JWs and voting. Is it okay now?

by NikL 35 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  xjw_b12

  The November 15, 1950, issue of The Watchtower, on pages 445 and 446, said: "Where Caesar makes it compulsory for citizens to vote . . . [Witnesses] can go to the polls and enter the voting booths. It is here that they are called upon to mark the ballot or write in what they stand for. The voters do what they will with their ballots. So here in the presence of God is where his witnesses must act in harmony with his commandments and in accordance with their faith. It is not our responsibility to instruct them what to do with the ballot."

  What of a country where voting is not mandated by law but feelings run high against those who do not go to the voting booth?perhaps they are exposed to physical danger? Or what if individuals, while not legally obliged to vote, are severely penalized in some way if they do not go to the polling booth? In these and similar situations, a Christian has to make his own decision. "Each one will carry his own load."?Galatians 6:5.

  What is sickening about the whole thing, considering the quote from 1950, is that brothers and sisters were tortured and killed in Malawi, because the WTBTS forbade them to buy a political card.

  Obviously they were not encouraged to make their own decision !

  WTBTS you are nothing but pond scum!
• 

  crinklestein

  Thank you for posting those articles. I've written up a post on my Livejournal about this topic. What I find funny is first they say that you are to be treated as if you are disfellowshiped if you vote and then they say that it's a personal choice. Then they say that if there is a law that says you have to vote then it's ok. But what did they do during the vietnam draft? They said that if you went into the draft you were DF'd. So most young men either went to jail for a year or fled to Canada. The draft was a LAW that said you had to go into the military. So they said that they will not follow man's laws if it means breaking God's laws. So if it's a law that says you have to vote...and the WTS says you are to remain neutral....and then they say that it's your choice...are they saying that it's ok to break God's Laws to live in harmony with Man's Laws?
• 

  undercover

  ...first they say that you are to be treated as if you are disfellowshiped if you vote and then they say that it's a personal choice. Then they say that if there is a law that says you have to vote then it's ok. But what did they do during the vietnam draft? They said that if you went into the draft you were DF'd. So most young men either went to jail for a year or fled to Canada. The draft was a LAW that said you had to go into the military. So they said that they will not follow man's laws if it means breaking God's laws. So if it's a law that says you have to vote...and the WTS says you are to remain neutral....and then they say that it's your choice...are they saying that it's ok to break God's Laws to live in harmony with Man's Laws?

  Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive.
• 

  jws

  Sounds typical of the way they always word things. In one breath, they sound like it's up to you. Then, they go on and outline a bunch of reasons why it shouldn't be done, without really coming out and saying it. The result is 99% of the JWs come away from that article thinking they shouldn't vote under any circumstances.

  In my time as a JW (somewhere between the 1950 and 1999 articles), voting was always forbidden. When I was real young, I didn't even vote for things in school, like a class representative. If I were still in, I'd register, vote, and make it known. Then refer to the article showing it's a matter of conscience and that my conscience isn't bothered.
• 

  Euphemism

  Then refer to the article showing it's a matter of conscience and that my conscience isn't bothered.

  But my brother, you should be thinking about the conscience of the congregation, not merely your own personal rights. What if someone were to be stumbled?
• 

  NikL

  I actually registered to vote for the first time because of this article. I am one of those on the fringe of the congregation. My wife is a dub but I quietly left it years ago. I go with her to book study and sunday just to please her.So far I have not been hassled about it except by my wife and I just refered her to the article. Like the rest of you, I think it is all crap.
• 

  Max Divergent

  The WTS have done the best they could do here, IMO...

  In the Mexico/Malawi party card issue, the WTS gave Mexican's advice that let them off the hook and the Malawian's advise that got them in prison or worse. At least they're giving everyone the 'Mexican solution' if the troubles they face are too great to just stay at home on poling day.

  If someone were under duress (wife of an apostate, say :-), then they're not going to make life harder by insiting she 'take a stand' on the issue if, as they say, their religious issue is actually casting the vote and going into the booth dosn't mean you actually did cast a valid vote.

  There's no doubt in my mind that if someone in a free country under no duress or compulsion volenterilly went to the polling booth out of choice they'd be in front of a Judicial Committee, or at least not be used for privilages, becuase the article dosn't cancel out what's been written before, it just gives some escape clauses for tough situations.

  Some reasonableness from them on this point!!

  Max
• 

  Pork Chop

  Subsequent to the QFR a letter was circulated around congregations in the US that was a whole lot more negative than the QFR. The letter said that the comments in the QFR really only applied in countries where people were required to vote, may even have included a husband requiring a wife to vote, and that Witnesses even though they might go through the process would in effect spoil their ballot when the time came to do the dirty deed. The substitue CO that handled it in my congregation made a horrible botch of the whole thing. His explanantion was so convoluted that no one could understand what he was saying but they still got the idea that they weren't supposed to do it.
• 

  Euphemism

  At least they're giving everyone the 'Mexican solution' if the troubles they face are too great to just stay at home on poling day.

  Good point, Max. It's hard to believe that this is a step forward for the WT, but in some ways, it actually is.
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  WTBTS you are nothing but pond scum!

  You are being farrrrrrrrrr too kind here. How about adding that they are cold hearted, pompous, weasel, control freaks with the blood of many men women and children on their hands? The outcry of those hurt by the WTBTS's old gray geezers is heard far beyond the outer edges of the universe.

  Heather