Didn't I say this article is "thought provoking"? It seems to be "post provoking" too.
Interesting observations! Hope there will be many more viewpoints expressed for us to think about.
Barbara
AndersonsInfo
JoinedPosts by AndersonsInfo
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Huffington Post: When Is A Religion 'Extremist'? [Food for thought!]
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-is-a-religion-extremist_us_590de8e3e4b046ea176aeb98.
tim rymel, m.ed.. governments who support “religious freedom” over the equal human rights and dignity of others condone, and even endorse discrimination.. 05/06/2017 11:27 am et | photo – flickr/ justin kern .
government endorsement of any religious ideology creates religious extremism.
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Huffington Post: When Is A Religion 'Extremist'? [Food for thought!]
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-is-a-religion-extremist_us_590de8e3e4b046ea176aeb98.
tim rymel, m.ed.. governments who support “religious freedom” over the equal human rights and dignity of others condone, and even endorse discrimination.. 05/06/2017 11:27 am et | photo – flickr/ justin kern .
government endorsement of any religious ideology creates religious extremism.
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AndersonsInfo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-is-a-religion-extremist_us_590de8e3e4b046ea176aeb98
When Is A Religion ‘Extremist’?
Tim Rymel, M.Ed.
Governments who support “religious freedom” over the equal human rights and dignity of others condone, and even endorse discrimination.
05/06/2017 11:27 am ET | Photo – Flickr/ Justin KernGovernment endorsement of any religious ideology creates religious extremism.In April, Russia’s Supreme Court labeled Jehovah’s Witnesses an extremist religious group. “It effectively means that holding their beliefs and manifesting them is tantamount to a criminal act in Russia. They risk new levels of persecution by the Russian authorities,” said international legal counsel, Lorcan Price.
In America, most of us think of Jehovah’s Witnesses as that occasional Saturday nuisance. They interrupt our morning breakfast or afternoon chores to tell us their version of the Christian faith. They cheerfully drag their families along for quiet strolls through the neighborhoods, and pass out Watchtower Magazines for us to throw away later.
Annoying? Yes. Disruptive? Usually. But extremist? That depends.
Growing up in the Pentecostal faith, I was taught that Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Catholics were not Christians. Anyone who converted to those, or other non-mainstream Christian sects, was deceived by the devil. Though we didn’t use the word “extremist” to define those religions, we certainly saw them as a threat to the true people of God who were susceptible to “false teachings.”
Religion, to paraphrase Merriam-Webster, is generally a belief in the supernatural with a commitment to keep up the attitudes and practices surrounding that belief. In other words, religion is more than just a belief it is an action. For some, that means attending church on Sundays. For others, it means killing people for believing the wrong things, or believing in the wrong way.
The BBC noted that Al Qaeda’s purpose is to avenge “wrongs committed by Christians against Muslims.” The organization wants to implement a “single Islamic political leadership,” and drive away non-Muslims from areas it deems belong to the nation of Islam.
ISIS, on the other hand, is a group of Scriptural fundamentalists who believe all other Muslims are apostates. William McCants, director of the Project on US Relations With the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution, says that ISIS wants “to restore the early Islamic empire called the caliphate and eventually take over the whole world.”
Most of us can agree that Al Qaeda and ISIS are extremist groups. After all, they plan and implement terrorist attacks. They kill people, sometimes brutally. But is violence the only indicator of religious extremism?
It could certainly be argued that when a religion becomes violent it becomes extremist. But even Christianity, in it’s many definitions, has a sorted history, which is seldom talked about and often dismissed. From the Spanish inquisition to the convert-or-die tactics used on Native American Indians, Christianity has been used to commit horrific acts of violence throughout the centuries. Judaism, from which Christianity arose, recorded shocking details in the Torah of the slaughter of entire populations, including women, children, and animals.
Any religion, which purports to, alone, have all truth, and to, alone, have a direct line of communication to God, has a propensity toward extremist ideology. As University of Notre Dame Professor, Gary Gutting, points out:
The potential for intolerance lies in the logic of religions like Christianity and Islam that say their teaching derive from a divine revelation. For them, the truth that God has revealed is the most important truth there is; therefore, denying or doubting this truth is extremely dangerous, both for nonbelievers, who lack this essential truth, and for believers, who may well be misled by the denials and doubts of nonbelievers.
Any religion that denies the value and humanity of others is an extremist religion. Whether those actions lead to direct harm, or simply reduce protections through legislation, extremist ideology seeks to create one class that is believed to be more valued than another.
The grandstanding that fundamentalist Christians have done since marriage equality passed in 2015 has created a growing, and disturbing trend toward extremist Christianity.
READ MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-is-a-religion-extremist_us_590de8e3e4b046ea176aeb98
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Want to read a surprising comment/complaint posted on my website about JW's encouraged not to have kids. Who would have thought!
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://watchtowerdocuments.org/did-you-know-having-children/#comment-474.
here's the short article found in the "did you know?
" series found on watchtower documents, and, underneath it, is the unusual comment:.
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AndersonsInfo
http://watchtowerdocuments.org/did-you-know-having-children/#comment-474
Here's the short article found in the "Did You Know?" series found on Watchtower Documents, and, underneath it, is the unusual comment:
Did You Know? (Having Children)
…Jehovah’s Witnesses were told not to have children?
As far back as 1938 the Watchtower was urging Jehovah’s Witnesses not to marry and rear children because of the “urgency” of the witnessing work. Hence, many Witnesses from that era did not marry or have children. (The Watchtower, November 1, 1938.)
Less than 40 years later a 1974 Awake! magazine clearly stated on page 11 that since the evidence that destruction of this entire system of things was “now imminent,” many couples are remaining “childless so that they would be less encumbered to carry out the instructions of Jesus Christ to preach the good news of God’s kingdom earth wide before the end of this system comes.” (Awake!, November 8, 1974)
Once again, during the 1987 District Assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a lecture was given entitled, “Responsible Child-bearing in This Time of the End.” Watchtower speakers encouraged young brothers and sisters to stay single and married couples to remain childless because of “the nearness of Armageddon.”
In the provided audio presentation below you can hear exactly what the attendees heard on Day 2 of those conventions during the summer of 1987. Watchtower district and circuit overseers read the exact, word-for-word talk to audiences in the United States and Canada. Similar talks were given to international audiences of Jehovah’s Witnesses that same summer and later that year. Most of what those speakers presented in the following talk was reinforced by articles published in The Watchtower for January 15, 1988 and the Awake! for January 22, 1988.
[The audio presentation link was omitted from this JWN post.]
Many JWs missed out on ever having children…
Below read the comment made regarding the information provided in the short "Did You Know" article:
"I’m a Witness. This pisses me off to no end. It’s completely true. https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2000565 That’s a 2000 article. I have 4 kids. In 1994, I was told by a prominent elder in my congregation when I was 2 months pregnant with my first that I was making a bad decision. The System was going to end any day, this system is evil and we are having times hard to deal with. “Why would I want to subject someone to this cruel world” in shock I walked away. I was told this again by another elder. Then two other sisters. I felt shunned in my congregation because my husband and I were not towing the line of “dedication to field service” instead of “pursing a worldly life an career” I did this 3 more times happily!
Fast forward 22 years later. There are NO SINGLES for my kids to date. They’ve had to travel endlessly in search of other Witnesses their age to date. It’s a missing generation. I can go on about this for hours. This is completely true and dangerous." -
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Bringing Abuse to Light, London. Reporting from Spain, Dr. Guillém Sánchez (El Periodico de Catalunya) London talk
by AndersonsInfo inhttps://abusostj.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/bringing-abuse-to-light-london-reporting-from-spain-dr-guillem-sanchez-el-periodico-de-catalunya/.
bringing abuse to light, london.
reporting from spain, dr. guillém sánchez (el periodico de catalunya).
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AndersonsInfo
Bringing Abuse to Light, London. Reporting from Spain, Dr. Guillém Sánchez (El Periodico de Catalunya)
Sánchez (El Periodico de Catalunya)
Text of the reporting given by Dr. Guillém Sánchez (http://www.elperiodico.com/es/autor/guillem-sanchez/), from El Periódico de Catalunya
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The real extent of the problem regarding the sexual abuses suffered by Spanish minors among the Jehovah’s Witnesses is still a mystery. We have no approximate numbers or percentages of the victims, we are almost completely unaware. As in the majority of the world’s countries, we have a lot of work to do.
For the Spanish government, neither was a priority figuring it out nor discovering which were the sexual abuses suffered by minors who studied in religious schools in the past, when the Catholic Church had a lot of power in Spain.
However, in Spain and among the Spanish citizens, this attitude of indifference is changing little by little. More and more children come forward and confess that they were assaulted by paedophiles. Save the Children shows that in Spain, that counts forty-six million inhabitants, ten reports of sexual assault of minor are presented each day. Despite that, experts say that the real number of victims is greater than the one who has been discovered.
Generally, the Spanish index of sexual assault is below the Swedish one. According to Eurostat, in Spain, the sexual index (sexual crimes reported per inhabitant) is 19 out of 100.000 inhabitants. In Sweden is 177. This does not mean that in Sweden there are more sex offenders than in Spain, but that in Sweden people are more likely to report an assault. This also means that in Spain the victims keep silent.
El Periódico de Catalunya, the paper for which I work, revealed throughout 2016 the biggest case of paedophilia in Spanish religious schools by now. More than 40 victims came forward and 12 professors of the Marist Brothers where reported for sexual assault. Event though this journalistic investigation has been recognized with the Ortega y Gasset award, the most renowned Spanish-language award for journalism, things still must be changed.
Eleven out of the twelve professors reported in the Marist Case will not be prosecuted because the crimes they committed are statute-barred. Sex crimes on minors in Spain become statute-barred too early: the law in order must be modified so that the victims can get the justice they deserve. As of now, the Spanish government has not planned to do so.
Spanish public authorities, despite the substantial number of victims we mentioned before, have not promoted a single measure to compensate the victims of those eleven professors that will not be prosecuted.
If compensating the victims that were sexually assaulted in the Church schools is not a priority for the Spanish government, taking action to unveil the crimes endured by the minors inside an organisation like the Jehovah’s Witnesses is even less important.
El Periódico de Catalunya has published in Spain the only cases of sexual assaults occurred inside this religious institution that we officially know of and they are still very few. The most important is the one regarding Noelia Piris, a child raped at the age of eight by a senior of her congregation. It happened in 1994. Noelia reported it to her mother and the aggressor admitted the facts. However, the congregation pressured Noelia and her mother into shutting their mouths.
“If you report it, you will stay out of Paradise”, the seniors told to Noelia. She was menaced with the worst nightmare for a Jehovah’s Witness to shut her mouth. They also denied her the psychological help she needed, they left her alone. Because of that institutional abuse, her psychological health has been damaged for ever. After this interview, Noelia has presented a report against her aggressor 21 years later, but the crime had recently became statute-barred, so the aggressor will not be prosecuted.
El Periódico de Catalunya, with the help of ex-witnesses like Miguel García who is a part of this meeting today, has also revealed the parallel justice inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, the terrible consequences that entail their judgments, since they can even be able to separate entire families, and the intolerable persecution against homosexuals.
In November 2016, El Periódico published also the senior’s letters giving specific instructions on how to deal internally with the sexual assaults of minors that were occurring in Spanish congregations. The same letters were received by the congregations of the rest of the world. They were written in New York, as Barbara Anderson knows very well. Those letters prove that also in Spain exists a secret archive that guards all the cases of paedophilia occurred in this organization. The institution itself confirmed it in a phone conversation with El Periódico.
This is happening not only among the Spanish organization of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s a global phenomenon. That’s why Trey Bundy’s initiative is so important: the petition to publish the secret archives of sexual abuses on minors must be collective and international, because as long as The Watchtower from New York does not order it, it will not be published in Spain. The Spanish government, as of now, has showed no interest in taking any action. Maybe this collective and international claim will not change the mind of The Watchtower, but it will surely make governments like the Spanish one realize that the fight against paedophilia starts with the knowledge of the real extent of the problem.
Thank you very much !
Guillém Sánchez (Twitter)
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Kentucky Today: "Religious freedom dying in Russia, missionary says"- Baptists also are the true religion because they are persecuted too
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://kentuckytoday.com/stories/religious-freedom-dying-in-russia-missionary-says,7267.
may 2, 2017. oryol, russia (bp) - russia's nationwide outlaw of jehovah's witnesses will likely ricochet and strike other religions outside of russian orthodoxy there, said a baptist missionary forced to shut down his church in central russia.. "the repression that has already started, in my opinion, it is likely to continue to get worse," donald ossewaarde told baptist press april 27th by telephone from his home in oryol.
"i don't see any sign that the russian government is having a change of heart.".
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I didn't mean to sound like I was editorializing. My comment was "tongue in cheek" because of what supposedly was said by GB member, Stephen Lett as pointed to on a thread started by "The freewheeling":
The freewheeling wrote:
"The governing body has put out a video on JW Broadcasting regarding there view on the events in Russia. "Russian Supreme Court Renders Unjust Decision!" It is a half-hour program led by Stephen Lett. It broadly contains a report on how another member of the governing body, Mark Sanderson, travels to Russia and attends the Supreme Court in Moscow. Mark Sanderson is the one in the governing body who can speak Russian.
"I want to pick up some points from this program.
"It strengthens the JWs all over the world because they now see how this fulfills Bible prophecies. "God's people would be persecuted." This is actually an attack from Satan, they say in the video."
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Kentucky Today: "Religious freedom dying in Russia, missionary says"- Baptists also are the true religion because they are persecuted too
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://kentuckytoday.com/stories/religious-freedom-dying-in-russia-missionary-says,7267.
may 2, 2017. oryol, russia (bp) - russia's nationwide outlaw of jehovah's witnesses will likely ricochet and strike other religions outside of russian orthodoxy there, said a baptist missionary forced to shut down his church in central russia.. "the repression that has already started, in my opinion, it is likely to continue to get worse," donald ossewaarde told baptist press april 27th by telephone from his home in oryol.
"i don't see any sign that the russian government is having a change of heart.".
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AndersonsInfo
http://kentuckytoday.com/stories/religious-freedom-dying-in-russia-missionary-says,7267
May 2, 2017
ORYOL, Russia (BP) - Russia's nationwide outlaw of Jehovah's Witnesses will likely ricochet and strike other religions outside of Russian Orthodoxy there, said a Baptist missionary forced to shut down his church in central Russia.
"The repression that has already started, in my opinion, it is likely to continue to get worse," Donald Ossewaarde told Baptist Press April 27th by telephone from his home in Oryol. "I don't see any sign that the Russian government is having a change of heart."
Ossewaarde, an Independent Baptist, has exhausted his appeals in Russia on an August 2016 conviction of operating a church without a permit under the 2016 anti-religion Yarovaya Law and is making plans to return May 8 to his home in Elgin, Ill. The Baptist ministry he had legally operated since 2002 will cease in the nation where Ossewaarde said every religion outside Russian Orthodoxy is considered a cult, including Protestantism.
"I think the Orthodox Church is on a roll," Ossewaarde told BP. "They're emboldened. They've had some success in using the government to close down competitors. I would expect that they will continue along the same lines."
In one of Russia's latest acts of religious oppression, the nation's Supreme Court April 20th declared Jehovah's Witnesses an extremist group, allowing the government to seize the assets of the church's headquarters and 395 local chapters with 170,000 adherents, the TASS Russian news agency reported from Moscow. The ruling has not been implemented because of the appeal process, TASS said.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom just classified Russia as one of the world's worst violators of religious liberty, recommending in its 2017 annual report that the U.S. government deem Russia a "country of particular concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act and negotiate for religious liberty.
Russia's religious discrimination and criminalization of Jehovah's Witnesses in particular should concern all evangelical Christians, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said April 24th in The Briefing, his daily news and opinion podcast.
"A government that could identify the Jehovah's Witnesses as an extremist group and make the group illegal is the same government that can identify Presbyterians or Lutherans or Baptists as an extremist group," Mohler said, "simply because what is taught runs contrary to some aspect of what is affirmed by the Russian President and his increasingly autocratic state."
Russia criminalized the group for its beliefs rather than its actions, Mohler noted, albeit the group's beliefs are counter to Southern Baptist theology.
"The Jehovah's Witnesses were here identified as an extremist group," Mohler said. "Now the bottom line in the political reality is that Jehovah's Witnesses lacked the political patronage and protection of anyone inside or outside Russia to keep the Russian government through its Supreme Court from making this declaration and thus making it illegal -- and that means punishable by prison time -- for anyone to be organized and involved with the Jehovah's Witnesses."
The Independent Baptist congregation Ossewaarde led will likely watch a live stream of a service from another city, Ossewaarde said.
"In order for them to continue something after I'm gone, they have to file papers with the authorities and put their name on a list saying they are a religious group," Ossewaarde told BP. "We discussed it for a long time. When it came right down to making a decision, they said we are not ready to put our names on a government list. As far as a meeting place here in our city, there won't be anymore."
READ MORE: http://kentuckytoday.com/stories/religious-freedom-dying-in-russia-missionary-says,7267
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The Catholic Register: Russian Catholic official criticizes court ban on Jehovah's Witnesses
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.catholicregister.org/home/international/item/25028-russian-catholic-official-criticizes-court-ban-on-jehovah-s-witnesses.
russian catholic official criticizes court ban on jehovah's witnesses.
by jonathan luxmoore, catholic news service.
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Russian Catholic official criticizes court ban on Jehovah's Witnesses
BY JONATHAN LUXMOORE, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE- April 28, 2017
OXFORD, England – Russia's Catholic Church has condemned a Supreme Court decision to outlaw the Jehovah's Witnesses and warned the move will increase fears of new restrictions on Catholic rights.
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Great News in the EX Jehovahs Witness World!!!
by Christian Gutierrez inwe are so overjoyed with what is happening in the exjw community!
it is places like this forum where many can have a place to interact anonymously and be felt like they are understood.
you guys are awesome!
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AndersonsInfo
I enjoyed hearing the news that more Canadian JW families are exiting the JW religion than joining it. Thanks for sharing!
Barbara
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World Religion News: New Jehovah’s Witness Headquarters Hosts First Open Houses
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/new-jehovahs-witness-headquarters-hosts-first-open-houses.
new jehovah’s witness headquarters hosts first open houses.
28 apr 2017 posted by nathan glover .
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FYI, I received an email yesterday from someone in the know who said that worldreligionnews.com is published by a JW apologist.
After reading the article, I'm inclined to agree that someone who is pushing a JW agenda wrote it. Not only is the article poorly written (probably by an uneducated JW), or maybe by an educated but not fluent in English JW foreigner, but it reminds me of the one that appeared the other day that was about JWs, the Russian ban and Trump which was "fake news" and traced to someone in Ghana.
"The Jehovah's Witness denomination is among the most popular churches in the world."
In my estimation, I can't think of a more unpopular denomination in the world but what do I know only having been a JW for 43 years and having thousands of doors slammed in my face and threatened with bodily harm many times if I didn't get get myself off of a homeowner's property.
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World Religion News: New Jehovah’s Witness Headquarters Hosts First Open Houses
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/new-jehovahs-witness-headquarters-hosts-first-open-houses.
new jehovah’s witness headquarters hosts first open houses.
28 apr 2017 posted by nathan glover .
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New Jehovah’s Witness Headquarters Hosts First Open Houses
28 Apr 2017 Posted by Nathan Glover Photo courtesy Jehovah’s Witnesses
Jehovah’s Witnesses are conducting a series of open houses at their new headquarters outside New York City.
The Jehovah's Witness denomination is among the most popular churches in the world. With over eight million members spread out over 80 countries, the group has a mission of perpetuating the Scriptures. Last year the Jehovah's Witness group decided to move their world headquarters from the Brooklyn region of New York to the Tuxedo-Warwick suburbs owing to their need for expansion and a more favorable religious location to house the 800 staff who work for the church.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses recently completed the construction of their headquarters. The buildings overlooking the blue sea of the Sterling Forest State Park are all state-of-the-art and eco-friendly, and the church wanted to showcase this to the community. Owing to that, the church set aside two Saturdays, April 22 and April 29, to show their appreciation to the community that has received the church warmly ever since construction began. “We wanted to thank the non-Witness locals and other parties for the warm support they have shown us since we moved to Warwick," Troy Snyder, facilities manager for the headquarters complex, said.
Members of the surrounding communities received invitations to the open house held April 22. 395 invitees showed up to the open house, 205 being local residents and 190 being vendors and contractors who had collaborated with the church on the construction project. The Saturday open houses are particularly special because tours are normally only offered Monday through Friday.
The attendees were all first treated to some light refreshments by the Jehovah’s Witness members. After that, the visitors were taken around the facility in a tour that lasted about forty minutes. Residents of the Tuxedo-Warwick area expressed their appreciation of the vision put into the building’s designs, saying it was of high quality. Furthermore, any fears that the local population had had concerning the effect on the construction of the headquarters were allayed. Some attendees attested that the building had been integrated into the environment of the area to the extent that even the effect on local wildlife was taken into account and reflected in the design. The tour included a video presentation and a session for making inquiries as well.
The most interesting part of the open house was perhaps the three exhibits the headquarters houses. Guests were allowed to walk themselves through the exhibits for an hour each. The first of the exhibits was titled Bible and the Divine Name. It held rare Bible translations, Bible editions as well as unique Bible-related artifacts. The aim of the exhibition was to display how God’s “Jehovah” name was preserved. Exhibit two, A People for Jehovah’s Name, employed visual aids such as graphics, artifacts and personal testimonies to relay the history of the Jehovah’s Witness church. The last display was called the World Headquarters-Faith in Action exhibit, and it detailed the role of the Jehovah's Witness Governing Body in the promotion of scripture, faith, and love.
Any non-Witness locals who did not attend last week’s event are invited by the church to do so this coming Saturday. For those unable to attend April 29, public tours of the facility are offered Monday through Friday.
28 Apr 2017 
Posted by Nathan Glover 