Interesting.
I've noticed that JW's who are active on Facebook and Instagram seem to be fairly normal these days, but I just assumed it was because they were more laid back to begin with.
I didn't realize it was more than that.
Posts by TD
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27I think the Jw Religion is getting better. Not by choice.
by pistolpete inone of my jw family member had a big get together.
he invited a lot of his jw friends.
there was teenage kids, couples, singles.
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TD
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16
R movies
by road to nowhere inwitnesses never watch r movies.
but they understand references to wood chippers and banjo music.. other than that the rating system is not worldwide .
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TD
Movie ratings have never made a lot of sense to me.
The Andromeda Strain (1971) is rated 'G' despite scenes of mass death and suicide including a deceased young woman, naked to her waist on the floor and an elderly woman who has hung herself in a stairwell and is gently swinging in the breeze.
Paprika (2006) an animated adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui's book by the same name is rated 'R' for god knows why. Some of the scenes are surreal, there is an implied sexuality here and there and a very brief scene of androgynous nudity (i.e. The figure has no genitalia)
I'm not sure how one could make a value judgment about a movie based on such an arbitrary system.
To be fair, both Fargo and Deliverance are like The Exorcist in the sense that the references in pop culture are everywhere.
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6
An animated walk through of Watchtower's history
by The Old Testicle in170 years of watchtower history.
this video was made using material researched from their own publications as well as outside sources.. this wasn't produced to bash the organisation but provide a background to its origin and path to today.
the organisation's falls on the merit that this is factual and not sensational.
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TD
Good approach
Only a couple of minor pedant points:
Jonas Wendell restored Russell's wavering faith in God and the Bible, but Russell, by his own testimony, rejected Wendell's dates because he couldn't stomach the idea of the burning of the world. (c.f. The Watch Tower July 15, 1906, p. 230)
In Russell's own words, he "looked with pity" upon Mr. Wendell's teachings.
Russell did not accept Adventist chronology until he met Nelson Barbour in 1876 and Jehovah's Witnesses today are indebted to Barbour for the one, single element chronological element of that era that they still accept today. (i.e. 1914)
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Out of curiosity, I wonder what edition of The Plan Of The Ages / The Divine Plan Of The Ages is 424 pages? I would guess that this is the expanded, "As Revealed In The Great Pyramid" edition and not the one Russell wrote in 86
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The first condemnation of transfusion was in 1944, not 1945
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53
New World Translation is not much different other translations
by Abraham1 inkey scripture 2 timothy 3:16 should have been translated as “every scripture inspired of god is also profitable for teaching” like many other serious translations (such as american standard version ; douay-rheims bible etc) as it is what the greek text says.. this is in harmony with the contents of bible and also with the writer paul himself who knew after his departure ‘even from his own number men will arise and distort the truth.’ (acts 20:29-30) for example, verses such as romans 7:19 is such distortion.
such verses cannot originate from real paul who was “holy, righteous and blameless.” (1 thessalonians 2:10) hence paul had the freeness of speech to tell others to be “blameless” like him (1 thessalonians 5:19-23; ephesians 5:24) there are many things in the scriptures which are not inspired such as words of satan, words of job’s wife and his false friends, words of judas, lot’s daughters …etc.
apostle peter never disowned jesus because if he had done so, his contemporaries would have interrupted him when he rebuked jews, saying: “you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you.“ (acts 3:14) his listeners would have asked him “what right do you have to reprove us for ‘disowning jesus” when you yourself have done it first?” all such verses or accounts were later adoptions.
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TD
Well he kinda, sorta has a point. A translation that bills itself as literal shouldn't be attempting to interpret idioms. That's what free translations are for
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If Ever GB Members Deserved To Be Thrown in Jail It's When ...
by smiddy3 init was when the governing body started to disfellow-ship jehovah`s witnesses from taking blood transfusions in an effort to save their lives .. resulting in many hundreds if not thousands of needless deaths of men women and children who by this coercion died from this doctrine.. and to this day they still go unpunished .
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TD
Brock,
Suppose I were to tell someone casually, "Hey, why don't you jump off that bridge? You know, just for kicks?"
The average intelligent (i.e. Mentally competent) adult would have no trouble grasping the risks of jumping off a bridge.
The average intelligent adult does not and cannot reasonably be expected to understand a subtle misrepresentation of an esoteric medical study.
Hell - Even if all you're doing is writing a fluffy article about a diet or exercise program for a trendy health magazine, you still have to disclaim it with, "Always consult your physician first." (Or something to that effect.)
It is only the distaste for prosecuting a religion for anything except the most heinous crimes that allows JW leaders, policy makers and writers to get away with something that you or I would certainly be prosecuted for.
Free will is a good and sound principle, but taken to an extreme, non-coercive crimes like fraud, swindling and misrepresentation cease to exist.
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40
Congregation in PA sues over mandatory reporting
by Corney inivy hill congregation of jehovah's witnesses is currently suing the pa department of human services.
it requests "a declaration that its elders are entitled to" clergy privilege, or, in the alternative,.
to the extent that the clergyman privilege is determined to exclude its elders on the basis that they are "members of [a] religious organization[] in which members other than the leader thereof are deemed clergymen or ministers," the court declare the statute to be unconstitutional.
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TD
The quote from the '94 Watchtower was from page 11, paragraph 4
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19
If Ever GB Members Deserved To Be Thrown in Jail It's When ...
by smiddy3 init was when the governing body started to disfellow-ship jehovah`s witnesses from taking blood transfusions in an effort to save their lives .. resulting in many hundreds if not thousands of needless deaths of men women and children who by this coercion died from this doctrine.. and to this day they still go unpunished .
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TD
Free will is a good and sound principle, but people can be misinformed to the point where their free agency is compromised.
--That's why practicing medicine / law / engineering / architecture without a license are illegal.
If the JW's had presented their views on blood as purely a matter of doctrine / faith / biblical interpretation it would be one thing.
But they have not.
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Funniest insults
by LoveUniHateExams inso, i was wondering what are the funniest insults i've heard/been called.. the woman who taught me the arabic alphabet did a lesson about insults in colloquial palestinian arabic.. the one that stuck out to me was iniqbir or ini'bir.
literal meaning: bury yourself.
"go and bury yourself".
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TD
"Arschgeige" - Literally "Ass Violin"
- Semantic equivalent to words like fucktard, asshat, wanker, etc.
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Eating of blood prohibition specifically not forbidden for non-Jews
by peacefulpete indeut 14:21 you shall not eat anything that has died a natural death; give it to the stranger in your community to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner.
for you are a people consecrated to yhwh.... it seems quite self evident the ritual of blood letting prior to eating meat was understood by the deuteronomist as binding only on jews..
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TD
Fisherman,
There is no contraction between the quotes we have both provided, although I would view organizational and reference works as more authoritative than entry-level primers used to acquaint the public with basic JW beliefs.
--Unless of course, it is your contention that the mention of blood in the Decree was more than simply a reiteration of the prohibition against eating it, which predates the Law.
I've already addressed the JW selective quotation of Chumash sources. You might want to read the SC in context if you're actually interested in that sort of thing, but as you said yourself, Judaism "...is not the standard for interpreting the Bible according to JW."
You and I have already discussed (In other threads) the grammar of the Decree at length. -That the infinitive use of the middle voice was used to reiterate existing prohibitions, which The New World Translation accurately renders as, "To keep abstaining...from blood."
Invoking a partial predicate apart from the context that completes it (As you have done above) is ungrammatical and you should know better.
Additionally, I can assure you that JW's can and do hold professions in the medical field and that the position of the JW parent organization for at least the last 30 years has been that any use/handling of blood that arises thereof is a matter of conscience, provided it is not for the purposes of transfusion or consumption.
Finally, your insistence that transfusion and consumption are physical (As opposed to moral) equivalents is incompatible with JW views on medicine as they have evolved over the years. Specifically, it sets up glaring contradictions with current positions on the allowance of hemoglobin based blood substitutes; the allowance of organ transplants and the prohibition on autologous transfusion.
Like I said, they abandoned that argument years ago and that they no longer teach it can be confirmed via letter or phone call.
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New World Translation is not much different other translations
by Abraham1 inkey scripture 2 timothy 3:16 should have been translated as “every scripture inspired of god is also profitable for teaching” like many other serious translations (such as american standard version ; douay-rheims bible etc) as it is what the greek text says.. this is in harmony with the contents of bible and also with the writer paul himself who knew after his departure ‘even from his own number men will arise and distort the truth.’ (acts 20:29-30) for example, verses such as romans 7:19 is such distortion.
such verses cannot originate from real paul who was “holy, righteous and blameless.” (1 thessalonians 2:10) hence paul had the freeness of speech to tell others to be “blameless” like him (1 thessalonians 5:19-23; ephesians 5:24) there are many things in the scriptures which are not inspired such as words of satan, words of job’s wife and his false friends, words of judas, lot’s daughters …etc.
apostle peter never disowned jesus because if he had done so, his contemporaries would have interrupted him when he rebuked jews, saying: “you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you.“ (acts 3:14) his listeners would have asked him “what right do you have to reprove us for ‘disowning jesus” when you yourself have done it first?” all such verses or accounts were later adoptions.
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TD
Out of curiosity, what language did you grow up speaking?