Drearyweather

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Posts by Drearyweather

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  60

  Introducing Our Rockstar Governing Body

  by pale.emperor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  isnt nice to see the governing body being so humble, meek and not seeking their own importance?.

  .

  stash: /intesoft-inc.appspot.com/post/005df9f7e68e40cb9b013248fe7b670c.html

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  Drearyweather

  Interesting is the fact that they remain rockstars and get adulation even when they are no longer on the GB.

  Non-JW's and Ex-Jw's having their celebrity moment with Raymond Franz:

  

  

  

  

  
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  37

  What Happens If the JW Beard Policy Stumbles a Person

  by Cold Steel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some of the videos on youtube really make the beard policy look ridiculous.

  i wondered what would happen if the jw beard policy caused someone to stumble?

  jesus most likely wore a beard, and charles taze russell had a beard.

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  Drearyweather

  Corporations with dress codes don't claim that everything they do is based on the bible though. JW's do.

  Yes, corporations don't claim that everything they do is based on the Bible. But, Corporate organizations do base their activities on the country's legal company Acts, Rules, Statutes and Bills. And these are more brutal in their punishments than what are mentioned in the religious books.

  Since companies don't have direct laws governing dress codes, each industry or employer has the right to impose their rules about dress codes. You may even find different dress code policies in one organization. For some, these are contradictions, but for the employer, it is a business need.

  Similarly, when religious books are silent on certain matters, each religious group has the leeway to form their own rules on them. In fact, each congregation will have a separate unwritten law on this matter depending on their local culture.

  What I found contradictory is the following scenario which happened with my friend. When he started growing a pony tail and a beard, he went on a full blown tirade against some members of the congregation and his parents who asked him to cut his beard and pony tail. He stopped going to meetings to make the point that no one has the right to oppose his personal preferences. Three months later, when he changed his job, his new employer asked him to remove his pony tail and beard and cover his tattoo before going for an important client conference. He was upset but accepted his employers demand without uttering a word and sheepishly went back to his clean shaven look, since he couldn't afford to lose the job. He became the laughing stock for many of his JW friends.
  
  
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  39

  How do you get over all the things that you missed? The stuff you can't get back

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  look my life is not bad but sometimes i just think about all the normal things i missed out on.

  and no i'm not talking about christmas and birthday parties.

  i'm talking about your first kiss happening in your twenties instead of your teens.

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  Drearyweather

  I'm talking about your first kiss happening in your twenties instead of your teens. Only having one sexual partner your whole life.

  Nope, never missed and wouldn't miss. In my culture, this is a no-no for non-jws too.

  I'm talking about never having planned for college "because that's materialistic."

  Almost no one (including me) from my JW family went to college. But all are doing way better than university graduates. So not sure if anyone is missing college education.
  

  I'm talking about after finally deciding to go to college turning down jobs because they involved military contractors or research, or even telling potential employers that you couldn't work certain hours because of meetings

  There are many jobs in the corporate world which JW's can accept as compared to those they cannot. I always felt awkward to ask my boss for early leaving for my meetings. But now as a manager myself, I have experienced that people of almost all other religions ask for time off during the week for one reason or the other. So, I was not the unique one.
  
  
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  14

  RUSSIA (20 June 2017): JW video depicting kingdom hall burnings, raids, and interviews with JWs

  by jwleaks in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  video published on official jw website:.

  https://jw-russia.org/news/17062022-182.html.

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  Drearyweather

  Thanks jwleaks for the link.

  The photo actually looks as though ISIS has stormed a Kingdom Hall.

  Masked Policemen? Russia is truly going back in time and repeating the events of the Soviet Era.

  While banning religions, the authorities forget that religion is all about beliefs and ideas (whether right or wrong), whereas political ideology and dictatorship is about men. I remember some quotes from V for Vendetta: Men can fail, can be caught, can be killed and forgotten (Like nazis, soviets, Hitler, Mussolini, Gaddafi, etc). However, ideas (and religious beliefs) cannot be kissed, cannot be held, cannot be touched. Ideas do not feel the pain, neither do they bleed. Hence they survive the most difficult of repressions.

  If banning religions worked, we wouldn't have JW's in Germany and in the regions of the former USSR.
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  37

  What Happens If the JW Beard Policy Stumbles a Person

  by Cold Steel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some of the videos on youtube really make the beard policy look ridiculous.

  i wondered what would happen if the jw beard policy caused someone to stumble?

  jesus most likely wore a beard, and charles taze russell had a beard.

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  Drearyweather

  Coldsteel,

  Youtube videos do make the beard policy look ridiculous. In fact, Youtube videos can make anything and everything under the sun look ridiculous.

  Technically, there is no such thing as beard policy. There is no written policy or rule with the JW’s that you will be disfellowshipped for wearing the beard. Yes, you are discouraged to wear one, you may lose your privileges, etc, but won’t be disfellowshipped.

  Why do religions have such policies? To understand this, first you need to remember that all religions in this world are technically like corporate organizations with written and unwritten rules of conduct. You will have such policies in all religions. Some disallow beards, some force circumcision, some want special garments to be worn, some encourage flagellation, etc. Each religion follows rules from their holy books and frames new ones which they feel needs to be adhered to either gain new followers or to create an environment of decency for existing followers.

  In south India, there is a temple which doesn’t allow menstruating females to come in, and there is a religious festival where men are asked to wear full black clothes and not go near women during this 41 day period.

  Does religion have a monopoly over making policies? No. In many corporate organizations, there is a formal dress policy where employees who are into client facing jobs are not allowed to wear casuals during client interactions. In my organization, casual clothing is not allowed during the weekdays. People may like wearing long hair or pony tails, but many multinational companies disallow that. Even though they may not kick you out, but they won’t allow such people to represent the company in client meetings. So if you work in an organization, you either follow those rules or you get out. There are countries who allow beards in the military while some who don’t. Policies are everywhere.

  You have rules on this forum too, which have been excellently set up to avoid un-civil people to ruin discussions. People may feel that they have a right to be annoying. People may feel that discussing pornography and sexual activities are not taboo. But you are not allowed to do that on this forum, and we are thankful for that. If you don’t agree, don’t join or be ready to be banned.

  What about stumbling? A person can pretty much stumble over any point of personal preference. Jesus did wear a beard, but also wore seamless fringed robes and jewish sandals. Russell too kept a beard, but without a mustache and wore glasses much lower on his nose bridge and also chose to have a celibate marriage. These were personal preferences. There nothing that indicates that Russell was imitating Jesus in keeping his beard, because if he was, he would have also kept a mustache. Hence there is no point in wearing a beard by using an argument that Jesus and Russell had one.

  Like corporate organizations, religious organizations have complete authority to make rules and change them. Since belonging to a religion is a voluntary choice, a person either lives with those rules or he gets out of it. Post which, he either moves on in life or keeps cribbing about his ex-religion’s policies.
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  34

  Russian BOE letters of instruction - meetings and $$$ matter$

  by OrphanCrow in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  these letters can be found in the original russian on jwforum.eu.. i will provide links but also copy and paste the english translation that was provided for each one.. this first letter was dated may 21, 2017 and concerns instructions on how to handle the donation$.

  (*bolding is mine).

  we should not make the same boxes for all groups.

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  Drearyweather

  Anonymous, regarding your comment:

  At no point did the courts ban the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses or the Bible or the meeting of other groups or religions not related to the Administrative Center,

  Banning the Administrative center and the local 395 chapters equates to banning the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 2009, the Taganrog LRO was liquidated. Sixteen JW’s who met for meetings were criminally charged in 2013. Groups and religions that are not related to the Administrative center are those who have either not yet registered themselves or those whose registrations are pending as of the Supreme court ruling. So if Jehovah’s Witnesses are declared extremists even after the appeal, the decision will be interpreted as a de facto ban on the religious activity of JW’s and the law enforcement authorities will carry on investigations on all JW’s and will criminalize them.

  Some points to remember about the Russian ban:

  1. On April 20, 2017, Russian Supreme court not just closed the Administrative center, but criminalized the activities of the Center and declared it as extremist. Here are the words of Judge Yuri Ivanenko: “The Supreme Court has ruled to sustain the claim of Russia's ministry of justice and deem the 'Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia' organisation extremist, eliminate it and ban its activity in Russia,”

  2. What does this mean? Now, in Russia, JW’s have the same status as ISIS. Each of the over 170,000 Witnesses could be criminally prosecuted merely for meeting for worship, reading the Bible together, or preaching. (irrespective of whether they belong to the banned LRO or not.)

  3. Russia has harassed and closed many non-orthodox religious faiths (e.g. Scientology), however, this is the first time that Russia has criminalized or declared a registered religious group as extremist.

  4. The Supreme Court ban is just one appeal away from being handed over to the police, who would then start investigating all meetings of JW’s.
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  19

  If you were a J.W. before July 2013..................

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  ....................then you couldn't have been "in the truth" nor was "the truth in you" until july 2013, because that month's watchtower was dedicated to reversing the following 8 "truths" and replacing them with opposing "truths".

  you'd been believing and teaching falsehoods.. these are for any new members and those j.w.

  's who visit here who have not seen this list before.

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  Drearyweather

  @darkspilver: Spot on. You are right.

  The Searcher:

  You stated that the listed 8 points changed in 2013, however, if i recall, the first 4 points in the list reversed before 1996, even before this forum started. The first was changed in 1969 and the rest three in 1995.

  The next 4 points are not different 'truths', but the revision of just one scripture Matt 24:45-47.

  I can understand what you are trying to say, but before inviting the readers to research on these points, it would be good if you provide the accurate points.
  
  
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  29

  The bizarreness of Genesis 6:2

  by doubtfull1799 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "the sons of the true god began to notice that the daughters of men were beautiful.

  so they began taking as wives all whom they chose.".

  it may be feasible to some to accept the bible's assertion that the first humans were tempted to pursue independence from god, especially since they were created in his image and he is independent from any authority.

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  Drearyweather

  Doubtful1799,

  Sorry, but I disagree.

  Why angels did took male bodies instead of female ones? Asking this question is like asking as to why did 56.9% of the electoral states vote for Trump and not for Hillary? Who would know the reason? – The voters themselves. All we can do is analyze and speculate and that is what I am trying to do here.

  Since angels are not purposed to reproduce, they are technically genderless and sexless. However, angels do have power and authority and hence the Bible usually references them in the masculine gender, considering the patriarchal society of the time. The only named angels in the Bible are also in the masculine gender. Hence we find, the terms such as ‘he’, ‘his’, “sons of God” etc. while telling about angels.

  In Bible, the masculine gender is applied to spirit beings to give reference to their authority and power rather than their sex or gender. Since God is referenced in the masculine gender, angels representing him would present themselves in the male gender.

  Why were the angels attracted sexually to humans when they were higher life forms? You said, That would be like a human being sexually attracted to a so-called lower or less intelligent life form like a dog or cat. I don’t think so.

  Why don’t we have sexual attraction towards animals? For the simple reason- humans have a way and a medium for satisfying their sexual desires; and hence humans don’t have to look toward animals to learn sexual satisfaction. However, we do look toward animals to learn traits and abilities that we don’t have. WhalePower tubercle technology, Bionic Car, Shinkansen bullet train, nanotol are some of the technologies that are prevalent in the field of Biomimetics, where superior life forms have to look and learn from lower life forms to understand and learn traits which we don’t have.

  Since angels are free moral agents, they have complete freedom to observe, learn and decide for themselves what is right and wrong. However, they do not have the ability to have sex, as they are not made for that purpose. I tend to believe that angels did not have sexual feelings before humans were created, rather, it was after humans were created did they observe humans and thought about the possibility of having sex. It was in fact, like, the field of Biomimetics, where humans understood the possibilities of technology after studying and observing natural processes.

  Does being sexless mean that one cannot have sexual feelings? No. At least I don’t believe so. Humans cannot fly, as we don’t have wings, but we do have the feelings and ambitions to soar and fly, if we could. However, with an appropriate channel, medium and technology, even though we cannot produce wings, we can however, propel ourselves into air and reach another place using an aeroplane with metal wings – similar to what birds do. Similarly, since angels are sexless and in the spirit form, it is impossible for them to have sex, however, with the appropriate medium, i.e. by having a human body, or the human sexual organ, they can have sexual relations, and that is what the Bible says they did – they materialized.(will discuss about materialization later)

  Why did angels take the male form rather than the female form? It is completely possible for angels to have feelings towards males and females. It is possible that the majority took the male form and the Bible says about the majority. It is like making the statement: “The people of US voted for Trump” even though only a percentage did so, and the minority thus gets included in the statement.

  To understand this better, we have to take an example. Why does a country choose Lion and not a frog as its national symbol to denote authority and power? It’s because of its power. Or Why does an institution choose a white dove and not a pig as a symbol of peace? It’s because of its characteristics. Angels have power and authority. So, If Angels had to transform into humans, which gender would they select, in order fulfill their sexual desires and at the same time keep their dominancy, authority and power? Wouldn’t it be the male gender? Would they choose the female gender and go through the vulnerable and painful phase of pregnancy? If the society was a patriarchal society, which gender would they fit themselves into? I believe it would be the male gender.
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  9

  Who's got it wrong - the Bible or the "faithful slave?"

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  according to the self-proclaimed "faithful and discreet slave" of jehovah's witnesses, all sorts of evil things are going to be allowed to occur during christ's 1000 year reign!

  it-2 p. 789 resurrection - "they are judged, not on what they did before hearing his voice, but on what they do after hearing it.

  re chap.

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  Drearyweather

  Since you have used JW language so heavily, I will try to use JW logic while replying.

  My 2 cents:

  JWs think that the evil in this world is caused due to 2 main reasons:

  1. Satan

  2. Imperfection

  During the 1000 year rule, Satan would be in the abyss, while people would be gradually moving towards being perfect. Since the source of evil is not there, what are the chances that evil would occur. There are, because humans would still be free moral agents. But very less chances, in fact negligible. However, the greatest test would occur when Satan is let out of the abyss. This is because JW's quote the following:

  pe. page 182. Then, after their resurrection, it was easy for them to serve Jehovah because of living in Paradise without any opposition from the Devil. But will these billions of humans, who are then perfect, serve Jehovah if Satan is given the opportunity to try to stop them from further doing so? .....The Bible shows that Satan is successful in turning some persons away from serving Jehovah.

  So, will JW's need to worry about occurrence of evil during the 1000 year reign without Satan, the source of evil, around? It would be like me asking someone, Do you now live with the fear the you or your family would get infected with small pox or spanish flu, now that those viruses have been contained?
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  29

  Disfellowshipped for being complicit in someone else's sin - really?!

  by Isambard Crater in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a close friend of mine who is pimo (only staying in for family reasons) in a neighboring congregation called me in tears tonight saying her dad (elder) is telling her he is seriously considering reporting her to her local elders and she could get disfellowshipped.. the reason?

  because she is complicit in a gross sin, according to him, by going with her best friend (not a j.w.

  ) when the friend had an abortion.

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  Drearyweather

  the friend who had an abortion is registered blind and suffers from PTSD so could hardly travel 2 hours and 30 miles to the clinic on her own, and she had nobody to support her, so my PIMO J.W. friend went with her.
  

  Sorry to hear about the friend. However, abortion is a serious decision and should be done only after consultation with parents or other relatives or mature individuals. Was this an unexpected pregnancy? or was the abortion done for medical reasons to avoid physical complications to the mother? People suffering from PTSD become very vulnerable during such uneventful time and the best way the JW friend could have helped her was to either discuss this with her parents or other mature individuals. I hope she must have done this.
  

  my PIMO J.W. friend strongly felt that her vulnerable friend needed support at this emotional time. Little did she know it could get her DF'ed.

  Daughter of an elder and does not that seriousness of this? As a JW, she does know that pre-marital sex and abortion is a serious issue in the JW world, and thus she should have spoken to her parents about the friend and her problems before going with her to the clinic. If she is still a JW due to family reasons, as your OP says, then she should have done this all the more so to avoid future confrontations with her parents.

  PIMO or POMO, unless you write a letter of disassociation, you are pretty much under the ambit of JW rules. and you are expected to follow them or risk being expelled.

  And thats pretty much true in other situations too. If you post on this forum, you have to follow the forum posting rules or get kicked out.