first and foremost, i would like to clarify that i am in no way making fun of jack barr.
he is dead and deserves respect.. .
that said, the organization he belonged to and led doesn't deserve any respect.
Hold on there.....aren't they being a bit hasty?
After all, the memorial partaker numbers are WAAAAAAAYYY up, meaning an awfully large number of those 144,000 have been unfaithful and need replacing, as it could not possibly be that they got the teaching wrong. Shouldn't they look into that before automatically presuming that any of the annointed that die are judged worthy of immortality?
i have just read in these following paragraphs something that would disturb my conscience, notice:.
12 they also saw that there are but two organizations in the universe and that everyone belongs either to god's organization or to satan's, the latter on earth being composed of big business, big politics and big religion.
34 the world's political wild beast rules supreme under the name-number 666, while big politics, big religion, and big business keep that wild beast functioning as an oppressor of mankind and a persecutor of god's people.
All may be good responses, but in reality any good witness worth his salt would immediately press the shut-off valve in the independent-thinking part of his brain and proceed with the canned answers from the Kingdom Ministries.........I did for over thirty years........
yesterday, i went out for lunch with my parents when my mother made mention of something she had read in the newspaper about some new discovery of species that went extinct millions of years ago.
she asked my father what method is used to determine the age of something, because of course, this flies directly in face of the biblical account of life on this planet being only a few thousand years old.. anyway, my father related a story that some brother he ran into recently at the assembly told him.
this [unnamed] brother related a story told to him by another [unnamed] elder who knew an [unnamed] circuit serpent who was "really chummy with one of the [unnamed] executives at the royal ontario museum".
Villabolo, those pictures are hilarious... I am not computer savvy or I'd make some up like these, also. Glad you're around to do it!
i would assume that some or a good number of us here as normal humans in this society - consider " lawless " actions to include murder , robbery, extortion, rape, child abuse, war , terrorism, etc.
the wt society has their own definition of what's considered " lawless ".
anything that's considered a disfellowshipping offense in the jehovah's witnesses is now considered " lawless ".
Listener....what a stressful situation to put a young woman and her family through for so long!
So glad that you had the determination not to marry this man and be put through all his "requirements." I was wondering if your dad is still "in?"
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/103353/1/the-news-is-bigger-than-dateline-bbc-cbc-etc.
as many of you know, i made the "big news" statement when kerry louderback-wood's scholarly article about watch tower's blood misrepresentation that was published in the journal of church and state was just about to be published.
i was excited about it because lives were at stake and weve never had such an article before to be able to use to show how the watch tower misrepresents the blood issue through its literature and people die because of it.
Thank you for giving us further updates!
Isn't there a scripture that says that God is not a God of cunfusion?
I remember when the "new light" about blood fractions was delivered from the Almighty to the angels to the governing body to the congregations that I was so cunfused, and felt stupid because it was not clear to me....JWs take no blood but we can now take fractions, or parts of something that was heretofore considered by God strictly and expressly forbidden? I wondered what form the new light could have taken so that the governing body, with no medical training, knew exactly WHICH fractions were allowed and which were not? Deep inside I felt something was wrong....if it is forbidden to take blood into the body, would it matter if it were part or whole? After all, if the Bible says do not kill, can you kill part of a person and not the whole? Can you lie about some things but not others?
It also made me think of a family I'd known in Florida. Many years ago, prior to any changes, their five year old daughter was diagnosed with acute leukemia, and the doctors immediately wanted to give her blood. Court was held and they in effect took custody away from the parents, although they let them stay with her as long as they did not interfere with any treatments. The small, close knit congregation that we were all in was abuzz. My husband and I, and another couple drove two hours to the Hospital. I took some homemade soup and the other couple took fruit. We wanted to comfort and stand by them, giving our support. Some years later, I found out that the other couple had told the parents, "If it were me, I'd throw her out the window (several stories up) before I'd let them give my child blood." Others in the congregation had told them they should get in the car and run with their family (they told the people they had four kids and now the dad would have no job...plus they'd have a dying child in a car...how long could people in far off places put them up, and what would happen to the other children when eventually the parents were imprisoned? At any rate, they were stressed enough already, and everyone was adding to it. As per the court decree, the child was given blood, but it didn't help, and she died at home a few months later. After all this, the dad and another child (now grown) died. I was really close with the mother, and I wonder how all this "new light" has effected her? I can't help but think that she may be bitter now, thinking that if she'd acted sooner and her child could have received the "right fraction," the outcome might have been different and she might still have her daughter. Or, since I've not heard from her in years (she knows that my husband and I are considered dangerous) perhaps she is still clinging to every pronouncent from the GB, trying to make sense of them.
The WT society, no matter what changes it does or does not make, is digging itself into a large whole....or might we use the biblical term abyss?
this video traces our migration out of africa and explains, through dna evidence, how humans colonized the world.
it is part of the made easy series of videos that show the evidence of our origins, from the big bang onwards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdknzz9b6rg .
Very interesting. Thanks for posting this information. I do have a yearning to find my background and our common ancestry.
good morning.... on jan 3rd i posted that my son had recently contacted me and that i needed advice.
well, i need advice... again.... i have been very cautious about speaking with my son (a jw) about anything religious and have even been careful about talking with my daughter-in-law (who is catholic) about religion, but in a conversation i had with her a couple of weeks ago we had our first "real" conversation which included talking about why i left the jws and learning more about her faith and perspectives.
i did not intend to get into "religion" with her, but it was the normal flow of the conversation, since she is a very devout and active catholic and through her own reading before we even talked she had come to the conclusion that the watchtower is a cult (her words).
I hope not, but in the future, your son may be planning to cut you off from your grandchild. It is vital that you continue your good relationship with your daughter-in-law so that it does not happen.
Your poor son doesn't realize that since he is not going to the Khall he is largely viewed the same as you (deserving to be shunned) as they are getting more hard-lined about non-meeting attenders. I am wondering if his anger doesn't go deeper...perhaps feelings of abandonment as a child? If this is the case, maybe he's using the shunning to punish you.
Hope you can get things worked out. What a loving organization is the WTS.
i posted this earlier under the bitterness post.
how do i seperate the anger i have being raised in the borg from my mother who forced it down my throat even after i left.
she justwouldn't leave it alone.
Allow yourself more time. Two years seems like a long time, and that you should be getting over things, but it's not. You've been through turmoil and loss. Grieving takes many forms.
My mother has been gone over three years now, and although not JW, there were issues. I've found that time does help. And don't worry about the crying. It gets it all out, and gradually you will have more peace.
no call to invite me to a committee meeting...no notification of deciding i should be df'd....no telling my jw wife of the announcement...not a chance to appeal what i did not even know what was going on...my mini-serve son is devasted....he even researched it....told me to go to page 153-154 of the od book...never heard of it but it is a green hardback given to all who are to be baptized.
wow...the elders broke every rule in this book as to my case.... i have no respect for these men that can take away your jw family without even telling you they are going to.
my jw son has now begged me to meet with my committee...even though there is prob zero chance they can reverse the decision...that chance is from when they let you know...and you have to appeal by letter within 7 days (i cant make this stuff up!!
oompa,
I am glad that you are alive. It looks like you survived a close encounter with death.
It really is something that your dad will not talk to you now. Would he rather you didn't survive? He should be so glad just to hug you and tell you he's happy to have you.
You have survived a crash and a cruel organization. You are the winner.
I suggest you get out the list of things you wanted to do before you die, since you almost did, and start doing them. Invite your loved ones on the journey, but if they choose to shun you, then please enjoy them anyway.When you do speak to family, tell them you are glad to be able to breathe life's air.
I wish the best for you!
my mother-in-law is making leaps and bounds in her progress to get out of the watchtower.
for those of you that don't know, she is df'd but has been working on "coming back".
recently i've been able to exchange emails about the dangers of the organization and share jesus with her.
Why not instruct all the publishers to hiss and boo when a df'd person comes in, so they could feel even more like dirt?
If there are no chairs in the back rows, then of course they should stand silently at the back so as not to contaminate any seats, and with their head down so that they do not make eye contact with righteous people.
No wonder your MIL is beginning to "see the light." The great and mighty "shepherds" are helping to convince her not to come back.
