Bugs ... when you come to the BBQ next week you can talk to my daughter . the aboriginal one - and find out for yourself just how hard it was for her to learn the lingo .... they don't have a single language, true, but tribal groups do have their own lingo and when they get together, even I can't understand them if they go into it .... it is much like the pidgen english type of lingo ....
I wasn't referring to people just going outside to their congregation to mix, but people who live in an area where there would be no need to have a separate congregation or there aren't enuf to make one, would and can attend a white cong. without being made to feel unwelcome by the whites ...
It's a little like the other cultural congregations - most Italians, Spanish and Greeks can understand English very well and we had lots of them in our congs in Canberra, but they have congregations for them to cater for the language, culture and make it easier for reaching out to those communities .....
a relevant question would be "if an aboriginal did not wish to be in a separated congregation, could they freely join a white congregation." I suspect not.
The answer is yes
As the others have said, the Aboriginal congrgations were created to cater to the need of a society of people.
White elders & MS give talks in the Aboriginal congregations, just as the Aboriginal bros can give talks in the white congrgations.
Why are there congregations for those who speak foreign languages? Is that racism too??
If you guys aren't so racist, then why didn't you attend the congregations for the foreign speaking/aboriginal groups?????
Listening to all the rationalizing about Abos and how their needs are being recognized reminds me of all the phony conversation taking place in the old south USA during the late fifties and early sixties.
Call it catering, call it respecting tradition, call it taking care of their preferences, call it anything but what it is.
Excuse me. I'm gone. I heard all this long ago; Forty years ago. And you know what? It sounds just the same. Smug, superior, paternalistic, disengenuous, and shallow.
In reply to Prisca "If you guys aren't so racist, then why didn't you attend the congregations for the foreign speaking/aboriginal groups?????"
I did attend a couple of the meetings, but we were not allowed to join the Aboriginal congregation. I was told by an elder that I was only supposed to go to the congregation to which I was allotted, even though I had a pioneer friend who I wanted to spend time in FS with in that congregation.
They did have some white publishers, but the number was limited by whoever was in charge, and the local elders chose who was allowed in.
The Wts has made racist statements in the past, or should i say have made statements that would almost certainly be termed racist today. But nowadays as a whole i do not consider Jws to be racist. Many of the people i met while a member were very kind and open. Down here in New Orleans many of the black and white friends have friendships that go back many many decades. So from my experience I cannot say that the WTS is racist or promotes racism.
Bigboi
"..... anyone who ignores everyday reality in order to live up to an ideal will soon discover he had been taught how to destroy himself, not how to preserve himself." The Prince. Niccolo Machiavelli.
