Post Script -- I just reread your post and saw that your original question is more nuanced that the one I imagined you asked. That makes my answer somewhat irrelevant. Sorry!
Dedalus
i am after a little input on something.. i am wondering what your thoughts are on parents not preventing pregnancies from occurring when they have already produced a child or children with a genetic defect???.
is it fair or even moral to bring a child into the world when you have already proven that one or both parents genes are defective.
i am speaking here of children that suffer and will not live normal life spans.. i personally could not do this.
Post Script -- I just reread your post and saw that your original question is more nuanced that the one I imagined you asked. That makes my answer somewhat irrelevant. Sorry!
Dedalus
i am after a little input on something.. i am wondering what your thoughts are on parents not preventing pregnancies from occurring when they have already produced a child or children with a genetic defect???.
is it fair or even moral to bring a child into the world when you have already proven that one or both parents genes are defective.
i am speaking here of children that suffer and will not live normal life spans.. i personally could not do this.
My brother-in-law has multiple genetic defects, the details of which aren't important. What is important is that he's an individual with as legitimate an existence as everyone else. He has personality, character, intelligence, emotions, all of which are expressed differently. It takes a lot of effort and time to sustain him, and to get to know him, something I'm still doing.
What strikes me as immoral is the suggestion that his parents behaved immorally by bringing him into this world. Frankly, I think most people who use the word "immoral" don't know what the hell they mean by it, anyway.
Dedalus
i think it's an excellent idea.
since the jw world is so dead and lifeless, and no one wants to go door-to-door because of the molestation issues and embarrassment for having to take a cow's blood, they can now hide out from the public by working for free for the watchtower during convention time!
save mother the rent, we all know how broke she is, with all the major investments and stocks!.
It is great being among Jehovah's people.
Then what are you doing here, GR, cavorting with atheists, fornicators, and apostates?
Dedalus
"i'm glad the men are in charge" .
elena chernomazova .
many muscovites have probably met a number of young men and women on the city's streets, young people with a sunny smile on their faces, who invite all passers-by to come to their place for a meeting, to learn the truth, enter into a spiritual brotherhood, etc.
An intelligent reader will be able to seperate hype from facts.
An even more intelligent reader will be able to separate sincerity from irony.
Dedalus
"i'm glad the men are in charge" .
elena chernomazova .
many muscovites have probably met a number of young men and women on the city's streets, young people with a sunny smile on their faces, who invite all passers-by to come to their place for a meeting, to learn the truth, enter into a spiritual brotherhood, etc.
Kent, when will you stop these immoral nasty evil vicious tabloid flames!?
Dedalus
*** w97 4/15 23 weddings that honor jehovah ***.
i simply love reading the watchtower.
there is so many fine, timely advices to get, and i simply cants understand all the people here whining about the watchtower being a mind controlling cult.
Kent wrote:
There is so many “fine, timely advices” to get, and I simply cant’s understand all the people here whining about the Watchtower being a mind controlling cult. I simply have to agree with people like Greg Stafford, Firpo Carr, Kismet, Prisca and others on this board – that’s typical “tabloid-trash”!
This is a flame? You couldn't light a cigarette with this! Y'all are howling like you've got third-degree burns! For the love of Jovagod, take it easy already.
Dedalus
P.S. Am I on-topic, off-topic, both, or neither?
*** w97 4/15 23 weddings that honor jehovah ***.
i simply love reading the watchtower.
there is so many fine, timely advices to get, and i simply cants understand all the people here whining about the watchtower being a mind controlling cult.
ROTFLOL @ drahcir yarrum!!
"Who IS this Jovagod guy anyway?".
Man, I can't wait for Roo (my future son/daughter, currently resting snugly in Foxy's uterus) to be born! Kids have a remarkable gift of expression.
Dedalus
*** w97 4/15 23 weddings that honor jehovah ***.
i simply love reading the watchtower.
there is so many fine, timely advices to get, and i simply cants understand all the people here whining about the watchtower being a mind controlling cult.
Boy, do I feel dumb. Here I thought this was a thread about "Weddings That Honor Jehovah." Actually, it's a public stoning of Kent for his abrasive style.
Oops.
(((Tina))) Hey Tina, I appreciated your thoughts, even if they are off-topic. The type of congregation does make a difference, I suppose, and this is probably what makes it difficult to label the Witnesses a "cult" and be done with it. Personally, I think they're a cult based exclusively on what's written in the Organization's publications -- even though I'm familiar with the content, its sheer cult-like nature can still give me the chills.
But then there are perfectly nice congregations in which everything is toned down so much that the religion seems little more than a harmless sect. That's the monkey wrench, I suppose.
The common denominator must be that ALL Witnesses participate in shunning, however progressive and wild and liberal their congregations may be (though Seeker will point out that even here there are exceptions). That's one of the most cult-like behaviors there is, yeah?
As with their weddings -- all they need to make them more cult-like is for the virgin-bride to sleep with the body of elders before being passed off to the groom.
Dedalus
*** w97 4/15 23 weddings that honor jehovah ***.
i simply love reading the watchtower.
there is so many fine, timely advices to get, and i simply cants understand all the people here whining about the watchtower being a mind controlling cult.
Nice post, Kent. Too bad some people are so sensitive about your posting of newspaper articles and such.
For all the timely advice given about the proper way to conduct oneself at a Witness Wedding (tm), the ones I've been to have been relatively wild. Of course, the ceremony is boring as hell, and the reception is usually tacky, with some sister in the congregation arranging a buffet. Never an open bar, never! And yet, there have been some crazy moments at wedding receptions that fly in the face of what the Watchtower says.
At my own brother's wedding I was the best man (I suppose you could say I was the "director of the feast." I had nearly everyone in attendance line up to shake my brother's hand, slipping him a condom as they did so. Before the line ended my brother's pockets were bulging with rubbers!
We also trashed his car -- shaving cream, toothpaste, balloons, and, of course, inflated condoms on the headlights.
I drank six bears in about 45 minutes. After that I don't remember what I drank.
At my best JW-friend's wedding, all of the groomsmen took turns urinating into the hotel's pool after the reception (this was an elder's idea). Someone flashed a camera. Again, I was hopelessly drunk, despite having thrown up from overindulgence the night before. It's interesting to note that, the day before the ceremony, my friend's brother-in-law withdrew as a groomsman, because he'd found a WT article saying that proper dress and grooming was necessary at weddings. Since this was a beach wedding, and we were wearing pants w/ rolled up cuffs and shirts sans ties, he didn't approve. Now there was a brother with the true JW spirit!
ANYWAY, I'm not trying to discredit your post, Kent. If anything, this "questionable conduct" makes the Witnesses I left even more hypocritical for shunning me, since they were also heedless of the Watchtower in matters of conduct and propriety.
Dedalus
i was reading about this in the mirror-universe db greatcrowd.com (there is a mirror universe bboyneko there complete with goatee and a mirror universe fredhall who is an intelligent dog and a mirror univrse dunscott who is dumb as a doornail, e.g: concering duuuuuuuuuh).
apparantly a pregnant jw lady had met another pregnant woman from her same neighborhood and they chatted a bit, later the jw family put up a car for sale and the pregnant neighbor came down to check it out.
then she got the jw to her house and killed her, and cut out her baby.
Thanks for the note about the greatcrowd.com thread.
Back in June I started a tread about the Awake article:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=7370&site=3#86759
Dedalus