Slowly but surely those who are unaffiliated with any religious organization will become the majority, even in the US. As that happens, it seems only natural that the majority will begin to look at the religious organizations that do nothing for them and ask why they're getting a free ride. It will happen, but like most things in government, it will be slow.
OneEyedJoe
JoinedPosts by OneEyedJoe
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Loss of Tax exemption for Australian religious organizations
by defender of truth ini have no clue when it comes to australian politics, but these articles got my interest.could this be the start of something?...it would take too much space to quote them all, but please read each one in order.
it might make more sense, what i am getting at.it seems to me that the debate we no doubt all want to see happen: 'why do religions, those who don't do any community work except advancing their own religion, get tax exemption?
', could be coming soon.or maybe i am wrong?www.crikey.com.au/2016/04/05/essential-voters-want-to-dump-religious-tax-exemption/http://m.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/tax-exemption-for-religious-groups-should-end-poll/2994952/http://m.theage.com.au/comment/easter-is-a-good-time-to-revisit-taxexempt-status-of-religious-organisations-20160323-gnpzjj.html^^ note who wrote the article, it says at the end.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/australian_sex_party^^ yes, the above is actually a real political party.
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Using Review Sites To Spread the Word About JW Dangers
by jacobm ini have posted a review of the kingdom hall that i attended before i revoked my jw membership, on both yelp & google.
i figured that it only takes me 5 minutes to write a good review, and it could save someone a lot of heartache.
keep in mind that you have to post a firsthand account of your experience.
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OneEyedJoe
I've done that before but it similarly got taken down...didn't know about the firsthand account rule. I'll have to do that for my local KH and AH. -
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$13.5M award vacated in Jehovah’s Witness abuse case
by StephaneLaliberte inruling gives church chance to turn over disputed documents.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/14/jehovahs-witness-lopez-sex-abuse-appeal/.
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OneEyedJoe
Yup, there were at least 3 cases in my former congregation (all going on at the same time when I left) where an elder or MS was assigned to study with a so-called "fatherless boy" (i.e. he had a father but he was either not a JW or was DFed). I know for sure that in one case they were often studying alone, just the two of them, and have no reason to suspect that this was in any way unusual. In fact, I think the boy's mother appreciated it and viewed it sort of like free babysitting that let her get some errands done. When you think about the difficulties of a single mother raising kids, I can't imagine this is unique.
In this particular case, I remember an interview with the lawyer in which he stated that this was essentially what was happening - lopez was viewed as a fatherless boy because his father was not a JW, and Campos was assigned by the elders to study with him.
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$13.5M award vacated in Jehovah’s Witness abuse case
by StephaneLaliberte inruling gives church chance to turn over disputed documents.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/14/jehovahs-witness-lopez-sex-abuse-appeal/.
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OneEyedJoe
I'm having trouble deciding what would be more expensive for them: set a precident that all a lawyer has to do to win is get a court order for them to produce their child abuse records, or producing said records and making thousands of child abuse suits slam-dunk cases for hungry lawyers.
I guess if zalkin is saying that the goal has always been to get the documents, that will probably be the more expensive route for them. I'd love to see them refuse again only to get raided by the authorities to confiscate the documents.
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I have tried really hard to be worldly, for ten years, tried to get worldly friends, and get back with family.
by Sledracer ini am so bad at being worldly, it's not like i gave it a good try, we are just not good at it my husband and i, i see him light up as he has started to read the bible again.
i'm good at being a witness, i am accepted, and hold the same beliefs, i have tried to find somewhere else, if there is a place, why hav'n't jehovah and the angels directed me to it?
thank you for all the loving posts, some of them have been just what i needed.
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OneEyedJoe
Yeah like Vidiot said, it's not about being worldly. Just be yourself.
You say you fit in because you all have the same beliefs, but I've found that it's much more rewarding to find people that accept you for who you are, even if you have differing beliefs. It's nice to know that someone likes me for my personality and not for what deity I do (or don't) believe in. A JW will drop you in an instant if you decide you don't believe exactly what they do - what kind of acceptance is that? If it can dissolve so quickly, was it ever really worth anything?
Read the bible if you want to. "Worldly" people read the bible too. Just don't limit yourselves to only associating with JWs if you meet normal people that you like that aren't JWs. There's no reason not to accept those people as they are without forcing your beliefs on them. Being "worldly" also doesn't mean celebrating christmas, but it does mean that you can if you want to and no one will shun you for it. It means you can decide for yourself what is right for you. If something makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone else, then why should you feel like you're risking all your relationships by doing it?
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My sister denounced the two elders
by opusdei1972 inyesterday my sister presented, against the two stalker elders, a complaint before the district prosecutor.
the prosecutor said to my sister that in the country there are freedom of religion, so it is totally illegal to accuse a person loudly in the street before her neighbors , and to insist for going to a illegal judicial questioning.
she even showed to the prosecutor a past notification in which she asked to the elders a written document specifying the charge of apostasy so as to attend the judiciary meeting with her attorney.
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OneEyedJoe
Elders handbook is in the public domain now, so I wouldn't expect there to be any problems with her showing it to anyone. -
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I need food for thought..
by raven inhi friends,it has been 20 years that i've slaved for the wt and through out the past couple of years i could feel myself fighting an urge to accept that something was not right.
i fought it off for so long only for it to resurface frequently throughout my years of pioneering, assembly/convention parts, & speaking with people about the "truth", slaving and giving to try to be a "spiritual person" but in reality i was not spiritual because spirituality (according to the org) is doing all of the things they want you to do.
which then will label you as spiritual... no !!!
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OneEyedJoe
jwfacts.com was by far the most influential source of information for me. Everything is clearly laid out in black-and-white.
I can definitely relate to your concern that you're being blinded/manipulated by satan, It took me a year or so to convince myself that I was motivated by nothing more than desire to know the truth, and even then it took the overlapping generations WT study and another 3 months to finally push me over the edge to research. It can be a process. Examine your thoughts and your reason for doing things - are you just lazy? Do you just not want to go out in service? Or is it that you truly want to know what the bible says or what the truth is? Be honest with yourself and then trust yourself. Don't let years of indoctrination tell you that you're being mislead if you know within yourself that you're trying to find truth. Have faith in yourself, because you're the only one in this world that you can completely trust to be looking out for yourself.
Try to keep an open mind...when presented with a solution/explanation for something, see if you can think up alternate possibilities. See what you think feels more likely to be the truth - use occam's razor and sound logic to avoid fallacies (like the appeal to consequences - where else would we go?) and you'll get there.
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Would crime rate go up if we were 100% positive this is the only life???
by James Mixon inno resurrection, no 70 virgins, no 7 millions jw's living for thousand of years, no coming.
back as dog or cat you are dead and done..
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OneEyedJoe
As the saying goes, you will always have good people doing good things and bad people doing bad things. For good people to do bad things, that takes religion.
While some people may think that their belief in god is what keeps them from being a bad person, they probably attribute the good feelings that our brains give us when they behave according to their conscience to god. It's not god, it's millions of years of evolution that's trained us to cooperate towards mutual benefit. Without god/heaven/hell/72 virgins/whatever, there would be (for the vast majority of the population) no motivation to fight the instinct to be good. And as Island Man correctly pointed out - there's a ton of evidence that secular societies are much more peaceful than heavily religious ones. Removing religion removes another thing that divides people and encourages everyone to realize that we're all the same and we're all in this together and might as well make the best of it.
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Skin of My Teeth
by WhatshallIcallmyself inan evidence for divine origin that has often been used (at least to me) is where job describes "...escap[ing] with the skin of my teeth".
science is quoted as having discovered that teeth are covered in skin and therefore how would job have known something that modern science has only just discovered.
i was reminded of this at this weeks meeting when this verse was quoted but was surprised when a commenter said how it wasn't necessary to mention this in light of other "evidence" in the bible.
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OneEyedJoe
Discovery of "skin" on your teeth! Bible proven scientifically accurate!
So what if there's not literal skin on your teeth? You're just looking to find fault! It was meant figuratively!
And so it goes with every bible verse. The lucky guesses are prophetic, the failures are figurative or hyperbole.
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Help messy problem
by poopie inthe problem is i have a baptized witness going out on service door to door giveing comments at kh who for the last 4 years has had sex with at least 10 prostitutes and regularly takes drugs ie speed the cong has no idea he's doing this he says he will never go to elders for fear his family will shun him if df so he continues i know because he tells me everything should i tell the elders or not.
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OneEyedJoe
Unless his behavior is directly hurting you, just leave him alone. Consenting adults and all that. Just my opinion
Edit: on second thought, even if his behavior is hurting you, there are better ways to handle it than going to cult elders. If you are being affected by his behavior, I'm sure many here (including myself) would be glad to help you find a solution.