whatever the reasons, whatever the excuses, whatever the denials - its still a tragedy:.
100 years ago, 1.5 million christian armenians were systematically killed.
today, it's still not a 'genocide'.
It was from the website of Serj Tankian (of the band System of a Down) that brought my attention to this atrocity and yes...it WAS genocide. If you go to his website there is a haunting video called "100 Years".
I'd never heard of it in school history.
apparently it was announced last night.
i was not informed (for 'legal reasons'), but they phoned my dad and told him.
i understand it is due to my apostate book.
technically incorrect, but effectively he does .... if we're to believe the genesis account the serpent deceived eve and made her eat of the tree of knowledge.
it all went pear shaped from there on in, although most people believe it was an apple (boom tish).. but anyway .... either it was a literal serpent that could talk on it's own behalf or, as people typically believe, it was satan who was the puppet master and possessing the creature.. the first raises all sorts of questions that contradict the whole bible narrative (another creature that could reason, talk, debate existence and law etc...) so let's go with "the satan theory".. how does got react to his 'perfect' creation immediately being completely imperfect as soon as he takes it out of the box?
(he's like 0 for 4 ... satan, serpent, woman, man ... all break his rules).
watchtower july 15 2015 p.11 pars.
"your share in contributing to the spiritual paradise".
18 it is an honor to be allowed by jehovah to contribute to the beauty of our spiritual paradise.we do that by zealously preaching the kingdom good news and making more disciples.
FayeDunaway, in my early days out of JWs it was reading up on the Dead Sea Scrolls and The Book Of Enoch that explained (to me) so much about the mindset of the ancient peoples of the Middle East. It also cleared up, like I said, that reference of Paul to the third heaven but also the goat for Azazel...the scapegoat. Azazel is also represented by the Hanged Man in Tarot cards. Interesting, huh? Wikipedia has a pretty good write up about The Book of Enoch and of course whole sites are dedicated exclusively to it. The Watchtower is so simplistic in it's explanations of things with no really in depth scholarly research. Some idiot on the writing committee read that scripture and decided it EVIDENTLY must be referring to paradise earth! To take a line from Game of Thrones...they know nothing!
watchtower july 15 2015 p.11 pars.
"your share in contributing to the spiritual paradise".
18 it is an honor to be allowed by jehovah to contribute to the beauty of our spiritual paradise.we do that by zealously preaching the kingdom good news and making more disciples.
I used to wonder about that scripture regarding Paul's little out of body experience.
" Oh yes, It must have been speaking about the earthly paradise"
Hogwash...not whitewash!
I only started to get where Paul was coming from after I left the religion and happened to read parts of the Book of Enoch where Enoch has a similar 'magical mystery tour'. Yes, of course! No wonder it was something to brag about! Those writings were in use in the first century and fragments were found in the Qumran Dead Sea scrolls. First century Jews were well familiar with that kind of writing and mystical experience. Jude also references The Book of Enoch (Jude 1:14 -15)
i'm going to be honest and from the heart when i say that for 40 years in the jw religion i was very happy in my ignorance!
man, what a trip it was.
i loved every minute of it but then i was absent the bad in my religion.
I don't think that the average JW would ever tolerate a pedophile in their midst but what the average JW doesn't think about is that they follow writings of ancient patriarchal tribal people who's mindset allows for the protection of a pedophile. Pedophiles ARE in their midst but they aren't aware because they follow an ancient mindset. Yes, it's an imperfect system.
But Is that a good reason to follow it?
*sigh*
i've been lurking for about 3 months now and thought i'd better finally sign up.
you have all been an immense help to me as i have come to realize that this isn't the truth so i want to say a great big thank you!
what a crazy, emotional ride it is to finally face the truth about the doubts that i have carried for many years.
http://www.pamplinmedia.com/ht/117-hillsboro-tribune-news/255785-125363-jehovahs-witness-sex-abuse-case-in-feds-hands.
lawsuit seeks $10.5 million from hillsboro church, watchtower society .
attorneys for a 40-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man who say they were sexually abused nearly 30 years ago by a church elder in hillsboro want to have a lawsuit filed by the pair last fall placed back in state court jurisdiction.
i've been looking on this site for some time but never posted.
i'll give a little about myself, but not too much.
i'm a ex-bethelite ( brooklyn )and currently serving as an elder (10 years) (thinking about stepping down) on the service committee.
I too found this thread to be encouraging to a point and offer my thanks to Mr. theocratic for posting his observations. I still wonder about the same point that Galaxy made:
any ex jw family members who have learned ttatt still suffer because of those who just remain within because they think it's a respectable way of life. Surely thats a contradictory position ?
I hear little snippets about my still in JW daughter and what she does and says seems so contradictory to the 'council' coming from the GB. Her business doings seem to be her major focus in life and she's also into things that would have been on the fringes of spiritism in my day. She stayed home from memorial last year because her toddler was sick...wonder if someone will be 'sick' this year. She gets a lot of her meetings over the phone, a privilege that wasn't available in my day but oh it would have been so nice! Oh, and she's back on anti depressants to help her deal with her emotionally abusive JW husband.
But she shuns me religiously.
It just baffles me. I personally don't care if she is JW for community or whatever. I just would like to see her every now and then and take my grandson to the park or something
i would like this to become a permanent thread, because i think there are grounds - at least in europe - to take this matter up to the european court of human rights.
not sure we'll ever get there, but one must start somewhere.
objective: force, by legal means, the watchtower society and the jehovah's witnesses to stop the practice of shunning ex-jehovah's witnesses, on grounds that it constitutes a violation of human rights.. what is needed: all written material ever published by the watchtower society, especially since 1940's, concerning the practice of shunning.
