austria, a member of the eu since 1995, is a country of 8.8 million people with a muslim population of around 600,000 mostly turkish immigrants.
in 2015 it passed an 'islam law' prohibiting foreign funding of religious groups and creating a duty for muslim organisations to have 'a positive fundamental view towards state and society'.. many mosques in austria have continued to receive money from turkish muslim organisations so the new right-wing government have decided to enforce the law.
seven mosques have been identified for closure and 60 imams are to be either deported or refused visas.
India prohibits foreign funding of Christian (,maybe non hindu) groups.
Funding or no, any person who is promoting violence in a country should be removed.
I do wonder if they are enforcing this on any smaller Christian groups in Austria or if they will close their eyes to other groups, like perhaps right wing(?) race baiting churches (I know they have groups-are any coming from churches that promote hate groups or Westboro Baptist types? )
just wanted to pose the question to the group and see what the general opinion is vs what the wt may have claimed in other cases.. we all know that they have argued over clergy privilege when elder learn of a crime but keep quiet about it.
regardless of what one may feel about this, lets assume for a minute that they are correct.. all elders are directed to contact the branch when they learn of a case of child abuse.
would the conversation between the elder and the branch be considered under the "clergy privilege"?
Clergy privilege is not a valid concept in 2018. It’s a leftover church rule that was originally from a time where the church had political clout/power. They could dictate rules. It isn’t 1432 anymore .
i have been rereading a lot about rutherford lately; about his personality and the kind of person he was.
i have come to the conclusion that he was a lot like donald trump.. he was an accused womanizer.. he was a narcissist with a self inflated ego.
he claimed to be persecuted by the media all the time.
Trump isn’t a drinker, though! Rutherford was by all accounts a frequent imbiber of booze.
i had to go into a office close to a supermarket on a very high traffic expressway with next to no persons on the street anyway ever near.
i see this jw lady about 65 yrs old standing there alone with 2 bags of groceries staring at the catholic church one side across the interstate road and the kh across the other side of the highway.
cross bronx expressway.
so miss america pageant is going to remove the swimsuit and evening gown parts of their pageant because they have decided it's demeaning to women.
i guess it will just be women in overcoats telling us they want world peace .... bravo, we all applaud, right?
maybe we shouldn't be so quick to do so .... what is it really saying?
I don't think there is much that will make the former "bathing beauty " pageant into something more valuable to society. Women can now choose any profession, have goals other than to be a wife (trophy or otherwise) go to any university or become a senator or president. They run huge companies. Pageants are an anachronistic look at women. Women don't need to expose their bodies to be beautiful but really, who bothers with beauty pageants anymore? Women can get merit based scholarships for their academic abilities, for athletic talent or other skills. They don't need to play this demeaning game.
You want to see naked or nearly so? You aren't waiting for miss America pageant.
under "breaking news" on jwdotorg, there is a link to a court case in canada that was just resolved on may 31st.. https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/17101/index.do.
it's in regard to him being disfellowshipped, and the court says they can't get involved.
jwdotorg gives this statement about their victory:.
I'm not surprised by it but I loathe the WT just a bit more for gloating about the travesty that they get away with.
tommie robinson has reported often about what he sees as the demise of british society by the imposition of 'sharia' norms.. https://www.infowars.com/update-tommy-robinson-gets-13-months-for-livestreaming-outside-courthouse/?utm_source=nightly+newsletter&utm_campaign=9e3ceb30f6-email_campaign_2018_05_25_03_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e12661a83c-9e3ceb30f6-38680565.
yesterday he was jailed for 13 months for reporting outside a court in the uk.
his was a non violent offence.. what no community service?
Is the 90% number thrown about speaking to all child abuse, sex abuse or the grooming gangs who take horrible advantage of vulnerable at risk girls?
i posted here weekly until a year ago when my mum died of a mild form of lukemia which is easy to treat with 2 blood tranfusions a month.
you can live to 100 with treatment, but no my mum chose to die a faithful witness after 2 years of chemo and hell for her family and doctors.
her chemo doctor cried when she only had weeks left to live knowing that she could be saved with one bag of blood!
I'm so sad to hear of your needless loss. I hope you can work through all the feelings and come to a peace about what you (none of us can) can't change regarding the convictions that others hold.
Then they can build a compound for all the faithful to join like a convent. Give us everything, all your energy, your children, your options and you have a home until Armageddon or death, whichever comes first.
one of this things that constantly reminds me of the extent and the reach the organization has into our lives, is the fact we all need pseudonyms to have a conversation or to make a comment in this even here in this place.
even when people have left the society (by however it has occurred), its rare to see somebody change their online presence to their personal name.. now i'm not expecting people to do that of course, fore we are all free to do what we like (which is the real beauty of this forum) but the fact that it doesn't occur that often, shows how much we've all been effected by being told over and over again, "not to be critical of god's organization".
of course there could be an number so side issues at play here; with some people not wanting to burn their bridges in an attempt to keep what reputation they have left intact and sadly a small minority others, do enjoy the anonymity to just talk trash ... but if a person can not feel free to stand up and respectfully make a critical comment or ask a thorny question without fear of repercussion from their religion, then doesn't it show that there is no real freedom in that faith.
I’m no longer worried about JWs in my life. I’m more worried about people on this and other sites.
Opinions can lead to shunning, expulsion and abuse from online nutters, too-not just our families.
