if it is illegal for minors to get married, enter into contracts, drink, and smoke, why is it legal for them to enter into lifelong religious contracts they can not break without family shunning and community ostracism????
how religious shunning ruins lives.
a form of institutionalized estrangement, shunning hurts health of the excluded.. updated march 27, 2024 |psychology today magazine.
Fantastic article. Absolutely fantastic.Great post Balaams Ass.
Id say way more than one million people are affected by some form of shunning from exposure to WT theology.
I agree Sea Breeze There's many people I've come across who were never baptised but are shunned by family just the same. Many having psychological problems, mental health issues, extreme risk taking behaviour, sexual self harm (I'd term it), addiction, alcoholism etc
as portrayed in the convention videos this year about sergei (the fictional jw character in cold-war-era ussr), the jw leaders expect loyalty, even enduring imprisonment and/or death.
in one scene sergei was offered an early release from prison if he would sign a statement renouncing his religion.
well he refused and spent 5 years in prison as a result.
was all this really 8 years ago ? where have those years gone ?
I agree Stan. Feels more like about 4. Lockdown groundhog days??
TOH Jackson's testimony makes you think of someone with a lot to hide.
Didn't it?!! He was really evasive. I really don't think it was a question of compartmentalisation. I think he had orders to say whagtever it took and get out fast! This was all about protecting Jehovah's holy money chest at all costs!
remember reading a thread here on his wordage "Guardians Of the Doctrine".
It sounded so modern and "worldly and Harry Potter-ish when he said it, it didnt even sound like JW speak.
Turns out it was first uttered by the pope a few years ago,
That's just so typical I've come to find out! Just like their "real life stories" too!
i believe an an elder told someone who's daughter (14 yo) became sexually active with a 26 year old in the neighborhood, that maybe they should get married.
so, they did... with parental consent.
he turned out to be a ex-convict who shot his first wife in the face with a shotgun.
I knew a (ex Sikh) Indian sister who lived with her very elderly grandmother who had raised her when her mother died and her father later remarried abroad.
Well she was seeing all her (non jw) contemporaries having arranged marriages and kids & felt left out. Her family offered to arrange a marriage for her if she wished. Naturally elders wouldn't hear of this.
Well this particular elder took offence at grandmas 'pagan' religious Indian statues & of course claimed they were interfering with the JWs spirituality & therefore her JW marriage prospects (nothing to do with lack of eligible JW lads, let alone JW Indian lads!).
So she took elders advice & moved out. Some time after the grandma collapsed and died at home alone. This girl never forgave herself & neither did her extended family.
Talk about lack of cultural sensitivity.
go listen to the opening verse of the smallest man who ever lived..
B's Asslol. I thought it meant "cheap suit".
I reckon It does. It's what the kids would call "throwing shade" lol
Slim Is this what passes for music these days?
And the worst thing is, Slim, it's what passes for great music these days!!
the governing body are proud to announce... can you finish off the line for them - the more outrageous the better,, .
......Sister's are permitted to grow beards and Stephen Lett will be wearing a skirt and called 'Brenda' every third Saturday of the month
i’m just curious what you think.
this is in its draft stages.
so excuse the mistakes and grammar.
According to your SOPs my father should not even be talking to me about spiritual matters, if talking to me at all.
I think you meant :
According to you S.O.Bs my father should not even be talking to me about spiritual matters, if talking to me at all
if a change in the blood policy happens, who will be more upset, jws or former jws?
i suspect the latter.
when the beard thing went down, jw's seem to immediately embrace it, whereas many former jw's have been brooding about it.. did it take away a pet gripe we had?.
so much change was ready at hand and quick to be to be thought of by the next generation of prophets to follow up behind in the footsteps of self-proclaimed appointee-of-God Charles Taze Russell
I was thinking today it occurs to me that people often speak less harshly of Charlie than any of his successors......but he really was an arrogant asshole*le.
the jehovah's witnesses have lost their appeal to avoid investigation by a new zealand royal commission.
"a legal bid by the jehovah's witness church challenging a ruling by the royal commission of inquiry into abuse in care has been dismissed by the court of appeal.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/515102/abuse-in-care-inquiry-jehovah-s-witness-appeal-dismissed.
Well done and congrats to Rachel EXJW @RapunzelAwake and all the New Zealand Apostates for all their hard work!!!
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/29/explosion-hits-jehovahs-witnesses-prayer-meeting-in-indias-kerala.
" Course correction"?? !!
As usual the innocent are punished for the crimes the leaders commit.
i read a comment somewhere that having a beard ( before such was allowed) was never a disfellowshippable offence.
but does that mean that no-one who grew a beard was ever eventually disfellowshipped?.
growing a beard when such was frowned upon would surely attract the attention of those with nothing better to do, and possibly lead to sniffing around to try and find things that the "disobedient" one was up to.
BB It didn’t always mean even a loss of privileges. In the late 70’s when the beard thing broke we wanted to appoint to be a MS a bro who was bearded.
Blues his name wasn't Gordon was it?
This chap was bearded when baptised and refused to ever shave for that reason alone. He did the accounts to my certain knowledge, too. Very brainy type.😀
