Jofi_Wofo

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Posts by Jofi_Wofo

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  24

  Evil Wind Chimes

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i remember going door to door in the late 60's with my mother as a 5 or 6 year old.

  one time she caught me looking at the wind chimes on a porch.

  she told me they had pagan origins, were evil, and were somehow connected to demons.

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  Jofi_Wofo

  Daaaaaaaaaaang.

  I completely forgot about this. Back when I was a teenager and had just joined the not-truth, an elder told me about wind chimes being demonic. I thought he was just being superstitious and crazy, so I dismissed it entirely.

  Searching through the WOL, there is actually a Questions From Readers about it, and surprisingly, Watchtower is a lot more reasonable on this matter than on others- https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1981412.

  Noooow, let's hold on just a sec.

  "However, if one’s motive in putting up a wind chime has nothing to do with false religion, superstition or demonism, and there is little possibility of others’ getting the wrong impression regarding its use in the home, it is a simple matter for personal decision."

  ...but, ummm, just remember that for... reasons... the same doesn't apply for birthdays, wedding toasts, saying "bless you" when someone sneezes, disco music, hypnotism, yoga, ad infinitum.
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  22

  Brazil: Watch Tower claim raid on premises unlawful

  by Antonio_Madaleno in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  in september 2019, the branch of jehovah’s witnesses and a number of kingdom halls in são paulo brazil were raided by the police, in search of documentary evidence of criminal activities relating to child sexual abuse.

  the jehovah’s witnesses claim that the raid was unlawful.

  below is a translation of the court of justice determination.

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  Jofi_Wofo

  Harboring child molesters = religious freedom.

  Protecting children = unlawful.

  Honestly, fuck this religion. I can't believe I ever gave it the benefit of the doubt.

  If Yahweh is real, he deserves better than this, but even if he isn't, the children absolutely do.
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  10

  Brazen conduct

  by road to nowhere in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i just noticed the clam illustration of "reject brazen conduct" a young man in service walking past 2 others drinking beer and playing cards.

  i know elders who do both.

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  Jofi_Wofo

  LOL! I was thinking the same thing when I saw this picture. Just last week, I was playing cards while drinking beer with a few other elders and servants.

  Nah, it's not the cards and the beer that's the problem. It's the... umm... wearing t-shirts in public?

  Yeah, that must be it. When casually walking around town, you absolutely must be the only douchebag in the neighborhood wearing a tie, and make sure to take every possible opportunity to snub your nose at normal people who aren't doing anything wrong.
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  68

  Unwritten, congregational 'rules'

  by Thetruthhurts in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what were some of yours?

  the big one in our hall was no frontal hugs!

  these were generally thought of as inappropriate, only side hugs should be given between sisters and brothers.

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  Jofi_Wofo

  When I was a teen, and just stumbling into the religion in my own, the congregation gave me a surprise high school graduation party. I sat down and opened the cards everyone gave me and thanked them each personally. However, everyone was acting really strange around me. Most started backing away and keeping their gaze away. Most didn't even acknowledge my 'thank you so-and-so'. Later, an elder took me aside and let me know that JWs didn't open cards in front of others so that those who gave less wouldn't feel ashamed in the presence of those who have more. Never heard nor seen anyone else ever do that in my entire life. Not even among other JWs.

  In my entire time in and around the religion, I never once saw anybody vote against a resolution. Even those who grumbled and complained. Not one single person ever, ever, ever dared to disagree with the elder body's proposals. Sometimes they never even gave us enough information to know what they were even asking of us. But we voted in favor anyway 😳
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  37

  "Do you believe that the 'faithful slave' is God's channel of communication?"

  by The Fall Guy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if a jw had the nerve to ask me this question, i'd say to them, "you go first.

  using only scriptural proof, show me why you believe that the wtbts/ccojw is god's choice and i'll tell you if i agree with your scriptural reasoning.".

  wait for the silence and the rabbit in the headlights moment.. i searched on the wt cd rom for references of "channel of communication.".

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  Jofi_Wofo

  - Jesus didn't describe the faithful & discreet slave as a channel of communication, so it is a scripturally invalid question.

  - 1 Tim 2:5, Jesus is the only mediator between God and men, so it is a scripturally invalid question.

  - Mark 9:38-40, Jesus chastised his handpicked spirit-appointed apostles for thinking they were the only ones used by Jesus to perform signs and spread his message, therefore it is a scripturally invalid question.

  - How do we know who is annointed? Because the anointed, themselves, say so. How do we know that only the GB are the faithful and discreet slave? Because the GB, themselves say so. Proverbs 14:15 warns us against believing every word.

  - Humans used as God's channel of communication are, by the very definition of the term, prophets. If prophets make false predictions, they are false prophets - Deuteronomy 18:20-22. The GB has an extremely long history of disseminating false predictions and, even by their own standards, false doctrine and false assertions of scientific and historical fact. To continue to believe that God uses them as his channel of communication is to blame GOD for every wrong thing the organization has ever taught.

  - To follow false prophets makes you an apostate.
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  22

  Kiss the son lest God be angry and you perish in the way

  by Quotes in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in another thread, quentin reminded us all of the lyrics to one of the kingdom songs: .

  "kiss the son lest god be angry and you perish in the way" .

  my question is: .

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  Jofi_Wofo

  @eyeuse2badub

  It's one of the clearer examples of Bible contradictions- God is slow to anger AND and anger flares up easily... ??? WTF???

  To soften the blow of what the scripture means Paragraph 4 of this 1972 WT article adds in brackets [when the time limit is reached]. That is, God's anger only flares up easily after he's done being slow to anger. Which completely invalidates what it means to have one's anger flare up easily. Nice one, Watchtower. Nice one.
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  22

  Kiss the son lest God be angry and you perish in the way

  by Quotes in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in another thread, quentin reminded us all of the lyrics to one of the kingdom songs: .

  "kiss the son lest god be angry and you perish in the way" .

  my question is: .

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  Jofi_Wofo

  I agree with Umanfly. Read the whole Psalm, especially verse 11, and the context much more supports Yahweh being angry over the son being angry.

  Oddly, the latest NWT rendering says "God" with a footnote that it literally means "he." That is, they put a proper noun in place of the pronoun to enhance clarity where they thought it was lacking.

  Not sure if there's some obscure theological reason why they would have done this. They could have done the opposite- properly translate it as "he" and add a footnote that it refers to God.
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  15

  Can't deny my JW's past

  by StephaneLaliberte in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  today was a beautiful day and so, decided to drive by my old town with my wife.

  at some point, she asked me to stop talking about jws to which i said: i'm talking about were i lived, what i did and who i knew.

  its just that all of it was jws!

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  Jofi_Wofo

  There's nothing wrong with remembering your past, even fondly, though you've now disowned most of it. It's your own history- you can choose to make your own sense of it and let it not be a bad thing.

  These are the things I'm telling myself in the remaining months before Armageddon I finally leave, myself. Many of us stayed for so long because we benefitted from being in. I don't think I would have ever had such an opportunity to grow as a public speaker, immerse myself and gain fluency in different languages, nor even have a social life when I was pitifully shy and didn't know how to make friends.

  Nostalgia is a good thing. It helps us to make peace with our past. Since we can't change any part of our past, making peace with it is the only recourse we have left.
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  12

  JWs closer to Islam than to Christianity.

  by Lost in the fog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ok, so i know that the following article is from a roman catholic church blogger, but i thought that his ratios and comparisons were very well set out, if anyone else is interested.

  .

  https://completechristianity.blog/2020/02/09/on-jehovahs-witnesses/.

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  Jofi_Wofo

  Conveniently, the writer defines Christianity in distinctively non-Biblical terms. In his mind, JWs aren't Christian because they reject a particular teaching that he interprets into the Bible. A teaching, BTW, that the Bible never actually explains and requires a lot of glue and paperclips to keep together.

  I'll let the believers debate whether or not the Trinity is true, but the definition of Christian is a follower or believer of (Jesus) Christ. There are any of a number of ways that belief can be taken, and seemingly endless interpretations of what is correct or incorrect doctrine.

  Also... a Catholic criticizing the sordid history of ANY other religion?

  I mean coooooome oooon!

  At least JWs only look bad in terms of contemporary religious experience, which has mostly become neutered in the developed world after centuries of struggle. Catholicism has a very long and evil history, including endless scandals they're guilty of in the century and a half since Watchtower has come into existence. The whole "damn! look at that messed up religion!" thing is hypocritical and ridiculous.
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  25

  Can You Name ANYTHING That Jehovah’s Witnesses Have Been Right About?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  regarding prophecies, i can’t name one thing jws have been correct about.

  as a matter of fact nothing stands out to me that shows the witnesses have the truth..

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  Jofi_Wofo

  @BluesBrother

  Stole my comment just as I was about to type it up!

  Several years ago, Tony Morris gave a talk at a convention I was attending and he gloated from the platform that JWs are the only organization on Earth who have two dates to their credit- 1914 and 1945.

  Even then, well before I was ready to leave, I couldn't help but roll my eyes and groan on the inside. It was pretty silly, but it was also a pivotal moment for me- it was the first time I had ever seen a GB member and the first time I came to know one by name. He spoke with an incredible amount of confidence and authority, nothing like I'd ever seen from any other JW. Probably from years of never being questioned and failing to apply the counsel every other speaker gets about being humble and not talking down to an audience.

  Now for a bit of a sidetrack- I usually don't remember jack squat from any assembly or convention, but that one was notable for one other reason. A different speaker claimed that evolution was irrational because "we've never seen a horse give birth to an elephant!" During almost my whole time as a JW, I secretly believed in theistic evolution, so that sort of misrepresentation of the question of evolution didn't sit well with me. However, during the lunch break, a sister sitting nearby me exclaimed that she really appreciated what a great point it was!