A few of you follow our research into watch tower history. I've posted a rough draft of a chapter from upcoming volume 2 of Separate Identity. On-point comments are welcome. enjoy ...
Posts by vienne
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8Rough Draft Chapter from our Next Book
by vienne ina few of you follow our research into watch tower history.
i've posted a rough draft of a chapter from upcoming volume 2 of separate identity.
on-point comments are welcome.
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23
How Did The Elders Treat You?
by minimus indid you get along with them?
did you ever incur their wrath?
most jws want to be “friends “ with the elders, kind of like having a policeman that you know who might help you out if you are in need..
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vienne
I was a child when I attended with my mother. There are some stellar elders. The majority were under-educated, felt threatened by a 12 year old's questions; overly controlling.
I had back in the day a skirt that came mid-knee with a two inch slit. Mind you, I was not a Witness. Two of the elders took me aside, without my mother, and yelled at me over the skirt. My mother found out and got in their face. They were somewhat afraid of my mother, a school district administrator.
I was attracted to the religion when we first started attending. I read everything. One of the books I read was Rutherford's Riches. Eventually, as I read, I asked myself, How does he know this stuff? The answer was, He doesn't. He made it up. But I asked one of the elders, a man named Allan who had daughters my age, how he knew it was true. His answer was, Oh, don't read that old stuff. Everything has changed. I realize a person's understanding changes with further knowledge, but truth does not change. Truth is truth. If God did not bless them with truth in the past, what evidence was there that he did now. I made the mistake of asking that. The result was distressing. If a pastor must verbally abuse a child over a question of faith, then the pastor's faith is shallow, even unfounded.
Despite some knowledgeable elders, one of them my uncle, I found and still find most elders to be controlling, rather ignorant of their own religion, and self-entitled. Needless to say, by the time I was 12 I was certain I'd never become a Witness.
Having said that, I'm not unsympathetic. I have no problem with seeing most of them as earnest Christians. They, however, do not see me that way. They see me as, one older Witness woman said, as 'crow food.'
Years later, when I was teaching a middle-school literature class focused on 20th Century YA books, two Witness elders complained about the content, first to me and then to the principal and finally to the school board. What was so shocking about content? Two of the books I assigned were by Anne McCaffery, the first two of her young peoples' Pern stories about a young girl who wants to become a 'Harper.' They were rebuffed by the school district, and eventually I applied for an got a no contact order from the courts. It is still in force.
More recently there has been low level harassment from a Brazilian elder who wanted to turn my history blog to a forum for his 'Witnessing.' http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2018/10/obviously-time-to-restate-rules.html?showComment=1540321127674#c3954264481611478919
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What is the biggest problem with the JWS religion or the Watchtower Corporation from a sociological and theological perspective ?
by Finkelstein inmany have spent years associated with jws religion and having eventually left it for numerous reasons but if you were to directly pinpoint a source of the problem with this religious organization what would it be ?.
in my personal viewpoint it would have be the core operation of literature proliferation and other products associated with the wts.
corporation.. once you think about it everything is focused around the operation of the wts publishing house, its distribution and circulation of its published goods.
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vienne
I see it as a theological-organizational problem. The Watchtower emphasizes the group and its leaders. The New Testament does too. But the Watchtower abandoned emphasis on personal relationship with and personal responsibility to God and Christ.
So they are dependent on a group of seven men whom they've crafted into a 'second mediator' between God and humans. They thank the Governing Body for spiritual food. They should be pointing to God instead. They say to follow the Governing Body's instructions, but they should be telling us to follow Jesus' word and example.
They misdirect spiritual inquiry by a falsely built authority structure.
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HYMNS you will never hear at the Kingdom Hall
by Vanderhoven7 indo you have examples of hymns you will never hear in kingdom halls in any country.. here are a few of my favorites:.
https://youtu.be/cjivdc-_njs.
https://youtu.be/7gfvl0ef-be .
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20
Russian gunman raised in JW family
by Alex Bogdanov inthe link bellow is sort of ok. i could not find a decent article in english language about this, but russian media is exploding.
2 days ago a teenager killed 19 people and injured dozens and committed suicide.
he was raised in a jw family.
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vienne
Alex, but where did they focus on the 2014 date? I understand previous WT 'generation' doctrine. I cannot find where they focused on 2014.
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Russian gunman raised in JW family
by Alex Bogdanov inthe link bellow is sort of ok. i could not find a decent article in english language about this, but russian media is exploding.
2 days ago a teenager killed 19 people and injured dozens and committed suicide.
he was raised in a jw family.
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vienne
Where in a Watchtower publication is the 2014 date suggested? I would find this useful if it exists.
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64
HYMNS you will never hear at the Kingdom Hall
by Vanderhoven7 indo you have examples of hymns you will never hear in kingdom halls in any country.. here are a few of my favorites:.
https://youtu.be/cjivdc-_njs.
https://youtu.be/7gfvl0ef-be .
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Abuse victim's mother burst into Kingdom Hall, publicly accusing him of being a paedophile...
by Darth FayDehr inone of their mothers burst into the jehovah's witness church in swansea and publicly accused him of being a paedophile only to receive a letter from solicitors warning her not to harass.
judge geraint walters...described collins as a "devious, arrogant and self-righteous man" who had lived behind veil of respectability partly through his contact with the jehovah's witness church.
full story: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/devious-righteous-christian-raped-two-15274172.
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vienne
I'm not unsympathetic. If someone touched one of my daughters I would take matters into my own hands - some. But this is ineffective. A response shouldn't just be anger. It should be effective. It should hurt in meaningful ways.
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At least 2 of current Governing body are not honest about even their names.
by Not_Culty inmany don't know that at least 2 of current governing body are not honest about even their name.
mark sanderson is actually douglas mark sanderson.
stephen lett is mark stephen lett .
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vienne
I don't see abbreviating one's name as dishonest. I come from a German-American-Austrian family and I am a dual citizen of the USA and Austria. Long given names in my family are traditional. I have seven given names. I don't use most of them. I use the fifth and sixth of them. No one ever calls me Vikktoria, my true first name. I go by Rachael Michelle. For my writing I use a small part of a compound-complex last name, my parents' last name. As an educator I use my married last name. I do not feel dishonest. And I do not intend to be dishonest.
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HYMNS you will never hear at the Kingdom Hall
by Vanderhoven7 indo you have examples of hymns you will never hear in kingdom halls in any country.. here are a few of my favorites:.
https://youtu.be/cjivdc-_njs.
https://youtu.be/7gfvl0ef-be .
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