jw's walk like this, they eat this way, they look like this,.
they have sex this way (lol), they talk this way and etc.. are we excessively concerned with or critical of inconsequential.
details??.
I can't begin to explain the process but I can spot Bethelites immediately. There is something strange about t heir garb and posture. Of course, I am aware of Bethel's location. Manhattan has so many eccentric people, too!
They are not fashion forward but they also don't wear Amish clothing. Maybe it is the arrogance that they are going to teach educated people something. Beats me.
this week's book study has this to say on paragraph 11:.
11 all humans are by inheritance sinful and thus deserving of sins penaltydeath.
(romans 5:12) but jehovah finds no pleasure in the death of sinners.
There are hundreds of thousands of active Christians who don't believe what you think they believe. You make grand assumptions. I never believed in ransom. The concepts of perfection, holiness, and wiping out people when you created the imperfection don't make any sense. In fact, I doubt they made sense to most people when they were first written.
As an active believer, I am always amazed at how you leap from a small part of Christianity during another time period to all Christians everywhere in the universe under any time standard. These were stories when they were written. There are deeper lessons about civilization in the stories. It is interesting to read what I never believed from your posts. Give it a small rest. I also must state that I feel there is something deeper going on with you than wiping out Christianity. Why is your investment so large?
I've lived in urban areas but I would say perhaps less than ten percent of Christians I know believe what you assert. Who cares?
i don't smoke anything but i know many that do--- some frequently, most infrequently.. personally, i don't see much difference between drinking alcohol and pot use.. should pot be legalized?.
Our profs suggested that we have marijuana decriminalized rather than legalized it. In high school, I saw trademarks and logos by tobacco cos. of what legal marijuana cigarettes would look like in a store. My criminal prof. said that in NYC no one enforces the marijuana laws. Manhattan judges would be indulging while both the district attorney and defense lawyers were inhaling. The jury room was thick with marijuana smoke. It was never publicized on the front page of the New York Times but it was reality. If the product is legal, it will be taxed and the price will go sky high.
The disparities in sentences for crack and cocaine raise fundamental civil rights issues. I can't believe it is still illegal.
On the other hand, I don't see productive people who constantly smoke marijuana. Perhaps one of the states where it is now legal at a state level while remaining a prosecutable federal crime will serve as a lab to convince other states to join the group.
bible describes atheism as a condition of the heart and is all about seeking what is ephemeral, not acting with insight.
(psalm 14:1, 2) thus it rightly says the whole world is lying in the attraction of what is ephemeral.
(wicked one is not a correct translation.1 john 5:19) thus even believers who pray to god (for material blessings) are actually atheists as they are not trying to be poor in spirit.
There will still be wars if atheists control the world. I remain fascinated and puzzled why God vs. atheism is always argued on this forum. Within my limited social circle, we have no fundamentalists. Perhaps I had to switch to focusing on real life problems. No matter what I do I can never prove that God exists or does not exist.
I found that mainstream Christians think about God and any doctrine in very different ways than fundamentalists. Life is not easy or black and white. Almost everyone I knows practices atheism or religion as though ordering from a Chinese menu. The Witness way is very arrogant. I believe Pope Francis' teaching respect for other religions will help matters. Religion should be a private, life style choice. Being ordered what to think is gross. Religion is not the sole cause for war or disease. Religion is often cited as a cause but when you read the history more carefully or study economics, there were usually economic forces at work.
obviously i'm having ex cult issues, family still in and a wife that's all kokoo for cocopuffs as well as our marriage isn't good.
i would like to leave her, she has never been the kind of wife i wanted.
anyway the stress is getting to be to much, thinking about things all the time and its effecting my work as well as otherthings.
I am surprised that Dr. Szaz is still alive. When I was a college student, I heard about his work and positions from an ACLU lawyers. It moved me to read some of his works. I was not persuaded by Dr. Szaz. On the other hand, the potential for abuse in involuntary treatment is enormous. The Soviet Union was a great example. My senior thesis was related to this work. We need people like Szaz in the system. I've seen too many dangerously ill mental patients on tghe street with no community supports. Doctors get caught up in their agenda. Perhaps a good tentative ground is someplace in the middle. The threat to basic civil rights is so grave that tension must always exist.
There is a lot of middle ground between no treatment and locking someone up with less rights than if they were convicted.
It has been strange lately reading about the subject after so many years.
i just finished crysis of a conscience and all i have to say is wow!
showed how they sadly look for doctrine changes to fit their agenda vs what the bible says.
any new light or changes i'll be wondering the real motive behind them.
I was 3/4 of the way through Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bully Pulpit, when I experienced problems with my Nook. Several books are reading. I have no storage space.
in the 80's and 90's (maybe even earlier) i remember hearing lots of witnesses talk about "demon attacks".
whether it was someone studying the bible who then started having strange things happen in their house to people bringing stuff home from yard sales and getting personal attacks and horrible dreams resulting in them dystroying stuff they brought home or getting rid of it.. .
i also remember hearing a sister say she had to pray in a home with a study because the study started to get attacked.
In the late 1960s, I don't recall that the WT offered a solution to demons. We were told they would attack you if you were faithful. Also, if you were unfaithful you would have problems. My mom laid down the law: they don't exist. I was enrolled in Honors Science classes yet I still was terrified. The Witnesses who suffered were lower socioeconomic groups. An African-American friend told me it was a teaching of the black baptist church in the South. She never had any fear, though, b/c Jesus' power over them was always stressed. It was a more theoretical understanding.
when rutherford published (in defiance of russell's will) a phoney posthumus final volume of russell's studies in the sciptures (the finished mystery) problems began which eventually resulted in criminal prosecution for watchtower society administrators.. certain passages in this book were so anti-government as to represent the society's views as dangerous to national security.
(in a time of war.).
the blowback from this book was unexpectedly severe.
When viewed through the experience of Viet Nam, the military policy seems wise. As a child, I was horrified that my father did not serve in the military during WWII. Anyone around my age knows that the only films and TV shows involved WWII propoaganda films. Hitler and Churchill/Roosevelt/DeGaulle were not moral equivalents. There was nothing courageous in my father's actions. He was brawny. Heck, he was at Bethel so he knew military discipline. Every time I am in the West Village I realize a Holocaust happened there. There is a marked difference. Democracy is worth the fight. British common law rights are also worth a fight to the death. I wanted to tell Knorr and the rest my mind at every convention. My parents were both pro-labor and they wanted Des to win. Not Southern dems.
I lived near pacific anaBaptist churches in eastern PA. If our way of life is so Satanic, how dare Witnesses call the police, use public highways, send correspondence through the mail, etc. Oh, higher ed is no good so no use of doctors or lawyers. Don't use any technology developed through our exploration of space. Paramedics are out. No public park usage.
I was already here a while when I read Rutherford's antiSemitic letter to Hitler. He made his allegiances clear.
hi everyone, this has been what i have waited for, fredrick mclean is up next on cnn's "most wanted" and "hunted show", so far two of their topics are dead!.
last sunday's "the hunt" blew his head off monday morning!
let's hope cnn get's jehovah witness fredrick mclean!
The episode is being promoted heavily in NY. There is no comment about the Witnesses, though. This could be a great opportunity to twitter or comment on Facebook.
would you convert to islam if they were holding your head on a ax block, ready to swing the ax or sword to cut your head off?
we know there are people who died for their political and spiritual values, would you convert to islam to avoid death?
for atheists, can you justify conversion to preserve life since there is no life after death?
I would convert the way the Jewish conversos did. There is no way I could not be Christian but prudence is important.
