i just read the tragic story of the man in chicago who beat his daughter to death.
i have read stories here and on silentlambs about sexual abuse.. my question is: how much fault can be placed on the religion and how much on the perversions of a particular individual?
i frankly don't know the answer to this question.
Having been brought up as one of JW's, I have to disagree with what JT has said. I still think the burden is on each individual to question what they have been taught is truth. I do agree that not everyone learns to question and that some situations make it harder to do this than others, such as being raised a JW, but I still think the burden lies on each person to ask the question "Why" and challenge their value-system.
I know I'm a little idealistic.
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on one of the you know threads you know refuted the oft quipped line here that jehovah will destroy 99.9% of humans at armageddon.
he said that in actuality the king of the north would be doing the destroying and that jehovah would be stopping it short before it annihilated all mankind.. this was news to me.. my understanding was.. 1. peace and security declared.
2. false religion destroyed.
Well I never claimed to be reasonable but....what you have stated is what still taught Joel. There isn't supposed to be any human involvement in the actual fighting of Armageddon.
i just read the tragic story of the man in chicago who beat his daughter to death.
i have read stories here and on silentlambs about sexual abuse.. my question is: how much fault can be placed on the religion and how much on the perversions of a particular individual?
i frankly don't know the answer to this question.
Utopian - I can appreciate your point of view. Do you believe, though, that there are individuals out there who will commit attrocities regardless of their affiliation to organizations? I think it can be an unfair generalization to place the blame on the organization when each of us has the ability to exercise free will.
I do not, however, disagree that an organization can exhert powerful influence on a person and their ideals. And I also agree that an organization that promotes violence, etc. should be held accountable for that.
I can understand wanting to stop these acts at the root cause. However, we CHOOSE what we believe. I can hear a thousand times at a meeting that some children need physical discipline, but that doesn't mean I'm going to beat my children. I think people who go to these extremes have a lack of direction in their lives and are looking for justification when they point their finger at their religion.
When does personal accountability come into play?
my sister in-law is a 10th grade honors student.
she is 14 and currently enrolled in english ii - a required course.
she and her fellow students are studing the holocaust in thier honors english class.. the teacher has instructed them to do the following:.
In my experiences in highschool as a witness, there were several required class assignments that went against my moral ethics.
I requested an alternative assignment. I always assumed that this was something they were required to provide if students had ethical, religious, or moral reasons to not participate.
i just read the tragic story of the man in chicago who beat his daughter to death.
i have read stories here and on silentlambs about sexual abuse.. my question is: how much fault can be placed on the religion and how much on the perversions of a particular individual?
i frankly don't know the answer to this question.
Each individual is accountable for their own actions. Whatever the extenuating circumstances are, including religion, if a person takes action that results in harming another, that person is wholly responsible for their chosen course.
This might sound cold, because we like to excuse ourselves whenever possible. An good example of this, though, are the Nazis who were tried after the war and tried to say that they were not responsible for their actions. They were still held accountable by the legal system. Whatever series of events leads to a course of action, in the end it is the action that must be judged.
This was a terrible tragedy.
chronic fatigue syndrone, m e, yuppie flu.
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i dont know if anyone else has noticed the alarming number of jws who claim to suffer from chronic fatigue syndrone,i mean hear in cornwall there tend to be several sufferers in every congregation,outside the jws out of the many people i know i dont know anyone,although there are obviosly many outside the jws who suffer this illness,percentage wise it seems that jws have a much,much larger occorance of the illness.. for example my brother in law has not worked and been living on invalidity benefits for more than 10 years since his mid twenties,his brother is also in the same boat, an m.e sufferer.. i wonder if anyone has looked into this a bit more?
I know 2 with Chronic Fatigue and at least 3 with severe allergies to perfumes, etc.
am i reading the elders manual correctly?
a husband is expected to be involved in his wife's committmee meeting but there is no mention of a wife being involved in the husband's.
is this what our experiences were like?
It is really a good thing I didn't know about this double-standard when I was in this situation.
They would have df'd me for my rebellious attitude, because I would certainly have refused having my husband there in that case.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
While we're on the subject ---- the whole only men can be teachers idea I can live with, but what about the other tasks only JW brothers can do? I.e - hold microphones, work at the literature counter, etc.
I feel my Irish rising. grrrrrrrrrrrrr
i feel cheated because i wouldnt know what its like to experience pregnancy and the birth of my children the way it was meant to be.. a completely natural and joyous event in human life was sabotaged by this religion!.
im sure there are others who know what i mean.. i would be interested to hear stories of others who have had children both inside and out of this organization.. i would like to explain what i mean.. i was raised as a witness and was always expected to be an example.
from as far back as i can remember we were taught that armageddon was just around the corner.
I have always felt sorry for the "unexpected" kids of pioneer couples, missionary couples, or CO couples. What a burden to grow up -- knowing you are the reason your parents left the full-time work.
By the way, a CO once told a friend of mine that the only reason a man should work full-time and not pioneer is to support his wife pioneering or to support a family.
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am i reading the elders manual correctly?
a husband is expected to be involved in his wife's committmee meeting but there is no mention of a wife being involved in the husband's.
is this what our experiences were like?
Am I reading the elders manual correctly? A husband is expected to be involved in his wife's committmee meeting but there is no mention of a wife being involved in the husband's.
Is this what our experiences were like? I know my husband was pulled into mine at the end of the meeting for the "verdict".
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ok, have had enough to drink tonight so i will toss these two questions out.
will discuss this a bit more tomorrow.. 1. how many of you had sex outside of your marriage after leaving the witnesses?
provide whatever details about how and why that you're comfortable with.. 2. funny question: had a friend write me today that probably more jws per capita enjoyed oral sex the night they read it was a "conscience matter" than any other group in the us.
So....let's say I have a "friend" whose husband believes oral sex is a sin....how would we refute the WTS line of reasoning? My CD Rom is broken & I can't look up the latest "conscience matter" line of reasoning.
