i'm just new to this internet stuff and am studying with the jehovah's witnesses at present.please don't take my lack of knowledge as cheek.
i just want to know if it's meant to be only jehovah's witnesses using this site.
i fully intend to become baptised but was wondering if there's any security to prevent people who shouldn't be using the site and are maybe abusing it from doing so.
Welcome Yvonne!
You're still young and have your whole life in front of you. I'm now 51 and regret having wasted my life in the WT (pioneer, Bethel, elder, etc). When I was your age, I wish I'd known then what I know now. Don't make the same mistakes I made!
There's an enormous amount of information on this site. You might be interested in these threads:
Newbies! Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask
Also the 'Best of...' series.
gumby posted a comment about wt's disfellowshipping policy.
i checked with him where it was from, and this is the source reference:
baptized persons who have not associated for some time.
Gumby posted a comment about WT's disfellowshipping policy. I checked with him where it was from, and this is the source reference:
Baptized persons who have not associated for some time.
If you learn of serious wrongdoing on the part of such a person, the matter should be investigated if it poses a threat to the congregation's cleanness and welfare or causes a public scandal.Consider the following:Depending upon length of inactivity and other factors suggested above, elders may determine to hold the matter in abeyance.Does he still profess to be a Witness? Is he generally recognized as such in the congregation and/or the community? Does the person have a measure of contact or association with the congregation so that a leavening, or corrupting, influence exists? How did the matter become known to the elders?Is the person willing to meet with a committee, thus admitting accountability to the Christian congregation?In such a case, a record of the person's questionable conduct should be made for the congregation file so that everything noted might be clarified when the person shows interest in becoming active again.If the sinful conduct is known only to believing family members and no congregation action is taken because of the factors outlined above, believing relatives will likely determine to curtail family association severely, viewing the relative as bad association. (1 Cor. 15 :33) If the individual still professes to be a Witness and is willing to meet with the judicial committee, the matter should be handled in the normal way. However, when factors such as possible legal action exist, it is best to consult the Society before proceeding. (w87 9/1 p. 14) ("Pay Attention to Yourselves and to All the Flock" Unit 5 (a) pp. 99-100)
I thought the second-last paragraph was significant:
If the sinful conduct is known only to believing family members and no congregation action is taken because of the factors outlined above, believing relatives will likely determine to curtail family association severely, viewing the relative as bad association. (1 Cor. 15 :33)
The Society vehemently denies claims, e.g. made forcibly in the Moscow court cases, that it breaks up families.
Yet here are direct, specific instructions from the Watchtower Society that "believing family members" should shun "as bad association" family members "who have not associated for some time," even if they were never disfellowshipped or disassociated.
How sick are these guys?
jws are convinced they alone have the truth.
they are scripturally trained to prove to others why they are "in the truth".
from your vantage point, how can you show this is untrue??
Spin, half-truths and lies in WT publications...
What will guide us in choosing the right religion?? A religion that teaches lies cannot be true. The greatest prophet that ever walked on earth stated: ?God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.??John 4:24. (Watchtower 1 December 1991 p 7)
news
mum banished from her church
jan 28 2005.
Gumby,
The WTBTS policy on Disfellowshipping those who no longer are associated goes like this.
Thanks for this, Gumby, it sounds familiar.
I don't suppose you have a reference for it?
hey folks,.
an era in the ex-jw history is over.
kent steinhaug's site http://watchtower.observer.org is being shut down.. it was the first of it's kind, and to this day probably still the largest anti wt site on the net.
Hi Kent,
Great news.
We discussed what to do next on this thread:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/13/83490/1377587/post.ashx#1377587
hey folks,.
an era in the ex-jw history is over.
kent steinhaug's site http://watchtower.observer.org is being shut down.. it was the first of it's kind, and to this day probably still the largest anti wt site on the net.
Thanks for letting us know, pephuega and Kenneson.
I haven't yet heard from Kent how he's getting on.
can you tell me whether the taking of blood is a conscience matter or a disfellowshipping matter?.
i ask this because i have just come away from a heated discussion with my parents and they insist that taking blood or blood products has always been a matter of conscience and no one has ever been disfellowshipped for taking blood.
they say that a question was raised at the service meeting over the new blood card/documents whether taking blood fractions was breaking gods law and the presiding overseer j.h said that taking blood has always been a conscience matter and never was anyone disfellowshipped for it.. is this true?
As for the Society's statement that they don't DF someone for taking blood, but that the person DA's themselves, is another load of shit. Unless a person writes a letter stating that they WANT to be DA'd, it's still happening at the instigation of the Watch Tower Society. Who do they think they're fooling?
Mary's absolutely right.
The Society form S-77a is called Summation of Disfellowshipping or Disassociation and is completed by elders and sent to WT to give them the details of the judical committee case.
Item 2 is headed Disassociation. It says:
Specify by what action(s) the person disassociated himself (such as resignation, non-neutral activity, failure to abstain from blood, or joining another religion):
I wonder if the Bulgarian version of this form is different?
I wonder what the European Union would think of this?
i can be pretty bad - but who is the most cynical on this board?
Cynical? No, just realistic.
Also did the self test:
You're in the right place. Welcome, fellow cynic!
Que sera sera...!
is there a directory of lawyers who have experience in helping jw's with judicial df'ing issues?
what i mean by helping, is a lawyer who knows the df procedure, and will inform the elders that he/she will be attending the judicial meeting with the person etc.
if the elders refuse point blank to allow it, then a lawyer who knows how to pressure them so that they cannot announce the disfellowshipping or ever speak about it, as it would be slander would be very useful.. i think that there should be (may already be) lawyers out there who up to speed on this, and if they aren't, they should be brought up to speed by us, the ex jw community on what to expect from judicial meetings, and on the whole jw procedure of disfellowshipping etc.
*** w85 6/1 p. 30 Subjecting Ourselves to Jehovah by Dedication ***
At the close of the convention baptism talk, the baptism candidates will be in position to answer with depth of understanding and heartfelt appreciation two simple questions that serve to confirm that they recognize the implications of following Christ?s example. The first question is:
On the basis of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, have you repented of your sins and dedicated yourself to Jehovah to do his will?
The second is:
Do you understand that your dedication and baptism identify you as one of Jehovah?s Witnesses in association with God?s spirit-directed organization?
Having answered yes to these questions, candidates are in a right heart condition to undergo Christian baptism.
they always have photographs of brother righteous and his theocraptic family!
the report on the convention has clearly been fed to the editors by some wt pr department to try and portray the fundies as a sane group of christians that you might like to join [shudders].. well if any of you can dig out the names of these papers and a contact address, fax or email then i'd be happy to work on short but revealing 'press release' that can be submitted for inclusion in the same issue of the paper 'in the interests of fairness and balance'.
most editors might actually welcome an opposing and controversial point of view.. what do you think?
nicolaou,
I think it's a great idea, in theory.
Remember, the 'Convention Report' is simple a front and back page wrap-around the regular edition of the newspaper. Even then, it's rarely the national newspapers which go in for these sorts of stunts, but the local 'rag' that's deperate for any way to sell a few more newspapers.
The 'Convention Report' is there for one purpose, and one purpose only. Not to provide a fair and balanced critique of the convention programme, or Witness beliefs, or any of that nonsense. In these situations, newspaper editors don't give a fig for fairness and balance---it's only about selling a thousand extra papers each day.
steve2 is absolutely correct. It's PR 'fluff.' Any words or pictures that might alienate this potential readership are Definitely Out.
Perhaps the most that one could hope for would be to write a letter to the editor and hope it might get published in the main paper. On the other hand, local newspaper editors are also part of the local community, and in spite of their skinflint ways, even JW conventions bring a lot of money into those communities which they would not want to jeopardise...
