Long live freedom!
Amen Gill !!
The WTBTS published a criticism on one of its articles. Do you remember?
by Gill 26 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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diamondblue1974
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Gill
Afternoon, DB1974!
How's married life treating you? Wonderful, I hope!
'Fraid the WTBTS is recently excelling itself in it's cruel treatment of people just lately, that I knew, and hence...I'm on a rant!
I wonder who was in the writing department at the time when they were publishing letters from readers that attempted to show they accepted criticism?
Nowadays, when I read the mags, which I didn't particularly have the critical eye to understand in the past, even with an A level in English literature, there seemed to be a more conversational style. Now, its a lot drier and I really don't believe the writers are believing what they themselves are writing anymore. (Mind you, Watchtowers are neither 'English' or 'Literature') Perhaps that explains a lot.
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blondie
I have searched for that story on the WT-CD and don't find anything. It could be from an outside account by a JW or about a JW in an article or book.
As to letters regarding concern about content:
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g99 6/22 p. 30 From Our Readers ***Vatican
and Holocaust Over the years, Witnesses have come to my home, and we have had a pleasant time. However, I found your article "The Catholic Church and the Holocaust" (October 22, 1998) to be offensive. Pope Pius XII was a saintly man who did all that he could to assist Jews, and thousands were saved by his efforts!J. P., United States
Our
intent was not to offend Catholic readers but to give an accurate report on the controversy over the Vatican document "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah." Statements made in the article were the views of respected historians, writers, and jurists—some of whom are Roman Catholics themselves. Obviously, any role the Vatican might have played in saving lives is commendable. Still, it is a fact that the pope failed to speak out publicly against the Nazi regime. Doing so might well have saved millions of lives.—ED.***
g99 9/8 p. 30 From Our Readers ***From
Our ReadersNot
Anti-Semitic Thank you for not hiding things that you regret having said. Although I would like to have read an apology for this statement, your this-was-the-context explanation was adequate. Please carry on with your fine work, knowing that your readers appreciate the depth and honesty of Awake!W. H., United States
The reader refers to statements in the "Declaration of Facts," a resolution adopted in 1933 at a convention in Berlin, Germany. (See "Jehovah’s Witnesses—Courageous in the Face of Nazi Peril," in the July 8, 1998, issue of "Awake!") As the article noted, nothing said in the 1933 declaration was intended to express or condone hostility toward Jews, and we regret it if some statements give that impression today. If anyone back in the 1930’s interpreted the "Declaration of Facts" to mean that Jehovah’s Witnesses were anti-Semitic, this misimpression could easily have been corrected by observing the courageous and compassionate acts of individual Witnesses in behalf of Jews. Moreover, Watch Tower Society publications were among the first to expose and express outrage at the treatment of Jews in Europe.—ED.
(Declaration on line
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Gill
Hi Blondie!
It was DEFINITELY a Watchtower or perhaps even an AWAKE magazine. It's seared in my memory, I can promise you that!
Funnily enough, I found myself walking to school to pick up my daughter the other day, and found I was thinking about it and wondering how that little girl is now, still alive or....you know.
I think it may rank with the horrific pictures you see in the WT publications on Armageddon and the awful pictures in My Book of Bullshit stories. They scar your mind. One day, they sneak up on you and you recall it again.
Is PTSD possible from looking at Watchtower publications as a young person? I think it might be. I found I was gripped with the same horror as I had when reading it. Feeling empathy with this woman and her child. Feeling empathy for all those people dying at Armageddon....because they would n't be JWs! CRAZY!
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Gill
Blondie - It's interesting how the WTBTS that twist absolutely anything it said in the past to mean something else.
Probably why talking to a JW about JW things is like wrestling with a bad tempered anoconda. Always leaves me gasping for breath and wondering 'what's the point?'
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bythesea
Gill.....I also remember that story about the young girl and her mother...its permanently in my mind as well! As I recall, tho, it wasn't in an article about Nazi persecution but it was a life story about the young girl, recounting her experience while in the camp. You might be able to track it down by going back through the personal stories of bros/sisters. Seems like it was from the 80's, but I could be off. I kind of remember where I was living at the time when the article came out, of looking at my young daughter and thinking how horrible the story was! I'd check back to '82 in the mags for it. Hope that helps! bythesea
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hamsterbait
I remember this one.The reply said that this girl had survived the actual events, and we should surely be able to survive hearing the truth about what she experienced.
I cannot find fault with this reply, as the person who wrote in probably switches off the news, documentaries about child rape - you name it. Editing facts to protect the dainty senses of an ADULT reader is censorship which prevents an ADULT making a reasonable decision or discussion,on the facts in hand. Why not edit all the details on the Silentlambs website, so it is all cean, non-distressing and clinical? No talk of panic, pain, physical injury, just something "not nice" happened to me.
Just read the accounts of women being stabbed up the vagina or thrown from parapets to be savaged by dogs in the bible.
If God can watch it all happen every day for millennia, we can surely survive hearing about it second-hand. Why not edit the tesimonies at the Nuremberg trials? These are also at least as horrible as what the objecting reader saw in the WT.
If I recall it was a Q from readers about the mid eighties. I remember because the sister's name was spelt with 'OE' instead of 'O' with the german umlaut. If I can dredge up the name from my rodent memory, it will be easy to find. Something like Poetzinger, Shroedinger that sort of thing...
HB (of the 'don't remember names, but I remember facts' class)
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Legolas
Is this it?
Insensitive
Articles?I would like you to know how I feel about your article on female circumcision plus other similar articles that have appeared in the past. I wish to avoid the hurt I feel when reading horribly explicit articles. Must we read these things, such as the article just mentioned or the account of torture in the concentration camps? ("From Death to Life in Dachau," February 8, 1985) Is this not contrary to the counsel at Philippians 4:8, that we should continue considering things that are righteous, chaste, lovable, praiseworthy?
B. D., Canada
We
do not wish to offend the sensitivity of any of our readers. We acknowledge that some articles are not necessarily pleasant reading, but there are some realities in the world that many people have had to face, are now facing, or will come to face. We feel that it is our obligation to present information on such subjects for their benefit. In none of such articles have we put in gratuitous, explicit details to appeal to the sensational, the violent, the lurid, or the prurient. We have endeavored to present a dignified, helpful treatment of such subjects, and always with a firm stand for what is right. We also endeavor to give encouraging and upbuilding counsel. In our article on female circumcision, we provided sufficient information so that those who needed to know would understand what was being discussed and so that all would be repelled from engaging in the practice.We
have the example in God’s inspired Word, the Bible, which is very open and specific when necessary. See Genesis chapters 19, 34, 38, 39; Leviticus 15:16-33; 18:19-24; Judges chapter 19; 2 Samuel chapter 13; Jeremiah 5:7-9; Ezekiel chapter 23. None of these descriptions have the purpose of titillating a prurient interest or offending the sensitivities of anyone, but they serve a necessary, useful, and upbuilding purpose.—ED. -
hamsterbait
Yes, LEG,That's the one! Did you get this off a recent CD because the comment about the girl surving the events so we should be able to survive reading of them, is not there. This is why the CD gets me angry - they follow a policy of constant editing revision and re-interpretation. This is the real reason they want to shut down Quotes: he is giving the original non-revisionist version of the propaganda.
HB
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funkyderek
The reader refers to statements in the "Declaration of Facts," a resolution adopted in 1933 at a convention in Berlin, Germany. (See "Jehovah’s Witnesses—Courageous in the Face of Nazi Peril," in the July 8, 1998, issue of "Awake!") As the article noted, nothing said in the 1933 declaration was intended to express or condone hostility toward Jews, and we regret it if some statements give that impression today. If anyone back in the 1930’s interpreted the "Declaration of Facts" to mean that Jehovah’s Witnesses were anti-Semitic, this misimpression could easily have been corrected by observing the courageous and compassionate acts of individual Witnesses in behalf of Jews. Moreover, Watch Tower Society publications were among the first to expose and express outrage at the treatment of Jews in Europe.—ED
Judge for yourselves:
"It is falsely charged by our enemies that we have received financial support for our work from the Jews. Nothing is farther from the truth. Up to this hour there never has been the slightest bit of money contributed to our work by Jews. We are the faithful followers of Christ Jesus and believe upon Him as the Savior of the world, whereas the Jews entirely reject Jesus Christ and emphatically deny that he is the Savior of the world sent of God for man's good. This of itself should be sufficient proof to show that we receive no support from Jews and that therefore the charges against us are maliciously false and could proceed only from Satan, our great enemy.
"The greatest and most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American empire. By that is meant the British Empire, of which the United States of America forms a part. It has been the commercial Jews of the British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations. This fact particularly applies to the cities of London and New York, the stronghold of Big Business. This fact is so manifest in America that there is a proverb concerning the city of New York which says: `The Jews own it, the Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the bills.' We have no fight with any of these persons mentioned, but, as the witnesses for Jehovah and in obedience to his commandment set forth in the Scriptures, we are compelled to call attention to the truth concerning the same in order that the people may be enlightened concerning God and his purpose.
-from the "Declaration of Facts"
I don't think the Declaration of Facts would ever have been mentioned again in WT publications had it not been for its exposure on the Internet.
The supposedly opposing letter simply allows the WT to set up a strawman, and then knock it down.