Posts by AnnOMaly

11

What happened in Christianity ? O.T prophets were male & female ,God was not gender specific,

by smiddy in

jw
friends

11 years ago

according to scripture they could.

sure in jw land anybody could partake of the emblems and wine , male and female denoting they could be rulers with christ in his heavenly kingdom , however did many of these partakers actually have any say with the governing body ?

in fact did any of them have any say in their own kingdom halls ?

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

Acts 21:8, 9 - "The next day we left and came to Caes·a·re′a, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelizer, who was one of the seven men, and we stayed with him. This man had four unmarried daughters who prophesied."

Romans 16:1, 2 - "I am introducing to you Phoe′be, our sister, who is a minister [Gk. diakonos*] of the congregation that is in Cen′chre·ae,  so that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the holy ones and give her whatever help she may need, for she herself also proved to be a defender of many, including me."

* The same word is used of 'deacons' at Philemon 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:8, 12

Romans 16:7 - "Greet An·dron′i·cus and Ju′ni·as [Gk. Junia - a woman's name], my relatives and fellow prisoners, who are men well-known to the apostles [lit. 'notable (ones) in the apostles'- see KIT] and who have been in union with Christ longer than I have."

This Scripture is more ambiguous regarding Junia's status, but it's interesting that the RNWT still interprets the name as belonging to a male.

Link

20

Wondering what you guys think about child abuse...

by bobert in

11 years ago

to start off, i'm not saying this happens, or doesn't.

i'm just a bit confused on the subject, and what you guys are always talking about.

what exactly is it with the wt on the issue of child abuse?

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

As far as I know, the elder's book directs elders to immediatly report know pedos to the police.

You are mistaken. The elders' book directs elders to immediately report to the WTS Branch Office, Legal Department for direction (Shepherd (2010) book, p. 131). The Oct. 1, 2012 BOE letter emphasizes the same.*

If the law in your state or country is to report all accusations of child abuse to the authorities, then the WTS's Legal Dept will instruct elders to do that. If it is NOT the law to report to the authorities, then the Legal Dept will not instruct that. The accusation/judicial process will be dealt with in-house. However, the elders are instructed not to discourage a family or victim from going to the police but to leave it as their choice.

---

* "Most states have child-abuse reporting laws that, depending on the facts, mandate elders
to report an accusation to the authorities. Thus, when elders learn of an accusation of child
abuse, two elders from their congregation should immediately call the Legal Department for legal
advice."

Link

56

Misquote in the Creation Book

by ILoveTTATT in

jw
friends

11 years ago

my dad came into the jw's because someone studied the "creation" book with him.

it pains me deeply that he sent me an e-mail recently saying that to keep the peace with my mom, he will stop communicating with me as much as possible.

i should communicate with him only if i have an emergency.. it upsets me to no end, but i cannot do anything or much about it.

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

In addition to ozbrad's resource, it's worth checking out http://corior.blogspot.com/ under the subheading, "The WTS View of Creation and Evolution" - it's VERY detailed. But there's nothing like discovering the misleading and misapplied quotes for yourself, hey?

A comment from the site:

In general, Creation presents an incomplete and distorted picture of geologists' findings and of what evolutionists say. A journal that reviewed the book* said that

"the anonymous author or authors... of this book not only quote out of context but also fail to show the reader that words, phrases and clauses have been omitted from quotations."

It commented further that

"one additional distinction between The Society's book and Scientific Creationism [Henry Morris, Institute for Creation Research] is worthy of criticism. As noted above we find that quotations from scholars in the various scientific disciplines are routinely taken out of context. The result is that scientists such as Eldredge, Gould, Jastrow, Johanson, Mayr, Ruse, Stanley, and Wald, to name a few, appear to the naive reader to reject all aspects of evolutionary theory. The pattern of treatment is like that of Morris; however, The Society goes one step further. It is not unusual for words or phrases to be omitted without the use of ellipses to indicate such changes."

In essence, Creation attempts to convert scientists' arguments about the pattern and process of evolutionary change into arguments about the very existence of change. Many other Watchtower publications are equally deficient in adherence to the facts or to the intent of the author they are quoting. Interestingly, the 1967 book Did Man Get Here By Evolution Or By Creation? distorted scientists' comments much less than does the Creation book. It is sad that the older book's higher standards have not been followed.

---

*Creation/Evolution, vol. 12, No. 1, p. 30, 33, National Center for Science Education, Berkeley, California, Summer, 1992.

Link

28

My First "Publication Free" Study...

by HeyThere in

11 years ago

was not so publication free.

do witnesses not know how to talk about the bible without a wt pub to guide them?.

fist, she tried to get me to start once again in the bible teach book as if i had never said i didnt want to study from the pubs, so i reminded her.

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

The 'blood' issue is one of the very first things that got me thinking. The long medical directive which asked for us to choose options - no blood products of any description/some (permitted) blood fractions/all (permitted) blood fractions/own blood (as long as the circulation isn't broken) - was really confusing to me. On what SCRIPTURAL basis should I choose one option over another? There wasn't one, and the WT publications weren't really helping.

So I thought I would start from scratch: prayerfully read all the Bible verses relating to blood in their contexts, and discern the original intent of any mandate and what it actually involved. The first pattern I saw was that it always had to do with killing an animal and eating it or sacrificing it to God, and the first conclusion I came to was that the WT's ban on autologous use of blood didn't make sense at all - why should any blood separated from my body not be reused but 'poured out on the ground'? - I've not died, it was my blood, it was being used for my body, not to eat but in the way that God originally intended it!

That first conclusion eventually led to a few more conlusions about how nonsensical the WT's theological stance on blood transfusions is. I also started investigating and rethinking other WT doctrines too.

So, HeyThere, you keep plugging away with your JW friend and your reasoning from the Bible alone. You don't know what seeds you plant or where it may lead.

Link

47

For those who feel that their life has been stolen

by stillin in

jw
friends

11 years ago

you maintained a level of personal decency and integrity that you almost certainly would not have had if you had chosen another direction.. sure, you would have had some very "colorful" friends and experiences if you had gone another way, but you still chose the more "edgy" people in the congregation as your friends and you still enjoyed yourself, even if there were a lot of phony constraints.. you looked for ways to be of value to others.

don't stop doing that!.

you kept the darker side of your personality in check.

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

Our life is not stolen if we're still alive and in reasonable health. Yes, we may have made poor choices in the past (for the best of reasons we thought at the time) or had poor choices inflicted on us, and we're now living with the consequences and have not lived to our full potential, BUT every day is a new opportunity to salvage what we can or even make little steps to at least partly reverse those consequences.

The JW experience should be seen IMHO as a learning curve containing a mix of positive and negative experiences that can help us live more fulfilling lives NOW.

But that's me. Others' experiences with the Org. have been far more damaging to their lives and, understandably, they can't be as charitable.

Link

19

Oops! I think my numbers up!

by Oneoutallout in

jw
friends

11 years ago

had a call from an elder a few weeks ago, asking if he could visit.

managed to get away with saying thanks but no thanks.

had another one tonight.

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

Yikes! You're toast. Still, if it's no big deal, hey ho indeed

And what Kate said.

Link

111

CONGREGATION FLEECING RESULTS?

by The Searcher in

11 years ago

how much did your congregation and its bank account get taken for?

share your horror story!.

9 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

Sir82, I thought the KH property deeds have been in the Society's name for 2 or 3 years now. Was I wrong?

Link

56

Anyone recall asemblies actually being fun?

by tim hooper in

jw
friends

11 years ago

when i was a wee lad, there was a carnival atmosphere at assemblies as this old footage will show:.

.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/witnesses-baptised/query/jehovahs+witnesses.

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

They were fun when I was a teen/in my 20s and didn't have to sit listening to all the talks - kept busy volunteering (socializing while we worked). I was in the food service and news service departments. Everyone wanted to stop what they were doing and crush their way back to the aisles to watch the epic costume dramas The 'simplification' ruined all that. Knocked the life out of the conventions and assemblies.

Link

40

Rare recorded MARKING TALK on APOSTASY

by Newly Enlightened in

11 years ago

we have a version with our commentary: http://youtu.be/yn17rj_pyd4.

we also have an un-cut, un-edited version of the audio: http://youtu.be/pihfucr38sw.

asl version: http://youtu.be/dd635pqpdle.

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

Well that puts a whole different light on it! Not even baptized? O_o

U.n.b.e.l.i.e.v.a.b.l.e.

Paranoia much?

Link

6

An asteroid is coming in 2036

by Still Totally ADD in

jw
friends

11 years ago

a friend of mine who is a astronomer told me a asteroid will hit the earth near ca in 2036. it will make a close pass by earth in 2029 and if it goes through a certain point he called a donut hole it will come back and get us in 2036. i asked him if it is big enough to cause problems?

he laugh and said it is extinction asteroid.

he went on to say the russians are already working on a plan to destroy it before in makes it here or try and change the course of it.

11 years ago

AnnOMaly 11 years ago

"With the new data provided by the Magdalena Ridge [New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology] and the Pan-STARRS [Univ. of Hawaii] optical observatories, along with very recent data provided by the Goldstone Solar System Radar, we have effectively ruled out the possibility of an Earth impact by Apophis in 2036," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "The impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million, which makes us comfortable saying we can effectively rule out an Earth impact in 2036. Our interest in asteroid Apophis will essentially be for its scientific interest for the foreseeable future." - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/asteroid20130110.html#.U3pOFNJdXYk

Link