Posts by ignored

53

What JW Teaching Did You Never Quite Totally Accept???

by minimus in

jw
friends

since i was raised a witness, it was only as i got older that i started to "think" about what i was teaching and believing.

but even as a young teen, i never accepted the thought that 1975 was going to be the end of the "system of things" and the beginning of the "new system".

i just didn't quite believe that.........what belief or teaching did you have a "hard time swallowing"?

ignored_one

Birthdays and the whole head covering arrangement.

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Ignored One.

2

Sex-mad BBC

by ignored_one in

found as part of a diary article on the guardian website:.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,9176,1056436,00.html.

sex-mad bbc .

ignored_one

Found as part of a diary article on the guardian website:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,9176,1056436,00.html

Sex-mad BBC
Tonight, when Channel 4 is giving us an investigation into the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly, the BBC's Panorama will be devoted to the question of sex abuse among the Catholic clergy.
This move by the BBC has angered the Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham who last week launched a fierce attack on the Corporation, accusing it of an anti-Catholic bias, a charge that was given wide coverage by the Daily Telegraph which, as it happens, is owned and edited by Catholics.
This is to miss the point. The BBC is no more anti-Catholic than most of the rest of the media, which are not just anti-Catholic but anti-Christianity and anti-religion in general. The BBC, just like the tabloid newspapers, is interested in sex and especially sex abuse and paedophiles. Any story featuring any of the above will be guaranteed prominence on the news bulletins. If it can be shown that priests are involved, so much the better. The Catholics are not the only ones to suffer as a result of these priorities. It was not so long ago, when the nation was caught up in the controversy of whether or not we should go to war in Iraq, that Panorama devoted itself to the exposure of sex abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses.
What should be attacked is not so much the BBC's bias against the Church, which undoubtedly exists, but its bias in favour of downmarket, sex-flavoured sensationalism at a time when there are a lot of more serious matters to discuss.

I didn't find the Panorama program 'sex-flavoured sensationalism'. It was an important issue that needed exposing.

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Ignored One.

10

EMAIL OPRAH re Vicki

by Gizmo in

jw
friends

maybe to add to the letter campaign you all can email the oprah show regarding vicki.. who knows where it will lead!.

here's a link to her email.

http://www.oprah.com/email/reach/email_reach_fromu.jhtml.

ignored_one

I've forwarded the story to Panorama. Don't know if they would be interested but I thought I'd give it a shot.

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Ignored One.

2

Religion Be Damned - Richard Dawkins defends the godless amoung us.

by ignored_one in

jw
friends

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.10/view.html?pg=2

view

essay

ignored_one

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.10/view.html?pg=2

VIEW essay

Religion Be Damned
Richard Dawkins defends the godless amoung us.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]How is a meme created? You can sit back and observe the spread of a new fashion, a new slang word, a new way of walking or talking - and let a meme burst onto the scene in its own good time. An example would be the current epidemic of basically, which, as a synonym for er, has infected a ludicrously high proportion of sentences now uttered by English speakers. But the ultimate test in science is experiment: You don't just wait for something to happen and observe it, you make it happen.
I don't know whether gay - meaning homosexual - just happened, or whether it was launched. Either way, it has been a successful meme. The new definition is in the dictionary, and it is used more or less universally by heterosexuals. Did some syndicate deliberately release gay into the memosphere? Or did it spring up spontaneously, then take off as a brush fire? I don't know how, or when, gay got its start, but 2003 is seeing the deliberate launch of a new meme. It is bright, and we are at its birth. The bright meme is intentionally imitating gay's provenance in the explicit hope of copying its success.
The gay meme improved the image and, I dare add, the happiness of a once unpopular minority. Similarly, bright is intended to come to the aid of another beleaguered community in the US: those who, in the most religiose country in the Western world, have no religion, who are variously labeled atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, philosophical naturalists, secularists, or humanists. A Gallup poll in 1999 asked American voters the following question: "If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be an X would you vote for that person?" X took on the following values: Catholic, Jew, Baptist, Mormon, black, homosexual, woman, atheist. Six out of the eight categories secured better than 90 percent approval. But only 59 percent would vote for a homosexual, and just 49 percent would vote for an atheist. Bear in mind that there are 29 million Americans who describe themselves as nonreligious, secular, atheist, or agnostic, outnumbering Jews tenfold and all other religions except Christianity by an even larger margin.

Emek
The same questions had been asked by Gallup in 1978, and there are revealing differences. In 1978, only 26 percent of the American electorate would contemplate voting for a homosexual. Is it possible that the word gay, and the gay pride movement that came with it, has been partly responsible for the improvement to 59 percent by 1999? If so, all the more reason for the despised 29 million to seek their own "gay."
I am a bright. You are (quite probably) a bright. Most of the people I know are brights. The majority of scientists are brights. Presumably there are lots of closet brights in Congress, but they dare not come out. Notice from these examples that the word is a noun, not an adjective. We brights are not claiming to be bright (meaning clever, intelligent), any more than gays claim to be gay (meaning joyful, carefree). Whether there is a statistical tendency for brights (noun) to be bright (adjective) is a matter for research. I would dearly like to see such research undertaken, and I know the result I am betting on, but it is no part of the definition of the noun.
The noun bright was coined in March by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell of Sacramento, California. In April, I heard them give a presentation on the new word in Florida, and they launched The-Brights.net soon after. The new meme was almost immediately given a boost by two enthusiastic articles in large-circulation newspapers. On June 21, I wrote "the future looks bright" for the Guardian , one of Britain's leading national dailies. And on July 12, the distinguished philosopher Daniel Dennett followed up with "the bright stuff" for The New York Times op-ed page.
So, the bright meme is launched. Will it spread, like gay, and basically, and the backward baseball cap? Or will it nose-dive into the sand? I'm hoping it will take off. I'm even betting that it will, despite the hostility of those who misunderstand the humble noun as an arrogant adjective, and those who, notwithstanding the success of gay, resent all such coinings out of hand. But mostly, I am simply curious, as a disinterested scientist, to see what will happen.
Richard Dawkins is a professor at Oxford University. His books include The Selfish Gene and, most recently, A Devil's Chaplain.

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Ignored One.

15

Viz comic strip about Dubs 1 of 2

by yxl1 in

jw
friends

ignored_one

The file is still pointing to your harddrive atm.

When you make a new post/edit a post. Hit the paperclip icon and it'll bring up your file area. Then choose which pic to attach.

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Ignored One.

11

Father jailed for 'honour killing'

by ignored_one in

father jailed for 'honour killing'

a kurdish muslim who cut his daughter's throat because she was having a relationship with a christian has been jailed for life.

the old bailey heard abdalla yones, 48, murdered 16-year-old heshu at their home, in acton, west london, on 12 october 2002 because he feared she was becoming westernised.

ignored_one

Father jailed for 'honour killing' A Kurdish Muslim who cut his daughter's throat because she was having a relationship with a Christian has been jailed for life.
The Old Bailey heard Abdalla Yones, 48, murdered 16-year-old Heshu at their home, in Acton, west London, on 12 October 2002 because he feared she was becoming westernised.
He pleaded for the court to pass the death sentence on him for his "appalling" crime after he tried to take his own life.
Heshu, who was described as popular and fun-loving, planned to run away from home after starting a relationship with an 18-year-old Lebanese teacher.
In a letter to her parents, apparently showing she planned to run away, Heshu wrote: "Bye Dad, sorry I was so much trouble.
Violence in the name of culture will not be tolerated
Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt "Me and you will probably never understand each other, but I'm sorry I wasn't what you wanted, but there's some things you can't change.
"Hey, for an older man you have a good strong punch and kick.
"I hope you enjoyed testing your strength on me, it was fun being on the receiving end. Well done."
Yones was a political refugee who fled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq 10 years ago.
Cut his throat
The court heard that after repeatedly stabbing his daughter and slitting her throat, he cut his own throat and jumped from a third floor balcony.
Scotland Yard described it as a "brutal honour killing" - a reference to the practice of women being killed by male relatives to redeem the family name.
Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt said: "There was nothing, nothing at all 'honourable' about her murder.
"After hacking his daughter to death, Mr Yones has attempted every defence, from psychiatric, and diminished responsibility to extreme provocation, in order to save his own skin."
He added that Yones first claimed al-Qaeda members had broken into the flat, murdered Heshu and then attacked him. He only admitted murdering her last Monday.
Yones's counsel, Icah Peart QC, said his client wanted to be sentenced to death.
Judge Neil Denison said Yones had tried to commit suicide twice but told him he would pass the only sentence he could for murder - life imprisonment.
This is, on any view, a tragic story arising out of irreconcilable cultural differences between traditional Kurdish values and the values of western society
Judge Neil Denison He added: "This is, on any view, a tragic story arising out of irreconcilable cultural differences between traditional Kurdish values and the values of western society."
But Scotland Yard warned the sentence should be a warning to those who condone or stay silent about the mistreatment of women in their communities.
Commander Andy Baker added: "Violence in the name of culture will not be tolerated. Murder in the name of honour will be punished by the severest penalties available in law."
Scotland Yard believe there were 12 'honour killings' in the UK last year and said they were not restricted to Muslims, but also occurred in Sikh and Christian families.
A specialist police unit is researching the practice but police say only a handful of people believed 'honour killings' were an appropriate cultural response.
Mr Baker said people who had tried to protect Yones could now be investigated on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
"We are completely satisfied that some members of the community, or his friends, tried to assist him in that cover-up," he said.
"It's not about one person committing the murder, it's about the few that acknowledge it and support it and are involved in it."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/3149030.stm

Published: 2003/09/29 15:35:20 GMT

© BBC MMIII

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Ignored One.

21

Local newspaper features "Leaving the Flock"

by talesin in

jw
friends

ex-jws speak out

i was surprised and happy to see this when i went to pick up my copy of "the coast" (a local weekly) on thursday, take a look,

http://www.thecoast.ns.ca/flash_index.html

ignored_one

Ruge, who comes across as friendly and accessible over the phone, says ?we feel bad when anybody feels hurt or angered.? He says there is no policy of shunning people who have left the Jehovah?s Witnesses because they stopped believing. Individual Witnesses, he says, may behave more coolly toward their friends or family members who have left the faith, but that is their personal choice. Unless of course the ex-Witness is ?bad news, like a thief or a fornicator,? says Ruge, but those would be grounds for disfellowshipping, and shunning would likely follow.

And we all know what a load of crap that statement is.

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Ignored One.

27

Its my Birthday, please send.......

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

its my birthday, my mum gave me a plain card that said inside " dear scott, although we don't celebrate birthdays, i want you know i thought of you today, i'm proud of the child that became the boy thats turned into the man you are today......i love you today and always "my" boy.

love mum" xxx <<<< awww i was choked.

so 33, knocking on a bit, but still up for it!