Posts by Anony Mous

32

I received Blood...What are the JW's going to do to me?

by smoky21 in

i haven't posted on here for years.

i also don't frequent this forum like i used to.. i have posted my story before, like 8 years ago.

i have been a baptized witness for the last 30+ years, but have not attended meetings in the last 15 years.

Anony Mous

The R&F have softened up significantly against the No Blood policy, partially because the WTBTS has gotten into big trouble over the years. Based on a cursory review of the jw.org articles, the emphasis has been significantly reduced so people slowly start to forget what the rules are.

Also, most likely you didn't even violate "current" WTBTS guidelines. It's easy to assume that JW's refuse all blood product transfusions, but that's not so. I forgot when it changed exactly, but the rules have indeed loosened up.

MOST blood product transfusions currently in use during routine procedures are actually acceptable to JW's. The things they reject (whole blood) is rarely used in a modern Western hospital's medical setting, perhaps in a military field hospital they still do vein-to-vein transfusions, but organizations like Red Cross breaks up donations into their components and has done so for a long time to allow for a larger distribution of a single donation.

The reason the JW's got a bad rep in the 80s and 90s is because they refused at one point ALL blood products, but then they slowly added more and more fractions to the point that effectively with few exceptions, the JW's no longer have a ban on blood-derived products used in modern medicine.

18

Can any JW answer "Yes" to this VERY simple question?:

by BoogerMan in

"jesus related 30 - 50 parables/similes.

can you name just one which was to be understood as a prophecy?

utterly amaze them by showing that there is one - allegedly!.

Anony Mous

@EasyPrompt: I am telling you the meaning of the words as they are written in the original languages and linguistic rather than theological analysis.

The fact you believe things based on the words from an old-English translation and subsequent interpretation of the English words by some 19th century swindler is rather irrelevant to the conversation of whether in some religions (actually, only the Millerite group of religions believes in an apocalyptic Jesus) Jesus was taken up as a seer/spiritualist, the original text does not support this and if it did, as with everything, the Jews would’ve noted that Jesus was a spiritist or practicing witchcraft/divination as the few times seeing into the future is actually mentioned in the Bible (eg. Solomon consulting with the witch of Endor) it is actually really bad.

The Bible specifically has an ordinance against wizards (literally translated, seeing into the future) as it denies free will (if the future is defined, there is no free will).

18

Can any JW answer "Yes" to this VERY simple question?:

by BoogerMan in

"jesus related 30 - 50 parables/similes.

can you name just one which was to be understood as a prophecy?

utterly amaze them by showing that there is one - allegedly!.

Anony Mous

Sure, allegedly, not a single Bible scholar takes this as a prophecy. It’s easy to fit yourself into a position, if you can rewrite the history to fit.

In reality, the Bible doesn’t have a single prophecy, everything is written about the past. It’s a book of ancient stories, not a single writer claimed directly to be a prophet as we understand it (diviner or seer) the modern word prophet is most often mistranslated from the original text, the word translated into prophet in English (Navi’) actually has the meaning of proclaimer or announcing, more along the lines of (religious) story teller, not ‘seeing into the future’.

26

Is the USA gradually moving to a majority of citizens being non-religious

by Reasonfirst in

jw
friends

this is a topic discussed in a current article in the hongkong based asia times*.

find it at: https://asiatimes.com/2023/09/nones-still-no-match-for-us-christian-nationalism/.

the claim is made in the article, that near 30% of americans are non-believers, and that this number is increasing.

Anony Mous

It seems more and more people are becoming religious to me, you have about 2M “imports” just this year which are primarily Catholic. A lot of younger people are recognizing the need to have a religious community for their children to grow up in and the childless left wing politics has become a religion in and of itself, complete with their saints, priests, even prayers and doctrine.

25

JW.ORG Needs Lawyers

by Vanderhoven7 in

jehovah's witnesses are not encouraging university education... but those who are lawyers already can apply to volunteer to help at bethel.. https://youtu.be/5d_-1lbg-oc?si=fsxeewic-fkczu9p.

Anony Mous

From what I understand in the past at least they have used the same attorney houses that other churches have relied upon. There are firms that specialize in these kinds of things, so you’ll see the same attorney defending cases for JW, Catholics and a few other organizations.

There is simply not enough talent inside the org to do this and it would come as a serious shock to the faith of those that would participate in these things when the facts come out and what the biblical doctrine has led to.

23

How to Legally Dissolve a Religious Organization

by EasyPrompt in

regarding the state dissolving a church organization.... .

as posted in another thread, here is what is happening in japan, filing a court order to dissolve the unification church.... .

https://www.eurasiareview.com/06092023-japan-seeks-court-order-to-dissolve-unification-church/.

Anony Mous

I was just speaking legally, there is nothing wrong, they are not transparent about donations, but they don’t have to be. It doesn’t phase me one bit, because every religious organization does it.

Hence why I say keeping with their teachings is going to lead down the same path, because their interpretations is what allows it, if you agree with their interpretations, which some people on this forum obviously do to some extent, you agree with a similar organization setting up similar rules. You cannot reject the organization and not the doctrine it is built upon. Humans don’t individually corrupt an organization, long-term bureaucracy does make cowards out of people.

26

Exes: Would You Rat On A Current JW?

by NotFormer in

it's an interesting thought.

if you are an ex jw, presumably dfed, and you see a current jw in good standing engaging in behaviour that would concern their elders, would you pass on that information to interested parties?

do accusations from exes and other outsiders carry any weight?

Anony Mous

Nothing would happen, you're not "IN" therefore you cannot say anything about them, everything is a lie. You're below female children even when it comes to status.

Maybe if you "come back" they'll take you seriously, but if you are DF'ed or even on your way to be DF'ed (people confess to many things in the judicial meetings or try to pull comparisons between them and another 'sinner'), once the elders decided you're going to be DF'ed, anything you say is irrelevant, including but not limited to CSA.

This causes some really interesting chain reactions though. You'll have someone DF'ed, they want to stay in, so they'll be coming back and repentant and then 6-9 months later they get reinstated, then a few weeks/months later someone else gets disfellowshipped, because once you've confessed or pointed out these things that others have done and not been punished yet, the elders will remember when you get reinstated. Then people start getting worried about the "spiritual health of the congregation" and it's all downhill from there, more comes out, the CO starts a witchhunt amongst the elder bodies and in the span of 2-3 years the entire congregation has been demoted, DF'ed or reproved.

F-in everyone in the congregations has a holier-than-thou attitude, until someone is in the hot seat, then the beans get spilled elder's wife is a drunk, she cheated with him, his kids had sex with their kids, he beats his wife - EVERYONE suddenly knows something about someone else.

50

Were the life spans of the patriarchs just an allegory of astronomical cycles?

by was a new boy in

lengths of life of the patriarchs.

genesis.

length of life.

Anony Mous

As far as the other question, nearly all the numbers and names in the Bible are allegorical or spiritistic/mystic in nature.

From Genesis to Revelation is based on various number systems that were mostly lost to time. Many Bible researchers, but going back even further, the practice of Kaballah attempts to rediscover the relationships between the letters/words and the numbers (eg. 666 = NRON QSR or Caesar Nero in Greek)

Various Babylonians also used similar number systems that were well documented (they used a 12-based number system, so a lot of stories will surround the number 12).

The ages of the patriarchs from Adam to Moses add up to 12,600 the sum of its digits is 9 and has 72 positive divisors. Hey, look all those numbers mean something - Jesus appeared 9 times after resurrection from when he was dead for 72 hours and quite a few other 'coincidences' around those numbers throughout the Bible. 1260, a time, two times, and half a time [3½ years] using the ancient calendar system, also how long Jesus preached etc etc.

When it comes to names, the interesting thing is that names have meanings that if you put them together spell out poetry. Eg. the 12 tribes of Israel in order of birth, likely a mnemonic that was used for the transfer of the stories in oral or song form.

50

Were the life spans of the patriarchs just an allegory of astronomical cycles?

by was a new boy in

lengths of life of the patriarchs.

genesis.

length of life.

Anony Mous

@raymond franz: nearly ALL the Bible writers are actually much closer to us than they are to the events that they reported happened, especially when it comes to the Old Testament.

The oldest books we know off were written ~500BC, with likely ancestor books and oral stories going back thousands of years which in itself were already talking about events before their time. So a book that's 2500 years old, is talking about events that supposedly happened 5000-10000 years before it.

The Prophets are the first real 'historical' writings, which although still largely allegorical started being written ~300 years after the Babylonian siege of Jersualem. Only the New Testament was written ~70-200 years after the purported events happened (post Jerusalem's destruction), a lot closer but still 1-2 generations of "telephone".

Beyond that, we then have over 1500 years worth of copies and translations with various details added or removed and a lot of stories are actually taken from other cultures, eg. the figure of Jesus in Summarian mythology predates "Jesus H. Christ" about 6500 years.

23

How to Legally Dissolve a Religious Organization

by EasyPrompt in

regarding the state dissolving a church organization.... .

as posted in another thread, here is what is happening in japan, filing a court order to dissolve the unification church.... .

https://www.eurasiareview.com/06092023-japan-seeks-court-order-to-dissolve-unification-church/.

Anony Mous

This would fall under: administrative costs.

The activities at our world headquarters, branch offices, and translation offices, as well as the activities of those serving as traveling ministers, are supported by funds donated to our worldwide work.

Nothing about it is fraudulent or criminal, they don’t have to report every receipt and the CSA lawsuits are small potatoes in comparison with the massive real estate enterprise they have. Based on business bank reporting, the US branch of WTBTS alone has revenues exceeding $1B annually.

Their side business however (circuit-vehicles, regionalbuildingcommittee and used-tools-equipment websites) are legally dubious. Basically they take your donations, instead of renting/leasing equipment, they purchase it (making it an expense on the balance) and then they resell it again through a for-profit corporation while keeping/putting congregations in a sham debt on the purchase.

It could be said that these kinds of businesses are well outside the scope of a not-for-profit combined with some money laundering, but you’d need to do some serious investigations in documents that the government would have to subpoena.