Posts by IT Support

According to friends still in Bethel, almost every senior member of the Bethel family has read both Crisis of Conscience and In Search of Christian Freedom.

Allegedly, most accept the criticisms as valid and only stay on in Bethel because they realise there will have to be major changes to the GB within the next five to ten years. Their hope is that this will result in radical reforms which will justify their decision to remain in place...

28

JW off-shoot list

by under74 in

so, i've been trying to find as many jw off-shoots, mostly personal reasons.

i never knew there were any until about two years ago.

i guess the wts did a good job because i didn't have a clue.

IT Support

under74,

Only Jehovah's Witnesses

by Yvonne A in

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.

IT Support

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.

9

Official WT Policy Breaks Up Families

by IT Support in

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.

IT Support

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:
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?

Depending upon length of inactivity and other factors suggested above, elders may determine to hold the matter in abeyance.
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?

48

PROVE That Jehovah's Witnesses DON'T Have The Truth

by minimus in

jw
friends

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??

IT Support

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)

25

So you CAN be df'ed, even if inactive for months or years!!!!!!!!

by BLISSISIGNORANCE in

news

mum banished from her church

jan 28 2005.

IT Support

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?

149

Watchtower Observer site goes down

by Norm in

jw
friends

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.

IT Support

Hi Kent,

Great news.

We discussed what to do next on this thread:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/13/83490/1377587/post.ashx#1377587

149

Watchtower Observer site goes down

by Norm in

jw
friends

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.

IT Support

Thanks for letting us know, pephuega and Kenneson.

I haven't yet heard from Kent how he's getting on.

41

Blood taking...is it a disfellowshipping offence or up to conscience.

by Gill in

jw
friends

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?

IT Support

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?