AnnOMaly

Joined

• started 25 topics
• posted 4,447 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by AnnOMaly

• 
  28

  My First "Publication Free" Study...

  by HeyThere in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  HeyThere:

  ... it was during this part of the convo that she said the stuff about blood giving the recipient the addictions of the person the blood came from.

  Apart from her statement being complete nonsense (as others have already pointed out), when the theological or scriptural arguments against blood transfusions fall apart, JWs (and I did it myself with people) would switch to medical arguments against blood transfusions - the health risks, etc.

  The medical argument is irrelevant. Blood transfusions could be completely risk free and healthy, but if the theological argument stands up, JWs still wouldn't be able to have one no matter how wonderful they are because God's prohibition would be clear. Seeing as the theological arguments are full of holes and inconsistencies, they have to use real, exaggerated or bogus horror stories about transfusion health risks to bolster their case. Don't let your JW do that. Keep doing what you are doing in bringing her back to the scriptural arguments.
• 
  11

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

  by smiddy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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 ?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  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.
• 
  20

  Wondering what you guys think about child abuse...

  by bobert in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  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?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  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."
• 
  56

  Misquote in the Creation Book

  by ILoveTTATT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  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.
• 
  28

  My First "Publication Free" Study...

  by HeyThere in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  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.
• 
  47

  For those who feel that their life has been stolen

  by stillin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  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.
• 
  19

  Oops! I think my numbers up!

  by Oneoutallout in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

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

  And what Kate said.
• 
  111

  CONGREGATION FLEECING RESULTS?

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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

  share your horror story!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  Sir82, I thought the KH property deeds have been in the Society's name for 2 or 3 years now. Was I wrong?
• 
  56

  Anyone recall asemblies actually being fun?

  by tim hooper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  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.
• 
  40

  Rare recorded MARKING TALK on APOSTASY

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  AnnOMaly

  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?