depending on the denomination of their interlocutor the witnesses often claim that their religion is free of a whole bunch of non-sensical doctrines which are so common in other religions.
oftentimes, however, it proves that they have something that i'll call "replacement doctines" - beliefs which which are difficult to figure out for the 'interested ones', but which in the long run prove to be just as bad as the stuff they disclaimed or worse.
example: in a catholic country like poland, jws often boast about the fact that they don't have the confession routine, where a person has his/her sins forgiven by a priest who acts as a representative of god.
usd,
I had a Job-like series of unfortunate events befall me
Told the elders- those genius' figured it out lick-ity-split I must have an object in my posession that has a demon(s).
Lol. So did you finally figure out which of your possesions was the demon's residence?
Pole
depending on the denomination of their interlocutor the witnesses often claim that their religion is free of a whole bunch of non-sensical doctrines which are so common in other religions.
oftentimes, however, it proves that they have something that i'll call "replacement doctines" - beliefs which which are difficult to figure out for the 'interested ones', but which in the long run prove to be just as bad as the stuff they disclaimed or worse.
example: in a catholic country like poland, jws often boast about the fact that they don't have the confession routine, where a person has his/her sins forgiven by a priest who acts as a representative of god.
Gary,
It?s rather hard to be inactive in government and hold the record for being active at the same time.
That's true. I wonder how many 'interested ones' ever bring this issue up, though...
Pole
from what i can see, it's the "lack of love" that gets people to realize the witnesses don't have the "truth" after all!
My mother, my mother-in-law, my wife and myself have all left (or are in the process of leaving) for the same reason:
hypocrisy
Years of being told that we're making sacrifices for God by going out to field service and lying to others about "the Bible prophecies" and "God's visible organization".
Pole
depending on the denomination of their interlocutor the witnesses often claim that their religion is free of a whole bunch of non-sensical doctrines which are so common in other religions.
oftentimes, however, it proves that they have something that i'll call "replacement doctines" - beliefs which which are difficult to figure out for the 'interested ones', but which in the long run prove to be just as bad as the stuff they disclaimed or worse.
example: in a catholic country like poland, jws often boast about the fact that they don't have the confession routine, where a person has his/her sins forgiven by a priest who acts as a representative of god.
Good points everyone.
I guess WillPower is right in saying they feel justified by the concept of theocratic war strategy.
As Dave and others have pointed out they lie about not being superstitious because they believe in demons residing in objects. Also, at least in Poland JWs avoid eating food that was prepared for a birthday party , because it's part and parcel of "the false religion". They also believe they're accompanied by angels when preaching. No, that has nothing to do with superstitions.
FunkyDerek's "preaching is voluntary" example is also exactly what I mean. Preaching is voluntary, but how many newbies are told about the service reports arrangement right from the start? Isn't it a way of exerting pressure on publishers?
I also quoted another one of their lies:
Jehovah's Witnesses encourage people to openly discuss religious matters
Right, I wonder what happens if you stand up in the middle of the meeting and suggest that the congregation should seriously reconsider certain explanations provided by the FDS?
-----------
Newbies are told tons and tons of lies and "half-truths". Such as "we don't beg for donations". The JWs give you the impression of freedom of speech and freedom of thought. They introduce the cultish aspects of WT gradually and put your doubts down to the lack of "spiritual maturity". The sad moment comes when you get baptized and settled in the congregation. Try to aks too many questions then or try not to turn in the service report slip. As a watchtower apparatchik, you're not supposed to doubt or complain. You're supposed to coerce others into the same BS.
depending on the denomination of their interlocutor the witnesses often claim that their religion is free of a whole bunch of non-sensical doctrines which are so common in other religions.
oftentimes, however, it proves that they have something that i'll call "replacement doctines" - beliefs which which are difficult to figure out for the 'interested ones', but which in the long run prove to be just as bad as the stuff they disclaimed or worse.
example: in a catholic country like poland, jws often boast about the fact that they don't have the confession routine, where a person has his/her sins forgiven by a priest who acts as a representative of god.
Depending on the denomination of their interlocutor the witnesses often claim that their religion is free of a whole bunch of non-sensical doctrines which are so common in other religions.
Oftentimes, however, it proves that they have something that I'll call "replacement doctines" - beliefs which which are difficult to figure out for the 'interested ones', but which in the long run prove to be just as bad as the stuff they disclaimed or worse.
Example: In a Catholic country like Poland, JWs often boast about the fact that they don't have the confession routine, where a person has his/her sins forgiven by a priest who acts as a representative of God. A lot of people like to hear that and count it as an upside of the JW religion.
What JWs fail to mention however is that they have Judicial Committes. I bet if the average Catholic had the idea of a judicial committee fully explained to him before he decides to sudy with the JWs, he'd probably stick with Catholic confession which may at least be anonymous and doesn't mean going through so much humiliation.
So that's one thing JWs lie about to the 'interested ones'. Do you know more examples?
Just to give you a hint of what I mean:
Unlike millions of people in other religions, Jehovah's Witnesses are free of superstitions.
Jehovah's Witnesses encourage people to openly discuss religious matters.
Are the claims above true? Or do the JWs lie about them, because they have their own 'replacement doctrines' which effectively have a similar meaning?
Pole
gina and i were batting around how the organization calls itself "god's channel" out of one side of their mouth and then reminds everyone that they are "imperfect men" out of the other.
this allows them to claim a position of authority as "god's organization" while at the same time allowing them to make mistakes and get away with it.
(1975, "generation", all the flavors of blood, etc).
What I don't like about the golden calf story is that Aaron got away with taking lead in the "false worship" thing. I mean this conformist bastard didn't even get "publicly reproved" by Moses, or did he?
I hope it's not supposed to mean that Jehoovah will go easy on the evil slave class for fooling millions of dubs :-).
Pole
this week in uk, there starts a new 6 week series to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings/programme.shtml?day=tuesday&service_id=4224&filename=20050111/20050111_2100_4224_37699_50.
personally, i do not like cinema films about the holocaust and, therefore, have never watched things like shindler's list or the pianist.
Realist,
it is good to fight against intolerance and hatred but in this case the purpose seems to be a different one.
You mean the "purpose" of organising this event? Did you forget who's actually hosting it? Or did you mean the "purpose" of advertising it worldwide?
Pole
i've been mulling over kenneson's recent thread:
unofffical jehovah's witness website censured
might this just be the biggest 'own goal' the wt has ever made?
An interesting black propaganda site:
http://watchtower.virtue.nu/index_en.htm
and a thread on it:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/78422/1.ashx
this poor fellow got in trouble with the watchtower society over copyright laws and got reprimanded.
instead of standing up for his rights, he just "kisses xxx.
" read his acquiescing response.. http://www.desinger.com/scriptures/conclusion.html
Another thing is that if the Legal Department was able to spot his rather petty site, analyse it's contnet and intimidate the guy, it means they must also monitor the Web in general and sites like this board or freeminds.org.
Not that they are likely to take any similar action, but it shows that they carefully read all the info available here and still continue to mislead themselves and others.
Cynical bastards.
this poor fellow got in trouble with the watchtower society over copyright laws and got reprimanded.
instead of standing up for his rights, he just "kisses xxx.
" read his acquiescing response.. http://www.desinger.com/scriptures/conclusion.html
At the same time I hope that by obeying, we'll be protected from something that I know nothing about.
Pole
