Hi Larc,
you said:
Norm, did I get that right?
You know Larc, I do belive you did
Take care,
Norm.
Posts by Norm
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18Gullibilty and reasoning
by Norm inthe latest horrible events in ny and washington has rightfully shocked the entire world.
it is a deed that will go down in history as monumental as the holocaust and other atrocities.. the only superpower in the world was powerless and unable to stop a handful of dedicated and fanatic persons from inflicting such a horrific blow to the nation.
they struck right at the financial and military center of the superpower.. in the wake of such an event it is interesting to watch the various comments from the us politicians, the president and military.
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Norm
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18
Gullibilty and reasoning
by Norm inthe latest horrible events in ny and washington has rightfully shocked the entire world.
it is a deed that will go down in history as monumental as the holocaust and other atrocities.. the only superpower in the world was powerless and unable to stop a handful of dedicated and fanatic persons from inflicting such a horrific blow to the nation.
they struck right at the financial and military center of the superpower.. in the wake of such an event it is interesting to watch the various comments from the us politicians, the president and military.
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Norm
The latest horrible events in NY and Washington has rightfully shocked the entire world. It is a deed that will go down in history as monumental as the Holocaust and other atrocities.
The only superpower in the world was powerless and unable to stop a handful of dedicated and fanatic persons from inflicting such a horrific blow to the nation. They struck right at the financial and military center of the superpower.
In the wake of such an event it is interesting to watch the various comments from the US politicians, the President and military. The speakers of the bipartisan meeting in Washington the other day did little but spout a lot of the usual clichés, “Great Nation”, “American people”, “Stand Firm”, “Be Proud”, and last but not least, the usual standard order: “God bless America”.
You never hear a US politician who doesn’t order “God” to bless America. In light of the above mentioned gruesome event, how has God blessed America? As we know, the US intelligence, all the law enforcement officials, every American citizen, and 99% of the citizen’s of the whole world would have done everything in their power to stop something like this from happening, right?
As it turns out we, the humans was unable to do anything about it. God on the other hand which according to all believers is all knowing, all powerful, omni whatever etc. Apparently couldn’t care less and let the fanatics go ahead and carry out the evil deed, much like he didn’t do much when Hitler was carrying out the Holocaust.
Either he was sleeping of the job and was looking the other way at the moment. Whatever God was doing he wasn’t very busy “Blessing America”.
Do the religious believers stop for one second to ponders such obvious problems?
Nope - no way. What do we see? Well, the usual mindless drivel. We should all pray!
PRAY is the watchword. Yeah sure. Pray to whom? To the God, which according to those same believers claims are the only one who could have prevented the very thing from happening in the first place? If this wonderful God of yours didn’t care enough to stop your loved ones from being killed in the first place, why do you think he would care for your prayers afterwards?Do you people ever, ever engage your brain before spouting the clichés that seems lodged in your very spines?
And don’t give me that emotional crap about that I hate God, I don’t even believe he exist. What I am really upset about is the incredible stupidity of the “true believer”. What does it take to make you people think?
Norm.
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Need image from Norm Hovland or anyone else...
by Tallyman ini thought i'd copied an image on norm hovland's site,.
(and right now, i can't find his website address).
which he post (forgot which heading) of a picture out of a .
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Norm
another one
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14
Need image from Norm Hovland or anyone else...
by Tallyman ini thought i'd copied an image on norm hovland's site,.
(and right now, i can't find his website address).
which he post (forgot which heading) of a picture out of a .
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Norm
Hi Tally,
Here is another one of the JW favorite "wet" dream pictures:
This picture and the one above is from the broschure:
"Does God Really Care About Us?"
Norm
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Norm
Hi Gopher,
You said:
This shunning is based on FEAR, which is quite the antithesis of love. Notice what 1 John 4:18 says: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love throws fear outside, because fear exercises a restraint. Indeed, he that is under fear has not been made perfect in love." Because the organization tells you to shun an individual, you may do it out of FEAR that the judicial machine will turn its guns on YOU next. Such FEAR pushes aside and outweighs any natural, normal feelings of love the shunner has, therefore love is withheld out of fear of being discovered associating with a "shunned one". The whole arrangement is unloving and ought to be modified.
Gopher
Very good point Gopher. It is indeed sad how superstition can cause such fear.
Take care,
Norm
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Norm
Jehovah's Witnesses and the concept of Love.
Jehovah's Witnesses like so many other ”Christians” talk a whole lot about ”love”.
The Watchtower magazine even claim that Jehovah's Witnesses are the ONLY ones who have the “RIGHT” kind of love, whatever that might be:“JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES are unique in ever so many ways. They alone speak the “pure language.” (Zephaniah 3:9) Only they are united, having the distinguishing mark of love described by Jesus Christ.”
The Watchtower. January 15. 1992. Page 24“Only in the spiritual paradise, among Jehovah’s Witnesses, can we find the self-sacrificing love Jesus said would identify his true disciples.”
The Watchtower. March 15. 1986. Page 20.This can hardly be considered a modest claim by any standard. Anyone making such categorical statements must of course be held to an extremely high standard when we talk about love. Do Jehovah's Witnesses live up to such a standard? Let us find out.
What is this unique love that only Jesus and Jehovah's Witnesses possess? As we can see from the above quotes this love supposedly originates with Jesus, and we know that according to the Bible, Jesus was willing to die for the whole of mankind. Already here, we find the first serious flaw in the bold statements from Brooklyn. Because according to Watchtower doctrine, Jesus didn’t die for mankind, but only for 144.000 of said mankind. So if taking this quite unbiblical doctrine serious, Jesus love is already seriously limited.
When reading the Watchtower one quickly discovers that the love of Jehovah's Witnesses mostly extends only to their own fellow believers, anyone outside the Watchtower organization is only interesting as a possible convert, otherwise they are considered bad association. Is it a sign of love, to consider ordinary human beings that happen not to be Jehovah's Witnesses bad company? Or are such attitudes betraying other not quite so lofty ideals? The fact that this unique love really only includes the love of their fellow believers is made quite clear several times in the Watchtower.
“Who have unbreakable love for their spiritual brothers and sisters all over the earth and unity with them? Who really trust in Jehovah and invite others to do the same? The facts of our time show that the answer can only be: Jehovah’s Witnesses.” The Watchtower, April 15. 1988, page 19.
“Furthermore, “this remarkable unity, to be observed only among Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the earth today,” declared the speaker, “is one of the rewarding benefits that they enjoy due to giving prior allegiance to God’s kingdom and following its law of love.” The Watchtower, October 15. 1977, page 611.
In this Jehovah's Witnesses faithfully imitate ancient Israel and the law, where only other Jews was considered to be their “fellow man”. Killing fellow Jews was bad but non Jewish people was fair game. The law regulated sexual behaviour towards Jewish women but non Jewish women was free game, etc.
The really sad thing is that not even this is love as we usually think about it. When you read the Watchtower you can see that this alleged unity seem to be regarded as the prime proof, the ultimate sign of this incredible “love” which is so unique for Jehovah's Witnesses. The “unity” which receives such prize here is, as we know, in reality conformity. This is demonstrated every time people are DF’d because they fail to conform to the Brooklyn doctrine. Real love would of course exist even where disagreement on certain issues was a fact. It is thus easy to see that this is at best a horribly conditional kind of love. Real love cannot be turned on and off, depending on the person’s religious views. If you really do love someone, you wouldn’t shun him/her on the order of some old men in Brooklyn whom you have never seen or even met? Yet we know that this is the case in thousands of instances, where people have treated their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends in this horrible manner based on such a flimsy reason. If anything, this alone is a roaring testimony to the complete lack of love and compassion of the Watchtower Society in particular and also on part of the individual Jehovah's Witness. In this sense the love of the Jehovah's Witnesses are indeed unique, it is a switch on/off “love”, and really only unique in it’s perversion of the very word.Another quite remarkable thing about this is that the very observance of the Bible regarding such matters is Jesus own words that love among “each other” is no big deal, because even the “people of the nations” was capable of such basic feelings. The sad truth in the matter is as the facts show that Jehovah's Witnesses isn’t even capable of this basic feeling. Their association with and adherence to the completely perverted ideas of the Watchtower Society has even taken away their basic humanity. In Brooklyn they have disregarded Jesus words below in every possible way.
*** Rbi8 Matthew 5:43-48 ***
“YOU heard that it was said, ‘You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ However, I say to YOU: Continue to love YOUR enemies and to pray for those persecuting YOU; that YOU may prove yourselves sons of YOUR Father who is in the heavens, since he makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous. For if YOU love those loving YOU, what reward do YOU have? Are not also the tax collectors doing the same thing? And if YOU greet YOUR brothers only, what extraordinary thing are YOU doing? Are not also the people of the nations doing the same thing? YOU must accordingly be perfect, as YOUR heavenly Father is perfect.With this quote from the Bible in mind, let us see how this holds up when Brooklyn has been working on it for a while. Jehovah's Witnesses is extreme when it comes to pushing their religion on others. This of course makes them want to be treated politely and they would like so much to be met by people with “an open mind”. This is made abundantly clear in the next quote:
“The book then raises the logical question. “Is it reasonable to assume that the religion imposed at one’s birth is necessarily the whole truth?” Thus, every person is encouraged to examine other religions with an open mind. As is stated on page 10: “Understanding one another’s viewpoint can lead to more meaningful communication and conversation between people of different faiths.” It continues: “True, people may strongly disagree about their religious beliefs, but there is no basis for hating a person just because he or she holds a different viewpoint.”—Matthew 5:43, 44.”
The Watchtower, April 1. 1991, page 17.This is very true, wouldn’t we all like to be met in such a manner? I particularly like the part about “understanding” and “meaningful communication”. But this statement really is deserving of an upper case quote:
“TRUE, PEOPLE MAY STRONGLY DISAGREE ABOUT THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, BUT THERE IS NO BASIS FOR HATING A PERSON JUST BECAUSE HE OR SHE HOLDS A DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT.”
Well folks, we of course all understand that this is how Jehovah's Witnesses want to be met when they are out in the field service. We ourselves would of course like to be met like this by the Jehovah's Witness apologist’s right here on this board. But it is quite incredible isn’t it? Here we have a cult, which actually teach in no uncertain manner that having a different viewpoint from the Watchtower doctrine is not only a cause for compulsory HATE, but also a legitimate reason to declare a death sentence over 99,9% of mankind!!! It boggles the imagination how anyone can read things like this without getting seriously nauseated. Is there no end to the hypocrisy and double standard in Brooklyn?
Lets have a fresh look at how Jehovah's Witnesses are supposed to view those who dare “hold a different viewpoint” from Brooklyn. Do they have a “basis of hating a person just because” of that? Lets see:
"Apostasy is, in reality, a rebellion against Jehovah. Some apostates profess to know and serve God, but they reject teachings or requirements set out in his Word. Others claim to believe the Bible, but they reject Jehovah’s organization and actively try to hinder its work. When they deliberately choose such badness after knowing what is right, when the bad becomes so ingrained that it is an inseparable part of, their makeup, then a Christian must hate (in the Biblical sense of the word) those who have inseparably attached themselves to the badness. True Christians share Jehovah’s feelings toward such apostates; they are not curious about apostate ideas. On the contrary, they ‘feel a loathing’ toward those who have made themselves God’s enemies,…" The Watchtower October 1, 1993 p.19.
Brooklyn is painting with their largest brush here and in a sweeping generalization just states as an established fact that everyone who dares disagree with Brooklyn, has badness, “ingrained as an inseparable part of, their makeup” and such persons should be HATED! Nowhere do we see any mention of “there is no basis for hating a person just because he or she holds a different viewpoint.” On the contrary, s/he should be hated!
Then in other Watchtower’s you find more totally contradictory “window dressing” statements like this:
"WILL HATRED EVER END"
"And even though it may be unreasonable, or ‘crazy,’ the hatred is
often directed against a whole group" Watchtower June 15, 1995 p.3.Some times one wonders if nobody reads the Watchtower Magazine in the writing department in Brooklyn. As a monument of the kind of love the Watchtower Society have for their fellow man I will once again bring a blockbuster quote from the FDS in Brooklyn. Read it and feel how the Watchtower Society “LOVE” flows from every word:
“Shortly, the great tribulation will suddenly break out, moving quickly to a climax in “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (Revelation 16:14, 16) It will reach a crescendo as Jehovah destroys this system of things and the figurative table at which the world’s nations have been feeding. Jehovah will also overthrow the entire invisible organization of Satan the Devil with its hordes of demons. Those who have continued to feed at Satan’s spiritual table, the table of demons, will be forced to attend a literal meal, no, not as partakers, but as the main course—to their destruction! — See Ezekiel 39:4; Revelation 19:17, 18.”
Watchtower July 1. 1994, page 13.When you have finished reading about the love orgy Brooklyn style above, then read the next quote and see if you can make any sense of it:
"Yes, the international society of Jehovah’s Witnesses is living proof that hatred can be abolished." "It is a foreglimpse of a worldwide program to eliminate hatred and it’s causes." Watchtower, June 15, 1995, p.8.
Seem to me that if hatred is ever to be abolished one have a lot of very hard work to do, starting with some of the worst haters of them all, Jehovah's Witnesses!
Norm.
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10
Message for Americans
by Pork Chop ini received the following message from australia, given the content of some of the postings here i think you'll find it interesting.
there were sixty names following the message, as far as i know they are all witnesses.
i haven't listed the names for obvious reasons.
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Norm
Hello there Pork Chop,
Here is something for you:
Incredible LOVE
The Watchtower Society is out with a window dressing article on it’s web page these days. It has the title:
“LOVE OF NEIGHBOR
Has Grown Cold”The article starts with decrying the lessons of Bosnia, Rwanda, Israeli’s and Palestinians, Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Then follows the usual song and dance about it all being foretold by the Creator and Jesus and is of course a sure sign of the “last days”.
Today's lack of love, therefore, is part of the evidence that we are living in the last days of this world. Happily, it also means that this world of ungodly people will soon be replaced by a righteous new world ruled by love.—Matthew 24:3-14; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:7, 13.
Then the article goes on and tell the readers:“LOVE OF NEIGHBOR
A Reality”Who is making this real you think? Well, Jehovah's Witnesses are of course. The article goes on to quote a lot of clueless and ignorant people who have probably copied a Watchtower press release and printed the bilge:
“What about today? Is Christlike love practiced by anybody? The Encyclopedia Canadiana observes: "The work of Jehovah's Witnesses is the revival and re-establishment of the primitive Christianity practised by Jesus and his disciples . . . All are brothers."
What does that mean? It means that Jehovah's Witnesses allow nothing—neither race, nationality, nor ethnic background—to cause them to hate their neighbors. Nor will they kill anyone, for they have figuratively beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. (Isaiah 2:4) The Witnesses, in fact, are noted for taking the initiative to help their neighbors.—Galatians 6:10.No wonder an editorial in California's Sacramento Union noted: "Suffice it to say that if all the world lived by the creed of the Jehovah Witnesses there would be an end of bloodshed and hatred, and love would reign as king." A writer in Hungary's Ring magazine remarked: "I have come to the conclusion that if Jehovah's Witnesses were the only ones living on the earth, wars would cease to exist, and the only duties of the policemen would be to control traffic and to issue passports."
After quoting all this ignorant drivel they move in for the clincher with this headline:
“When All People
WILL LOVE ONE ANOTHER”Now we are getting the usual song and dance about a heavenly rule and surprisingly enough we even get a slight hint at how this “rule” is to be implemented:
“When God's Kingdom comes, what will happen to this hate-filled world? "The kingdom," will "crush and put an end" to all the corrupt governments of this world. (Daniel 2:44) The Bible explains: "The world is passing away . . . , but he that does the will of God remains forever."—1 John 2:17.”
This is how lightly you can pass over butchering 6+ billion people if you are a good Christian. Then quickly move on to more drivel:“Concerning God's new world, the Bible says: "The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it." (Psalm 37:9-11, 29; Proverbs 2:21, 22) What a glorious time that will be! "Death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore." (Revelation 21:4) Even dead ones will live again, and the entire earth will be transformed into a literal paradise.—Isaiah 11:6-9; 35:1, 2; Luke 23:43; Acts 24:15.”
After the slaughter is over only the “righteous” will be alive and we all know who that is. Of course as true Christians they can’t feel anything but joy at such a “glorious” slaughter? I mean what else can give a true believer such immense satisfaction and warm glow inside as the fact that everybody who didn’t buy his superstition are now dead? The Watchtower Society has come a long way and have learned how to make their gruesome and horrible message with the code word “Good News” more edible. In the good old days as a legacy of Rutherford they were far more honest about these things:
w55 7/15 438 War from Heaven Brings Peace to Earth
15 Men have a saying about "dying with your boots on." At Armageddon Jehovah God will grant their wish and let them "die with their boots on." He will allow them to build up to peak strength and go down fighting.w55 7/15 436 War from Heaven Brings Peace to Earth
Men can spray a field with chemicals that kill weeds but spare crops; too bad they cannot spray cities with bombs that blow the bad to bits but leave the innocent intact.w55 7/15 436 War from Heaven Brings Peace to Earth
11 The battle of Armageddon is righteous and in harmony with Jehovah's attributes of justice, power, wisdom and love. It is just because it is selective in its destruction. It kills those deserving to die. It does not slaughter those of good will seeking to serve Jehovah. This battle displays Jehovah's power, and it will be exerted to the extent necessary to accomplish the destruction determined.Here they even use the very correct word “slaughter” for what they hope and pray for. However, how many will “deserve to die” on this “glorious” day?
w58 10/15 p614-615:
"On Satan's side will be all the rest of mankind, more than 99.9 percent, even as we read: "The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." That includes all the governments of the world together with their supporters, the commercial, religious and social institutions. Even the professedly Christian organizations? Yes, because all such that are friends of the world are making themselves enemies of God."Again a quite refreshing and honest approach, more than 99,9% of mankind will be slaughtered so Jehovah's Witnesses can have their long awaited and much prayed for LOVE fest.
But even in our time, once in a while, “Writing” feel it is time to take the “velvet gloves” off and tell it like it is. Then the mask is off and suddenly the thin veneer of sugar coating is melted away and the grim, stone cold hatred that only a true faith can produce is revealed:
w94 7/1 13 Shortly, the great tribulation will suddenly break out, moving quickly to a climax in “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (Revelation 16:14, 16) It will reach a crescendo as Jehovah destroys this system of things and the figurative table at which the world’s nations have been feeding. Jehovah will also overthrow the entire invisible organization of Satan the Devil with its hordes of demons. Those who have continued to feed at Satan’s spiritual table, the table of demons, will be forced to attend a literal meal, no, not as partakers, but as the main course—to their destruction! — See Ezekiel 39:4; Revelation 19:17, 18.”
This is the true face of the Watchtower Society and Jehovah's Witnesses, don’t you all feel the tremendous “neighbourly love”? Wouldn’t you really like to live in the “New System” with these wonderful loving people?
Norm.
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Norm
Thank you all for your suggestions. What I was thinking about was that in the background some real disaster is obviously in progress and yet the people in the foreground all have these very "theocratic"
WTS grins on their faces. I bet you wouldn't have seen many such grins on Manhattan yesterday.Norm
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Norm
Thank you all for your comments. It never fail to amaze me that JW's who observe such horrible incidents as what has happened in NY don't seem to be able to grasp that this act of terrorism will completely pale compared to the ultimate act of terror they all hope and pray for every day.
People have rightly been disgusted by people celebrating the terror acts we have just witnessed but that is exactly what every JW will do when Jehovah have butchered all non Witnesses.
They even have illustrations of this in their litertature:
Look carefully at this picture. I bet you all can spot what is wrong with it.
Norm
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Norm
The September 8. 1997, issue of the Awake!, magazine ask this question. There is no doubt that the world would be a much nicer place if people stopped hating each other. When the average individual are reading such articles as this one in the Awake! They could easily get the impression that Jehovah's Witnesses are against hate and intolerance. To create such an impression is of course also the purpose of the article. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth than that. Of course every Jehovah's Witness know very well that they actually “hate” all people that isn’t Jehovah's Witnesses in general, and “apostates” in particular. To counter such thoughts of the Jehovah's Witness readers the article hasten to explain that hatred can be “positive”:
“Positive and Negative Kinds of Hatred
Hate” and “hatred” are defined as “intense hostility and aversion.” Of course, it is beneficial to have “intense hostility and aversion” toward things that are harmful or that could be detrimental to personal relationships. If everyone had this kind of hatred, the world would truly be a better place in which to live. Sad to say, however, imperfect humans tend to hate the wrong things for the wrong reasons.” Awake! September 8. 1997, page 3-4.It is very important for the Watchtower leaders to remind the individual Jehovah's Witness about this as they have constructed a new concept called “Biblical hate”, this kind of “noble hate” is defined as to “love someone less”.
Such new constructions require even more creativity and thus we have another definition which is termed “Destructive hatred”, which is defined this way by the Awake!:
“Destructive hatred is based on prejudice, ignorance, or misinformation and is usually triggered by “fear, anger, or sense of injury,” according to one definition. Not having a proper basis, this hatred results in bad and repeatedly gives rise to the question, ‘Why?’” Awake! September 8. 1997, page 4.
The article also mention different causes for such hatred:
“All of us know people whose characteristics or habits may irritate us at times and with whom we find it hard to interact. But irritation is one thing; the desire to do people bodily harm is something else. We, therefore, may find it difficult to comprehend how a person can nurse feelings of hatred for entire groups of people, oftentimes people he does not even know. They may disagree with his political views, belong to a different religion, or be of another ethnic group, but is that a reason to hate them?” Awake! September 8. 1997, page 4.
It is unfortunately a fact that people hate each other from totally irrational reasons.
In particular do we see many examples where differences in religious views have lead to horrible tragedies and enormous suffering. The Awake! Magazine continues with an article titled: “A World Taught to Hate”. This article mention elements like political elections, ruthless politicians, clergy who wants to be popular and make money, rearing of children, videogames and racism, as causes for such hatred.What about Jehovah's Witnesses?
What is the attitude of Jehovah's Witnesses towards this problem? Are they different from the despicable “worldly people” in this matter? Let us find out:
The above-mentioned Awake state among other things:
“That the world is full of blind, unexplainable hatred has likely not escaped your notice. In fact, for one reason or another, you may have been a victim of hatred yourself. You too have probably asked, ‘Why?’— possibly more than just once. Awake!” September 8. 1997, page 4.
Anyone who has experienced the red-hot hatred from “loyal” Jehovah's Witnesses when confronting them with documentation about the Watchtower Society overwhelming dishonesty know how it feels. People who know the Watchtower organization must therefore really find this next statement in the Awake!, quite amusing:
“There is nothing wrong with trying to refute the teachings and practices of a religious group that a person may feel is incorrect.”
Awake!” September 8. 1997, page 6.Why do we find this amusing? If we should take the above statement from Awake!, serious it would mean that any person, of course including any Jehovah's Witness, who may “feel” that something is “incorrect” with the Watchtower Society should feel free to “refute” their “teachings and practices”. Is this in harmony with actual facts and reality? Well, take a look at this little gem from the Watchtower. This how it sounds from Brooklyn if someone actually try “to refute the teachings and practices” of the Watchtower Society:
"So important is it never to raise the voice in bitter criticism of the Lord's organization or its appointed representatives. Jehovah is the omniscient Judge before whom accounting must be made for these and other unprofitable sayings. - Matthew 12:36, 37; Leviticus 19:16; Jude 8. Those who despise Jehovah's teaching include individuals who criticize and complain about Jehovah's clean organization and its rules for maintaining peace and good order. There is only a fine line of demarcation between such and those who are outright rebels."
The Watchtower May 15. 1984, page 17.Apparently everything is just WRONG when someone is refuting the “teachings and practices” of the Watchtower Society, as usual this is of course only acceptable when the Watchtower subjects everyone else to criticism. Hypocrisy, seem to be the rule in Brooklyn. But it gets worse. What happens if someone who not only “feel” that there is something “incorrect” with the Watchtower Society, but can thoroughly document it with great detail? This is what happens. The individual Jehovah's Witness is actually OBLIGATED to HATE, her/him:
“The obligation to hate lawlessness also applies to all activity by apostates. Our attitude toward apostates should be that of David, who declared: “Do I not hate those who are intensely hating you, O Jehovah, and do I not feel a loathing for those revolting against you? With a complete hatred I do hate them. They have become to me real enemies.” (Psalm 139:21, 22) Modern-day apostates have made common cause with “the man of lawlessness,” the clergy of Christendom. (2 Thessalonians 2:3) As loyal Witnesses of Jehovah, we therefore have absolutely nothing in common with them. Being imperfect, our hearts could easily have a tendency toward being critical of our brothers. As individuals, those of “the faithful and discreet slave” are imperfect humans. (Matthew 24:45-47) But this class is faithful and discreet. Apostates capitalize on errors or seeming mistakes made by brothers who take the lead. Our safety lies in avoiding apostate propaganda as though it were poison, which in fact it is.—Romans 16:17, 18.” The Watchtower July 15. 1992, page 12-13.
The above quoted Awake, said it would be “nothing wrong” with “refuting the teachings and practices of a religious group that a person may feel is incorrect.” As is demonstrated beyond any doubt this does not in any shape or form apply to criticizing the Watchtower Society.
The destructive hate, the September 8. 1997 Awake!, article talks about is demonstrated in it’s purest form in the next quote:
“Then there is the meaning of the word “hate” with which we are especially concerned here. It has the thought of having such an intense feeling of dislike for or strong aversion to someone or something that we avoid having anything to do with such a person or thing. In Psalm 139 this is spoken of as “a complete hatred.” There David said: “Do I not hate those who are intensely hating you, O Jehovah, and do I not feel a loathing for those revolting against you? With a complete hatred I do hate them. They have become to me real enemies.”—Psalm 139:21, 22. The Watchtower July 15. 1992, page 9.
This is the stark reality of the real attitude among Jehovah's Witnesses towards people who “refute” the “teachings and practices” of the Watchtower Society. When Brooklyn want to take on the appearance of being tolerant and reasonable in such “window dressing” and propaganda articles as the one in Awake!, this is how it sounds:
“True religion must follow a pattern of love, which includes showing love even to enemies.” Awake!” September 8. 1997, page 7.
Dear oh dear, someone must have completely forgotten to mention this interesting detail to the guy[s] who wrote the above quoted Watchtower article.
But the next quote is even more interesting:
“Violence directed against individuals—whether they are good or bad—is not the way of love. Thus, people who resort to violence belie their claim to be acting in imitation of a loving God. Author Amos Oz recently noted: “It is typical of religious fanatics . . . that the ‘orders’ they get from God are always, essentially, one order: Thou shalt kill. The god of all fanatics sounds more like the devil.” The Bible says something quite similar: “The children of God and the children of the Devil are evident by this fact: Everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, neither does he who does not love his brother. Everyone who hates his brother is a manslayer, and you know that no manslayer has everlasting life remaining in him. If anyone makes the statement: ‘I love God,’ and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should be loving his brother also.”—1 John 3:10, 15; 4:20, 21.” Awake!” September 8. 1997, page 4.
Considering the flaming hatred Jehovah's Witnesses display towards their critics, their fanaticism, their faith in a “god” that will exterminate 6 billion people “real soon” now, is this what you would expect from good and decent people? Is the Jehovah's Witness world not in reality filled with hatred far more destructive than anything we encounter in the, “world”? As the author Amos Oz pointed out, the God of the fanatics is more like the Devil. If the Watchtower “god” is going to butcher 6 billion people, what evil deed can the Devil possibly come up with to top that?
Norm.