(Concerning the situation in North America, one religion writer said: “Christianity. . . tends to be superficial, [and] its adherents are poorly educated in the faith.” A pollster even went so far as to describe the United States as “a nation of biblical illiterates.”)
Another DEMONSTRATION of the WT's continued VAGUE and ANONYMOUS quotes. (which I bet are out of context)
One thing that has always bothered me, is the lack of WHO writes these articles. I'm positive that all us X-JW's remember that the publishers of these handy toilet paper alternative magazines like to say..."oh, but it's out of humility they dont assign names to articles".
It never ceases to amaze me that the person/people who write these articles don't for ONE MOMENT let themselves ask the obvious point "could this possibly apply to our religion as well?"
Do they have proof readers? And if they do, are they just checking for correct punctuation rather than content???
I've never seen (or caught) improper punctuation in the WT. I would assume that's a high priority. I remember friends being so impressed with the big words used - "had to use a dictionary for that study!"
Didn't understand the content of the study - but learned a new word!
As for the writers......I would assume there's a couple of them who gag on what they write. Perhaps they have too much invested in their lives at Bethel to stop and think of freedom & truth.
"Yet, in their everyday life, the same people who give little thought to the accuracy or truthfulness of their religious beliefs often think other matters through very carefully. Does it not strike you as odd that the person who does extensive research just to buy a car – which one day will end up on the scrap heap – would say regarding his religion, ‘If it was good enough for my parents, it’s good enough for me’?"
Is there such a thing as a Parkers or Frosts guide to religion. Could this group put one together?
I used the very same buying a car analogy with my JW friend back in September. Of course, I went on to explain that while researching we occasionally find things- sometimes negative things- that we never would have otherwise expected...
If I weren't so gender-impaired and darned agnostic I would probably be an excellent addition to the watchtower writing staff.
This post reminds me of an article that we recently studied (my hub and I are householders) during our weekly "bible" study. It was in the Dec 15,2001 issue of the WatchTower, The Real Jesus: Who was he?. The article was Learn From Me (pgs 15-20). I couldn't even begin to point out the applications that could be made to the WTS in this article...
The entire time we studied this article, I'm sitting there thinking the description of the Pharisees sound just like the JWs. Here's a paragraph from that article. For those who have this issue it is well worth the read...
para 11:
From a study of Biblical and secular evidence, we can conclude that the Pharisees thought highly of themselves as guardians of the public good and welfare. They were not satisfied that God's Law was fundamentally clear and easily understood. Wherever the Law seemed to them to be unspecific, they sought to plug apparent gaps with defined applications to eliminate any need fro conscience. These religious leaders attempted to devise a precept to govern conduct in all issues, even trivialities.
Who's that sound like? Isn't amazing how they are almost incapable of making the connection?
