much has been said on what it is like to be shunned but i would like to hear from the other side of the practice: what is it like to shun?.
just to give you my perspective: i was raised a jw, but was never baptized and in fact i was only a real zealout for about 2 years of my life.
for this reason when a friend of mine was disciplined for marijuanna possession it never even occured to me that i should shun him (i visited him the day after it was announced at the meeting to cheer him up).
I did not like the way it made me feel. The last time I did it was when I saw a person at Disneyland, went through a ridiculous range of emotions wondering if she was reinstated or not. It bothers me to this day, and thankfully after that day, I decided I would never do it again. I also made sure I told DF people who came to the meeting I was glad to see them.
It is an inhumane practice meant to break a persons spirit. I hate it.
That was hyserical! lol
in the style of stephen lett, i'm trying to come up with an exhaustive, enumerated list (without his crazy eyebrows, goofy facial expressions, and nutty voice).
what watchtower has gotten wrong isn't just their 2 witness rule.
it goes much deeper into other failures of jw dogma that has allowed this injustice and others to flourish in their organization.
I think the society will make local elders personally responsible in future cases and abandon them, which will in turn cause elders to rethink their positions.
I think this as well. I called my JWgf last Friday to tell her of the case and judgement. I told her I was specifically concerned about her husband because the elders are after him to appoint him. I told her the society mandates what the elders do and say, but distance themselves from them. This will only get worse as the word spreads that this case was won. Other injured parties whether by sexual abuse or shunning, or whatever, (still needs to be a viable case of course), will bring their cases forward and show harm by the policies of the WBTS; they can refer to CC's case since it will now be in the law books
anyone got recommendations for cigars?
i had a gurkha black dragon the other day that i really liked.
they also have a humidor at the local grocery store that has romeo y julieta (not sure which ones) that are wrapped in cedar.
Yum.
i've been giving some thought to the recent development in which the judge has ruled that the society is barred from completing any property transactions until the appeal is over, which could take up to two years or even more.. i've submitted an article to randy at freeminds in which i basically argue that it is no longer in the society's interests to appeal this case.
if i correctly understand the restrictions placed on the society by the judge, then the governing body has far more to lose by appealing than they could conceivably gain.. think about it.... by appealing, they buy themselves time in which to formulate a long-term strategy for dealing with the fallout of this case, but will be barred from liquidating $1 billion in property assets at a time of global economic uncertainty when their donations are dwindling.
there is also no guarantee that their appeal will be upheld.by dropping their appeal, they take a hit and pay $23.8 million but retain the freedom to see through their real estate projects; retain their financial flexibility to respond to dwindling donations, and get to pretend to their followers (as with the un scandal) that it never happened.of course, i am only saying that dropping the appeal would be the only intelligent option for the society, assuming they are aware of how legally precarious their child abuse policies are.
@drewcoul: In the pedophile case here in SoCal, the elders tried to use the priest-pentinent privilege in the trial. The court denied it because the information in JC's is shared with anybody and everybody from other elders, congregations, DO's Co's and HQ.
on a lighter note, several of us were talking about a family that had moved into our congregation and that the wife was a 4th generation dub.. i made the comment that i used to refer to myself as a 3rd generation dub but i can't do that anymore since my life over-lapped with my grandparents so i am really a 1st generation dub.. it was funny to see the strange look on several of their faces.
one even said, "wow, i have to think about that.
" another said, "well, i never really looked at it that way.".
Hahaha! Good one!
i had two new positions open up out of the blue recently and as luck would have it...for some reason i know a helluva lotta ex-jws lol!
especially with two young and popular dfd sons who also hang with a lot of ex dubs...but that maybe is another thread....we are drawn to those with similarities very often and being an exjw is a pretty small club....and we left a true brotherhood to many and a network for sure to everyone else.
so at work none of the non jws care for the jws and some have asked them to stop giving them paper crap and leave them alone...when one of them acted pissed that i had told some of the guys he would not ride with me to a jobsite lmao....of course they thought a new level of insanity had overtaken one of my normally great employees...so i told her "why would i not mention that to the shop guy/friends...im not ashamed of anything???".
Very well played.
in light of the candice conti civil trial against the wtbs and the pro-jehovah's witness/apologist comments posted on various news websites, i thought i would give a simplified explanaition of what is involved in appealing the outcome of a trial in the courts of the united states.. a trial, whether criminal or civil, usually ends with a verdict rendered by a jury.
in a criminal case the verdict is guilty or not guilty.
that same jury may decide the punishment in the event of a guilty verdict.. in a civil case a jury must decide based on the evidence whether the defendant is guilty of damaging the plaintiff.
Watchtower and Jehovah's Witness are a small, odd fringe group in the scope of the world. They don't vote or get involved with anything of importance to anybody else, so any news of them is just a story for the day. If Candace starts making the rounds on news or talk shows, maybe more commentary will be forthcoming in the media.
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/ronnie_polaneczky/20120621_deadlocked_or_not__the_priest_sex_abuse_jury_did_its_job.html?c=0.25315509423734484&posted=y&viewall=y#comments.
deadlocked or not, the priest sex-abuse jury did its job.
philadelphia daily news.
Lump the lot together I say.
im predicting a loss in both numbers in the us and western countries with significant drop in hours preached particularly in the usa.. commetns ?
?.
The end of the year is only six months away. I think it will look the same....but more seeds of doubt have been planted. Coffee breaks, and phoney time will increase.
I think much the same. The few witnesses I've shared the case with didn't have much to say, and at first, silly me I know, I thought I'd see more of a reaction. But now I think they were sort of processing it all, not knowing what to think. Whereas, we've been discussing these issues for years here and have been privy to more info than more JW's.
But you can't get the genie back into the bottle. Seeds have been planted...just another little chink in their faith in the "organization" TM.
