Posts by TheOldHippie

37

Watchtower defiance against Hitler

by The Quiet One in

watchtower october 1, 2011 page 14 'did hitler receive letters of protest from church officials concerning the outrager perpetrated by the national socialists, or nazis?

there were some, but such letters were few and far between.

in the moscow archives, however, eberle found a file containing a number of letters sent to hitler by jehovah's witnesses..protesting against the conduct of the nazis.

TheOldHippie

"That is, Rutherford was pro-Hitler up until Hitler started jailing JWs in Germany because they were antiwar and would not conform to the Nazis."

Here is one point, then, where German JWs and Rutherford had different opinions. The German JWs were told from HQ to stop witnessing and stay calm, but many of them protested and could not understand why they should not oppose the devil Hitler. So they kept on publicly witnessing. After a while, they were told by HQ to witness again, and to distribute letters of protest, and this they did. So the attempts made by the US HQ to find some sort of co-operation or peaceful co-existence was not ratified by German JWs in general, who understood what Hitler was up to.

The Protestant church had its body of protesters as opposed to the Catholic church. In Austria, ONE single Catholic was executed for refusing to be enlisted in the army - and his cousin was a JW who was executed for his refusal. So the one and only Catholic refusing, was heavily influenced by JWs.

People could have protested and stopped Hitler at an early stage, and later too. One clear example of this, is the program for killing the mentally retarded, the eutanasie program. Trucks with mentally retarded people were driven thru towns and villages on their way to concentration camps, and the screaming of the young and old on the trucks led to people in the villages protesting, writing letters and even sit down in the street, thus preventing the trucks from passing thru. Priests led many of these protests. Result? The program was halted. If I recall correctly, for a couple of years. Then it was resumed, but from then on, the trucks passed thru the villages and towns in the middle of the night, with lights turned off, so as not to be noticed. If the Churches had protested, if the upper classes and the nobility had protested in stead of believing they could use Hitler to their own ends - he could have been stopped. Sadly, the socialist/communist/sosial-democratic parties chose mainly to fight each other and so there was no united front from the labor force either. A classic example of divide and reign.

37

Watchtower defiance against Hitler

by The Quiet One in

watchtower october 1, 2011 page 14 'did hitler receive letters of protest from church officials concerning the outrager perpetrated by the national socialists, or nazis?

there were some, but such letters were few and far between.

in the moscow archives, however, eberle found a file containing a number of letters sent to hitler by jehovah's witnesses..protesting against the conduct of the nazis.

TheOldHippie

I think pellechia's comment was very balanced.

And as the last poster said, the earlier public programs and statements of the Nazi government - as those of most of the governments' down thru history - was not that difficult to agree with. It was not written in bold letters in the first public statements for what the government aimed at achieving, that "we are to kill all Jews and Gypsies and Homosexuals within a couple of years, and also kill all mentally ill people". Naive people, like US religious groups, could easily find points to support. More thorough studies of the movement would have told them otherwise, but after all, the German upper classes believed they could use Hitler for their own benefit, British and other political parties believed they could negotiate with Hitler and boasted of "peace in our time".

Behind the polished surface was another, grim story. But taken at face value, as the WT did, much could be thought of as "good enough" for further negotiations.

36

Are they going to keep lowering the bar to be appointed an MS or Elder???

by karter in

jw
friends

my mother told me of 2 young guys that have been appointed elders.. i could'nt belive it these guys have zero life experance and both their wifes walked out on them after a few years of marrage.. another one cooked his brain on drugs and his talks are painfull to listen to....all over the place and stumbles through them.. .

is it due to alot of young ones (60 to 70%) leaving and the pool to pick from is getting smaller so lowering the bar is the only way???

?.

TheOldHippie

I was 25.

Blondie claimed that "the organization lost 25% of the elders every year", and that clearly is an impossible claim. Not that many new ones are appointed, and with a 25 % annual loss, within a few years there would be close to none left. I know it was a quote, but the one making the claim was not quite up to his math, it seems.

24

Fury after reading Watchtower article for this week

by Eclectic in

i hope i do not repeat thread.

paragraph 15, w2011 6/15 p. 23 states:.

paul set a fine example for christian elders.

TheOldHippie

I would not call it a burden. The huge main part of the KH / congregation expenses are loans, electricity, municipality taxes, and to a smaller degree assembly hall expenses. The amount paid for covering the CO car is a tiny fraction. Some JW give him a small amount during his visit - but burden? I know for the purists, things should be 100 % and one should not compare with other religious groups, but if I look around and watch the various other groups, most of them pay their pastors a salary, and there is always the demand for money money money. Compared to various other groups, there can not be said to be any burden at all. Nowadays, when the congregational finances are not read out at the meetings, one tends to forget all about the economy and not much is donated. So burden? Not at all.

16

Name change for JW organization in the Netherlands

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

last week a letter of the dutch branche office was read in the congregation.

it was about a name change for.

the jw organization in the netherlands.

TheOldHippie

Nothing more than showing the difference between the printing/publishing part of the organization on the one hand, and the congregational part of it on the other. The KH is a congregation, not a printing factory.

51

My judicial commitee is tonight at 7pm!

by TimothyT in

im not going!

im almost free!.

timmy xxx.

TheOldHippie

Telling what one thinks and standing up for one's opinions would seem better than cowardly celebrating at home - I still think so, sizemik.

51

My judicial commitee is tonight at 7pm!

by TimothyT in

im not going!

im almost free!.

timmy xxx.

TheOldHippie

Very manly - not to appear.

60

FYI: Something is going on in Brazil that's interesting

by AndersonsInfo in

posted on www.christianwitnesses.com.

the federal public ministry at ceara, brazil, on july 14, 2011 filed a civil action against the religion of jehovah's witnesses in the 8th federal court for practicing religious discrimination against former members.

prosecutor nilce cunha rodrigues has taken on official representation of sebastian oliveira (ramos) who, after being expelled from the religion was discriminated against by colleagues, friends and relatives, including his mother, in accord with norms of the jehovahs witnesses who are headed by a governing body of the watchtower society.

TheOldHippie

" I sincerely hope it starts a Worldwide prescedent"

Yeah, Brazil starting a worldwide prescedent - I hope you've got the time or life span to wait for just about a trillion years.

246

Why Won't They Carbon Date This?

by Perry in

"for the first time in human history a dinosaur fossil is presenting us with the opportunity to see what a living dinosaur looked like.

in 2001 a field research team unearthed the worlds most complete dinosaur fossil, a brachylophosaurus nicknamed leonardo.

this incredible dinosaur has all of its skin covering its body, missing only a bit on the head and tail.

TheOldHippie

"Of course anomalies exist; they are to be expected. And as further evidence comes to light, so biostratigraphy is modified and improved (just as in any other branch of science where empirical data improves earlier generalizations). "

It is a bit funnt to read statements like these. Evolutionary theory has managed the unbelievable, to state that "of course" there are anomalies, and even to state that they "are to be expected". That is a rather far cry from the smooth path envisioned by Darwin. It is Orwellianism and double-talk par excellance, to at the same time state that you have the step by step evoution and also state that anomalies not only exist but are to be expected - yes perhaps even be the rule .......

And the second statement, the beautiful wishful thinking that in due time, as further evidence will come to light, THEN it will all be oh! so clear to us, THEN we will understand it all, THEN we will laugh at how stupid we or our ancestors were today, because THEN we will know the Truth wchich will set ut free ...... With absolutely no basis in present knowledge or evidence, they are able to continue giving us fairytales like these, like a giant on clay feet, suspended above the basis of facts.

Replacing "any day now" with "as further evidence comes to light". What if there ain't any "any day now", what if there just ain't any "further evidence"?

Funny. Funny.

29

Rutherford frequented a brothel located near Bethel

by Scott77 in

please, just checking, with proof or first account, can anyone enlighten us on that?

if that is correct, iam going to be profoundly shocked to the bone.. .

.

TheOldHippie

"He told my mom that a group of his friends had access to a spyhole and watched Rutherford be intimate with a sister (name my mom knew; I do not) all the while preaching celibacy. The relationship was clearly sexual."

Yeah, sure - and since we've got your word for it, it's just got to be true ............................