vocal in condemning anti-Watchtower activism and pouring cold water (often to the tune of reams and reams of text) on any criticism of the Society that you deem unfounded.

  I'm not after confrontation. I would just appreciate it if you could try to answer these questions in a calm and respectful manner.

  Cedars

  [edit post - I realize all of the above is off topic, but I thought it would be unfair to start a new thread on this matter incase it caused any undue animosity]
• 

  00DAD

  

  Keep Your Eye on the Ball - Gil Elvgren 1955