subject: love your enemies.
example: matthew 5:45.
"for god makes it rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous".
Quite right, Radar. I have often thought of the same logic with regard to offering thanks at meal times.
If God is responsible for providing food, then offering thanks is quite appropriate. But, if he is responsible for food provision, what about all of the people from whom he has withheld food? It is only appropriate that they take a moment before fasting, so that they can offer a brief curse.
it's pretty much assured that stratton will lose in court.
but the decision handed down may have the effect of strongly.
defining how the door to door work can be legally limited.. it may emphasize that 'do not calls' are on solid legal ground.
I suggested this very idea a while back. This would be the perfect solution for them - it's free, easy, and it's already law.
I'm not sure about the US, but in Canada, privacy protection is federally legislated, so the town wouldn't profit from fines. However, once an organization is formally notified of the householder's desire not to be contacted, the organization must comply for a certain number of years.
In addition, the territory will then shrink, meaning the Witnesses will call much more often at the calls that are left, pissing them off even more.
had a really interesting experience with a jw that came knocking on sunday and have to say that i couldn't have dealt with him as well as i did if it had not been for new found knowledge on the web and spending the last four months reading.
oh that's were you are definitely wrong he says i've studied the bible thoroughly and there are definitely no contradictions at all.
i say thank you for your time, very interesting chat but i find it laughable that anyone could say the bible is not full of contradictions.
Excellent work Spacegirl! You may never know how much good you have done.
My most memorable experience from door knocking came in the early 80s, when a university student took about half an hour to really pinpoint the generation issue for me. At the end, I was relieved to leave, just like your JW, but I never forgot it.
By the way, I think you did a very good job of hitting the major issues.
on the back cover of the april 8 issue of awake!
is a little story about two teenagers 'caught' praying at macdonalds.
apparently the two teenagers felt the need to explain to an onlooker that they were praying to a 'different' god, or in the words of the article "not just any god".. i'm curious, which god was this?
Praying to the God "who is identified in the book 'Knowledge That Leads to Eternal Life'".
They were praying to a publishing company?
i would love to yell at you, but that isn't scriptual.
i would like to say that is awful that someone has to dedicate thier life to bring down others beliefs.
don't you have any thing else to do?
---- "I would like to say that is awful that someone has to dedicate thier life to bring down others beliefs."
This person has obviously never read the Watchtower. What group formerly picketed churches with placards that read "religion is a snare and a racket"? And, what group has consistently berated every dissenting view, both inside and outside its borders, throughout its history.
of witnesses?
haven't they told us that "witnesses are the happiest people.
that witnesses are.
Nothing gets in the way of the "truth" more than those pesky "facts".
They know damn well that an objective analysis of their membership would reveal a morass of social problems, typical of a bizaar fringe group.
if you're struggling with becoming an ex-jw, stick with web.
sites like this one, as part of the healing process.. being here - and getting a better education - has helped me.
realize that the watchtower has little or nothing worth preserving,.
I often wondered, during my deprogramming, if the organization was worth salavaging, subject to certain reformations.
Well, the first reformation should be abolishment of disfellowshipping. But, if they did that, the entire doctrinal house of cards would be exposed to critisizm. It would completely fall. It can only be sustained in a closed environment
Then there's the murderous blood doctrine that must go, but for legal reasons, they can't simply change it, they must slowly back away and allow a generation of JW's to die of old age, first.
Then the chronology must be reformed. The "1914" mantra is getting to be a tough sell.
In other words, if the Society made the necessary changes, there would be nothing left. They are destined to blunder forward, getting sicker and stupider all the time.
You're right, there is nothing worth saving.
here is a paragraph from the1997 august 1st.watchtower re the generation change:.
"recently, 'the faithful and discreet slave' has helped us to refine our understanding of the term 'generation' used at matthew 24:34 and of the timing of the judgment of 'the sheep' and 'the goats' mentioned at matthew 25:31-46, as well as of our view toward certain types of civilian service.
no doubt some apostates would have been delighted if many of jehovah's witnesses had stuck rigidly to the previous understanding of such subjects and refused to progress.
Allow me to re-write the paragraph:
"Our previous understanding of the generation doctrine had gone so badly astray that it was painfully obvious to onlookers that we were idiots. If we had held on to it any longer, we would have looked even stupider. Quick, let's change the subject to apostates, so that you readers will associate mistakes with apostates! Yeah, that's right, it's their fault. And, since they're bad, we must be really good."
take a look at this web site, it's got some interesting commentary on how the jw publications use various types of misleading argumentation:.
* http://jamescook.tripod.com/falsewit.html.
starts:.
Absolutely brilliant article! It concisely hits on the major logical flaws of JW's from an outsider's perspective.
Very well written, researched, and presented. This is an article that should be printed and distributed door to door or trades with Witnesses for their Watchtowers.
what i am talking about a movie that you thought was great, but is mostly forgotten by most people today.. well, my favorite overlooked movie is "a perfect world.
" in it kevin costner is an escaped felon who escapes from prison with another felon.
they then break into a house and kidnap a boy who is a (gasp!
An incredible movie is "Jacob's Ladder". It's a psychological thriller that you may have to watch more than once to untangle, but it's worth it. It came out in 1990 and stars Tim Robbins. Roger Ebert said he found himself thinking about it for days.
Another good one that takes a little untangling (but not as much) is "Twelve Monkeys".
As an aside, another movie that mentions Witnesses is "The Coneheads". David Spade has a supporting role as an FBI agent who uses a handful of Watchtowers to get a look inside the alien's house. Do not mistake this for my recommendation of a good movie.
