link to article .
the jehovah's witness church does not have a "fundamental right to avoid scrutiny" from the royal commission of inquiry into abuse in care, a high court judge says.. .
the church sought a judicial review to be exempt from the inquiry arguing it was beyond the inquiry's scope because it did not run institutions that cared for children or vulnerable people.. the bid was dismissed by the high court last week.
‘Course they do.
In the short term, the facts under scrutiny - by their very nature - too strongly call into question their all-important premise of “God’s Exclusive Earthly Organization”…
…and in the long-term, their “charity” status / tax-exemption is placed at risk.
even elders can be part of the new jw lite brigade these days.
they don’t need to go on door to door anymore and there is no requirement for anything really.. taking meeting parts is all dead easy you could turn up on the day with zero preparation because it’s all in the meeting workbook.. quarterly elders meetings are just old men having a good old natter just like old men do down the pub.. congregations could be likened to pubs or bars these days just without the drinks, those come at other times.. no need for territory maps, these almost went away with covid letter writing now they are extremely slow getting finished as those who still go door to door only do ten mins.. you could even voice your questions these days about things the gb say and then just say “we can’t be dogmatic we just don’t know”.
i predict they will say this about 1914 soon..
The WTS can’t go mainstream. They can only pretend.
Authentic mainstream reform involves a lot of different things, but one of the big ones is - for all intents and purposes - abandoning the claim of exclusive divine favor.
If the WTS did that…
…what remaining incentive is there to stay?
selena accused tony morris of being involved in child abuse and the pimo bethelite who just got kicked out.
let’s see how this rolls out.
I’d rather the courts take their time and get it right then quickly come to a knee-jerk decision that runs the risk of being overturned down the road.
my wife zoe and i often talk about her grandmother who has never been a jw but is an excellent christian by other opinions.
she has led such a good life always kind and tried to follow jesus example.
before the agm new light my wife often thought according to current light is that as long as she dies before armageddon she will be resurrected.
JWLite almost seems to me like a weird mirrorverse version of the old fundagelical “once saved, always saved” thing.
selena accused tony morris of being involved in child abuse and the pimo bethelite who just got kicked out.
let’s see how this rolls out.
Seriously, though, I just thought of something else…
…back during Jaracz’s regime, disfellowshipping was practically a death sentence. Just about everyone I knew feared the prospect (to varying degrees), and the ever-present threat of an iron fist in the velvet glove was usually enough to keep the rank-and-file toeing the line.
These days, though?
The internet is directly responsible for creating a global community of XJWs that never existed before, and it’s pretty obvious by now that the fakers, faders, and fence-sitters know there’s an actual functioning safety-net out there (not to mention all the anecdotal evidence we hear about still-ins who nevertheless bend the rules and keep in touch with XJW friends and family).
Which suggests that the threat of being ostracized might not actually carry the weight it once did…
…and more importantly, the GB knows it.
selena accused tony morris of being involved in child abuse and the pimo bethelite who just got kicked out.
let’s see how this rolls out.
Someone on the GB finally figured out that a hard line puts people off more than it keeps ‘em in line.
😏
so everyone knows the “big news” of this past weekend, no more reporting of hours, placements, return visits, etc.
beginning november 1, jws just tick a box indicating whether they “shared in any form of the ministry during the month”.. so there was a brief comment by a redditor that seems like a brief joke “throwaway comment” but after thinking about it….why not?.
the idea is, what is “any form of the ministry”?
The problem with lowering the bar for “qualified brothers”…
…you inevitably end up stuck with lower-quality brothers.
Not unlike the consequence of discouraging education and - by extension - intelligent people…
…you can’t help but end up with a worldwide body of morons.
😏
so they mentioned noah couldn’t have preached to all the population back before the flood.
do you think they might start using common sense regarding not being able to get every animal type on the ark from the whole world?.
maybe the poor sloth from south america didn’t have to crawl all the way?
Knock, knock…
“Good morning!
We’re here talking to you and your neighbours, sharing the Good News according to Darwin.
Are you at all familiar with evolutionary theory?”
(sorry, Cof, couldn’t resist 😜)
after being brought up a jw, going to mts, bethel, pioneer school multiple times, serving in foreign assignments and having been an elder for decades my conclusion is that i am now pima, physically in mentally agnostic.. agnostic means you think it can’t be proven either way creation or evolution.
i do tend to lean towards evolution but creation at the very start because you can’t get life from dead matter.
but i’m open to the possibility of chance theory at the origin of it all.
“Do 'viruses' cause disease?”
Pshh.
Everyone knows that diseases are caused by an imbalance of humours.
And phlogiston is a factor, too. Somehow.
😎
so everyone knows the “big news” of this past weekend, no more reporting of hours, placements, return visits, etc.
beginning november 1, jws just tick a box indicating whether they “shared in any form of the ministry during the month”.. so there was a brief comment by a redditor that seems like a brief joke “throwaway comment” but after thinking about it….why not?.
the idea is, what is “any form of the ministry”?
no-zombie - “…we can be sure that the Governing Body isn't making these changes to somehow lighten our load.”
Agreed.
The way I see it, any appearance of mainstreaming/conscientious reform can only be just that…
…appearance.
Why?
Because one of the most integral aspects of mainstream religion is (either explicitly or implicitly) abandoning the claim of being the only path to salvation, or being the only group with divine favor.
And after nearly a century of insisting that they’re “God’s Exclusive Earthly Organization”, that is simply unthinkable for the Watchtower.
To do that after all this time, everything they’ve said and done to reinforce that premise will have been for nothing.
They’d be eliminating any remaining incentive to even BE a Jehovah’s Witness.
