Forscher

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Posts by Forscher

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  14

  Teens who pledge virginity have difficulty keeping it up

  by zagor in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  virginity pledges, in which young people vow to abstain from sex until marriage, have little staying power among those who take them.

  more than half the adolescents who make such signed, public promises give up on their pledges within a year, according to a harvard study.

  the findings have raised the ire of concerned women for america, a conservative organisation that endorses adolescent sexual abstinence.

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  Forscher

  The report also suggests that tracking STD rates would be more reliable.

  
  It certainly makes sense. However, there are studies out there which show that people are suprisingly honest in surveys. For instance, Dr. Ann Rafferty, A researcher with the Michigan Department of Health, in 1995, published a study she did in an article entitled Validity of a Household Gun Question in a Telephone Survey in Public health reports. In her survey she did a phone survey of a certain Michigan county, Michigan at the time had rather draconian handgun laws. She cross-checked her results with certain agency records to determine how honestly people answered her question about handgun ownership. What she found was that people were surprisingly candid in their answers. So the way the research is being done now (a longitudinal survey study) should suffice to get a good picture.
  I also agree that something other than just "not doing it" would probably be helpful. The problem is that those pushing abstinence also believe that the Bible forbids masturbation. Those of us who were "in the trooth" know well that kind of misguided thinking and the sick reasoning that often accompanies it.
  Forscher
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  75

  Were YOU Gossiped About In The Congregation?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you know who the worst offenders were??

  the elders.

  the elders, because they were "shepherds and overseers" believed they had the right to talk about you, your family, your job, your personality and so forth.....they pick apart any male in the hall under the guise of seeing whther someone "might qualify for privileges".

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  Forscher

  Were YOU Gossiped About In The Congregation?<.div>
  Of course. who wasn't? But for those of us who were not in the "in" cliques the gossip could get downright vicious.
  So, what was the gossip about? Through the years I had my sexual orientation called into question (I was the odd man out when the marraige "musical chairs" was finished), was labelled a "fighter against Jehovah", labelled as lazy, labelled as materialistic, labelled as henpecked after I got married, and on and on. Some of the gossip made its way out of the congregation and into the wider community. Again, the elders were the worse ones about doing that as were the suck-up Ministerial servants who were trying to curry favor with one particularly powerful alpha-elder.
  For all I know they still are doing it. I hope they enjoy it!
  Forscher
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  18

  A little background has to why I left 'The Truth'

  by Kero-kero in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello all.. there was a request made by some here...well ok one person here to say a little bit about myself and what happened to my wifes nephew nad his unjust disfellowship.. ok...well, i think i have already said a little about myself before, so i will be quick.

  started to study in 1987 and then was baptised in 1989 at hayesbridge assembly hall (sorry...my spelling...forgotton how to spell hayesbridge) in surrey just south of the m25.

  i went to pakistan to help for a little while and there i met my now wife.

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  Forscher

  Sounds familiar Kero.
  I I've seen a few of those things myself. A young woman disfellowshipped for fornication on the strength of rumors spread by the elders themselves (so much for the "two witness" rule). Several rape victims disfellowshipped unjustly. Not much surprises me anymore about what elders do. The "scriptural divorce" thing really burns me up at times. I had a friend who's husband divorced here and took up living with another woman. Even though it was obvious what was going on the elders refused to accept anything less than the sister seeing her ex having sex in order for her to be free to remarry (and that wasn't happening). Soon, she started showing some intrest in another man. She was harrassed and hounded by the elders and others in the congregation and finally disfellowshipped on the flimsiest of evidence. so I am in full sympathy with your brother on that one.
  Xuda hafiz, Kero sahib,
  Forscher
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  14

  Teens who pledge virginity have difficulty keeping it up

  by zagor in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  virginity pledges, in which young people vow to abstain from sex until marriage, have little staying power among those who take them.

  more than half the adolescents who make such signed, public promises give up on their pledges within a year, according to a harvard study.

  the findings have raised the ire of concerned women for america, a conservative organisation that endorses adolescent sexual abstinence.

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  Forscher

  "The Harvard report is wrong,"

  
  I would need to have a good look at the methodology etc. to decide whether they are or aren't wrong. Besides, the good news from the study is that almost half of those who take the pledge do keep it at least a year. If it weren't for the fact that the Harvard folks are opposed to the concept of abstinence that would be considered a good thing.
  Forscher
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  43

  Armageddon, Inc (1940) - The last critical article there was on JWs!

  by VM44 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  "armageddon, inc" was an article published in the september 14, 1940 issue of the saturday evening post.. it was written by stanley high and was a critical review of the jehovah's witness religion as it was then.. this was 65 years ago, and i do not know of _any_ articles since then that have been published in a major magazine that attempt to analyze or examine the jehovah's witnesses!.

  there have been many articles published over the years about jws, particularly when conventions are being held in a town.

  the local papers will usually do stories about them.

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  Forscher

  But he never made Russell's mistake of entering any supernatural claims for himself.

  
  Really? I guess he didn't do his research all that well.
  Forscher
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  23

  Southern Food

  by doodle-v in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just got back from atlanta yesterday, boy oh boy did i have an eatin good time!

  grits, collard greens....biscuits and gravy... fried chicken...peach cobbler... sweet tea.

  yuuuum.

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  Forscher

  Since I live in the South good southern cooking is just a kitchen away! And when I want to kick it up a bit there are plenty of good restauraunts around which serve it as well.
  Forscher
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  24

  Why tortured to death?

  by Gill in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  .

  if jesus only 'had to die' to redeem the whole human race, why then did he have to be tortured to death?.

  was that really necessary, and what sick mind decreed that it was necessary?

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  Forscher

  The answer to the question is found in the third chapter of Galatians.
  The background to what Paul was writing about was the insistenceof some that gentiles who became Christians also had to become Jewish prosylites by getting circumcised. Paul points out at verse ten that anyone under the Mosaic Law falls under a special curse contained in that law because no imperfect human is capable of following it fully (Deut. 27:26). There was also an equivalent curse on anyone who was hung on a stake (Deut. 21:23). Usually those hung on a stake were executed first and then hung up as a warning for others. Crucifiction was basically a continuation of that custom with the added horror of being hung on the cross or stake alive so that the instrument was also the means of execution. By being hung up that way for display Jesus became cursed and thus took to himself the curse which the Jews and anyones esle who observed the Mosaic Law was under thus freeing them from that curse in addition to paying the ransom price for Adam's sin (verse 13).
  Paul was chiding those who were judiaising the Gentiles of course. He was pointing that out to demonstrate the futility of following the law and the lack of need for Gentiles to come under it. But in doing so he provided the answer to the question posed.
  Forscher
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  12

  Reading "The Power of Myth"

  by wanderlustguy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it was like i had so many doors already cracked open, so to speak, but this book has thrown them right off the hinges.

  i would recommend it to anyone.

  it also helped me to understand james thomas' posts a lot better.

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  Forscher

  I was trying to be a little humorous folks.
  I've read both books and cited the Hero of a Thousand Faces in a research paper or two. Since I minored in Anthropology I did get to read a number of Cambell's works and own a few more as well.
  Forscher
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  32

  Gods organisation here on Earth

  by Dr Jekyll in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ok so we all know that the faithful and discrete slave class claim to be gods organisation here on earth and that they claim that a god of order would have an organisation to organise his followers but can anyone pull a scripture of of their hat that proves that god doesn't need an organisation here on earth?

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  Forscher

  Insight is also gained by the way the nation of Israel was organized after Joshua. It was so loosely organized that it couldn't even be called a confederation. Basically each extended family and city was a unit unto itself. There was no central authority. The only unity was in their law which the levites living throughout the land were responsible to teach. Judicial affairs were handled by city elders who held their position by virtue of age and wisdom rather than by appointment by a central authority.
  In times of crisis, God would raise a "Judge", or charismatic leader who would lead Israel during the crisis. He was usually followed not becaused they were forced to by God, but because they recognised the nessesity of cooperation with somebody leading the show. In other words, God governed not with a controlling organization like the WTBTS, but by moving people with his spirit. at times he let them do what they wanted without interference as is testified to many times throughout the book of judges. Remember, the arraingement of a King with his coersive powers originated not with God. Rather it was demanded by the people.
  The early christian church was governed in pretty much the same manner. The central authority which the Governing Body claims to be the heirs of just didn't exist. central human authority was an apostasy.
  Forscher
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  12

  Reading "The Power of Myth"

  by wanderlustguy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it was like i had so many doors already cracked open, so to speak, but this book has thrown them right off the hinges.

  i would recommend it to anyone.

  it also helped me to understand james thomas' posts a lot better.

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  Forscher

  Read his "Hero of a Thousand Faces" then go out and right a book or movie script. Thats' what George Lucas did.
  Forscher