is it family, friends, idealism???
what????.
.
Mostly family, with a touch of curiosity to boot:
- all added together with early adolescent rebellion against a parent, who was trying to make me go to church!
At a rather impressionable age, I was introduced to the JW religion by a grandmother who had converted a year or two earlier.
Bill.
my son grew up with one of the young brothers in the kingdom and after graduation both him and my son left the kh.
the young man who left the hall fell into the wrong crowd and i mean a really dangerous crowd and as a result of him getting involved in illegal activity he was murdered.
i really feel for this young man, because he was a decent kid.
The hypocrites!
I have heard JWs roundly ciriticize "worldly" funerals for just the same things as you describe.
You are also right on the mark about them not caring about their youths, and in no way trying to make it attractive to young people. Statistically, two out of every three of those raised "In The Truth" give it away.
That in itself ought to rate as a miracleL
- i.e. that they can even hang on to as many as one third of those born into their #$#%^ religion!
Bill.
health care studies are showing obese body weight index is worse than smoking "death sticks", so how is the tower going to address their growing problem of overweight elders and elderettes?
if a organization is able to disfellowship a member for smoking, why not do the same with other vices and crutches their people use to hide stress, emotional disorders and depression?
employers are asking for a bmi test a their potential employees to create a diet to get healthy.
rjastrow,
Some very good points. Once you try to legislate (read "Compile your own Talmud"), where do you stop? How do you stop - and who has the authority to start making rules over other people, anyway? Certainly not a committee of eight self-appointed #$%*s in New York.
(I seem to remember Murphy's Law No.7 having something to say about this, to the effect that "Each new solution brings its own set of problems.")
By the way, welcome!
Bill.
for a religion that claims to be "fearless and bold" the watchtower has avoided writing about islam and muslim practices and how they are part of babylon the great.
the attacks on christendom are not a bold move because the "tower" and "gb" know the christian church is not going to send a suicide bomber into a kingdom or district convention.
it's not fair to christendom to receive all the hate speech from the "leaning tower of brooklyn", why don't they write the truth about islam?
It is a sad fact that all religions have produced more than their share of fanatics, continue to do so - and, regrettably, will forever do so.
Even the so-called "Christian" churches are not exactly squeaky clean in this matter, with such events as the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, forced conversions and the infliction of the Dark Ages on Europe by the effective banning of education, research and scholarship.
Conversely, Islam has not always been about the fire and sword / forced conversions / suppression of knowledge etc. that it has recently got a name for. Under Moorish rule in Spain, scholars were not only tolerated, they were warmly welcomed. During those years, the three centres of learning in the whole world were Baghdad, Constantinople, and Cordoba - two out of these three cities being under Moslem rule. This was at a time when the Roman Catholic Church suppressed learning (like another religion we are all here familiar with!)
Also, when the Ottoman Empire was at its peak under the Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent (i.e. during the 16th Century), he had himself instructed in Christianity, so as to better understand those of his subjects who were Christians. Under Turkish rule, the Greek Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe was permitted to continue as before - something the Roman Catholic Church would not permit in any of the lands in Western Europe.
What I have just said will stick in the craw of some who post here, but it does need saying, anyway!
It is not just Islam that needs villifying for its production of fanatics, all religion - without exception - is just as guilty.
Bill.
how has the wt's false predictions damaged you personally?.
i was 12 in 1975. i never believed i'd "make it".
after i made it, i never really trusted adults again.
In those years leading up to 1975, those of us who had even entered into an apprenticeship were pressured to give it up and go "pioneering." I secumbed to that pressure (actually, in my case it was more like a direct order!).
It took many years afterwards to catch up, entering into an adult apprenticeship when I (by that stage) had a young family to support. The real victims were my three children. So much for Making your Family Life Happy (TM).
Bill.
health care studies are showing obese body weight index is worse than smoking "death sticks", so how is the tower going to address their growing problem of overweight elders and elderettes?
if a organization is able to disfellowship a member for smoking, why not do the same with other vices and crutches their people use to hide stress, emotional disorders and depression?
employers are asking for a bmi test a their potential employees to create a diet to get healthy.
Tobacco became a disfellowshipping offence only in the early 1970s. Prior to that, more than a few JWs used to smoke a cigarette or two on the sly! Likewise,too, with the chewing of betel nut in certain S.E. Asian countries, and in Papua New Guinea.
The rationale for this (if you could call it that!) was the use of both these and similar substances in spiritism:
- American Indians used to light up a pipe of tobacco to send a signal to the "spirit world" that they wished to enter into communication.
- In other regions of the world, the chewing of betel nut was carried out to serve a similar function.
Interesting now that the JWs have quantified what they consider to be "drunkeness":
- i.e. The consumption of more than 4 to 5 standard drinks in a one hour period, together with the wearing of ones "Wobbly Boots."
During my time with the JWs, capacious drinking of alcohol (principally apple wine) was commonplace. By "capacious", I mean demolishing a whole 2.25 litre flagon of the stuff in one night. All the culprit had to do afterwards was claim that they "had not been drunk." Then, as long as the said booze-artist was not completely legless, or they were not doing it "too often", no action was ever taken against them. This culture of heavy drinking was so heavily steeped in to the congregations that one of the most capacious of all the capacious drinkers was also a very prominent elder.
I do not in any way claim to be squeaky-clean here. Intorduced to drinking by the brother who "brought me into the lie into the truth", I was a very good student!
Bill.
for a religion that claims to be "fearless and bold" the watchtower has avoided writing about islam and muslim practices and how they are part of babylon the great.
the attacks on christendom are not a bold move because the "tower" and "gb" know the christian church is not going to send a suicide bomber into a kingdom or district convention.
it's not fair to christendom to receive all the hate speech from the "leaning tower of brooklyn", why don't they write the truth about islam?
Very good point!
A number of years ago, I knew some JWs who hailed from Malaysia.
In their country, it was (and still is ) illegal to "witness" to anybody of the Moslim faith. As a consequence, the much-vaunted JW worldwide door to door preaching campaign (supposedly, conclusive proof that they - and they alone - are true Christians) in that country is limited to persons who already profess Christianity as their religion.Furthermore, these same JWs were of no doubt that the moment somebody tried to witness to a Moslem, the brown stuff would hit the fanblades.
In this, as in so many other matters, Ray Franz was right on the money!
Bill.
while one might expect to have girl scouts trying to sell you things outside walmart.
today i brought my son to the walmart grocery store and as we were getting out of our car, mormons approached us.. they asked if i knew who they were.
and if i'd talked to them before.
Sorry, folks:
- I am having problems with a virus that somehow snuck in, and managed to set my laptop on full-automatic fire!
If the "how do you really feel?" question was directed at me, I thought that I had made that plain i.e. extreme distrust of religion in any of its forms.
Bill.
i'm curious, as where i reside there's about to be a major brouhaha over the tax exempt status of a major player in this area.
reading and hearing the arguments from both sides conjured thoughts about the tax exempt status of religions and the arguments associated with that issue.
a significant portion of the arguments related to that issue center around how a tax exempt organization benefits it's community.
Quite the contrary; in my experience, they are a bloody hazard in the community.
Bill.
great news!.
women please read.. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/style/study-reveals-women-are-better-off-without-bras.html.
drop those bras!!
My wife just finished reading this, and her first remark was "it had to have been written by a guy!" Bill.
