If religion was banned tommorow, I'd be doing my best to get my rear to a kingdom hall. It's lines of reasoning like this that scare me to no end. Really, this in my mind would be the critical sign that the JWs are right, and I just can't accept that right now. I think religion is far to important to too many people to be destroyed anytime soon.
FaithfulDoubter
JoinedPosts by FaithfulDoubter
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11
Islamic Extremism:Begining of the End of All Religion?
by prophecor inhere's a scenario as to how it could be played out.
in an effort to squelch radical islam from gaining a foothold on the democratic processes that is begining to occur in the middle east, especially as it relates to iraq and eventually, maybe iran, could religion, all religion come to be eventually outlawed worldwide as a means of choking out the relentless hostile energy that occurs worlwide?
to try and stem the tide of suicide bombers around the world, as well as the possibility of bio-terrorism?
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WTS advocates resisting rape to the point of death?
by M.J. inover the years the wts has vacillated on its stance regarding the distinction between rape and mutual consent to fornication.. in years past, the wts has stated that "the primary distinction between rape and consent was whether a woman screamed for help.
" (awake!, 4/22/73, p. 17).. the wts's latest published stance, however, states that while the act of screaming establishes innocence of the victim, screaming in itself is not the sole criteria for determining the victim's innocence before god.
if one is incapable of screaming, it does not matter, since jehovah can read a person's motives:.
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FaithfulDoubter
JC is short for Judicial Committee. The Jehovah's Witnesses have their own 'court system', where a person is tried based on a panel of 3 or more elders (supposedly older mature men) in the congregation. They are not allowed to bring in a recording device, or have someone to help defend them against charges. The purpose of the JC is to determine first guilt or innocence, and then repentence of any sins that may have been committed. JCs can be held for all manner of reasons from fornication, to smoking, to apostasy. I'm sure there are other threads on here that better describe it, but the google search thing just gives me wierd links here.
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FaithfulDoubter
I am here, and active, but not for much longer I don't think.
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WTS advocates resisting rape to the point of death?
by M.J. inover the years the wts has vacillated on its stance regarding the distinction between rape and mutual consent to fornication.. in years past, the wts has stated that "the primary distinction between rape and consent was whether a woman screamed for help.
" (awake!, 4/22/73, p. 17).. the wts's latest published stance, however, states that while the act of screaming establishes innocence of the victim, screaming in itself is not the sole criteria for determining the victim's innocence before god.
if one is incapable of screaming, it does not matter, since jehovah can read a person's motives:.
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FaithfulDoubter
In defense of us men folk, not all of us think like that!
When I was very young, someone I knew was DF'd because she was raped and became pregnant. She went to a man's house thinking there was going to be a party, but was decieved. Because she 'put herself into that situation', she was disfellowshipped.
Years later, when I found out about her circumstance, I kept on asking the person that told me (a long time JW), why they would disfellowship someone for being raped. It didn't make any sense to my young brain. (I was probably about 12 at the time.) They told me that Jehovah needed to insure there wasn't any reproach on his organization. That really didn't sit well with me, but when I pressured further I was warned I was going against Jehovah's will and that he would make everything right.
It's a sad thing that when a girl is raped, she has to sit through a JC to find out if it was 'consensual' or not, especially when the police are already pressing charges, and they have to go through the agony of a court trial and testifying. The whole thing makes my blood boil.... There are also instances of other sexual abuse I know of that happened to people I am close to, it really makes me wonder how widespread these issues are.
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Disclaimer Letter
by feelinsketchy inalthough i haven't personally seen the letter (hopefully i will tomorrow night), it seems clear that this would have a serious effect on the core teachings.
how do you go from listen to us unquestioningly, even when we're wrong we're right and if you think about doubting us you're gonna die to "well, all of what we say is open to interpretation and these are just suggestions?
how do you reconcile things like the blood issue, neutrality, holidays, even dress and grooming to this stance?
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FaithfulDoubter
I certainly haven't heard about this letter, but I've missed the past several meetings. I doubt I'll be able to 'copy it' per se, but I'll see if it exists and get a summary.
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FaithfulDoubter
Eep! Now I got the kingdom melody stuck in my head. Why did I ever click on this thread????
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Hint of disillusionment among bethelites regarding downsizing?
by watch the tower inhere is an email i got from a jw friend regarding the downsizing.. can you sense the uneasiness in the last part of the message?.
"bros vandewall, jaracz, pierce and weaver gave a talk.
to the bethelites after the watchtower study monday.
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FaithfulDoubter
I think all the talk about going to bethel is a regional thing when you're close to Bethel. I've heard about this downsizing before. Really, it's only a matter of time before it's cheaper to do all the printing in some poor country using Bethelites there, and then NY will consist of only a shipping, writing, and movie making place. They could easily run it with far fewer people.
I don't see that this will have any impact on the push against higher education. Maybe in a publishers mind. But, the push against higher education is being reinforced with tales of 'not many college graduates get good jobs' and so on. They're also emphasizing going into pioneer work, so that's probably what they really want. This downsizing is first and foremost, a business decision.
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The Stake is a more pagan symbol than the Cross
by jwfacts ini just found an interesting sumerian myth that i wanted to share.
the watchtower claims that the cross was not used by true christians and is of pagan origins.
(watchtower 1989 may 1 p.26 it reveres a pagan symbol masquerading as christian.
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FaithfulDoubter
I always found it interesting, that in much of the literature, there is (was) the claim that early christians drew Jesus as being nailed to a stake. Despite years of searching, I've yet to find such a drawing in anything except the societies literature.
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A kindler, gentler, WTB&TS?
by FaithfulDoubter inok, i've looked 3 times now through the new study book: what the bible really teaches and i can't find 1 depection of armageddon in it.
(if i'm wrong, someone please point it out!
) is this the beginning of the society trying to create a more loving image?
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FaithfulDoubter
Yes, by depection I mean illustration only. It does talk about Armaggedon, in the actual text.
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The 7 times leading up to 1914...
by FaithfulDoubter inok, i've talked to a few witnesses about this.
a period when true worship was not really available.
this seems inconsitant to me because: .
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FaithfulDoubter
Actually, I was trying to describe JW doctrine to a curious friend, and he kept asking these questions, which made me feel really frustrated for not having asked before. I thought that while JW doctrine might be wrong, it was at least internally consistant, but now I'm starting to doubt even that. It's embarrasing talking to this friend, as I sortof wonder at times, "Did I really believe all this stuff?" and I realize that I did. It's all very confusing. I was hoping that I could give him some good answers, but I guess not.