of course, i would be very surprised if the watchtower society ever retracted or apologised for anything.
still, it could gain a lot of publicity and put pressure on them to curb their hate speech.
if they refuse to apologise, it could demonstrate that those statements were intentional and not just a slip of the printing press.
I am wondering how this insulting article was meant to be defended on the ministry?
JW: "Oh, yes, mentally ill people are meant to be avoided. It's all Bible-based, on this verse...."
HH: "I have depression! Just how is that infectious?"
JW: "Yes, well, God still loves you! Please keep away! 'Unclean!! Unclean!' "
Though it could be good,
HH: "I'm mentally-diseased! I have depression! You mustn't talk to me! Get off my doorstep!"
does society need to be saved from religion, or does religion need to be saved from society?
who needs protecting?.
mouseover: no religion.
Isn't Obama religious though? Compared to Europe (especially the UK), well, the USA seems to generally be crazy about religion! The majority of English people may claim to be Anglican, but they never do much about it, such as pray. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of young European kids couldn't name one Bible book.
I'm not saying that Americans all regularly attend church and so on, but they often make reference to God having blessed them, and thanking him when things go well, but when it goes badly, well, Satan gets the blame.
This is quite saddening - in the 21st century, the country that practically rules the world is not atheist. Christianity, even be it a heavily watered-down form of the religion, dominates the world.
dublin news story contains a blatant lie from the mouth of a jw spokesman:.
http://www.thejournal.ie/need-for-discussions-between-hospitals-and-jehovahs-witness-patients-234833-sep2011/.
a court order granted today to allow the coombe hospital give a baby a blood transfusion against the wishes of her parents underscores the need for more discussions to take place between hospital staff and patients, says a dublin branch of jehovahs witnesses.. harry homan, from the south dublin hospital liaison committee said that the issue highlighted the relationship between hospital staff and jehovahs witness patients.. he said, however, that there is already healthy discussions happening across the country.. the parents in this case are very happy with the hospital and the care being give to their baby, homan told thejournal.ie.. there is an excellent relationship between the parents and staff and the child is receiving the best of care.. he added that a blood transfusion will only be given to the premature baby as a last resort.. at the moment, she is doing well, said homan.. rte reports that the transfusion will be given to the baby if her condition deteriorates and it is necessary to save her life.. hospitals are acutely aware of the dangers associated with blood transfusions, claimed homan, adding that it is in everyones best interests to seek alternatives.. he said the position of jehovahs witnesses is perfectly clear on the matter of blood transfusions.. we do refuse transfusions, he said.
To refuse blood is no more a personal choice than it would be to refuse military draft papers - sure, there's a choice: do it, or face the punishment. Sounds like the 'free will' spoken of by Christianity!
indulge the possibility that, as profits from printed materials become thinner, watchtower might want to stop having members carry printed materials to the homes of many.
i know it will probably go through more phases of "cheapening" the materials (softcover books, pamplets instead of brochures, flyers instead of pamphlets) but let's consider the idea that they will one day cease delivering anything printed.. the door-to-door work is huge in controlling members and monitoring loyalty.
pioneers are their biggest supporters.
Tupperware rep !
http://www.tupperware.com
michelle rodriguez used to be a jehovah's witness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/michelle_rodriguez.
i am just wondering if we can make a list of famous people that used to be jws, i.e.
Here's your Ken http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4IzqOhhL_U
The Williams sister claim to be JWs - we need to find celebrities that don't like the Watchtower.
We can write to them to ask them to be 'patrons'; respected, well-known voices, that will be listened.
We can work with them to share our mutual feelings. Coming out about how we feel!
We need to be organised in some sort of way; a charity to do this.
Things we won't get sued to death for by Wt lawyers:
TV documentaries, radio interviews, charity work to help former JWs, etc.
it was a woman from our old congo.
we have our 9 foot christmas tree in the window.
the blinds were closed, but we have one of those windows above a window, so if she was looking she saw it.. .
I think I need to move somewhere with no Kingdom Hall
Is there a country with no JWs? perhaps a city somewhere
inspired by many on jwn board, my goal is to every sunday study the article and find the manipulative parts.
if you would like to join me that would be great!
we can then find them together and then find what the scriptures or insights truly means with research, our own understanding, or maybe how it should be interpreted to ones self.
Flipper - 1975 comes to mind !
chronic fatigue syndrone, m e, yuppie flu.
.
i dont know if anyone else has noticed the alarming number of jws who claim to suffer from chronic fatigue syndrone,i mean hear in cornwall there tend to be several sufferers in every congregation,outside the jws out of the many people i know i dont know anyone,although there are obviosly many outside the jws who suffer this illness,percentage wise it seems that jws have a much,much larger occorance of the illness.. for example my brother in law has not worked and been living on invalidity benefits for more than 10 years since his mid twenties,his brother is also in the same boat, an m.e sufferer.. i wonder if anyone has looked into this a bit more?
Fernando - Yes, this situation occurs, and there seems to be two results: either Cognitive Dissonance or PTSD (nervous breakdown, etc.). It seems to be a survival technique (the Cognitive Dissonance) with similarities to Stockholm syndrom, whereby one denies a problem because it is too paniful to face.
Unfortunately, I have always been very inquistive, which is advantaegous in certain lines of work, where innovation is important, but not helpful to somewhere like the Navy, or a high-control religion, where you are not meant to question, let alone think, but just follow commands. As a home-schooled child, I didn't know any better. As a teenager, I had my doubts, but gave a good go, because despite many doubts, some of what I was told made sense (and I didn't have much idea what the world was like),
but try as hard as I could, I just found it increasingly stressful, the more and more I put effort in to study well for meetings, to preach many hours a week, to do talks, to avoid 'worldly' entertainment, to stay single for MTS - I think the lack of recreation is unhealthy, i.e. for venting stress, which was overwhelming, but the answer is always that you are not doing enough, and when you do a bit more, Jehovah will bless you for being whole-souled.
chronic fatigue syndrone, m e, yuppie flu.
.
i dont know if anyone else has noticed the alarming number of jws who claim to suffer from chronic fatigue syndrone,i mean hear in cornwall there tend to be several sufferers in every congregation,outside the jws out of the many people i know i dont know anyone,although there are obviosly many outside the jws who suffer this illness,percentage wise it seems that jws have a much,much larger occorance of the illness.. for example my brother in law has not worked and been living on invalidity benefits for more than 10 years since his mid twenties,his brother is also in the same boat, an m.e sufferer.. i wonder if anyone has looked into this a bit more?
FoundSheep I'm not upset with you Your comments are kind!
Exwhyzee - great comment, great words
BungiBill - yes, the doing too much! As N.drew says, the pressure of trying to save someone else's life, fear people will die in Armageddon, well that is tremendous pressure. The college course that I quit to pioneer, they worked us hard, as have some places I've worked, but nothing like pioneering while trying to hold down a job and be an appointed man - if you try to do all three of those things properly; well it's impossible.
I read that one of the greatest causes of stress, of 'nervous breakdowns'/PTSD is to be striving to achieve a goal that you can't. It hit the nail on the head. It was a eureka moment, though not it seems so obvious, but for a Jehovah's Witnesses boy who was discouraged from anything relating to the 'worldly wisdom' of psychology, it was amazing! It was more enlightening than any Watchtower article I read!
I don't mean to moan, but it's an incredible stress to be trying so hard, giving up so much, to follow a set of rules, to live for a Kingdom, that so many around you, including elders show little regard for. Give up college, living in a room with little food, a rubbish car that kept breaking and I couldn't afford to fix, wearing the same clothes for years, etc., basically trying to live without working enough so I could get doors slammed in my face, and then see elders who do convention items and stuff busy enjoying the finer things of the 'sinking ship' that we were told is this world, hardly busy getting on the lifeboat while sending their kids to University or working full-time "to get by" but driving sportscars while their wife doesn't work or pioneer. It was too much, "Do as I say, not what I do!"
This whole idea of the elders being appointed by holy spirit really used to be such a burden - it was so core to many of our actions, because we did what they said all the time, but they didn't seem to be a reflection of an all-powerful, all loving God.
this thread is directed at those of you who are "lurking".
perhaps you visit this website frequently because you know something is wrong with the watch tower society, but you don't feel you know enough yet to form a solid opinion.. as you are aware, the society regularly uses the "increasing light" concept to excuse any scriptural advice or prophetic understanding that is subsequently reversed or changed.
put simply, the governing body would have us believe that god's holy spirit, which is guiding the organization, is deliberately feeding false scriptural information to the society as a "makeweight" until true understanding is revealed at a later stage (at this point, i would add that none of the scriptures quoted by the society in support of "increasing light" suggest that god's holy spirit would act in such a manner, but this is for you to discover for yourselves).. with all of the above in mind, please may i draw your attention to this advice, which was printed in the august 5th, 1979 awake!:.
Typical Watchtower article - get to the end of it and feel none the wiser
