NotFormer

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Posts by NotFormer

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  24

  Jehovah's Witnesses suing Dutch State for discrimination

  by Tahoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  https://nltimes.nl/2023/12/11/jehovahs-witnesses-suing-dutch-state-discrimination .

  the jehovah’s witnesses have sued the dutch state for discrimination, the religious organization informed trouw.

  they consider it discriminatory that the government investigated them, but no other religious organization, for their handling of sexual abuse cases.. utrecht university conducted the investigation involved, following publications in trouw in which sexual abuse victims within the jehovah’s witnesses described what happened to them, and published the results in january 2020. utrecht university concluded that 60 percent of sexual abuse victims were very critical of how the jehovah’s witnesses handled their cases, scoring the handling a 1 out of 10. many victims were traumatized by how things were handled, the researchers said.. sander dekker, then the minster for legal protection, ordered the investigation at parliament’s insistence because the jehovah’s witnesses failed to arrange an investigation themselves, as the catholic church did at the time with the deetman commission.. the jehovah’s witnesses cooperated in the utrecht university investigation but unsuccessfully tried to stop the publication of its results.

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  NotFormer

  I love the logic: "All those other religions, that we maintain our moral superiority to, were doing it too!"
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  3

  Those cringey demo’s 🙄

  by MissDaSilva in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just remembering those awful demonstrations that sisters were doing a couple of years ago.

  the setting?

  waiting in the queue at the covid vaccination centre.

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  NotFormer

  Allotment? As in a garden plot set aside somewhere within a city? How was that conversation meant to go? 🤔

  Actually, the vaccination centre one sounds like it would be a real scream (or at least an eye-roller).
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  21

  Judicial Committees asking Details of Sex acts

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember knowing that jcs would ask very personal questions about sex activities.

  this article addresses this: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15074595 .

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  NotFormer

  blondie, this Japanese situation is proving to be interesting. The WT is obviously on the radar over there. I wonder if there will be any formal government investigation into the practices of the organisation? The main problem is that this survey seems to have been commissioned by the parliamentary opposition. Unless the government picks this up, nothing much will come of it.

  Positive aspects of it are that it has been highlighting issues like the shunning and harsh discipline of minors and CSA. Perhaps Japan, once the golden child of WT mission fields, is beginning to take stock of what the organisation is really about.
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  21

  Judicial Committees asking Details of Sex acts

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember knowing that jcs would ask very personal questions about sex activities.

  this article addresses this: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15074595 .

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  NotFormer

  BluesBrother, the book may very well say that, but isn't it meant to be secret? So R&F JWs being grilled by the BOE are not going to be aware of their "rights". And if they are, they've been reading stuff they shouldn't have. Plus, resisting any line of questioning by an intrusive JC would surely be seen as demonstrating an attitude problem.

  BluesBrother, your own testimony shows you to be an honourable man, and I'm not surprised that your fellow elders were too. The reputation of most JCs, at least as reported on here and elsewhere, is of a kangaroo court, where rules are made up on the spot, and with very few avenues for appeal.

  The part you quote is quite short, and probably of little effect in the face of people who like taking liberties with their authority. It probably only really exists so that they have something to point to in the face of something like the RAC. It's an arse-covering clause at worse, and at best, a guideline.
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  49

  The ''dreaded'' birthday cake

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the watchtower—study edition | september 2023. study article 39. let mildness be your strength.

  11 if a workmate asks, for example, why we do not celebrate birthdays, consider: could he be wondering whether we are allowed to have a good time?

  or might he feel that our position will dampen the company’s team spirit?

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  NotFormer

  DisgruntledFool, that article is written by Martin G Collins, who seems to be a pastor/minister/whatever* at Church of the Great God. They are a remnant of Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God. A bunch of curmudgeons and killjoys, by the the look of things. Some of those breakaways and holdovers despise the same holidays and celebrations that the JWs do, while believing that the old testament festivals should be observed.

  Interestingly, that church website doesn't have a problem with mother's Day or father's Day; apparently it's only kids that aren't allowed an annual appreciation day. 🙄

  *"elder", apparently.
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  20

  I hate the way they talk.

  by Riley in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  what is with the jw cadence when they speak.

  do they think they are teaching people ?

  they sound like pro wrestlers doing promos or shakespearean actors.

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  NotFormer

  To the tune of "If I Could Talk To The Animals" from Dr Doolittle:

  If we could talk like the Witnesses, just imagine it

  Chatting to a Circuit Overseer

  Imagine talking like an elder, chasing up a cheater,

  What a neat achievement that would be.

  If we could talk like the Witnesses, learn their languages

  Maybe take a TMS degree.

  We'd study theocratic jargon, how to doorstep bargain,

  Bethelite, and MS, and GB.
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  7

  Some Seasonal Nostalgia

  by NotFormer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  can't find any references, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

  i remember, probably at least two decades ago, a small news snippet about someone was going around brooklyn heights and setting fire to christmas wreaths on people's doors.

  i've always personally suspected* that it was a bored/semi-insane bethelite.

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  NotFormer

  Can't find any references, so you'll just have to trust me on this one. I remember, probably at least two decades ago, a small news snippet about someone was going around Brooklyn Heights and setting fire to Christmas wreaths on people's doors. I've always personally suspected* that it was a bored/semi-insane Bethelite. 😁

  While searching to see if it had ever been mentioned here before, I found a thread started by Lady Liberty about how her JW neighbours attacked and destroyed her Frosty the Snowman decoration.

  Do Christmas decorations trigger anything in the average JW?

  *Only semi-seriously
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  15

  What's the org like now?

  by Leathercrop in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  even tho i've been expelled about 4 years now, i truly checked out around 2015. changes in the org i think we're just starting to get going.

  i remember the kingdom songs suddenly getting the taylor swift treatment aka pop music treatment.

  meetings were getting axed or meshed together or something.

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  NotFormer

  Changed a lot in just those 4 years. An organisation that flaunted its history of defying governments, folded like a seven high poker hand in the face of government mandates on vaccination, meetings and the door to door work. As an outsider, I was shocked that they stopped field service; it was their main distinction, their "proof" that they were God's earthly organisation. And then it wasn't.

  Recent changes include not having to record hours in field service anymore, and even the possibility of salvation at the last minute.

  These guys change their doctrine more often than they change their underwear.
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  5

  A New Name for an Old Orgy - Awake 95 2/8 pp. 26-27

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  yep, that is the title of an article in the 1995 awake magazine alerting people to the horrors of valentine's cards & candy.

  the message is simple, if you eat valentine's candy at school while no one is looking, it's nearly the same as being in an orgy.

  i just can't believe some of the garbage i used to read and regard as acceptable literature.

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  NotFormer

  IWant2Know, it's an interesting thought. An orgy has multiple participants, but the elders couldn't get a conviction, because of the two witnesses rule; nobody would confess, therefore it never happened! 😱🙀 Ratting out the other parties would amount to being a confession. "Keep Mum, she's not so dumb"*...

  *Quote from a WW2 propaganda poster.
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  30

  FDS 1919 Declaration Date

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  did rutherford have any "prophetic" justification for 1919 as the date that jesus declared him (ahem, the wt organisation) the fds?

  such as some calculation attached to 1914?

  that in 1919, jesus would come looking for his true organisation?.

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  NotFormer

  The way they always spun momentous prophesies and symbols of arguably global import into ridiculously mundane events in their own little circle never ceased to amaze me. For example, isn't there one where the prophecy is supposed to be fulfilled by the holding of a convention one year?? I wouldn't be surprised to see the sun and the moon being struck as having its fulfilment on that momentous day when da Judge had lemon meringue pie instead of apple pie for dessert. 🙄 It makes about the same amount of sense.