Bodhisattva

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Posts by Bodhisattva

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  15

  JW molester in the news

  by silentlambs in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  http://www.bergen.com/page.php?level_3_id=7&page=3284376.

  a west milford man pleaded guilty to child endangerment offenses friday for sexual encounters he had with two teenage girls he met through his membership at the jehovah's witnesses temple in town.. tom blankenship, 23, had been befriended by an elder at the church and was often invited over for meals and visits, said joseph del russo, passaic county chief assistant prosecutor.. from the fall of 1998 through april 2000, blankenship had sexual relations with one of the elder's relatives, a 17-year-old girl.

  he had similar sexual contact with another relative, a 14-year-old girl, from june 2001 through feb. 21, del russo said.. although there was no physical force used in the incidents, blankenship was charged with multiple sexual assault charges because of the victims' ages.

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  Bodhisattva

  Well, Francois, it would certainly matter if you married when you were 28. Here in Pennsylvania, the 17 year old would not have been a problem, legally. Sensibly, I think, Pennsylvania also does not criminalize sex between someone of at least 14 with someone no more than 4 years older; kids are going to have sex, so the best public policy is to prevent them being taken advantage of by older people, whereas someone who just was their age is less likely to victimize them.

  These are formative years, but for the J.W., there is little in the way of a right-of-passage. It's not as though they should aspire to move out of the parental home to a college dorm; even getting a full-time job is seen as a failure to more straight to pioneering. Meanwhile, those who like this young man do move out are socially stunted, because they really only have the other single "young people" in the congregation to associate with - most of whom are married or gone by 18 or so. This 23 year old may have been no more mature than a 17 or 18 year old.

  Nonetheless he should have paid attention to the laws of Caesar, even if he was going to break the less than reasonable laws of Brooklyn. The 14 year old was too much, and without that he may not have even been prosecuted; and as for the 17 year old, he should have waited - until she was 18, or until he could get a hotel room across the border in Pennsylvania.

  The god of the dolphins has flippers.

  Should be "rites of passage"
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  25

  This Is Only For Americans.....

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...who intend to visit the uk.. reproduced from: http://www.jomiller.com/guide/.

  vocabulary.

  the brits have peculiar words for many things.

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  Bodhisattva

  I was in London last month. I thought something was amiss with the wellies, and thought that "quid" was an odd mistake to make - I was sure it was a pound, not a shilling. Then I came upon this line:

  The English are a notoriously demonstrative, tactile people...

  The hoax was up, then, you tosser. I will be sure to pass this on to anyone I know going to England.
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  5

  Looking for Several Pieces of Info

  by Valis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my room mate and i have been discussing the origins of the catholic stance on priests and celibacy.

  we're currently stuck on the concept of peter, the first pope, having been married.

  this kind of throws a kink in their whole foundation imho.

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  Bodhisattva

  Celibacy dates back to about 1000 A.D. Priests were passing on church property to their children. Can't have that.
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  24

  Fangs for the memory; would you become a vampire?

  by Abaddon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  now, first off, there's no such thing.. but, let's imagine that we live in the same dimension as buffy (most of the guys and a few of the women start paying attention), or the anne rice novels, blade, whatever.. vampires are real.

  god is distant and removed.

  there is an epic, but drawn out and irresolvable struggle between good and evil.

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  Bodhisattva

  I be turned. Then I could go find Willow and try to turn her - back into a hetero. (Which the real Aly - Alyson Hannigan - is, she just plays a Lesbian. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
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  18

  "He looks a lot like Chez Guevara"

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what song was that from?

  a david bowie one?.

  thought i'd try a change of profile pic ...

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  Bodhisattva

  I used to get "Wireless" and other public radio-ish catalogs. (I haven't gotten them in some time, despite recently joining my local public radio and TV station as a contributor). Anyway, they had a photo of Ché swinging a golf club with Fidel - they would apparently play a round just before decommissioning bourgeois golf courses.

  <i>We would have Palestine already, but for the Palestinians.</i>
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  18

  "He looks a lot like Chez Guevara"

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what song was that from?

  a david bowie one?.

  thought i'd try a change of profile pic ...

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  Bodhisattva

  I have a Mexican friend with the surname Guevara - no relation to Ché - and was just thinking today that he should open a French restaurant - Chez Guevara!
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  24

  WT 4-01-02 article

  by DB in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the april 1, 2002 issue of the watchtower, an article appears entitled "keep on serving jehovah with a steadfast heart".

  paragraph 14 of this article states: "if jehovah's organization knowingly endorsed false teachings, advice to read the bible would never be given to jehovah's witnesses and those to whom they preach.".

  i am withholding comment on this statement, because i'd like to hear from any who would like to post a response.

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  Bodhisattva

  Do they not elsewhere require members to agree with the whole range of Watchtower doctrine, including interpretations (of the Bible) that are "unique to Jehovah's Witnesses"?!?

  For instance, I wholeheartedly endorse the apostolic decree in Acts 15. It was appropriate that newly-converted gentiles try not to stumble their fellow Christians who were Jewish by eating meat from idol temples or from animals killed by strangulation, drinking blood, or fornicating. In this of course I heartily agree with the Watchtower interpretation - in C.T. Russell's time.

  Try this, active JW's: Read another interpretive Bible than the NWT, such as the New Living. Because today, as you read the NWT or a Bible that is doctrinally neutral (and trust me, the NWT is not), you add meaning to each scripture as you read it because you have heard it before. The NWT goes along with the meaning you add, and the neutral text does little to work against your current understanding.

  Ah, but read a Bible written by people with different doctrines who, like the NWT translators, alter word choice to fit their beliefs, and you will find yourself reading a whole different book. You'll find yourself questioning the translators' choices, challenging their beliefs. And, finally, the omen of free thought, you'll find your own comfortable beliefs challenged.

  The fact that the Watchtower makes this boast only indicates that they believe their followers are fully programmed to believe they are free, and that even those who fancy themselves just a little rebellious - but in a good, Laodicean way - will only repeat in their minds what they have already been taught when verifying things in the Bible. (Good thing for the WTS that Galatians comes so late).

  Yes, they believe taht they are free, and are often told so. This is the most insidious form of imprisonment.
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  27

  Colorgenics

  by peaceloveharmony in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  click the link :).

  http://colorgenics.com/.

  a good friend is someone who will come and bail you out of jail, but a true friend will be sitting next to you saying "that was f**king awesome.

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  Bodhisattva

  I profiled some pneumatic tubing. Everything is going the wrong direction, and it is terribly MISUNDERSTOOD. It may act irrationally.

  I can certainly understand that the pneumatic tubing is under a lot of pressure.

  There are 40,320 possible orders the eight colors can be chosen in, and for all that an answer may hinge on whether one thinks a particular cube is orange or more brown. Balderdash.

  We would have Palestine already,
  but for the Palestinians.
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  20

  $300,000,000 - Percentage YOU Would Donate To WTS?

  by Derrick in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  you buy a state lottery ticket with a motherlode of a jackpot similar to one in california recently.. lo and behold you alone win the $300,000,000.. before and after the next meeting you share your joy with the brothers and sisters.

  some are naturally curious to know what percentage you plan on donating to the world wide preaching work and local congregation?.

  how do you respond?.

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  Bodhisattva

  I would personally underwrite 10% of their budget to help widows, orphans, and the poor. The program they have that's not a PR front, and not tied into proselytizing.

  So, 0%.

  Jesus said 'you will always have the poor with you' - and if everyone did for the poor what the WTS does, this will look like a fulfilled prophecy.
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  39

  Was Eve really Adam's first woman?

  by Shimmer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i checked out this really cool book from the library called don't know much about the bible.

  it talks about a hebrew legend recorded in the medieval alphabet of ben sira regarding a lilith who was adam's first wife, who preceded eve.

  in this version, lilith is created from the earth, as adam was.

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  Bodhisattva

  Badboy -

  Not so fast. The "Adam" and "Eve" identified by geneticists were the most recent common male ancestor and common female ancestor, not to only or the earliest. If genetic Eve came later, than genetic Adam's only wife (or if he had more than one, his mother) would be a common female ancestor for all of us, just not the most recent.

  Say Jack marries a woman, has children, divorces her, and then marries her cousin, who shares a grandfather and grandmother. A child of the first marriage and a child of the second would be related like this, barring further complications: Their most recent common male ancestor would be Jack, and their most recent common female ancestor would be their mothers' grandmother. But the grandmother of the childrens' mothers would be married to another common male ancestor - the grandfather of their mothers. If the family tree had branched as much as possible, this would have been their most recent common male ancestor given that their mothers were cousins, but sometimes the branches cross, as with ex-wife's-cousin-marrying Jack.

  This is what the geneticists were looking for - the most recent common male ancestor, and the most recent common female ancestor, that they could trace based on the Y-chromosome for males and Mitochondrial DNA for females. Genetic Adam, coming before genetic Eve and being forefather to all of us, necessarily identifies a common foremother: His only wife, if he had only one, or his mother. But since the father-provided Y-chromosome traces back much further than genetic Eve's time, which is identified by Mitochondrial DNA passed on only by the mother, apparently genetic Eve was not a one-guy sort of lass.