After leaving the JWs I started attending Episcopal services and in 1991 was confirmed in the Church. Maximus, who used to post here, also became an Episcopalian after leaving the JWs. Are there any others here who became Anglican or Episcopalian after their Watchtower experience?
Athanasius
JoinedPosts by Athanasius
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Are there any Anglicans/Espiscopalians on board?
by Athanasius inafter leaving the jws i started attending episcopal services and in 1991 was confirmed in the church.
maximus, who used to post here, also became an episcopalian after leaving the jws.
are there any others here who became anglican or episcopalian after their watchtower experience?.
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ExJWs either BAs or atheists -- do you agree?
by parakeet ina week or two ago, a poster (i forget who; sorry) noted that exjws tend to fall into two camps -- born-again christians or atheists/agnostics.
there doesn't appear to be much of a middle ground, e.g.
joining a traditional, mainstream religion.. the observation has some merit to it.
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Athanasius
Most of the ex-JWs that I know are non-religious. The Watchtower experience soured them on all religion it seems. As for myself, I was confirmed in the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in April 1991.
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665 JW's in US prisons...
by digderidoo inthe federal bureau of prisons does have statistics on religious affiliations of inmates.
the following are total number of inmates per religion category: .
catholic 29267 39.164% protestant 26162 35.008% muslim 5435 7.273% american indian 2408 3.222% nation 1734 2.320% rasta 1485 1.987% jewish 1325 1.773% church of christ 1303 1.744% pentecostal 1093 1.463% moorish 1066 1.426% buddhist 882 1.180% jehovah witness 665 0.890% adventist 621 0.831% orthodox 375 0.502% mormon 298 0.399% scientology 190 0.254% atheist 156 0.209% hindu 119 0.159% santeria 117 0.157% sikh 14 0.019% bahai 9 0.012% krishna 7 0.009% .
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Athanasius
Those statistics about JWs may be misleading. There may be more JWs in prison than the records show as JWs are told not to bring reproach on the organization. Therefore, some jailed JWs will hide their religious affliliation.
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JW Table at College Fair
by Sparkplug inthe school i attend had a fair of some sort and while stolling past the different groups available such as the art club, or gaming, media, poetry, baptist youth group...i was ever so suprised to find a table actually two filled with jw liturature.
first i about puked, paniced a bit and after composing myself, i strolled over.
this was insane.
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Athanasius
So far I haven't seen the JWs at the college I attend, but I've seen them with a table outside of Walmart. I stopped by their display of books and magazines and asked if they had the Book of Mormon. Surpisingly all they said was no. I thought for sure they would tell me I had the wrong religion and identify themselves as JWs. In fact they didn't even ask me if I wanted some of their literature.
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Did you like the name "Jehovah's Witnesses"?
by JimmyPage inor did you wish the religion had a more mainstream name?
i can remember a "worldly" schoolmate telling me he wouldn't object to the religion so much if the name didn't sound so weird..
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Athanasius
I didn't care for the name either. But keep in mind that Joe Rutherford named his followers "Jehovah's Witnesses" because when you say the name real fast it sounds like "Joe's Witnesses." So you can see why he liked the name.
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Did You Hate Going In Service???
by minimus ini really thought it was a stupid waste of time!
especially weekend mornings and holidays..
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Athanasius
I hated Field Service and as a kid tried all sorts of illnesses to get out of it.
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Friday the 13th,
by John Doe inand the board is dead.
interestingly, there will be 3 friday the 13th's this year..
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Athanasius
I saw the orignial "Friday the 13th" film back in the 1980s. Betsy Blair was great as the avenging mom, especially when she did Jason's voice. It was kind of a satire of Psycho with the son dead and the mother doing the murders.
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An Essay on Blood
by IWillBeDubbedNoMore inthis can be found at genesis 9:3,4. the society then states above " they were not to consume blood".
noah was required to bleed any animal that he killed.
he wasnt forbidden from eating the flesh of an animal that had died of natural causes.
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Athanasius
Excellent post Marvin. Last April Genesis 9 was discussed in our Bible class at church and there was some discussion of verse 4 so I did some research into several Torah commentaries. It is interesting what the ArtScroll Tanach says about Genesis 9:4. Using commentary from great Torah scholars like Rashi, Radak, Abarbanel, and Rambam, Bereishis (Genesis) Volume 1(a), page 286-287 says:
"Rashi explains that this verse prohibits a limb cut from a living animal--i.e, while its soul is still in it, you may not eat its flesh...He accordingly interprets that there are two prohibitions implicit in the verse: both the flesh and the blood taken from a living animal are forbidden. Rashi's interpretation follows the view of Rav Chaninah ben Gamliel in Sanhedrin 59, who holds that the verse prohibits both flesh cut from a living animal and blood drawn from a living animal.
"Targum Yonasn renders: But flesh which is torn from a living beast, while the life is in it, or that is torn from a slaughtered animal before all the breath has gone forth, you shall not eat."
On page 288 of the same publication, it mentioned Hirsch, another Torah scholar, commenting on Genesis 9:4: "Hirsch, rendering the verse in consonance with the Sages in Sanhedrin 59, stresses that blood from a living animal is not forbidden a Noachide." Hirsch concludes that Genesis 9:4 "cannot be rendered other than nevertheless, flesh, while its blood is in its soul, you shall not eat -- clearly referring to the living state of the animal and prohibiting flesh from a living animal."
Instead of being a prohibition of blood transfusions, Genesis 9:4 is humane law against cruelty to animals by prohibiting the tearing and eating of flesh from a living creature. Not surprisingly the Watchtower GB refuses to take the word of the great Jewish Torah scholars who were fluent in Hebrew and spent their whole life studying the Torah; instead they accept the speculations of Freddy Franz who supposedly taught himself Hebrew and then attempted to translate the Hebrew Bible into English.
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Know any cases from platform or audience of "apostate" remarks?
by Gregor insince leaving, one of my fantasies (after hours on the platform in the old days) is making a well planned statement, starting out subtle and building it into an outright expose of wt doctrine.
it would have to be a specific subject, (1914 generation would be good) to keep it consise and simple.
i have seen a couple of "crackpot" situations where somebody yelled from the audience, but nothing very effective.
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Athanasius
When I was the TM School overseer I once voiced guarded criticism of the NWT from the platform. We were discussing public reading, so I told the students to look up Esther 6:6, as this was part of the week's Bible reading. Then we read the verse in the NWT which says: "When Haman came in, the king proceeded to say to him: 'What is to be done to the man in whose honor the king himself has taken delight?'" I then asked the audience if that is the way they would normally express themselves. Not really, I said. Then I said that we would probably use expressions similar to those found in the Today's English Version Bible which translates the same verse this way: "So Haman came in, and the king said to him, 'There is someone I wish very much to honour. What should I do for this man?'" Next I mentioned that since the NWT isn't written the way we generally speak, that it is important that we really practice reading out loud before we give talk number 2, which at the time was the Bible reading.
So I was able to expose the woodeness of the NWT and the superiority of another Bible translation at the same time. But to protect my rear, make it appear as counsel on public reading.
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A Question About The Kingdom Interlinear Translation
by FireNBandits ini no longer have my 1969 edition kit (or 1985 for that matter), but i'm very curious as to how the literal english sublinear beneath the westcott and hort greek text translates the words "aion" and "aionios.
" the nwt usually idiotically translates as "system of things" when in actuality "aion" means "eon" or "age" and "aionios" means everlasting, eternal, and according to some translations such as young's literal and the concordant version "age lasting" and "eonian.
here are some verses to look up to let me know how the kit translates the above koine greek terms: matthew 13:39,40,49,28:20 .
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Athanasius
It always felt awkward using the NWT when out in field service because of the peculiar expressions that it used. "System of things" being one of the NWT's strange phrases. Hebrews 1:2 is especially awkward as the NWT renders it: "has at the end of these days spoken to us by means of a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the systems of things."
The New Jerusalem Bible translates the same verse using wording that easier understand: "in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages."
I never could understand why Freddy Franz used "system of things" in place of "age" or "era." I guess because its a phrase unique to the JWs.