watchtower considers masturbation to be a form of uncleanness but not a disfellowshipping offence because the bible says nothing about masturbation.
a jw who masturbates is likely to face no more than losing privileges in the congregation.. like masturbation, smoking is considered by jws to be a form of uncleannes and like masturbation, the bible says nothing about it.
but a jw who smokes faces disfellowshipping.. yes, smoking is known to be deleterious to a person's health whereas the jury is still out on the adverse health effects of masturbation.
In answer to the OP, the WT's position is not consistent. I had one elder, in a round about way, tell me my mum would die at Armageddon because she didn't stop smoking.
OTOH all, or nearly all, teenage boys masturbate and are made to feel guilty for it by WTS. This guilt can be used to push people into doing more for the org - getting baptised, pioneering, etc.
an athist made this casual statememt on another thread:.
this would suggest to me that there are at least some atheists that do have consistant beliefs.. .
as an atheist, how could he possibly trust the reason that suggests this to himself?
Perry - why do you start a thread that deliberately yanks the chain of atheists, yet you also state in the OP Atheists Don't Exist.
You can't have it both ways.
i hear many people on this forum say that kh's don't have windows.
but i have never been to one that didn't have windows.
is this only in a certain area or something?.
Is this only in a certain area? - I don't know. Where I used to live, the local congregation was given a new KH some years ago. This doesn't have any windows. Why this is the case, I also don't know for sure. The old KH did have a window smashed so this may be the reason why.
Of course, you also get talk from uber-zealous elders or from mentally-unstable pioneers that the reason KHs have no windows is for protection during the great trib when the world turns against God's people.
ok so be a scrooge or grinch for 5 minutes.
you know you want to.. i loooove xmas songs but there are a few that make me cringe.. the old feed the world.
"there won't be snow in africa.
Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney.
The British public are tortured by endless replays of this song every year.
so i am the weird case that i still believe in the jehovah's organization.
there are a couple of things that stop me from going.
is there anyone else out there that still believes?
It took me a long time to realize there was nothing wrong with me - me too, Coded Logic.
WTS may say that it's ok to be gay, as long as you don't 'commit immorality'. Although I happen to be heterosexual, I imagine it can't be as simple as that. If you continued in 'the truth' you wouldn't be allowed normal feelings of being in love. If you stayed 'chaste' but kissed another man this would also be wrong. You would be made to feel bad simply for having normal feelings and doing normal things that everyone does - gay and hetero alike.
If it's your choice to stay in because you genuinely believe, then ok. But re. homosexuality you can't listen to JWs only. Surely you can see that it would be unfair and wrong because of the ridiculous anti-homosexual bias of the witnesses.
imagine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlgyahhkpfs.
.
How about this - Yer Blues live, with Dirty Mac. Dec 1968.
i've been out nearly two years but it's not out of me.
i am on school holidays now til february so i thought without work to worry about i can come off my medication.
i phased it slowly, starting in early november to avoid the physical side effects of coming down.
I'm damaged. I'm a survivor - I'm damaged, too. But I'm doing my best to survive as well.
I'm guilty and ashamed - try not to let the cult make you feel this way but don't beat yourself up over this. As someone else at JWN said - you're good to go.
All the Christmas decorations make me uncomfortable - If you're big on christmas - ok. If you couldn't care less about christmas - that's ok, too.
I know it's easy for me to type this but try and own the past - keep any good memories you have and try to discard the bad ones.
Take care
LUHE
i am perhaps a bit behind on this but i have just listened to " grandma got run over by a reindeer " sung by elmo and patsy .
it got me to thinking about christmas songs in general ,so i thought a thread about people's favourite christmas songs would be good .
please share your fave christmas music , a carol or something more modern .to start i will list my best carol as hark the herald and my best ever chart song as santa claus is coming to town by bruce springsteen .
Good idea for a thread, jhine, & merry christmas to you too.
I think my absolute favourite has to The Power of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. The video is a bit tacky but the lyrics are beautiful and beautifully sung.
'Let yourself be beautiful
Sparkling love, flowers
And pearls and pretty girls ...'
lindt chocalate cafe martin place in city people pressed against the glass with hands up...this will not end well..
JWdaughter: He was a refugee and he knows what kind of hell the people are being put through because of military intervention by the west.
cofty: As opposed to the paradise that was Afghanistan previously?
I read in the Mail that he came from Iran. If this is true then he probably emigrated due to the oppressive Iranian regime, nothing to do with the US.
lindt chocalate cafe martin place in city people pressed against the glass with hands up...this will not end well..
It was NOT a muslim terrorism action - I see, and the flag this lunatic chose to have displayed in a window just, by chance, was black with the shahada written in white?
BTW muslim terrorism and mental illness aren't mutually exclusive - maybe it's safe at this stage to say that this was a case of muslim terrorism that featured a mentally-ill man?
