by Mark_C 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
You are desiring to 'overcome' the wrong thing.
What the 'faith' is telling you is to go against your own and society's better judgement. The whole 'man is the head and the wife in subjection' is a hangover from the days of a certain tent dwelling nomadic tribe and needs to be seen for what it is, out of touch with reality.
You and your fiance should trust you gut instinct...
As for the faith...I would suggest you find a different one...
Mark: You can ignore this rule.
Welcome!
Think of that Pakistani girl who was shot for advocating schools for girls. Same type of God.
Another rule, if a brother, even a child, makes an incorrect comment in a public meeting, a sister cannot be called on to correct him. A sister cant correct a brother, even if she is 70 years his senior and well respected in the congo.
Your relationship is between you and your wife, nobodies business what its like besides you two.
If you insist on exploring her submissive side I recommend you keep it in the realm of kink and out of your daily life :)
I totally disagree with the WT version of submission & believe for a marriage to work in this system it must be an equal partnership.
However, I agree with biblecheck, from half a century of being a JW I've found behind many uber elder is an uber elder's wife looking all meek & submissive at the KH but pulling the strings from behind.
In fact I know quite a few men that didn't want to be elders pushed in to striving to be one just because their wives wanted to be an 'elder's wife' & in the 'know'.
"I was convinced they had no mandate from scripture to put women down ."
I’m not so sure, as others on this thread have pointed out; a lot of what’s in the Bible is a hangover from the days of tent dwelling nomadic tribes, a nd cannot be wished away. Even bearing a female child made a woman twice as unclean as bearing a male one (Lev 12). Marc_C, if, in spite of all the information available to you, you still believe that being a dub is for you, then go ahead, but don’t expect Armageddon in your lifetime. Or your children’s lifetime, or your grandchildren’s lifetime. Dubs have been doing that for over a hundred years and all it brings is disappointment . Make sure your children get a good and full education, and fulfil their full potential. But beware of women who want to be equal to men! As someone much cleverer than me once put it, a woman who wants to be equal to a man lacks ambition.
Welcome to the board, Mark C!
You might want to look into the origins of the bible. Are you aware that it is only around 3,500 years old - perhaps going back as far as 4,000 years, if one considers the oral traditions and mythology that it was based upon?
Are you aware that the Egyptian civilization AND the Sumerian civilization are BOTH older than the bible, just to name TWO civilizations that are older??? [Hint - there are MANY cultures and civilizations that are older than the bible - and some types of worship are MUCH older than the bible...]
Are you also aware that the bible was written by men who were basically ignorant, superstitious MIDDLE-EASTERN nomads??? Of the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age, when humans still believed that the earth was the center of the universe (Genesis 1: 1-19), since, according to Genesis, the earth was 'created' THREE CREATIVE DAYS before the sun, moon and stars?
The bible writers got THAT dead wrong - along with at least two other significant points in those same scriptures.
The mistakes accumulate from there.
For example, in Exodus 19: 16-19, you'll notice that the description of the "presence of the lord" is actually a fairly good description OF AN ERUPTING VOLCANO - but as described by a people TOTALLY IGNORANT of what a volcano was!!
Heck, even the Romans understood volcanoes better than THAT!!
Anyway, the point I wanted to make, is this:
The bible was written a few thousand years ago, in the Middle East, by Middle-Eastern nomadic men with absolutely no knowledge of how the world really worked.
Would you follow a modern Afghanistani sheepherder's ideas on how you should live your life, or how your wife should behave?
Why then would you allow a 3,500-year-old book written by men who were basically at the same level as an Afghanistani sheepherder, to direct your life today?
Zid - the board's She-Devil
Whoops, Ultimate Axiom already said it!!
Ultimate Axiom, I should have made it plain ,I was not concerned with the O.T view of women, and if the WT wanted to quote that as authority I would have insisted they stick to the whole of it, not eating shellfish or pork, not mixing fibres in their clothing etc etc, anybody can see that to pull one bit of the O.T out and insist it is law for Christians is a daft thing to do.
But you can make some of the N.T appear to support all sorts of things too if you want, how about slavery? what I had as my position when in was, what I said above, if you thought a scripture sanctioned mysogyny or WT type subjection, how did you square that with the scriptures that demanded you did not live your life that way ? the Golden Rule for example.
I was convinced they had no mandate from N.T scripture without twisting those scriptures by taking them out of context, I am still convinced of that.
Mark-C you have a bigger problem then the submissive wife doctrine. The JW's are considered a cult or if that's to strong a word then a high control religion.They are all about conformity it is valued higher then spirituality. You will also have to step away from a bunch of things that may be an important part of your life like getting higher education, heavy reading and research, playing team sports or owning a two door car (it's funny but true).
Heck you will not even be encouraged to read your bible directly only the WT publications that reference the scriptures they cherry pick so they can make their argument.
You might want to take a look at jwfacts.com before you do anything else first. In fact they have information for people who are studying.
Know what your getting yourself into before you get Baptized
Good luck to you.
The wifely submission thing is a strange animal.
Once I decided to resign from being an elder and that I no longer wanted to go to meetings because I didn't belive it was the 'truth' she left me and the boys! I had comitted no sin and was never unfaithful. She values the watchtower over her family. Where did she get this unnatural loyalty?
...........no one can ever tell me the watchtower doesn't break up families!!!!!
I challenge anyone to try!
