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likeabird

We all know how the WT likes to go on about how the Church would prevent the common person from reading the Bible, wanting to keep everyone in the dark, well, they seem to have conveniently missed out a good part of history in the process.

Notice how what this book on the history of literacy campaigns says on Church involvement in encouraging people to read the Bible seems to have been completely overlooked in WT publications:

“In the case of Sweden, a church law of 1686 required children, farm hands, and maid servants “to learn to read and see with their own eyes what God bids and commands in His Word.” Every household person and villager was gathered once a year to take part in examinations supervised by the local clergy in reading and knowledge of the Bible. The adult who failed the examination could be excluded from communion, and denied permission to marry.”

The book also explains that this was not unique to Sweden, but the Church was also active in this domain in Scotland and Germany around this time period and later.

Great job WT! Talk about keeping people in the dark! You are quite the specialist!

Gopher

The WTS may have a point regarding the Catholic church, which in much of its history tried to keep the Bible in Latin and the knowledge of it confined to its priests.

The Swedish church you're pointing to is probably Protestant. And you're right, the JW's aren't the only ones who have encouraged their members to read the Bible.

These days Bible illiteracy among churchgoers is quite widespread. Churches haven't discouraged them, people are just too busy with other things. For many Christians these days, the Bible is like one of those Internet "terms of service" agreements which you quickly skim, go down to the bottom and check the "accept" box without much thought.

heathen

I agree the RCC was refusing to publish the bible for all and it was, I think ,martin luther, that stole a copy and made it available . The WTBTS claims other churches do not review the contents and are happy with the corrupted verses that were added in and thus they are the only ones with the most accurate bible . I do think the WTBTS does have some good points on the BTG dogma .

gma-tired2

the biggest shock to me when I started working was how many "worldly" ladies attended at least one night of bible study every week. I grew up thinking only JWs had bible studies.

likeabird

It's true what about the Catholic church, up until around the 1600s. And even if the borg tell us about what Luther did, they omit to mention the importance the church played in teaching adults and children to read - so they could read the Bible for themselvelves - something the borg like to make us think they are the only ones doing.

The other thing is the collaboration between church and state that is often condemned in WTpublications. It was actually thanks to this very collaboration that many education systems actually got started and developed into what we know today.

And the Catholic church did come round and participate strongly in this.

I just love how they only tell us part of the story and leave us with the impression they are the only ones to truly want people to read the Bible for themselves, etc. And yes, when I was a kid, I also thought JWs were the only ones to preach as well as a host of other things. Boy was I wrong! I've visited towns where on a Saturday morning you can see several different churches take to the streets and set up stands or hold banners - and the dubs having only an invisible presence!

AndDontCallMeShirley

"The adult who failed the examination could be excluded from communion, and denied permission to marry.”

Religion: choose your flavor of tyranny. One is as bad as the other.

Athanasius

I've attended several Bible studies coordinated by a RC priest. I also have a Catholic Study Bible. Though I'm not Roman Catholic, I do know that they have a Bible Study program that is much better than any of the Watchtower's so called Bible study meetings. Perhaps the medieval church surpressed Bible study but that is not the case today.

The RC Church has a food pantry and other programs to help the poor and unemployed, something the Watchtower has never done for those in need. My guess is the JWs view charity as giving away free Watchtower publications.

Finkelstein

Religions are mostly about controlling people's minds, the WTS. does it their own way for its own specific reasons, which if focused around

its literature circulation and distribution.

likeabird

It really was a fight of mind control back then too.

The book Luther's House of Learning : In Doctrination of the Young in the German Reformation on page 20 says:

"More recent interpreters have found the drive behind the founding of vernacular schools to be the mid- and late-sixteenth-century Protestant state's fear of heterodoxy and the attempt to check its spread and ensure religious conformity, by means of controlled indoctrination."

It's just a shame the WTBTS does so little in way of charity.

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