Eusebius Hieronymus

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Posts by Eusebius Hieronymus

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  137

  Freedom of Thought and JW Opposers

  by dunsscot in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does freedom of thought really obtain in this forum?

  are those who have left god's organization and jehovah god himself actually now more open-minded and unbiased?

  if those who espouse atheistic thoughts or those who believe every vile utterance spoken against jehovah's people think they are now speaking from some olympian perspective, i beg to differ.

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  <Should taking blood thus be a matter of conscience? I personally think it should. And by this statement, I do not mean that we should consider those who take blood transfusions to be our former brothers, who have shown they did not want the truth. A matter of conscience should be a matter of conscience.

  <On the other hand, there are those who, after weighing the scriptural and medical evidence (either in a perfunctory in-depth manner), decide to abstain from blood transfusions. They also make this decision for their offspring and thus allow situations tat MAY involve the death of their very dear beloved children. They act in this way--suspending what to many might seem ethical--for a higher telos. They believe that they hear the voice of God (bath qol) in Scripture and through God's congregation, and they act accordingly. I cannot fault such individuals who take this course. In a way, they are akin to father Abraham.>

  I am in agreement, good Doctor Subtilis. Your points are made very well. My long-time personal experience as an elder, however, suggests that the majority of JWs do not weigh these matters at all, preferring to listen to what I believe you have termed 'law emanating from' a specific group of individuals who themselves are in disagreement on this dogma. That is to say, they prefer to ask, "How does the Society [obviously not a corporation] feel about this?"

  When the Society first published information in QFR form regarding the acceptability of the blood fraction gamma globulin, it was categorized as "in the field of conscience." When asked whether it was "right" to have an injection in the ER after a spider bite, many of us painstakingly discussed the need for developing the conscience so that it could flourish and act. For naught, because the repeated reply was almost invariably, "Yes, yes, I understand; but what does THE SOCIETY think about it?" I need not further burden this point.

  In your opinion, what should a person do who has conscientiously examined Scripture, hears God's voice, and comes to the conclusion that "abstain ... from blood" has no application to the infusion of, say, packed red cells?

  "Each of us will be accountable to God," says the inspired writer of Romans 14:12. If I follow an edict, policy or doctrine because an ecclesiastical body tells me I must (because I want to continue in its fellowship), I do not act from faith. Is that not sin for me? "Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."--Rom. 14:23, NRSV.

  For those to whom the historical Duns Scotus is unknown, a word or two.

  Scotus changed his doctrine in the course of time, or at least he was not uniformly precise in expressing his thought; "now he follows rather the 'sententia communis,' then again he goes his own way."

  Of him it is said: "In the heat of controversy he often uses expressions which seem to go to extremes and even to contain heresy. His language is frequently obscure; a maze of terms, definitions, distinctions, and objections through which it is by no means easy to thread one's way."

  I think I understand your approach. Am I reading this correctly?

  Jerry
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  62

  Canadians

  by Defender in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i see that a lot of posters and possibly lurkers are from canada.. can you please mention briefly what part of canada you're from.

  maybe some of us can get together.. i'll start; i am in vancouver.

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  What's with you people, eh? Especially in
  T'ronto. Where's that hoser Percy Chapman when you need him?

  TORONTO JOURNAL

  Shedding a Bit More Than Its Image

  By ANTHONY DePALMA
  John Hryniuk for The New York Times

  TORONTO — When Carmen Russo goes to work, she routinely does something that just a few years ago would have been unthinkable in a city so conservative about so many things that it was known throughout Canada as Toronto the Good.

  Ms. Russo is one of the principal anchors for an Internet newscast, reading national news and business briefs in steady, sober tones for a global audience. And she does so in the nude.

  Ms. Russo's program, "Naked News," and a companion program from Toronto called "The Male Edition," in which Lucas Taylor and other young men deliver the news in the buff, have become two of the most popular sites on the Internet, getting almost as many viewers as The Wall Street Journal's site.

  The success of "Naked News," and the city's sanguine response to its production, is seen by many here as the most revealing sign of how much this city has changed as it has become a metropolitan center and left behind an image of prudery and oh- so-proper English restraint.

  It has been three years since Toronto merged with five suburbs to form a metropolis of more than 2.3 million people. As it grows in worldliness, the new city, Canada's largest, has been letting its hair down in many ways.

  In April Toronto got what is called North America's first talk-radio station for guys, a bar-stool blend of sports, schlock and sex on Mojo Radio-AM (640). And a former paper plant and junkyard on the eastern waterfront has grown into an enormous party zone, an open-air meeting place with a pool, a foam-covered dance floor and Canada's newest drive-in movie theater.

  And each June Toronto holds one of North America's largest gay pride parades, where bare breasts and buttocks seem to be no more unusual than pretzels and balloons.

  "Something is changing out there," said Stewart J. Meyers, operations manager for Mojo Radio. He said he still considers Toronto a conservative city compared with its flashy French-accented big sister, Montreal, but he said much had changed.

  "Societal standards are what we're talking about here," Mr. Meyers said. "Are they what they were 25 years ago? Hardly."

  Some longtime Torontonians say it was the gay pride parade that set a new tone. Though the parade has been held since the 1970's, in recent years it has grown tremendously in numbers of participants as well as in acceptance.

  One reason the parade has become more risqué, perhaps, is that a few years ago an Ontario court ruled that it was legal for women to appear in public without covering their breasts, as long as they did not do so for commercial gain.

  Toronto has been developing a more European sensibility about nudity and sex, which is reflected on the Internet and on the radio. But there has also been a shift from its rigid Protestant past.

  "This is a city that's having a lot more fun than before," said Robert Bothwell, a professor of history at the University of Toronto and a longtime resident. "At least it's having more fun publicly."

  Whether discussing pick-up lines or the advantages of one sexual act or another, Mojo Radio caters to an aspect of culture that was held in check in a more reserved Toronto.

  Mojo Radio's billboards — showing a barely clad woman reclining against drapery and holding a drill — are also a departure from the classic architecture of Toronto. "What this says is that it's okay to be a guy again," said Mr. Meyers.

  On summer weekends, thousands of Toronto's men and women jam into the Docks patio on Lake Ontario to meet, drink and dance in a way that the old Toronto would never have abided.

  "We might have had a lot of trouble getting this project approved in Toronto 10 years ago," said Jerry Sprackman, who developed the Docks, which describes itself as "limited only to your imagination."

  "There was a very negative connotation about clubs in the city," Mr. Sprackman said. "They were considered places for sex, drugs and bad characters."

  But to the greatest number of Torontonians, it is "Naked News," taped in their midst every day, that most clearly reflects the change of the city's attitudes.

  Canadians boring? Hardly, said Ms. Russo, one of the four "Naked News" anchors. The 42-year-old former model and mother of a teenage daughter thinks it is about time that Toronto loosened up a bit. "Maybe the city should be called `Toronto the Daring,' " she said.

  The show was created by two Toronto entrepreneurs with financial backing from eGalaxy, a company chartered in Barbados. (A similar concept is used for television newscasts in several European cities.)

  Toronto's "Naked News" (www.nakednews.com) first appeared on the Internet in December 1999. Producers say it has six million individual viewers a month worldwide. An independent count performed by Jupiter Media Matrix indicated that the program had 1.2 million individual viewers in the United States in May. "Naked News" covers international and national news, business, movies and other topics covered by most Canadian newscasts. The anchors' accents sometimes reveal their Canadian origins, but nothing on the set identifies it as being in Toronto.

  During most of the program the anchors stand completely nude while they read the news. The exception is the opening segment in which a clothed woman disrobes while she reads the foreign news.

  "I don't know about you," said Ms. Russo, "but I think foreign news is kind of boring and needs a little something to make it exciting."

  "Naked News" has become difficult for Canadians to ignore. Some of Canada's most prominent broadcast journalists confess to having watched it, of course to find out what it was about.

  Dale Goldhawk, a reporter for CTV, a national television network, said the show's popularity was a response to an alarming trend. "Some newscasts I've seen are so bad," he said, "I think the people should take off their clothes to make it more interesting."
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  82

  Prevalence of JW Suicides - Real or Imagined?

  by AMNESIAN in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in one or two recent threads i've seen reference to the possibility of a rising number of jw suicides being another of the organization's very dark realities about which it is vigilant in keeping concealed from its pub populace.

  is there anyone reasonably informed regarding this?

  is there reason to suppose the incidence ratio among jws is any higher than among any peoples/religion?

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  UP
• 
  68

  WTS lied about Joseph Priestley and Blood

  by hawkaw in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may have already made a post about this but i have decided to post the following anyway.. the booklet - how can blood save your life?

  (copyright 2000).

  part 2 - bloodvital for life.

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  <Just remember, when the announce that someone has 'DA'd themself it may just be a way to stop you speaking to them...>

  Exactly. They wash their hands of you.

  Heart goes out to you, Simon. No matter what it's called, it's painful.
• 
  68

  WTS lied about Joseph Priestley and Blood

  by hawkaw in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may have already made a post about this but i have decided to post the following anyway.. the booklet - how can blood save your life?

  (copyright 2000).

  part 2 - bloodvital for life.

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  Past my bedtime, I am tired. Forgot to paste something from the Flog book.
  Facts, man, just give me the facts:

  <Using the forms provided by the Society, the branch
  office should be notified of the person's name, the Scrip-
  tural reason for the disfellowshipping, and the date of
  the action. ( S-77 and S-79 forms )

  <A brief review of the evidence that was presented should
  also be given.
  A similar report is made when a person disassociates
  himself from the organization. ( S-77 and S-79 forms )
  A written summary of the case should be prepared by the
  committee and put in a sealed envelope to be placed in the
  congregation file.>

  See, that bad boy "disassociated HIMSELF from the organization." Elders and Society didn't do nuthing, ain't responsible for a thing.

  Jerry
• 
  68

  WTS lied about Joseph Priestley and Blood

  by hawkaw in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may have already made a post about this but i have decided to post the following anyway.. the booklet - how can blood save your life?

  (copyright 2000).

  part 2 - bloodvital for life.

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  Waiting, the thought occurs that you were kindly asking about me in a comment above. Thanks. I think my picture may look like Copernicus. Or maybe I'm just tired. Courtesy of a fixed Nic link, here's something your agile brain will have fun with, the additional material to what Max calls The Flog book.

  <During the Kingdom Ministry Schools that were held during November and December of 1994, elders in the United States were given information that was to be written into their "Pay Attention To Yourselves And To All The Flock" book.
  
  <This information concerned the S77 and S79 forms that local judicial committees use to report disfellowshippings to the branch office in Brooklyn.
  
  <The following was read to the elders, twice, for them to write word for word into their books.
  <It can therefore be rightly considered to be an add-on or revision to the Manual.
  
  "Six Expressions That Should Not Be Used on S77 and S79 Forms

  1. Anything alluding to or naming one of the Society's attorneys
  2. Any mention of the Legal Department
  3. Any comments referring to direction from the Society
  4. Any comments mentioning anyone other than the committee itself as a possible influence in the decision reached
  5. Any comments that might suggest to someone with a critical eye that the committee did not reach its decision on its own but, instead, somehow yielded to the influence of an outside party
  6. Any comments indicating that the elders mishandled the case or committed any error in the investigation or the judicial committee process."

  The Society has nicely washed its hands of responsibility. If there was error or mishandling, no one will know about it.

  Elders are on their own! Screw up and you will twist slowly in the wind, nobody to protect you, while the Brooklyn gerontocrats enjoy travel to the next Zone trip. Some kid bleeding to death? "Wait on Jehovah."

  Supposed you screwed up an abuse case--at their well-disguised direction?
  Hmmmmm.

  Jerry
• 
  137

  Freedom of Thought and JW Opposers

  by dunsscot in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does freedom of thought really obtain in this forum?

  are those who have left god's organization and jehovah god himself actually now more open-minded and unbiased?

  if those who espouse atheistic thoughts or those who believe every vile utterance spoken against jehovah's people think they are now speaking from some olympian perspective, i beg to differ.

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  <A Christian will thus insist upon the provisional nature of any theological understanding posited by him or her. (One friend told me that Brother Karl Klein stressed this point before he died.)>

  I take my frivolous pun back. Now you are making sense.

  This is a gem of wisdom to be burnished.
  And the anecdote is true.

  Jerry
• 
  137

  Freedom of Thought and JW Opposers

  by dunsscot in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does freedom of thought really obtain in this forum?

  are those who have left god's organization and jehovah god himself actually now more open-minded and unbiased?

  if those who espouse atheistic thoughts or those who believe every vile utterance spoken against jehovah's people think they are now speaking from some olympian perspective, i beg to differ.

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  Duns the Scot is actually

  Scot the Dunce.

  QED.
• 
  9

  Online Watchtower Library

  by nicolaou in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many, having left the watchtower, never want to read one of their publications again!.

  many others in the process of leaving need to read some of these books to get things straight in their own minds.. many better men than i have gone to a great deal of time, trouble and expense to put some of the society's older publications online - you simply need to search for them and save them to your hard drive.. i've put some of the more important works all together on one page.. you will find:.

  [1] russells six volume work - studies in the scriptures.. [2] russells 'posthumous work' - the finished mystery.. [3] tabernacle shadows of the 'better sacrifices' (pdf).

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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  Wanted to do a quick quotation from Flock to someone, and tried your site.

  I keep getting Server Not Found messages.

  Jerry
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  68

  WTS lied about Joseph Priestley and Blood

  by hawkaw in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may have already made a post about this but i have decided to post the following anyway.. the booklet - how can blood save your life?

  (copyright 2000).

  part 2 - bloodvital for life.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Eusebius Hieronymus

  For those who don't like their reading dumbed down.

  Jerry