betterdaze

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Posts by betterdaze

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  56

  If you started an organisation (related to exposing the Watchtower, helping Jw's who are disfellowshipped, or any other worthy cause).. What would it be called and what would you aim to achieve?

  by The Quiet One in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...?.

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  betterdaze

  Watchtower Resource Group, Inc.
  
  It's main aims as a non-profit and/or NGO would be:
  
  • To act as as an educational clearinghouse for non-JW's and the media about the harmful effects of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society's policies
  
  • To address human rights violations perpetrated upon it's adherents
  
  • To seek remedy for victims of abuse in the courts
  
  • To generally expose how the Jehovah's Witness sect is a front for the Watchtower's global media and real estate business, masquerading as a faith.
  
  
  It would provide an array of referrals for those adversely affected by the Watchtower and their loved ones, but no direct counseling or endorsements for certain treatments.
  
  And of course, it would be 110% non-religious in nature.
  
  Thanks for asking.
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  535

  AAWA is here!! (The Association of Anti-Watchtower Activists)

  by cedars in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcic4g5tulw.

  http://www.jwactivists.org.

  facebook the association of anti-watchtower activists.

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  betterdaze

  When I say "committed" I mean people who are actually legally tied to the organization through its articles of incorporation.
  
  
  This may help clarify: The Articles of Incorporation for the Association of Anti-Watchtower Activists. (Scroll down to click button under Scanned Documents.) Three directors are listed.

  And this topic, from a few months ago, appears to show the germination of the "Modern-Day Truth-Seeking Internet Vigilantes" who make up most of the current officers.

  IMHO, it's a fabulous idea whose time has come, but they're shooting themselves in the foot with an Anti-anything name and "vigilantes" would hardly serve any better.

  Especially in the U.S. press, and in this post 9/11 era.
• 
  5

  Jerry Bergman book ... Need HELP

  by Marvin Shilmer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i need help with a resource.

  anyone here have access to a book by jerry bergman titled: .

  blood transfusions: a history and evaluation of the religious, biblical, and medical objections.

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  betterdaze

  If no one here has the book, you may be able to borrow it from one of these libraries, or ask a librarian to scan some pages for you: worldcat.org/
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  7

  The Challenge and the Result

  by stuckinamovement in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember being late for my senior year chemistry class.

  as i grabbed the last seat in the back of the room i could tell that a boy in my class was engaged in yet another debate with the teacher.

  jim was a bright student but he felt that he knew more than mr. roberts our chemistry teacher.

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  betterdaze

  And did Mr. Roberts ever return as promised? How many generations of students still await his arrival?
• 
  70

  Unemployment is down, but why did America set a record 47.8 million on food stamps?

  by moshe in

  1. social
  2. current

  in the usa a new record was set on food stamp enrollments, which seems ironic.

  you would think as unemployment drops , food stamp usage would be dropping, too.

  maybe those government unemployment numbers are fake numbers.

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  betterdaze

  Not everyone fights for payments, some are solicited and coached.
  
  Moving People From Welfare To Disability Rolls Is A Profitable, Full-Time Job

  Planet Money looks at company called PCG which state governments hire to move people off of welfare and onto disability. States hire PCG to do this because states pay part of the bill for welfare, but don't pay for people on disability.
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  26

  In All Honesty Would You Have NOT Given Blood To Your Child If He or She Needed it?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as a "faithful witness", i never had to deal with this on a personal level.

  i imagine the pressure must be extreme with the elders and others "supporting" you to do the right thing.. do you think you would have given blood to your family member, especially your child if you were in that situation..

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  betterdaze

  I reflected on the fact that my parents would rather have seen me dead than transfused. I asolutely know this.

  Me too, Sulla.
  
  It's poor enough the Watchtower regarded us as mini-adult, child-units who didn't deserve birthdays. They nurture a weird sort of sociopathy in Jehovah's Witness parents so that you can never, truly, expect them to look out for their childrens' best interests.
  
  My JW parent had/has a Munchausen's by Proxy thing with me, and only me, to the point where I can never fully trust her inclinations with my healthcare. That warrants a topic unto itself that I'd like to explore here sometime but it's just too raw for me even in midlife.
  
  Anyway, I have directed Mr. B to tell the hospital I am an orphan with no "next of kin" because I am positive even my siblings (neither of which are baptized JWs) would accept the blood directive to this day. It is that ingrained.
  
  We've discussed it. They would deny themselves, they would deny our parents, they would deny me. I have made it clear that I will take blood. Yet I am squeamish just considering it. Children of the pre-1975 era, that lethal "blood is bad" indoctrination runs so deep.
  
  
  I am grateful to live in an area that has two excellent hospitals providing alternatives: Englewood and Hackensack. I encourage anyone to look into their programs if JW family is in need of bloodless surgery, blood management, or whatever it's being branded now.
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  11

  Social aid and the Witnesses

  by Aaron Eldridge in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  *** g 5/08 p. 21 is philanthropy the answer?

  ***by fully addressing the root causes of human suffering, god will accomplish what is well beyond all humans, individually and collectively.

  accordingly, rather than set up philanthropic organizations, jehovahs witnesses, in imitation of jesus christ, prefer to devote their time and financial resources to announcing the good news of [gods] kingdom.matthew 24:14; luke 4:43.. i have collected a few quotes like this one but could use some more.

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  betterdaze

  THE NEEDIEST CASES
  Despite Hard Times, Veteran Still Lives Independently

  Recent NY Times story about a 94-year-old JW gentleman with no family support system in place. He is an only child, single and childless himself.

  It makes my heart glad to know that this man has reliable resources available to care for his needs. Shamefully, the Watchtower is not one of them.

  Some excerpts:

  "He is helped by a small army of support coordinated by Dominican Sisters Family Health Service." A Catholic institution.
  
  "Meals on Wheels delivers daily lunches." Worldly.
  
  "And after Mr. D. lost power during Hurricane Sandy, brothers from his denomination, the Jehovah's Witnesses, came over to assist."
  
  The article doesn't describe how they assisted. Maybe to hand-off the latest magazines? See if he wasn't deceased yet, so they could be off the hook for tiresome shepherding calls?
  
  "The reverse mortgage he took out in 2000 augments the $860 in Social Security and $130 in food stamps he receives monthly. Still, with his annual income less than $18,000 and with his savings gone, his expenses began to eclipse his resources." Social programs he himself paid into all his working life. He inherited the home as an only child from his parents, who "had saved, scrimped and borrowed to buy it."
  
  "Last fall, he fell behind on his heating oil bill. So Dominican Sisters, an affiliate of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York, called upon the organization for help. Catholic Charities, one of the agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, drew $680 from the fund to help pay the bill." Religious agency supplemented by worldly, corporate funding.
  
  "Afterward, his fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses helped Mr. D. to successfully petition the bank for an increase in the mortgage payout, as well as to secure money from a pension fund for aging veterans."
  
  They went to straight to his bank. Plus tapped the gubbermint for veterans benefits he earned when he was obviously not yet a JW. There's a teaching/scripture about that... something about ill-begotten gains and how we should reject them.

  When he later fell ill:
  
  "He was admitted to a hospital, and then to Cabrini Eldercare in Dobbs Ferry for short-term rehabilitation." Cabrini is *yet another* Catholic-run institution.
  
  
  There you have it. The Witnesses use the world to the full, relying upon much-vilified Catholic charity, plus Satan's worldly institutions, before they will ever cough up a dime to help one of their own.
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  19

  What group within the Witnesses has the highest drop out rate?

  by Ultimate Axiom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if you could categorise jehovahs witnesses into their various groups, i.e.

  publisher, auxiliary pioneer, regular pioneer, special pioneer, missionary, co, do, bethel worker, born-ins, etc etc, (and you can subdivide into as many groups as you wish) what group do you think has the highest drop out rate?

  i remember an ex ny bethellite saying that bethel cured him of the watchtower, and after reading the thread http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/160509/1/warren-schroeder-from-bethel-on-freddy-kline-and-the-apostate-books my guess is that it would be ny bethellites, but i am interested to know if there is a consensus on this, or on any other group, or no group at all..

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  betterdaze

  Adult children from "divided households."
  
  One JW parent, one normal.
  
  Beat with the "Truth" schtick all along but never baptized.
  
  We float freely between both worlds. Never shunned.
  
  Draw from that what you may.
• 
  33

  December 15 Watchtower --- A New Low in WT Anti-Intellectualism

  by Room 215 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i wonder whether any of you took note of the article in the 12/15 study edition wt "the simplified watchtower .. why introduced" i couldn't believe they actually had the temerity to put such tripe into print and onto the record.. i was flat-out astonished with its put-down of vocabulary building and self-improvement:.

  one egregious example: " the time spent looking up words and explaining expressions (ostensibly from the "smart people's" watchtower) is now spent gaining an understanding of the scriptures and how they fit into the lesson.".

  one jw cited in the article actually blames her college education for causing her to fall into the bad habit of "speaking and thinking a way that was more complicated than necessary.

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  betterdaze

  gaining an understanding of the scriptures and how they fit into the lesson

  
  
  Shouldn't it be the other way around: The lesson fit the scriptures instead?
  
  "Evidently," the esteemed Watchtower scholars just make sh*t up as they go along, then cherry-pick the Bible to back it up.
• 

  Kids Without God: You're Not the Only One

  by betterdaze in

  1. social
  2. family

  kids without god for the millions of young people around the world who have .

  embraced science, rejected superstition, and are dedicated to being good without a god!.

  in an effort to strengthen and support kids and teenagers who dont happen to believe in a god, the american humanist association is promoting its newly created website: kidswithoutgod.com.

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  betterdaze

  Kids Without God for the millions of young people around the world who have
  embraced science, rejected superstition, and are dedicated to being Good Without A God!
  
  
  
  In an effort to strengthen and support kids and teenagers who don’t happen to believe in a god, the American Humanist Association is promoting its newly created website: KidsWithoutGod.com. This engaging resource offers a welcoming home for humanist, atheist and other non-traditionally religious kids where they can find information untainted by supernaturalism on a wide range of topics, including religion in public schools, science, discrimination, sexuality, and reading suggestions. …
  
  “Whether they already made up their minds to reject supernatural explanations, or are just questioning, it’s time to make available an online resource that’s built just for kids without God,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “These kids may be from traditionally religious families, or from families like that of President Barack Obama, whose mother was a secular humanist. KidsWithoutGod.com will be a friendly online community for kids who might be too shy to ask an adult directly what it’s like to be good without a god.” …
  
  KidsWithoutGod.com is actually two websites, one for teens and one for younger children, both accessed through the same domain.
  
  “With the plethora of websites geared toward teaching kids about Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, we’re pleased to add humanism to the discussion,” added Speckhardt. “Kids should know there’s another way to learn about morals and values—it doesn't need to come from traditional religion.”
  
  http://www.americanhumanist.org/news/details/2012-11-national-ad-campaign-to-promote-kidswithoutgodcom-on-2