https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/criticism_of_jehovah%27s_witnesses.
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I agree about Wikipedia.
I was amazed at how much I learned about Rutherford there.
I dont know why I picked him as a starting point but I had a particular dislike of his "look" in pictures and sure enough...the picture was accurate, he really was a jerk!
a wonderful announcement to my friends in the forum.
i am no longer one of jehovah's witnesses.
in the month of may 2016 i wrote my resignation letter and gave it to the elders in my congregation.
This was a big step and I am happy for you COLLINS!
i was reading another thread and the comments got me thinking.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5656910430732288/pictures-tell-thousand-words.
comments such as oldskools: more like digital colonialism channeled through one of the weaker and less important institutions western society has to offer.. .
some have compared the orgs future path to the world wide church of gods.
Interesting to contemplate the difference in recognizing the past of a religion (history) and how dragging it in to a present tense through language would be "hate speech".
Very interesting.
Having never been subject to any atrocities by a religion (unless you count the endless tedium of growing up witness and associated emotional responses) I can see that the longer a religion exists the more opportunities it has to make huge missteps in judgement. To be corrupted thoroughly even.
I have long admired the history of the Jews. This may in part be due to an admired mentor in my field who is Jewish. I have seen things through her eyes.
When I started to compare/contrast the Catholic church to the JWs, it mainly had to do with strict control and teachings. I was shocked to see the 1947 comment by the JWsabout how pagan it was for Catholics to excommunicate and now that the Catholics have greatly relaxed their excommunication policy the JWs have picked up the thread and enforce it greatly!
I dont think I communicated clearly enough in my original post that I wasnt contrasting the two religions as they are now. I was looking at an old established religion and a relatively new one and wondering if,
since they share some characteristics, if the new one might continue to manifest similar changes to the older one.
i was reading another thread and the comments got me thinking.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5656910430732288/pictures-tell-thousand-words.
comments such as oldskools: more like digital colonialism channeled through one of the weaker and less important institutions western society has to offer.. .
some have compared the orgs future path to the world wide church of gods.
David_ Jay, you are a magnificent thinker.
Learning about your background explains a lot about why you have such a world view and are not as limited in your thinking as most JWs were trained to be.
I went back and read your original post where you described becoming a JW = as in not raised one.
So you grew up thinking and now you can fall back on it. You dont have to suspend your own thoughts in order to be a good JW.
I understand that each religion is really no better than its competitors ( I meant to type contemporaries but I think competing religions is actually MORE accurate) but I am still trying to look for a "formula" for what the Watchtower folks are doing/going to do.
I do think however that some religions are more violent than others. Would you agree? I am not talking about an unexercised capacity for violence so much as I am talking about a historical record of it. Where is the violence of the Christian Scientists for example?
Perhaps a religion will do what it thinks it can get away with?
As for JWs and their Catholic behavior crossovers...
DId you see the article where in 1947 they condemned the Catholic church for excommunicating people (said it had pagan origins) and now they (JWs) are more fiercely enforcing that concept than the Catholics they condemned!
History is not going to make room for the JWs to rise up the way the Catholics did. The timing is all wrong among many other factors. I am still puzzled and amazed at how many things used to be viewed as a strict Catholic behavior (no intermarriage, infant baptism, confession of sins, control of assets etc) are now strict JW behavior.
who was the poster, about 8 years ago, who came on the forum and claimed he had inside information that the gb were planning radical changes.
he said that in ten years time jws would be unrecognisable.
many were skeptical.
i was reading another thread and the comments got me thinking.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5656910430732288/pictures-tell-thousand-words.
comments such as oldskools: more like digital colonialism channeled through one of the weaker and less important institutions western society has to offer.. .
some have compared the orgs future path to the world wide church of gods.
TTWSYF
Things in common with JW and Catholics
1-They believe the bible is the word of God
2- They believe Jesus is the messiah
3- I think that's it
Thanks for posting I really appreciate it!
Could I add that between the Catholics relaxing stance on infant baptism and the JWs increasingly strong push to baptize children, that they are almost meeting in the middle thus adding a 4th thing we could agree on?
i was reading another thread and the comments got me thinking.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5656910430732288/pictures-tell-thousand-words.
comments such as oldskools: more like digital colonialism channeled through one of the weaker and less important institutions western society has to offer.. .
some have compared the orgs future path to the world wide church of gods.
Hey David_!
TODAY the Catholic church may not teach it is the only way to salvation but didnt it certainly teach that at one time?
Otherwise, what were the Inquisitions about?
And a relatively small detail but a baby that died un-christened was a fate worse than the actual death of the child to the parents.
Does that sound like a religion that doesnt think it is the only way to salvation?
i was reading another thread and the comments got me thinking.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5656910430732288/pictures-tell-thousand-words.
comments such as oldskools: more like digital colonialism channeled through one of the weaker and less important institutions western society has to offer.. .
some have compared the orgs future path to the world wide church of gods.
Half banana,
Your post blew me away. You write so eloquently and with great historical depth. Thank you.
I read a lot aboutt Eusebius since I had never even heard of him. Your term apologist lackey to Constantine is an apt description.
I am not sure I agree that the Catholic church of old was interested in public opinion. To me it seemed more like a bloodthirsty quest for power that defined the early church and that PR concerns are rather new. In our lifetime actually.
I could easily quote so many parts of your post but I will just quote the hopeful (to me since I yearn for its demise eventually) future of the Org.
Half banana
Remembering an illustration from Monty Python, the outline of a sauropod starts off with a small and brainless head at ground level, then rises to a big hump and then declines to a small trailing tail. I think we are now situated just beyond the hips and descending the tail. It’s downhill from here on.
Yes!
it's utterly boring.
jung from the canadian bethel is drooning on.
may be the worst assembly ever.
Worst one ever huh? And this is the great Sunday finale!
I guess that is saying a LOT.
Hang in there wannaexit, youre almost home free.
just called into the kingdom hall, speaker said he couldn't tell if anyone was listening to his talk now that everyone uses electronic devices and nobody laughed... well i did!.
he also mentioned when everyone used the bible he could hear the pages flipping and he knew they were following along.
this was really funny to me.
What business is it of the speakers to state anything about medical marijuana at all?
I doubt that is in his outline.
