http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/watch_comedian_lewis_black_reads_18_year_old_s_resignation_letter_to_the_mormon_church(warning!
language!
).
If their tax status was in jeopardy, I'm pretty sure the Mormons would get a "revelation" about gays and such.
The same with the JWs. If threatened with having to pay taxes on their money grubbing ways, I suspect there would some blinding "new light" about blood transfusions now being a conscience matter and that no one should be criticized for whatever decision they made about it.
It's all about the money. Always has been, always will be.
can you send me the quote where the watchtower said that the word includes the book vindication?
thanks a bunch!.
.. the quote is in the 1932 watchtower, april 1, pg.101, par.
In the Watchtower of December 15, 2008, page 28, there appears this quote about lessons to be learned from the book Second John (2 John):
2, 4. Our coming to know “the truth”—the entire body of Christian teachings that has become part of the Bible—and adhering to it are essential for our salvation.—3 John 3, 4.
It seems to me they were saying that "the entire body of Christian teachings" (including modern "understandings," doctrines, and policies) have "become part of the Bible" and therefore have the same weight and authority as the Bible itself.
If this was the intent, it's presumptuous in the extreme and practically blasphemous, given the many flip-flops and constant self-serving "adjustments" due to "new light."
i was having dinner at olive garden with my cousin who was disfellowshipped for apostacy.
a holier than thou pioneer couple saw us.
if that was not enough i saw her take a picture of me with my cousin.
Her taking your picture was creepy, but I doubt it was actually illegal. Of course, if someone was recording your conversation without your knowledge and consent, that's an entirely different matter.
I'm glad you didn't confront her and grab the phone out of her hands. Like someone else said, you yourself could have gotten in trouble, maybe charged with assault or theft by taking.
Anyway, the tattletale didn't follow "theocratic procedure." If she was truly concerned for your spirituality, she should have first spoken to you about it privately, not gone running straight to the elders.
I recommend just telling the elders to take a hike and mind their own business, though possibly in more polite terms. Necessary family business means whatever you want it to mean, and you don't have to explain it to a bunch of busybodies.
so what are your thoughts on astral projection?
have a co-worker who claims to know how to induce this on himself.
is he crazy?
There is a senior captain at my airline who claims he can project himself ahead of the airplane and thereby avoid bad weather without using the weather radar. Scared many a co-pilot when he refused to use the radar with thunderstorms all along the route.
Don't know much more about it, except that I've never heard of him getting in trouble because of it and I believe he is still around. I've never flown with him myself.
i am inclined to start this thread in response to some comments made in other threads.
i have been coming around these forum for quite some time now so whatever you find in here is not just related to something someone may have said this week.
it can go months back as well.. i have seen many who claim to respect the belief of others but when it comes down to applying it into practice, things take a whole different tune.
Pontification mode: ON
I would agree that it's generally good to respect another's right to believe anything they want, but not necessarily the belief(s) themselves. But even that's not an absolute.
Should anyone be required to respect someone's "right" to believe that people of a different religion, ethnic group, race, nationality, or whatever, are beneath them and should be exterminated? What sane person would believe the Nazis had the "right" to believe that the Jews were the root of all evil and therefore should be rounded up and killed? What balanced person would believe ISIS has the "right" to believe the wholesale slaughter of "infidels," the destruction of cultural monuments that predate their theology by thousands of years, and the disgusting practices of "thighing" babies and violating prepubescent sex slaves are all justified because they have the "one true religion"?
Even if one conceded that people have some "right" to believe absolutely anything they want, that would not translate as any "right" to impose those beliefs on anyone else and certainly not to act on those beliefs if it harmed or even infringed on the rights of anyone else.
I reject what I see as the myth that all beliefs are equally worthy of respect. I do not accept that all religions are equally worthy of respect. Or that all cultures are equally worthy of respect. Some of all the above, or at least certain aspects thereof, are so far beneath human dignity that they deserve only derision and total rejection by society as a whole.
Pontification mode: OFF
Resuming normal operations.
Please submit 2¢ for insightful diatribe.
i know we are all anonymous for our own personal reasons, so i understand if you would rather not say.
but if you don't mind sharing that would be cool.
i currently live in georgia, usa.
so i was reading over new member hollywood 20s experience and thinking of using it when i'm going to talk with my son that their trying to get baptized.
so that with all the other things through my mind i decided to say some things to him about what's going on with my daughter.
so this is what happening with her.
grew up in east la in a bad neighborhood to a black mother and white father.
i never knew my father because he died in a car accident when i was a few weeks old.
my mother converted as a jw soon after when two sisters came to her door and offered her comfort, which was something she needed.
I completely agree with WingCommander. You may have to grovel a bit. Do it!
I was pressured from every side to give up my dreams and not pursue a career in aviation. I was older than you and more established, and maybe that made me more able to withstand the pressure and basically tell them to pound sand. But I am SO glad I did. You can, too.
PLEASE follow WingCommander's advice and give it another shot. If you don't, you'll never know what might have happened.
apologies if this has been posted previously, but this news item has appeared today regarding the proposed redress for abuse victims following the australian royal commission:.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-27/labor-pledges-payments-for-sex-abuse-survivors/6886864.
what's interesting is that in january it was proposed that the federal government contribute almost half of an estimated $4.3 billion redress scheme.
No government (read "taxpayers") should pay any part of any redress scheme. The guilty parties and the organizations that covered up for them should be the ones paying.
I think religions should be taxed the same as any other "business." Only actual charitable activities like providing meals and housing for the destitute or victims of disaster should be exempted. No "teaching English" or "providing cultural education" bull-crap as a ruse for proselytizing. No shuffling money around from "charity" to "charity" to hide their wealth. No special treatment or protections not available to any other business.
More important, religion should no longer be something one can hide behind and expect exemptions from the laws that everyone else must obey. "Believe what you want, but you may not impose those beliefs on anyone else nor demand that they comply with those beliefs outside your own home." Freedom to believe is near absolute. Freedom to act on those beliefs is not.
To me, the "Establishment Clause" of the US Constitution means that the government may not endorse or support or give any special consideration to any religion or belief system. Would that that were so...
there doing this right under my nose but i just found out.
not sure what to do but would like your help on getting me wt information on my headship role and how they shouldn't be doing this with out my permission.
also would like some help on showing my son the ramifications on what happens to someone when they get baptized and how they'll expect him to treat me.
Hi Crazyguy. I can sympathize with your predicament. This is a dangerous situation, and I hope you can "nip it in the bud."
I am certainly not holding myself out as any sort of example, but this is what worked for me:
(Bear in mind, I was "in" at the time and usually attended meetings when I was in town, but was mostly going through the motions and almost never went in "service." I couldn't force myself to try to teach others something I didn't truly believe myself. I was also open and occasionally vocal about things about the organization that bothered me. That included some outright skepticism about certain of the more "iffy" doctrines, interpretations, and policies.)
When my son was around 12 or 13, I was working away from home about every other week or so. My wife and a "brother" from the congregation (who considered himself my best friend) took it upon themselves to indoctrinate him into getting baptized. They "studied" with him behind my back and would tell him I wasn't doing right and he had to help me so I wouldn't be destroyed at Armageddon. One night he came to me in tears, asking why I wasn't serving "the big J" and saying he didn't want me to be destroyed. It broke my heart, just as his little heart was breaking.
We had a long talk about things and I tried to comfort him that I wasn't doing anything bad and I just had some problems with the organization (not "J-dog" himself) and that I didn't feel right putting on a show just because of what others might think. He calmed down and became his normal happy and loving self again. The crisis was averted, but I knew I had to take action.
I immediately put my foot down, and hard! Under no circumstances was anyone other than his mother to "study" with him. When I was away, he was to obey his mother and go to the meetings with her, out of respect for her feelings as his mother, until he was 18. But he could not be compelled to go in "service." And under no circumstances whatsoever could he be baptized before he was 18. I absolutely forbade it, under threat of immediate divorce and full court press to get 100% custody. And I could have done it, too. There are circumstances not discussed here that would have practically guaranteed it. Most importantly, his mother knew I meant business, so she backed off.
He dutifully went with her to the meetings until his 18th birthday. That was his last meeting, and mine as well. That was 15 years ago, and he is now a happy and successful adult. He loves his mom and sees her often (she and I have lived apart for the last 10 years), but she has learned the quickest way to put him off is to try to push more religious nonsense down his throat. He has had more than enough.
Crazyguy, PLEASE play the "headship card," or whatever else will work, and make sure no outsider "studies" with your son behind your back. And forbid him to get baptized until he is at least 18 and knows what he's doing. I can almost guarantee he'll love you for it in the end. He'll know you stood up for him and kept him from making a terrible mistake when he didn't have all the facts and was too young to understand the lifelong ramifications.
Good luck...
