The reason why I show any interest in this is that I have very close friends who were raised Catholic. All of them have left the church due to the superstitious beliefs and legalistic church doctrines that were foisted up them growing up. Most of the ones I talk to had a difficult time regaining any faith in God after that - much like ex-Jehovah's Witnesses.
Jeremy C
JoinedPosts by Jeremy C
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No Communion for Obama supporters says Priest
by cameo-d inthis is getting ridiculous.
all religion ever does is cause confusion and division.
it is time to bitch slap these religious purveyors and put an end to this nonsense.. .
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No Communion for Obama supporters says Priest
by cameo-d inthis is getting ridiculous.
all religion ever does is cause confusion and division.
it is time to bitch slap these religious purveyors and put an end to this nonsense.. .
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Jeremy C
First of all, it's none of their damned business who their members voted for. Second of all, I wonder how many of these "pro-life" priests support the death penalty.
I am sorry if I offend any of our Catholic friends here, but I sick and tired of the Catholic Church sticking it's boy-fondling tentacles into politics. They have advocated both very conservative and very liberal viewpoints; whereby they set up a litmus test that their followers must jump through in order to be considered in good standing with God. The Catholic heirarchy has a rather amusing set of moral precepts:
Vote for Obama = sin / denial of communion
Molesting little boys = transfer to another perish with a light warning
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any problems with this 607 response from Elder PO
by besty inback in may 2007 i got this response from my brother who later acted as chief witness for the prosecution at our kangaroo court.
in fact he travelled 1000 miles round trip to do so.
he was motivated :-).
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Jeremy C
From reading the excerpt, I gather that he is using the same method of reasoning that the Watchtower uses to bolster it's claim that mankind is only about 6,000 years old (despite archeological proof that shows otherwise). The Watchtower has it's own unique standards by which Biblical passages are interpreted. And thus, their methodology becomes the litmust test by which overyone else must read those passages also.
Case in point: the Watchtower discounts overwhelming archeological evidence that mankind has been on earth longer than 6,000 years. They claim that they "follow the Bible, rather than secular ideas". Yet why do they reject Genesis' clear statements that the heavens and the earth was created in seven days? Since they cannot retain any credibility by adopting the literalist view of the seven creative days, they have conceded that those "days" are undisclosed "periods" of time. But, that is not what Genesis says. And other fundamentalists have jumped on the Watchtower for arbitrarily picking and choosing what they will view as literal and what they will not.
The Watchtower is more than happy to accept the various archeological dating methods when those estimates confirm the historical accuracy of a certain Biblical accounts (conquer of Babylon, etc). But when those very same methods reveal human remains and dwellings that are much older than 6,000 years, they quickly reject it as "unreliable". They fall back on their same pious platitude that they "rely on the Bible instead of secular ideas". They want to have their "archeological cake" and eat it too. They clearly want to have it both ways.
We can see that the Watchtower has displayed a rank intellectual dishonesty over and over again with it's Biblical interpretations. Why should we believe them about the 587/607 issue? Are they not the ones with the most to lose if 607 is not correct? Emotional investments do not render the most sober minded analysis.
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Defence of watchtower society Links
by reniaa ini thought long and hard before making this thread, that many will not agree with it but i think there needs to be balance and people to realise there are alternate viewpoints out there on many of these subjects, the ones that are most spoke about on this forum.
i was recently sent a full message containing mary's book and these links give the rebuttal to many of her points.
those that are still open-minded enough feel free to look over them even if in the end you still don't agree at least you have heard both the defence as well as the attack as they are on the internet.
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Jeremy C
scholar wrote:
The True Religion including its doctrines which are all Bible based bind families together in love-hope-faith.
All Bible based? That's some of the most self-serving load of horse shit I've ever read. Where in the Bible will you find it taught that one must verbally affirm being baptized into an organization before one can undergo Christians baptism? Where in the Bible does it teach that a Christian must be a member of an organization to gain salvation? Where in the Bible does it teach that Christians are to be subject to a centralized governing council that has supreme legislative powers over them? Where in the Bible does it teach that Ministerial Servants and Elders must report a certain number of hours each month on a report slip to qualify for their position? Where in the Bible is there any precedent for Christians having to turn in monthly report slips? Where in the Bible does it teach that a Christian must confess a transgression to the body of elders even after they have repented of it? Where in the Bible does it allow secret tribunals (judicial committees) to be conducted in the congregation where the accused is not allowed to even have a record of the proceedings?
Why don't you just admit that the Jehovah's Witness religion is a legalistic religion that is under a modern day Talmud. The way that the Governing Body convenes and votes on rules and doctrines is no different than a college of Cardinals. The supreme legislative and judicial powers that they execise over their fellow Christians from Brooklyn is no different than the Roman Catholic Papacy presiding from the Vatican.
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When did the WTBTS stop teaching evolution?
by Gladring inages ago i watched the "photo drama of creation" and was stunned when i heard ct russell say that only man was specially created by god, and that the animals and plants evolved as science tells us.
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when did they drop this teaching?.
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Jeremy C
I didn't see Blodie's post. Wow, I never knew the Watchtower taught that.
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When did the WTBTS stop teaching evolution?
by Gladring inages ago i watched the "photo drama of creation" and was stunned when i heard ct russell say that only man was specially created by god, and that the animals and plants evolved as science tells us.
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when did they drop this teaching?.
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Jeremy C
I don't believe that is the case. The Watchtower has conceded that micro-evolutionary changes may have taken place within species (changes within finches or earthworms, for example), but they have rejected the notion that species have evolved into other species (i.e. reptiles into birds, etc).
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Defence of watchtower society Links
by reniaa ini thought long and hard before making this thread, that many will not agree with it but i think there needs to be balance and people to realise there are alternate viewpoints out there on many of these subjects, the ones that are most spoke about on this forum.
i was recently sent a full message containing mary's book and these links give the rebuttal to many of her points.
those that are still open-minded enough feel free to look over them even if in the end you still don't agree at least you have heard both the defence as well as the attack as they are on the internet.
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Jeremy C
erm...pope cough cough, mormons cough cough, scientology cough Baptist, methodist, Quakers and anyway even if they say all christian faiths lead to God (and only the more modern ones do) they make it a 'Jesus only Club',
I still stand by my statements that most do not fit this description. As a percentage of the total Christian churches earthwide (including the home churches), the exclusivistic denominations are a small fraction of that. I have never attended a church where the pastors or the members made a claim that their congregation was the only true congregation on the planet.
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Did You "Wait" On Jehovah or Did You "Run Ahead"?
by minimus inwere you ever counseled for "running ahead of jehovah's organization?".
did you have to be told that you needed to "wait on jehovah"?.
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Jeremy C
Did you have to be told that you needed to "wait on Jehovah"?
Several times. This rote response is nothing more than a typical thought-stopping cliche (as discussed by cult experts). The underlying meaning of this statement is "wait on the Governing Body" to clarify matters. As our fellow poster Nathan Natas used to say: "Jehovah is nothing more than a sock puppet used by the Governing Body."
What's ironic about this "wait on Jehovah" gibberish is that no one has "run ahead of Jehovah" more than the Watchtower leadership itself. When Rutherford and the Watchtower predicted Armageddon in 1925; who was it that ran ahead of Jehovah? When Rutherford told the young people not to get married or have children; who was it that ran ahead of Jehovah? When the Governing Body started focussing on 1975; who was it that ran ahead of Jehovah? The list goes on and on.
When the Governing Body tells their 7 million employees not to "run ahead of Jehovah", it is a clasic example of "do as we say; not as we do".
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CHRISTIAN WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS ... ANOTHER GREAT JW EMAIL
by whereami inoh the irony!!!!.
christian ways to reduce stress .... .
an wise person says, "never borrow from thefuture.
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Jeremy C
These JW emails are funny. You can tell that someone lifted this information out of a Stephen Covey book or a Reader's Digest article, and then inserted words like "Jehovah", "meetings", and "Bible reading" to give it a theocratic flavor.
Is it any coincidence that members of legalistic / works oriented organizations need so many stress reducing strategies?
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Defence of watchtower society Links
by reniaa ini thought long and hard before making this thread, that many will not agree with it but i think there needs to be balance and people to realise there are alternate viewpoints out there on many of these subjects, the ones that are most spoke about on this forum.
i was recently sent a full message containing mary's book and these links give the rebuttal to many of her points.
those that are still open-minded enough feel free to look over them even if in the end you still don't agree at least you have heard both the defence as well as the attack as they are on the internet.
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Jeremy C
Do you honestly think if you looked behind the curtains of any religion the men would be anything more than just men?
Yes, but the Watchtower has opened itself up to special scrutiny. Most Christian organizations do not assert that they are the exclusive channel of communication from God to mankind. Most do not claim that humans must be members of their organization in association with certain men (Slave Class) to gain salvation. Only the cults make these kinds of bellicose assertions.
Whenever an organization (and the men who govern it) make the grandiose claim that they are the sole mouthpiece of God; and that all other churches are part of the anti-Christ, they are setting themselves up to be knocked off of their pedestal. Incredible claims demand incredible evidence. When you read the Scriptures, you will find that Divine appointments to office (i.e. Moses and the priesthood) were accompanied by supernatural displays from God. The only thing the Watchtower can point to is the year that their former president got released from a Georgia prison.
The Watchtower demands a level of reverence and allegiance way beyond what they deserve. Yes, you are correct that they are imperfect men. But imperfect men do not have the right to be given unwavering allegiance when they have made asses out of themselves so many times. Reverence must be earned, not demanded.
It saddens me that so many elders and bethel workers are on here. And they have had hardest work to do they truly give all their life to Jehovah.
I served at Bethel, and I now know that I was not serving God, but the interests of a publishing corporation masquerading as a Christian congregation. You don’t have to be sad. People like us are now in a unique position to help others gain their freedom.