Posts by ScenicViewer

6

Leah Remini Redux, Tonight Again in Prime Time

by Room 215 in

remini's program will be shown again tonight in the u.s. at 8:00 pm eastern time on a & e

ScenicViewer

Check your TV listings for the specific time.

My provider is airing it at 6:00 PM Pacific Time - Xfinity (Comcast Fresno).

24

Blood Transfusion Permitted

by Nevuela in

i just overheard an anointed acquaintance on the phone with a friend of hers who has just had surgery for cervical cancer.

among the snippets of dialogue i heard on my end of the line, these ones stood out:.

"you lost a lot of blood?

ScenicViewer

"You did what you had to do to stay alive and take care of your kids."

This is the part that really gets me. How is that not also true of an active, baptised JW? Why do one's own life and the kids' welfare become meaningless after being baptised?

It's another typical double standard of Jehovah's Witnesses.

42

February 2018 Watchtower - Addressing abuse Victims

by Listener in

there's a preview note on one of the articles in this newly released watchtower.

the note can be found on an article titled "part 1 of 4 love and justice in ancient israel".the note states -.

this article is the first in a series of four that will discuss why we can be sure that jehovah cares about us.

ScenicViewer

The recommendations include the following: (1) Believe and support your child when he or she reports being sexually abused. (2) Explain to the child that he or she is not responsible for what happened. (3) Inform the child that what happened is against the law and that it is necessary to report it to the police so that it will not happen again.

They actually said that in the Awake? That's a jaw dropping revelation to me, I had no idea.
This is just one more example of JWs doing exactly the opposite of what they recommend that others do.

"(1) Believe and support your child when he or she reports being sexually abused." Yet Watchtower insists, within it's own organization, on having two eye witnesses before the child is really believed.

"(3) ... it is necessary to report it to the police so that it will not happen again." Isn't that the cruelest and most hypocritical of double standards since many JW molesters do it again and again specifically because police aren't notified when they get caught first time.

42

February 2018 Watchtower - Addressing abuse Victims

by Listener in

there's a preview note on one of the articles in this newly released watchtower.

the note can be found on an article titled "part 1 of 4 love and justice in ancient israel".the note states -.

this article is the first in a series of four that will discuss why we can be sure that jehovah cares about us.

ScenicViewer

Lessons: Jehovah is not to blame when those who claim to serve him ignore his standards and harm his people.

Huh? Nobody is blaming Jehovah. This is Watchtower's way of shifting blame from itself by saying "Now now, we must never blame Jehovah."

The blame for misapplying the Bible's two-witness rule to a situation where it was never intended, and for failing to notify the proper authorities when a child is abused, lies squarely on the leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Governing Body.

Watchtower's real aim is to keep these issues quiet, swept under the rug, to try to save it's own image before the public, as posters here have been saying for a long time. I suppose that worked for decades but now it's backfiring on them.

61

TV TRAILER: ‘Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: The Jehovah’s Witnesses' Two Hour Special Event - A&E

by MaybeSo in

tv trailer: ‘leah remini: scientology and the aftermath: the jehovah’s witnesses' two hour special event - a&e, 9pm et/pt, tues, nov 13, 2018. https://youtu.be/yzdege5im90.

didn't see a post about it yet.

will you be tuning in?

ScenicViewer

It appears there are 11 people on the panel that are presumably all ex-JWs, so Lloyd Evans will not be the only one speaking out.

Is that ExJW Fifth, from Youtube, in the back row, left, of the second screen shot? I hope so because I like his interviews and his mild manner. I don't recognize most of these people on sight, but I might know them by their experiences or activism work if I knew their screen names or real names. Does anybody else know them?

I am hoping for an accurate, quality presentation on JWs, and based on Remini's other work I believe it will be that. Fingers crossed and looking forward to this.

18

Can someone help me figure out something, dealing with paganism?

by Tameria2001 in

the watchtower and quite a few other religious groups don't do certain things because of pagan origins.

they go on about the different holidays, certain traditions, and say they don't do those things because of pagan origins.

yet they turn right around and do other stuff, which does have pagan origins.

ScenicViewer

... for purposes of either control of adherents or to separate them from society. (OneEyedJoe)

I believe you nailed it. The more you can isolate people the easier it is to control them.

18

When did the Watchtower start the shunning?

by Tameria2001 in

my husband and i were talking about the shunning part that the jws do?

where can i find more accurate information on this subject?

i am mainly trying to learn when the whole practice started, and stuff like that.

ScenicViewer

Shunning within the Watchtower society runs deep. It was only a matter of time before it became official policy.

An excellent observation about Maria Russell being shunned before Watchtower officially taught shunning!

18

When did the Watchtower start the shunning?

by Tameria2001 in

my husband and i were talking about the shunning part that the jws do?

where can i find more accurate information on this subject?

i am mainly trying to learn when the whole practice started, and stuff like that.

ScenicViewer

The modern practice of disfellowshipping, and the shunning that accompanies it, started with the March 1, 1952 Watchtower magazine. Here are the articles.

(Watchtower Magazine, March 1, 1952)
Keeping the Organization Clean, p 131
Propriety of Disfellowshiping, p137
Sin Making Reinstatement Impossible, p145

Just 5 years earlier, in the January 8, 1947 Awake Magazine, p27 & 28, the Organization strongly condemned the practice of 'excommunication,' which is acknowledged by Watchtower to be the same as disfellowshipping. That article said the following regarding (mainly) the Catholic Church's practice of excommunication (df'ing).

How many of the things listed below are now a part of Watchtower practice?

You are looked upon with the "blackest contempt."
You are cursed with the Devil and his demons.
Abandoning the Church's faith, or joining an offshoot of it, are reasons for excommunication.
It is a part of canon [organization] law which the Heirarchy presents as "God's law."
the 1947 article says that excommunication is unscriptural because it is not based on the teachings of Christ and the apostles.
Excommunication should not be a "punishment" nor a "medical remedy" for sins committed.
It is "foreign to Bible teachings."
Excommunication has "pagan influence" and "superstitious" beliefs behind it.
The practice was adopted by Catholics only after 325 A.D.
It accompanies the growing "pretentions" of a heirarchy.
It is used as a "weapon."
It is used to gain "ecclesiastical power" through "secular tyrrany."
Excommunicated people are viewer as "executed" and opposers are "impaled."
It was used to control and punish those who "opposed the dictates" of the heirarchy.
Excommunicated people lead a "doomed existence."
Excommunicated people are "plotted against." Attacking their lives is "accounted virtuous."

As a side point here is a remark from the article Keeping the Organization Clean, saying that Miriam (Moses' sister) was disfellowshipped for 7 days for being 'high-minded, proud and foolish' by being stricken with leprosy. Have you ever heard of anybody being df'd for just 7 days? Watchtower must have been reaching for any Biblical example it could find to support it's new teaching of disfellowshipping.

8

There will be no fifth generation of jw’s in my family.

by longgone in

i’m happy to say that, yet as always with the wts there is a price to be paid.

i’ll explain how this is working out.there’s a new development in the family that’s making the final break possible, and sadly is where the penalty for leaving is going to happen.

only one person of all the jw family history is left that could start a fifth, he’s my nephew.

ScenicViewer

It's truly sad that your nephew will lose his family even if he isn't DA'd or DF'd, but cutting off the family lineage as slaves to the Watchtower religion is really good news!

It's terrible that kids are lured into baptism as teenagers, or younger, and held to it as a "life long, binding, irrevocable contract" (I believe those are the words).

All the best to you and your nephew as you navigate your way through this.

60

Russia=King of the North, USA=King of the South? New info coming in from Annual Meeting 2018

by Jules Saturn in

it was announced in this year’s annual meeting that they believe that the king of the north is russia and the king of the south is us/britain.

for me this is the first time hearing from the society actually identifying the identity of the king of the north.

very interesting times!

ScenicViewer

The chart below is from Daniel's Prophecy (1999), p. 284.

According to Watchtower the identity of the Kings of the N and S keep changing. Figuring out who the Kings are is a guessing game.

Deegee's post on the previous page shows that the Soviet bloc (USSR) was supposed to last until Armageddon, but Watchtower was clearly wrong about that.

The footnote below in the chart below says, "Their identities become known only after the events start to occur," but even given the luxury of waiting until events start to occur to figure them out Watchtower still gets it wrong, despite the "Bible based insight" that the Watchtower organization claims to have. (see quote box below the chart)

(Daniel's Prophecy, p280-281, par 21) (I couldn't get the quote box to work here so I simply used quotation marks below.)

"21 With the disbanding of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the king of the north suffered a serious setback. Who will be this king when Daniel 11:44, 45 is fulfilled? Will he be identified with on of the countries that were part of the former Soviet Union? Or will he change identity completely, as he has done a number of times before? Will the development of nuclear weapons by additional nations result in a new arms race and have a bearing on the identity of that king? Only time will provide answers to these questions. We are wise not to speculate. When the king of the north embarks on his final campaign, the fulfillment of prophecy will be clearly discerened by all who have Bible-based insight."

- "We are wise not to speculate."

Of course Watchtower never stops speculating even when it claims not to be doing so.

- "When the king of the north embarks on his final campaign, the fulfillment of prophecy will be clearly discerened..."

By identifying the king of the north as Russia, Watchtower is saying the K of the N is now on his final campaign. Wow, Armageddon must be really close now. As always!

- "...by all who have Bible-based insight." (continuing the above quote)

The problem is, after all the wrong understandings, not only of who the Kings of the N and S are, but on so many other things Watchtower has taught, who can believe anything they say now?