Phizzy

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Posts by Phizzy

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  19

  Door to Door

  by pontoon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just wondering if the witnesses still go door to door.

  once in a while i see them doing their cart work and my still in relatives talk about going out in cart work, never mention door to door.

  i haven't had a knock on my door since probably 2 years before covid.

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  Phizzy

  The Letters come over as following a Template, and an American one at that, which will jar with the public here in the U.K. When the Writer claims to be "one of your neighbours" but lives nowhere near you, and you live miles from the nearest K.H., it comes over as a crafty Sales Pitch to us here.

  Also talking down to adults in the way they do, as though we are children, or simpletons, means the Letter goes straight in the Bin.

  Another exercise just to keep J.W Rank and File feel as though they are doing something positive, is a major Fail, just like the Carts.
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  6

  Attorney Irwin Zalkin explains the article, Pa. courts weigh whether JW's elders must report confessed child abuse

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  the pennsylvania supreme court memorandum opinion that i posted on this discussion board yesterday was confusing enough for me to ask attorney irwin zalkin to explain the issues.

  he promptly replied and gave me permission to post here the following important information that he provided.. "the pennsylvania supreme court memorandum opinion raises the question of whether jehovah’s witnesses (“jw’s”) elders, who are volunteer clergy, fall under an exception to the mandatory reporting law of the state of pennsylvania.

  jw’s members of the ivy hill congregation of jw’s sued the pa department of human services (dhs) and asked the court to issue a judgment that as a matter of law makes jw’s elders exempt from pa’s mandatory reporting of known or suspected child abuse, including child sexual abuse.

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  Phizzy

  Thanks for this clear explanation from Irwin Zalkin Barbara, what he says was what I gleaned, but this has made it much easier to understand for those with no legal training. It took me a while to unpick the original info. !

  What this debacle shows is two things, one the J.W Legal Dept. and whoever advises them , are inept, i.e Suing the wrong Party ! Schoolboy error that !

  And second, they are still more interested in hiding the extent of CSA that went on in the past, as they are of that which goes on today, and that they have Zero compassion, empathy or any love for the poor victims, past, present or future !

  It is the Moral Duty of any J.W, but especially Elders, to report any putative CSA they come across, even a rumour, STRAIGHT AWAY to the appropriate Authorities, regardless of what the Law does or does not compel.

  No fannying around phoning the Legal Dept or Service Dept, REPORT it directly, then tell J.W H.Q you have done so, if you wish.

  To do any less is Immoral !
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  4

  Great "Guardian"Article from XJW Author Jodie Chapman !

  by Phizzy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/17/fiction-opened-my-eyes-author-jodie-chapman-on-growing-up-as-a-jehovahs-witness?fbclid=iwar3slqo_dfedknxgy9c9hf50ppxz_lhzca12xmv0q3jpnxdgldptlirv8o0.

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  Phizzy

  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/17/fiction-opened-my-eyes-author-jodie-chapman-on-growing-up-as-a-jehovahs-witness?fbclid=IwAR3SlQo_DFEdKNXgY9C9HF50PPXz_lhZca12Xmv0Q3jPnxdgldPtlirV8o0
  
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  2

  What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe?

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  thought this summary from helge kare fauskanger was well written and worth sharing.. "for starters, imagine a distinctly insular form of protestant fundamentalism minus the trinity (god and jesus are held to be separate beings, and the holy spirit is god's active power rather than a person).

  note: since the witnesses want to think of their faith as something absolutely unique, they themselves will not agree that they are either protestant or fundamentalist.. * very important to call god by his proper name of jehovah, and as noted, you must not get him mixed up with jesus.

  jesus is not part of the godhead but "actually" the first created being, through whom jehovah created the rest of the universe.

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  Phizzy

  " Such as JWs refuse to fight in wars and have been the most imprisoned and persecuted religious group of the past century as a result." Good point !

  And much unjustified persecution is heaped upon them for not openly supporting the State, hence they are perceived, quite wrongly, as enemies of the State in question.

  It is amazing to think that Posters on here can clearly and correctly identify what J.W's believe and teach today (tomorrow it may be different of course !), but nearly every J.W today CANNOT DO SO ! all they are capable of is referring people to their J.W org, Site, which is designed more to obfuscate what they actually believe and practice, rather than to inform.
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  19

  Door to Door

  by pontoon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just wondering if the witnesses still go door to door.

  once in a while i see them doing their cart work and my still in relatives talk about going out in cart work, never mention door to door.

  i haven't had a knock on my door since probably 2 years before covid.

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  Phizzy

  But with D. to D. now all but dead in reality, we won't get those opportunities, where in the past I am sure well informed and well expressed comments have planted seeds of doubt at the very least !
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  10

  Article: Pa. courts weigh whether Jehovah's Witnesses elders must report confessed child abuse

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  https://pennrecord.com/stories/654791353-pa-courts-weigh-whether-jehovah-s-witnesses-elders-must-report-confessed-child-abuse.

  harrisburg – after the commonwealth court of pennsylvania dismissed a petition from a group of jehovah’s witnesses nearly two years ago, which argued the confidentiality of their confessions shielded them from being mandatory reporters of child abuse, the supreme court of pennsylvania overruled their colleagues and decided the commonwealth court must re-examine the action.. in a 24-page memorandum opinion authored by state supreme court chief justice debra todd and handed down feb. 13, the court found that their commonwealth court contemporaries violated the coordinate jurisdiction rule – which states “judges of coordinate jurisdiction sitting in the same case should not overrule each other’s decisions” – by its initial pair of separate findings that ivy hill congregation of jehovah’s witnesses did not have proper standing against the commonwealth’s department of human services, and that a grant of declaratory relief would not terminate the legal controversy.. todd was joined in the opinion by supreme court of pennsylvania justices christine donohue, kevin m. dougherty, david n. wecht and sallie updyke mundy.

  justices p. kevin brobson and daniel mccaffery did not participate in the consideration or decision of this matter.. “appellant is a congregation of approximately 140 individuals in philadelphia, pennsylvania, who follow the tenets of the jehovah’s witnesses religion.

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  Phizzy

  It seems to me that this may end up with the clarification that if a crime of any kind is suspected, a Clergyman or whoever, is bound in Law to report it to the Authorities.

  This has been the case in U.K law since the Reformation, where Priest/Penitent Confidentiality does not apply when a Crime is suspected.
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  13

  Progress on the NWT Study Bible

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the society has been working on the nwt study bible since the revised nwt was released in 2013. so far they done the nt up to philemon.

  that makes about 17% of the entire bible including the hebrew/aramaic scriptures.

  at that rate the study edition of the whole nwt will be completed sometime around the year 2077. .

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  Phizzy

  " They think that by accurately translating, " They have zero interest in accurately translating and properly rendering Scripture, to do so would expose many of their doctrines etc, as VERY dodgy !

  Slimboy, I wonder if they perhaps are losing some people tasked with this work ? This happened to a guy who used to Post here 20 or so years ago, when he worked on Translating the French edition of the NWT. Was his name Nicolai or similar ? he often commented on Leo's Threads, and had a very good knowledge of Hebrew and Greek.

  The present team have to go back to the best MSS, have to look at how other Versions render Scriptures, and ask why, dangerous territory for a JW !
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  48

  The Date for the Memorial is WRONG this year!

  by Kelley959 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  an interesting video was on youtube with a person claiming that the memorial date for 2024 was wrong.

  so i consulted three different jewish calendars online and sure enough, he appears to be right.

  i went back to 2014 and forward to 2027. they have the future dates listed.

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  Phizzy

  There is also a Thread by the incredible Leolaia, from years ago, which in addition to Jeffro's perhaps ? shows that EVERY year they get it wrong ! Their method of calculating is wrong of course, but Leolaia showed from the historical roots of Passover why it is wrong every year IIRC.

  But as above, they really do not care, it gives them a feeling of superiority that they know better than the Jewish Scholars !

  Many years ago when I first left, I had read Leo's Thread, and spoke about what I knew to an elderly JW lady, a former F.T. Pioneer and full on J.W, who surprised me by saying, as she walked away " I don't CARE if it is on the wrong day !", I think that attitude would be general now among J.W's.
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  65

  Just had a thought…

  by Vidiot in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i been reading quite a few experiences on reddit lately, and their seems to be a common theme coming up….

  …dialed-up-to-eleven shunning of xjws by their witness relatives.. it reminds me of back in the day, listening to some of the over-the-top vitriol displayed by hard-core loyalists when the topic of evolution or apostates came up….

  …i was gobsmacked when i finally realized these guys weren’t offended and indignant because they thought it was lies….

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  Phizzy

  I had an e-mail chat with a Christadelphian , when I first left, who helped me find the information I was looking for to show that if Jesus was going to appoint anyone as an FDS in1918/9, it would have been the Christadelphians, looking at it from a JW perspective, as what the Christadelphians taught back then in 1919, was exactly the same as JW's called "Present truth" in the year of my asking him, all bar the actual year of 1914 etc.

  So why would Jesus choose Rutherford & Co in1919? when you look at all the discarded dross the Rutherfordites were teaching then ! As Ray Franz said that claim is an "Insult to Jesus".

  When I left, two Elders did a "Shepherding" visit, trying to get me to admit to Apostasy in some way. That didn't work.

  But JW's see Apostasy as the Greatest Sin of All, how silly !

  I wonder how widespread the "ramping up" of shunning is geographically ? Has something prompted this just in the USA, or is it worldwide ?

  I must say I was surprised about this, as an Elder relative recently dropped in to see how we were, he knows not to talk religion, but was very friendly and normal. (for a JW Elder).
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  77

  How would you define RELIGION, and why?

  by Fernando in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  "judge" rutherford defined or classified all religion as "a snare and a racket" in his books "religion" and "enemies".. after rutherford's death in 1942, his protege, watchtower vice president, and aclu darling, hayden c. covington, in the early 1950's, for reasons of legal expedience and supremacist aspirations, suddenly converted the watchtower into a religion.. this was done alongside one of the most audacious, spurious and longstanding swindles of the us legal system.

  this involved twisting philippians 1:7 and misrepresenting the watchtower's true nature, objectives and activities.. .

  this meant that it became necessary for the watchtower to suddenly reclassify and redefine religion (w51 1/15 p. 43 new legal booklet well named; w51 8/15 p. 511 questions from readers; yb75 p. 161 part 2 "for gladys bolton...").. two new watchtower classifications were suddenly created: "true religion" and "false religion".. now "true religion" meant "true beliefs" whilst "belief" in ever changing watchtower doctrine was equated with the one "faith" of scripture.. all this while the watchtower increasingly and maliciously truncated, obfuscated and hid the liberating full "good news" (or unabridged gospel) of scripture, which it lyingly claimed (in court) that it was actually "defending and legally establishing".. how would you have defined religion before learning ttatt?.

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  Phizzy

  "Religion was invented when the first priest met the first Gullible Fool" , Mark Twain.