My Beliefs After Leaving the Watchtower

by KalebOutWest 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Riley

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB8P6R6ZLGo

  I saw this last night. Kind of sums how I feel about religion right now.
  
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  KalebOutWest

  Ukpimo:

  I'm a cultural/secular Jew, not a religious one.

  I am a Jew by birth. I do belong to the Secular Humanistic Judaism movement, but that makes me a Humanist.

  I am not engaged in evangelism or looking to make members in either members of my movement.

  To be honest, I do not even fully agree with the SHJ. They are just the closest to where I am in life and it is great to have community. But they don't expect me to "believe" 100% in everything they say either. It's up to me to decide what I want to believe.

  But I will stop here if it makes people nervous. I was not selling any particular religious view or philosophy.

  SHJ's teaches that one can live a good life, even without a belief in a god. That is my religion, my basic philosophy, and I wasn't even pushing that.

  I am happy with life and content being free from Watchtower.
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  Anony Mous

  Rutherford and the Bible Students of his era published some horrible material not only about Jews but people who weren't white Americans.

  Rutherford wrote to Hitler praising him and telling him he agreed with his view of the Jews. Hitler’s book and his desire for implementation of what became the Holocaust were relatively well known even though the American mainstream media refused to cover it until close to the end of the war. They had a convention in Berlin and opened with a song to the tune of the German national anthem.

  You would think that “being inspired by God” you’d have a bit more foresight.
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  Beth Sarim

  Rutherford opened a whole can if worms.
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  KalebOutWest

  In 1933, Rutherford issued the "Declaration of Facts," a document intended to defend Jehovah's Witnesses from Nazi persecution. While Rutherford condemned Nazi actions, it also contained criticisms of Jewish people and other groups, which some historians argue played into antisemitic narratives.

  This was not the only time this happened. Some of Rutherford’s writings and speeches echoed common antisemitic tropes of the time, including accusations that Jewish people controlled the world and were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.

  While not making excuses for this type of behavior, as I said before, Rutherford was a product of his era. His statements were made in a historical and social context where antisemitism was unfortunately prevalent and allowed, even approved of to a large extent. (Even prayers in Roman Catholic Churches before Vatican II contained antisemitic language.) A president of the WatchTower Society in those days also had far more freedom to publish his personal opinion as there was no real Governing Body at the time nor a Writing Committee. Whatever the president of the Society said, whatever whims came to his mind, that is what was published as doctrine, good or bad, proper or improper.

  This Monday, January 27th, marks the day that Auschwitz was liberated. On that date the world community remembers that day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

  While Jews have a separate day on the calendar that marks the Holocaust for what the Jewish people went through called Yom HaShoah, this day is different because it includes people like those Bible Students from the Rutherford period who refused to be a part of the Nazi regime. As Reform Judaism describes it:

  Yom HaShoah belongs to the Jewish people alone, but the Holocaust does not. The Nazis systematically murdered millions of others for whatever reason they chose. The Romani, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, homosexuals, the disabled community, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents - whether of German or non-German ethnic origin - were also killed. It has been estimated that the total number of Holocaust victims sits somewhere between 11 and 17 million people. Today is our chance to stand with these communities, alongside those not personally affected, and speak in unison.
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  Beth Sarim

  If there is someway of getting your hands on a 1934 yearbook.....