Vanderhoven7 : Here is one from a Bulgarian ...
Helge Fauskanger is Norwegian and best known as a Tolkien linguist. He has translated the first two chapters of Genesis into Quenya, an elvish language created by Tolkien.
i would like to collect as many instances of watchtower dishonesty and pretense as possible.
here is one from a bulgarian as an example of what i'm looking for.. are jehovah's witnesses disfellowshipped for receiving blood in a hospital?.
helge fauskanger writes: "if witnesses can’t convince the elders that they are utterly “repentant” for this vampiric lapse of theirs, they will be held to have disassociated themselves from the religion — even if they never said a word about wanting to leave it!
i may have put this in the wrong thread.
if so, i'm sorry.. my conundrum is this.... i am almost completely certain that an awake back in the 80's/90's mentioned a group of rock bands we shouldn't listen to and i seem to remember them actually naming guns and roses.. i can't find anything now, and i'm wondering if it's the mandela effect, or if it's another case of the cdrom versions of the awakes being doctored again.. does anyone else remember this?
or am i crazy?
The two Awake! articles referred to by Atlantis above can be accessed here (1992) and here (1993).
Death Metal—What’s the Message? (1992)
Even the more mainstream heavy-metal groups purvey messages that are hardly less grotesque. Time magazine reported that the two record albums by the heavy-metal group Guns N’ Roses sold over 1.5 million copies in three days. Yet, the albums continue what Time calls the band’s “unrelentingly sexist and uncompromisingly violent lyrics” and “their forays into xenophobia, racism and sadomasochism.” They also feature such themes as oral sex, homicide, and a profusion of profanities. Several chains of stores have refused to sell the records.
Can Music Really Hurt Me? (1993)
Take heavy-metal music—a particularly noxious form of hard rock that is usually played at ear-splitting volume. Heavy-metal bands typically sport names like Poison, Skid Row, Guns N’ Roses, and Slayer. Time magazine said: “The band names alone conjure up images of mayhem, torture and death.” The same can be said of the horrifying artwork that adorns the album covers and that often depicts satanic symbols.
awake 73 3/23 p.12 "the spirit of compatition between players can lead to unpleasant circumstances...in some homes tensions linger longer then checkmate.
chess is a game of war a play substitute for the art of war...danger of stirring up compatiton and hostility to one another something the bible warns christians to avoid.
what effect does playing chess have on you is it wholesome?
While the article did not suggest that chess was evil (as the OP claims), I was a keen chess player at the time and can remember I gave up competitive chess (i.e. club chess) as a result of the article.
But BluesBrother is correct that they subsequently endorsed chess, saying it is a "board game that has long provided many persons much pleasure" here. Then there was the life story of Josephine Elias, who "carried a chessboard when visiting interested people at their homes so that others would think I was merely playing chess" when preaching in Indonesia.
If one reads the whole article it is quite balanced and I would only fault it in saying that the competitive spirit helps explain why there are no topflight women chess players. Of course, that was before the Polgar sisters.
awake 73 3/23 p.12 "the spirit of compatition between players can lead to unpleasant circumstances...in some homes tensions linger longer then checkmate.
chess is a game of war a play substitute for the art of war...danger of stirring up compatiton and hostility to one another something the bible warns christians to avoid.
what effect does playing chess have on you is it wholesome?
Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, Garry Kasparov ... all world chess champions. Garry Kasparov is of interest in view of recent events in that he eventually quit chess and took up politics in 2005. He left Russia in 2013 and wrote the book Winter is Coming in 2015. Still a master of strategy.
awake 73 3/23 p.12 "the spirit of compatition between players can lead to unpleasant circumstances...in some homes tensions linger longer then checkmate.
chess is a game of war a play substitute for the art of war...danger of stirring up compatiton and hostility to one another something the bible warns christians to avoid.
what effect does playing chess have on you is it wholesome?
i searched but could not find it, i apologize if it has already been covered.
https://patch.com/illinois/crystallake/trial-starts-church-elders-accused-not-reporting-sex-abuse.
and here too- https://www.shawlocal.com/northwest-herald/news/crime-and-courts/2022/03/03/trial-for-jehovahs-witnesses-elders-underway-without-decision-from-judge-on-what-hell-consider-in-evidence/.
BluesBrother : the WT instructions are clear , and were in 2006, that in a place that requires mandatory reporting- the elders report.
The elder sought legal advice from Bethel at the time and was told (by legal counsel) he had no legal obligations under the Illinois law to disclose any information. The Illinois law (735 ILCS 5/8-803) includes clergy penitent privelege which relieves any reporting requirement.
Sec. 8-803 states that
A clergyman or practitioner of any religious denomination accredited by the religious body to which he or she belongs, shall not be compelled to disclose in any court, or to any administrative body or agency, or to any public officer, a confession or admission made to him or her in his or her professional character or as a spiritual advisor in the course of the discipline enjoined by the rules or practices of such religious body or of the religion which he or she professes, nor be compelled to divulge any information which has been obtained by him or her in such professional character or as such spiritual advisor.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58420270.
this item just featured on the bbc lunchtime news today as the headline story and the piece included a reporter who singled out jehovah's witnesses for discussion from the 30 organisations covered by the report.
the news item then went on to feature an extensive interview ex elder and ex jehovah's witness writer lloyd evans..
This case started on 2nd March 2022. There is a report on the trial here.
No witnesses were called. Only stipulations were handed to the judge, which he will read before ultimately making his ruling whether statements made by congregants to the elders may be admitted as evidence. Their defense attorneys have argued that the statements made by the congregant fall under the clergy-penitent privilege.
The bench trial will reconvene March 11.
so a quick little note about a few things that i recently learned.
if you ever had the yellow book of bible stories, there was the story of enoch, also repeated in other watchtower publications, about the angels fathering giants and being a menace on earth.
now if you look at the nicean bible, which is the wtbts selection of the bible, it mentions enoch twice and only has a very brief passage about nephilim and ben elohim.
The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha was published in May 2021. The Enoch Seminar will present a virtual review of the book together with the authors on 17th March, and will be discussing the current state of affairs of apocrypha research. The event is free and you can register for it here if interested.
the wt uses phi list ine.
the world says phil is tine.
i remember they had a pronunciation guide devised by a clergyman which is ok in as much as as we dont speak hebrew.
According to the OED the British and US pronunciation of "philistine" is different so it's a bit silly to be dogmatic about it. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The etymology of the word is partly Latin (Philistinus) and partly French (Philistin), and in Hebrew it would be pronounced pel-ish-tee', but transliterations can be misleading on how to say it in English.
this letter will be read this week.
you read it here first!.
re: use of revised new world translation .
Thanks for reminding me about the Gideons, tenyearsafter. They are well known for Bible distribution and their website says they have placed and distributed more than 2 billion Bibles and New Testaments around the world.
But unlike the Watchtower Society they do not have their own translation, but use the KIng James Version, the New King James Version, the English Standard Version as well as existing translations in languages other than English. However, your point is well made that they are probably the largest Bible distributor overall.