blondie: Yet the WTS claims confidentiality under the clergy-penitent basis as to reporting child abuse cases to secular authorities identifying themselves as "clergy."
In other words, they do not have a clergy, until it is convenient to have one.
TonusOH
JoinedPosts by TonusOH
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46
Does the WTS have a clergy class (yes-no)
by blondie inwt 2021 october p.20 "in contrast, true worshippers of jehovah have no clergy.
although we respect those who are taking the lead, we accept jesus’ clear teaching: “all of you are brothers.”".
ijbq article 92 point 6: in contrast, true worshippers of jehovah have no clergy.
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To All Those Keen To Tell Us About Their Beliefs
by Simon inwe seem to have had an influx of religiots - the people who want to tell us all about how we / the wts / whoever are wrong, wrong, wrong about everything and how right they are.
they obviously have special insight, or voices (probably voices, right?
) telling them the real truth.. as proof, there is inevitably a wall of random scripture references and quotes.. sorry, but we're not here for that.
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TonusOH
That's not a bad idea.
For reference, two posts in the "Jehovah in the NT" topic had 2,500 words/15,000 characters and 3,700 words/22,000 characters. 2,500 or 3,700 characters would already be several paragraphs long. That many words is a long article or blog post. You're not taking part in a discussion, you're delivering a lecture.
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11530
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars
by Newly Enlightened inoriginal reddit post (removed).
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TonusOH
Maybe he grabbed the wrong script and started the interview by asking "what are you wearing?" Then his connection mysteriously "dropped" and he didn't return.
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50
To All Those Keen To Tell Us About Their Beliefs
by Simon inwe seem to have had an influx of religiots - the people who want to tell us all about how we / the wts / whoever are wrong, wrong, wrong about everything and how right they are.
they obviously have special insight, or voices (probably voices, right?
) telling them the real truth.. as proof, there is inevitably a wall of random scripture references and quotes.. sorry, but we're not here for that.
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TonusOH
This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fancifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.
Interesting. Was Newton saying that he set the predicted time that far into the future to prevent people from making false predictions that would fail within their lifetimes and thus bring discredit to their faith? Was this his way of making the point that "Biblical Chronology" was a crock that simply left people disillusioned and should not be practiced, since no one could possibly know the day or time, as Jesus said in the very book they were using to try to predict the day and time?
Because I think it's very good advice.
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11530
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars
by Newly Enlightened inoriginal reddit post (removed).
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TonusOH
He has "provided" them with enough angst to last them a few lifetimes.
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20
Curtailing zoom
by road to nowhere inco visit, so right from the horse's mouth ( or somewhere).
too many are staying on zoom, missing face to face encouragement.
look for the elders to implement changes.. also people at the door are so receptive and glad to see us.
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TonusOH
It strikes me as silly to try to control the access to the meetings via Zoom. It's not as if people can't find a way to get the footage anymore. All it does is inconvenience those who really can use the remote access due to age or infirmity. It should be easy enough to configure it so people can join and view/listen, but not speak or otherwise interrupt the meetings.
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Court Cases Costs?
by LostintheFog1999 inwatch tower is in court all the time.
it wins some.
it loses others.. we know it costs £££££ to go to court, pay barristers, expert witnesses, etc.. with wtc going to court for so many diverse reasons these days, from challenging laws to defending wt practices and paying out to csa victims, how much do you think wtc is spending annually on court cases?.
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TonusOH
If the bulk of the outgoing money is settlements, then there can't really be a simple annual average. They probably have some consistent year-to-year costs in keeping non-JW counsel (probably on retainer, if there are enough cases to deal with each year). But legal costs are likely to be all over the place, when you are talking about protecting themselves from CSA accusations or dealing with issues related to policy (eg: Norway).
I do wonder how much of the legal work is being done by lawyers who are JWs and 'donate' their time and expertise. The savings there could be huge, on the order of hundreds of dollars-per-hour for one lawyer. These are probably the ones who write cease-and-desist letters to bloggers and YouTubers, or make DMCA and similar challenges to anti-JW content.
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Jesus could not have died on Friday Nisan 14
by Hacche inanother reason that jesus trial before pontius pilate and his being nailed to the stake was not on the same day, as watchtower teach, is found in two scriptures.
john 19:14 says, now it was the day of preparation of the passover; it was about the sixth hour.
and he said to the jews: see your king.
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TonusOH
If there is a god: please... write the book yourself. That should avoid centuries of interpretation, reinterpretation, and general confusion. Thanks.
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Shunning
by Hacche incan a jehovah's witness please answer me this question - why do you shun those that are disfellowshipped or disassociated?.
jesus never shunned anyone.
if you remember, the pharisees rebuked jesus for eating a meal with sinners.
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TonusOH
The WTS has a page referring to the shunning practice:
https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/shunning/
They use 1 Corinthians 5:13 as the basis for it.
As for why they do it, their explanation is that it helps protect the congregation from those who may be unrepentant and would stumble others. They also consider it a loving provision, in that it can pressure a disfellowshipped member into returning to the fold.
In a more practical sense, it --in combination with their policy of avoiding socializing with non-JWs-- puts tremendous pressure on members to return if they are DFed. It can also keep those who have doubts from expressing them or acting on them, out of fear that they will lose their social circle. It can also rip families apart and creates immense suffering, especially in close-knit families who are suddenly forced to turn their backs on one or more members.
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50
To All Those Keen To Tell Us About Their Beliefs
by Simon inwe seem to have had an influx of religiots - the people who want to tell us all about how we / the wts / whoever are wrong, wrong, wrong about everything and how right they are.
they obviously have special insight, or voices (probably voices, right?
) telling them the real truth.. as proof, there is inevitably a wall of random scripture references and quotes.. sorry, but we're not here for that.
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TonusOH
I don't mind the use of the Bible to make points, especially for religious discussions. I've become wary of the use of YouTube videos, because anyone can make those and some even have good production values, but the content is misleading or just plain wrong. Wikipedia and YouTube can be very useful, but they also are easy to use to spread stuff that is wrong or downright insane.
But neither is as bad as the extremely long posts that are used as a reply to any response they receive. You reply to a point using one or two paragraphs, they reply with thousands of words. You make another short reply, they make another novel-length post. I lose interest because you can't keep the points in mind when someone is monopolizing the discussion like that.
I suspect a lot of it is cut-and-paste, and possibly not their own stuff, just clipped from other sites. Which is even worse, because it demands that we spend a lot of time reading and considering something that they didn't put any work into.