i stopped attending meetings all together in january 2015. before that my attendance was irregular at best.
my husband followed suit a few months ago after months of research, agony, and indecision on his part.
from the very beginning i laid low and did not share with anyone what i found out about the witnesses because i did not want to be df'd.
Remember the definition of lying from Insight On the Scriptures:
"Lying generally involves saying something false to a person who is entitled to know the truth."
Are those two men who came to your door entitled to know exactly what happened?
Lying is obviously not good. But when it comes to dealing with a situation like this, you have to use their rules and their semantics to deal with it. Theocratic warfare!
http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/02/free-exercise-penance-and-delaware-court.
free exercise, penance, and delaware court.
by john m. grondelski february 9, 2016. regular first things readers know that the late father richard john neuhaus never tired of arguing that the first amendment contains not two religion clauses but one: “no establishment” and “free exercise” are not two free-floating provisions at occasional loggerheads with each other but one.
Thanks for posting this.
Here are the dilemmas involved for the witnesses:
1. The victim reports the wrongdoing to the elders, not the wrongdoer. This is not like a criminal confessing his sins to a priest. This is a victim reporting abuse.
2. The elders report what they hear to the c.o., possibly other elders and to the branch, breaking the confidentiality that would exist between a priest and a confessor. Yet they don't tell authorities.
It's a stretch to say they are protected by priest penitent privledge.
i can't see another thread but maybe i missed it:.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jehovahs-witnesses-paedophile-sex-abuse-7278824#comments-section.
For anyone doubting that elders were instructed to destroy records, see the following letter brought to light by the ARC:
the men of sodom will be resurrected.[7/1879,p8].
the men of sodom will not be resurrected.
the men of sodom will be resurrected.
the men of sodom will be resurrected.[7/1879,p8].
the men of sodom will not be resurrected.
the men of sodom will be resurrected.
as a pre-awakened ms, i heard of 2 stories that i found very shocking at the time.
please keep in mind, i was following wt blindly at the time and was part of what i thought was the true religion.
the first shocking story was when i attended a large meeting for elders and ministerial servants covering our circuit.
Missionary kills 2 other missionaries in the Samoan missionary home.
Here's a link to a related court record: http://www.asbar.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2351:american-samoa-govt-v-adams&catid=78&Itemid=229
Missionary homes were toxic environments, that's why they've almost completely abandoned that arrangement.
over the past few decades i've met many individual jws, but i've always been curious about the gb members themselves and about service at bethel.
first, do gb members fraternize with regular rank and file members or do they only sell out each other?
when i was a methodist, it didn't take me long to figure out that our minister and his wife were frequently invited to dinner, but i never heard of him actually inviting members to his house for dinner.
I was able to spend some 1 on 1 time with Guy Pierce before he died. He was very busy, so I appreciated the time he took to talk with me. I resisted the urge to ask him some spot questions about some things that were disturbing me.
He quizzed me on some bible passages, which I enjoyed. But I remember one question about the meaning of a scripture in Romans. I told him from the context it was very easy to understand. He instead pulled out a 1974 or 1975 WT and said "that's what those scriptures say, but notice how the Watchtower explains this scripture. It's very important that we keep up with our current understanding of things, even if it's many years old."
That's when I realized that WT publications trump the bible.
The gb members probably avoid the r&f just because they know they are being examined under a microscope. But hey, what do you expect when you are the the only divine channel of communication on earth?
i decided to put an end to my affiliation with the jws for good.
this decision is not the result of an irrational impulse.
it is quite the contrary.
I was COBOE in a cong with a sister like this. She was a special pioneer and loved to bully others. Any other woman she perceived as a threat to her influence would be accused of immorality. It got to the point where we wouldn't let her comment at meetings anymore, but the org would not remove her as a special pioneer. They eventually moved her to another cong, she turned on her husband and now they both are out.
She stumbled a few who ended up leaving, but looking back, I hope they found better lives outside the org!
this is the fun one......... .
health, dismemberment, death (natural and unnatural) murder and suicide..
the people at bethel were killing us spiritually.......and sometimes they killed us physically too..
i have seen this photo several times but never any back story on it.
was this at bethel?
was this before or after the prohibition?
Relevant article about prohibition from Nov. 1924 wt (sorry about the size):
