Sept 1 2003 WT: Is There Only One 'True Church'?

by Mary 45 Replies latest jw friends

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  Mary

  Mary -- I don't know all the facts on the malawi situation but if they refused to show support for a government like that then I have to give them credit for it .

  Actually, it wasn't even to "show support" for the government; the "party card" was more of an identification card or what we know as a Social Security Card. And especially in light of the fact that the brothers in Mexico were allowed to bribe the authorities for favours, is it especially terrible. And if you think that this didn't involve torture like the Inquisition, read this example of what the brothers and sisters went through in Malawi:

  One of the most vicious examples of physical persecution involving Witnesses occurred, not in the Communist world, but in Malawi. The savagery of the attackers in Malawi was such that thousands of Witnesses of all ages and both sexes were physically brutalized by police and citizens alike (Jubber, 1977). One Witness, a Mrs. Magola, being pregnant and heavy with child, could not outrun the M.C.P. police. When they caught her, they battered her to death in full sight of many townspeople and police officers, and not one of them came to her aid (Awake!, Dec. 8, 1972, p. 12).

  This brutality ostensibly revolved around the refusal of Witnesses to purchase party cards, an act which caused many Witnesses to be beaten on their backs and buttocks with planks of wood that had nails in them. When they showed signs of pain, their attackers beat harder, saying, 'Let your God come and save you.' In addition, they broke a bottle and used the broken edge to 'shave' some Witness men. On September 22 Jasteni Mukhuna of the Blantyre area was beaten till his arm was broken. At Cape Maclear, at the southern end of Lake Malawi, Witness Zeiphat Mbaiko was covered with bundles of grass tied around him. Petrol was poured on the grass and set afire. He died as a result of the burns... In the Ntonda area, south of Blantyre, Smith Bvalani, his elderly mother and others of Jehovah's Witnesses, both men and women, were beaten ...until they lay unconscious on the ground.
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  Michael3000

  Oh, for Pete's sake...

  I'm gonna be sick from the Watchtower...
• 

  cat1759

  on the back cover of the Sept 1st Botchtower, it tells us the REAL way to solve poverty, and it ain't by givin' food to the poor. Noooooooo, you're to give them the Botchtower and Asleep! magazines so that they can see how they won't be hungry anymore in the New System which is "right around the corner".

  Mary and everyone,

  I just have one question: We have been hearing about the end before 1975, can we really live off of the magazines for 28yrs? I know you can use the magazines for ass wiping as my mom never bought toilet paper.

  Enjoyed all the comments, so funny and sad. The Malawi situation was extremely troubling for me back then. Once I read Crisis of Conscience I was so appalled at what was going on in Mexico. It all did not seem fair. What a shame to have been persecuted and some died for this while others were allowed.

  How many used to read the yearbook with all those horrible experiences and would sit and cry at the pain and suffering of the brothers and sisters in Malawi, Rwanda?

  Cathy
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  No Apologies

  Ok about Malawi. Those accounts are awful, and the idea that the org was somehow responsible is disturbing. But, um, what about the people that carried out these horrible atrocities over a 25 cent card? What was going through their heads? How did they justify murder and rape? Just something to ponder...

  Was there ever any outcry from the world community? Where was Amnesty International back then?

  Whatever happened in Malawi? I know Banda died or was deposed. Outside of Watchtower publications, I have rarely heard of it in the media. What kind of government did they have at the time, or now?
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  Panda

  First, the Catholic Church was NOT the first Christian church. Mary you'll learn this in college. Or get a head start and read some of Elaine Pagels work. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, The Gnostic Gospels, Beyond Belief. Or try Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World.

  Second, the protestant churches also persecuted and murdered and tortured those who would not convert. Anyone remember Cromwellian England? If you were Catholic and not murdered (burnt alive) then Cromwell's men sliced off you nose and ears. Michael Jackson would appreciate this --- so many aristocrats (mostly women because their husbands were murdered) lost their noses that a fashion of fake noses began! Yeah really!

  Or even better how about the British Empire under Queen Victoria and the sub- continent of India remember the black whole where the "heathen" were slaughtered because they were well, heathen?

  Third, Or (not to pick on the Brits alone) how about those Pilgrims (Puritans --- hmmm wonder why they called themselves pure? Because they new they had the one pure faith?) who came to America for religious freedom and proceeded to murder anyone who questioned the "brothers". Those witch trials were a copy cat serial killing from the dark ages. Also, let's take this up a knotch to the 1960's in the southern states where more than one Catholic priest was lynched by YES I'm gonna say it even though I live in the south --- Baptists (weren't they originally Dutch?).

  And again if you think that Catholics were the only converter/murderers; consider the Islamic potentates who occupied Spain and converted not only people (killed the men, raped the women) but churches too (Muslims did this to the Eastern churches too ex., the Hagia Sophia and the Alahambra in Spain.)

  The French revolutionaries (Marat Sade, Robespierre, Danton and you know the rest) ordered the killings of the Catholic priests during their revolution.

  In Asia, including the islands of the Pacific many Protestant missionaries were killed by local shaman of tribal religions. This also happened in Tibet by the Lamaist Buddhists (Yeah, these guys aren't all peace and love).

  Come to think of it, the Israelites killed, maimed, raped, burned, conquered any nation who would fight them and some who wouldn't.
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  Mary

  Good point Panda. There's alot of other religions besides the JWs and Catholics that are responsible for atrocities, all in the name of religion.