damned if you do, damned if you don't: religious shunning and the free exercise clause.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3827&context=penn_law_review.
I skipped to the conclusion, which said…….
“When courts ignore the free exercise rights of individuals and look only at the religious claims of groups, they elevate the group's religion over the individual's religion. This is a dangerous path to follow. It gives religious groups virtually unfettered coercive power over their members and former members and blocks dissent and doctrinal development.”
have received news of the passing of alan fuerbacher today having just turned 70 years of age.
alan was an earlier and frequent poster on this forum and was a strident critic of wt bible chronology.
i enjoyed the continuous debate on matters relating to 607 bce and will miss his intellectual contributions and his scholarship even though i disagreed with much of his contributions on this subject.
If scholar is late , then I am nowhere because this is news to me…..sad news at that.
Alan F was a hero to me when I first dropped out of the WTS and found this forum. Alan was a towering presence with a great intellect and turn of speech . I learnt a lot. I did not always agree with him but I could still respect him.
The ding dong debates with Scholar about things made great reading…
Alan F ….. gone but fondly remembered.
i'm sick, i can't attend meetings.
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/tk715p/march_19_announcements_if_you_want_to_get_out_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3.
How do you know if you have been exposed to Covid? The man on the bus might have it , maybe.
Interesting that they specify a proper N95 mask. Are the attendants going to send them home if their mask is not correct? ... it’s a good excuse not to answer up .
Seems they are trying to both be careful and still have people together... That cannot be done, it’s one or the other.
i’d like to marry my best friend of 30+ years, turned ‘secret’ girlfriend of 1 ½ years who is a jehovah’s witness, born into it, baptized and an active ‘pioneer’.
our marriage would happen prior to letting any of her jw friends and cohorts know that we are together.
once married she may simply come forward and ‘admit’ or we may wait until it’s found out – one way or the other, the reason for this marriage is not customary – i am hoping that by doing so she can avoid being ‘marked’ or possibly ‘disfellowshipped’ once our relationship is no longer a secret and due to our already being married at that point, there can be no notion from society elders about her ending the relationship.
There is something very wrong about this . We are told this lady is living a double life as a respectable JW but having also a sexual relationship with her fiancé . She is lying to all her friends and ministers .
Should she marry she will continue lying to them by denying the prior relationship.
That is no basis for a happy life , even if she gets away with it.
jws believe that today, the time we live in is the worst time ever in history.
i know cause i just had a jw tell me yesterday this was the case.
he pointed to covid, the russian-ukraine war, the high gas prices and the food shortage happening.
I have had conversations with dub relatives along similar lines . They know that these times are the worst because they hear it from the WTS on their Apple IPad . They see shocking images from Ukraine on their massive televisions and worry that if the price of petrol gets worse they might have limit the use of their car.
All these things were not available to people like us even a few years ago... and they think times are bad! This takes nothing away from the real suffering of those in Ukraine and Yemen , and other such places . Even so , the world has suffered worse things in the past . It is all about what is shown to you .
i would like to collect as many instances of watchtower dishonesty and pretense as possible.
here is one from a bulgarian as an example of what i'm looking for.. are jehovah's witnesses disfellowshipped for receiving blood in a hospital?.
helge fauskanger writes: "if witnesses can’t convince the elders that they are utterly “repentant” for this vampiric lapse of theirs, they will be held to have disassociated themselves from the religion — even if they never said a word about wanting to leave it!
The Watchtower has a shocking record of misrepresenting and misquoting scientists
there are plenty of examples here . I have always found this site reliable.
for one thing i am older.
this is what i look like now or at least on jan 1, 2022.. .
yes, 69 years old.. i moved once.
Well well, you put me to shame Lady Lee with the way that you cope with your health problems.
May I say, looking at your new photo that I would not have guessed from that , what you tell us. You still look good ….🥀
it is nice to see some familiar faces here.
for those who don't know who i am my last id was lady lee.
thought i would drop by and say hello; see how people are doing.
Hello Lady Lee..... It is good to hear from you, after all, you are something of a legend around here.
Sorry to read of your health problems, I guess age and ill health catch up with the best of us. I send my best wishes.
Many Of our old friends have gone but several remain so please stay around. We would benefit from your quality input.
i'm longgone.
i was raised as a jw and i was in the "religion" for three decades.
i was an ex-jw for five years before i started to no longer even regard myself as an ex-jw, just as a person.
Welcome LongGone... we are a very mixed bunch here but with a common past in the WTS... As you say , you have to have been in it to understand it.
mchenry county, woodstock, il .
northwest herald, shaw local news.
breaking news - read below full article - (article was blocked unless the reader has a subscription.
So these obedient elders face jail time for doing what they were told to do by so called “Jehovah’s Organisation “ ... that is a tough break but only fair if it broke the State Law.
Critics say they were reckless etc but , knowing the way things are inside the Org , and especially if you are an elder.. you take the word of The Society above all others.
If this anonymous voice on the phone said “ don’t report- you are exempt from the law” , they would accept that unquestionably.
I’ll bet there is a no end of regret and saying “God ! I wish I had got his name !”
[ Edit.. we ought not to forget the poor kid who suffered horribly due to the perpetrators wickedness and their bungling]
