Athanasius

Joined

• started 27 topics
• posted 1,143 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Athanasius

• 
  15

  Reversal of Bush Conscience Clause

  by sammielee24 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  white house set to reverse health care conscience clauseendclickprintinclude google_ad_section_start content reap purge keep startclickprintincludestartclickprintexcludeendclickprintexcludeby saundra young .

  cnn endclickprintexcludestartclickprintexcludeendclickprintexcludewashington (cnn) -- the obama administration plans to reverse a regulation from late in the bush administration allowing health-care workers to refuse to provide services based on moral objections, an official said friday.. startclickprintexclude===========image=======================/image======================caption==========the rule protects the rights of health care providers who refuse to participate in certain procedures.===========/caption=========.

  endclickprintexcludethe provider refusal rule was proposed by the bush white house in august and enacted on january 20, the day president barack obama took office.. it expanded on a 30-year-old law establishing a "conscience clause" for "health-care professionals who don't want to perform abortions.".

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Athanasius

  Big Brother is watching.
• 
  18

  Are there any Anglicans/Espiscopalians on board?

  by Athanasius in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Athanasius

  When I first started attending Episcopal services there was a joke going around. It was that whenever four Episcopalians got together there was always a "fifth."

  I also had a Roman Catholic girlfriend who attended Episcopal services with me. She liked the Episcopal Church so much that she converted. She called her new church "Catholic Lite."

  My fiancee is Russian Orthodox, however, she likes Episcopal services and we are getting married in the Episcopal Church next month.
• 
  18

  Are there any Anglicans/Espiscopalians on board?

  by Athanasius in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  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?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Athanasius

  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?
• 
  32

  ExJWs either BAs or atheists -- do you agree?

  by parakeet in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a 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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  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.
• 
  12

  665 JW's in US prisons...

  by digderidoo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the 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% .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  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.
• 
  16

  JW Table at College Fair

  by Sparkplug in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the 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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  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.
• 
  29

  Did you like the name "Jehovah's Witnesses"?

  by JimmyPage in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  or 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..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  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.
• 
  38

  Did You Hate Going In Service???

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i really thought it was a stupid waste of time!

  especially weekend mornings and holidays..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Athanasius

  I hated Field Service and as a kid tried all sorts of illnesses to get out of it.
• 
  6

  Friday the 13th,

  by John Doe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  and the board is dead.

  interestingly, there will be 3 friday the 13th's this year..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  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.
• 
  15

  An Essay on Blood

  by IWillBeDubbedNoMore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this 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.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  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.