Posts by scratchme1010

42

Jehovah's Witnesses post 'anti-gay' 'Harness Your Habits' leaflet in North Devon

by OrphanCrow in

jehovah's witnesses post 'anti-gay' 'harness your habits' leaflet in north devon.

devon and cornwall police have said a leaflet posted through doors in north devon isn't a crime – despite it advising gay people to "control their urges".the leaflet, entitled "how to harness your habits", was distributed in north devon by jehovah's witnesses and contains an article asking "what does the bible say about homosexuality?

"in it, the religious group states that "rejecting homosexuality" is completely different to "rejecting people of a different skin colour" and says their views are the same as people who "view smoking as harmful and even repugnant".it also compares gay people to animals, but says "unlike animals, they can choose not to act on their impulses".the journal was contacted by a reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, who felt "belittled" by the leaflet.

scratchme1010

I am searching for the right way to say someone gay or hetero, someone male or female - doesnt matter - who is basically standing outside the long arm of the law (in this case a judicial committee) because they are not doing anything that can be used as a technicality against them.

If the person is an active (or practicing?) JW, I'm afraid that for that person will have to dodge a lot of bullets. As such, there will be a lot of scrutiny, there will be people who will be in that person's case, there will be people that will spread malicious slandering gossip. It doesn't matter how noble, how well, how perfect you are; once you are labeled a person who has "that problem", there's no way people are not going to see and judge everything you do through that glass.

To give you info about what you're inquiring, abstinent is a good term, non-practicing gay is now (emphasis on now) apparently acceptable too. More important, however, is looking into why on Earth anyone wants to be in a place where they have to explain themselves in those terms? Even when I was a JW I found it ridiculous that I had to explain my personal life to people just for their comfort.

42

Jehovah's Witnesses post 'anti-gay' 'Harness Your Habits' leaflet in North Devon

by OrphanCrow in

jehovah's witnesses post 'anti-gay' 'harness your habits' leaflet in north devon.

devon and cornwall police have said a leaflet posted through doors in north devon isn't a crime – despite it advising gay people to "control their urges".the leaflet, entitled "how to harness your habits", was distributed in north devon by jehovah's witnesses and contains an article asking "what does the bible say about homosexuality?

"in it, the religious group states that "rejecting homosexuality" is completely different to "rejecting people of a different skin colour" and says their views are the same as people who "view smoking as harmful and even repugnant".it also compares gay people to animals, but says "unlike animals, they can choose not to act on their impulses".the journal was contacted by a reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, who felt "belittled" by the leaflet.

scratchme1010

millie210:

I know several people who are non practicing gay people (is that a socially appropriate term? I am not sure?).

LOL! First, to address your question, no, it's not correct to address people's sexual orientation as something that you "practice". I'm quite sure that you don't practice your heterosexuality. Being gay isn't something that you acquire like license to practice a profession.

It is more accurate to refer to those gay people in the congregation as people repressing their sexual orientation (or trying to). Not having sex doesn't make a person gay or straight. It's still the same person, just not having sex.

I laughed, though, because the term "practicing" reminded me of the time when I was once questioned by the elders about me "practicing" homosexuality (they met with me after some brothers of the congregation saw me with my boyfriend having dinner) I said absolutely no. Technically I didn't lie; it was true because I was already a master at being gay, I wasn't practicing.

27

Lessons learned from the outcome of bloodless emergency laparotomies on Jehovah’s Witness women

by OrphanCrow in

the wt has promoted bloodless surgery as a viable (and better) alternative to surgery with blood transfusions.. i have found a medical study that has been used to back up these "evidence based" claims.

the title of the article is lessons learned from the outcome of bloodless emergency.

these mostly indigent patients died of peritonitis becauseof delays in payment for antibiotics.

scratchme1010

Interesting discussion. What I do know now that I work in the medical industry, is that there have been a number of advances and changes in operating and using several procedures without the use of blood, but the JWs have absolutely nothing to do with it.

The purpose of developing such new treatments come as a result of the AIDS crisis in the late 70s and 80s that made the blood banks and the blood acquisition and processing system insufficient. Also, there's a lot of cost added to the use of blood in procedures, many of which have been substituted with more cost-effective and technologically advanced methods.

The JW attitude that they have influenced the medical industry to come up with blood-less treatment is top notch BS.

25

Did Crisis of Conscience find a market or did it lumber along until the copies ran out?

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

curiosity.i would think c of c was the grand-daddy of all the ex-jw books.is there any way to know for sure how many copies sold?

over what span of time before the 1st edition ended?

why did it peter out of print if it was a perennial seller?today, every tom, dick, and jasper has self-published the bleeding wound, 1st person singular, true confessional version of their own fall from grace.

scratchme1010

TerryWalstrom, I too went to the Wikipedia and then compared the information there with typical indicators of books being sales successful. One of the indicators is the fact that the book has several editions (and apparently there was some kind of announcement made in 2015 of another new one, though Franz passed away in 2010) and his wife in 2013).

Also, I found that for books from 2001 to the current date, approximate sales data may have been gathered by a company named Nielsen Book Scan, a subscription service marketed mostly to publishers and bookstore chains. However, actual numbers are considered proprietary information.

13

Worshiping a piece of stone

by FedUpJW in

today one of the members of the local congregation who is somewhat limited intellectually was showing off a small bit of cut granite stone.

as he did so he made sure to let everyone know that it was given to him by the congregation service overseer who just completed his second or third round of bragging rights slave labor at warwick.

he mentioned that, "brother _______ gave this to me as a piece of reality from warwick.

scratchme1010

They are running out of ways of wowing their people. There's only so much "new light" nonsense they can come up with.

7

My old congregation is gone

by cookiemaster in

went to the hall today as i was the designated driver for my parents.

an elder who was in our old congregation in the city gave the talk.

i've had a little chat with him and apparently our old congo is gone.

scratchme1010

The got in the business of real estate a while back. That's how they have managed to stay afloat and continuing making money. I heard that they had the title of all KHs in USA to be turned to them.

42

Jehovah's Witnesses post 'anti-gay' 'Harness Your Habits' leaflet in North Devon

by OrphanCrow in

jehovah's witnesses post 'anti-gay' 'harness your habits' leaflet in north devon.

devon and cornwall police have said a leaflet posted through doors in north devon isn't a crime – despite it advising gay people to "control their urges".the leaflet, entitled "how to harness your habits", was distributed in north devon by jehovah's witnesses and contains an article asking "what does the bible say about homosexuality?

"in it, the religious group states that "rejecting homosexuality" is completely different to "rejecting people of a different skin colour" and says their views are the same as people who "view smoking as harmful and even repugnant".it also compares gay people to animals, but says "unlike animals, they can choose not to act on their impulses".the journal was contacted by a reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, who felt "belittled" by the leaflet.

scratchme1010

As a gay ex-JW, in my experience, there are two aspects to this. One is the overall hateful stance on gay people, the other is individuals in the congregation who take hating gay people as a personal mission. 100% of the times, every time I met or had to deal with any of those who were personally attacking gay men (and their problem seemed to be mostly with gay men only), they were men who were struggling with their own sexuality.

Once some elder in my congregation had the wonderful idea of solving "my problem" by having me date and marry a sister who also "had a problem". Apparently each other's sexual orientation were supposed to cancel each other out or something...

Anyway, in retrospect, hate for gay people has been a constant in many religions, and only recently has there been a change for the better, that is, for those who give a hoot about religion at all.

That event in Devon is nothing new, and I wouldn't be surprised if the sudden campaign comes about as a result of some closet case in the congregation pushing back against his own being.

54

where have the demons gone?

by aboveusonlysky in

jw
friends

does anybody remember some of the sensational demon stories jw's would tell back in the day?

i was a kid in the early 80's and i remember a few times hearing of people having real life encounters with demons.

for example, one sister claimed that before she became a jdub she would regularly talk to demons and they would even fix stuff like her washing machine!

scratchme1010

Does anybody remember some of the sensational demon stories JW's would tell back in the day?
I was a kid in the early 80's and I remember a few times hearing of people having real life encounters with demons. For example, one sister claimed that before she became a Jdub she would regularly talk to demons and they would even fix stuff like her washing machine!
One of our elders was really against pink Floyd because he said he knew someone who would receive a phone call from a friendly demon every time he played a certain song of theirs. Also I heard many stories about JW's having supernatural trouble because they had brought some 2nd hand demon infested item into their home, at the time it made no sense to me why witnesses loved charity shops so much!
Does anyone else remember such stories? The demons seem to have gone, maybe they got tired of having to fix broken washing machines.

I never believed any of that nonsense. I grew up hearing those ridiculous stories, but I also noticed that there was something unsettling about the person telling them. Those stories never came from any person I'd feel comfortable having around.

10

Today is my first "Shunniversary"

by dubstepped in

jw
friends

i just wanted to thank this community for being there during my most difficult period of life.

even if it wasn't a direct interaction, i was reading, and i've taken away a lot over the past year plus.

on september 2 of last year the local congregation announced that my wife and i were no longer jehovah's witnesses because we chose to disassociate.

scratchme1010

Congratulations. I'm very happy to hear that your family are well and thriving outside of that cult. I love that you didn't (or they didn't either) use your father's passing to make you change your mind. JWs are known for using other people's unfortunate events to push their agenda. Anyway, I found this interesting:

I've gone from JW to loving my newfound Christian freedom to agnostic/atheist. We celebrated our first Thanksgivings last year on separate days with different families that took us in as one of their own.

I thought I was the only ex-JW who uses atheism and Thanksgiving in the same paragraph. Doesn't it feel great to do and believe whatever the eff you want?

137

Mouthy has Passed Away

by Simon in

jw
friends

update on mouthy (grace gough)this is graces granddaughter.

i wanted to send an update that today my beautiful grandmother passed away - surrounded by friends and family.

- may 22 1927 - sept 2nd 2016. mouthys_granddaughter.

scratchme1010

My condolences to her loved ones.