TerryWalstrom

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Posts by TerryWalstrom

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  55

  Are we pro-shunning or against it?

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just to continue my theme about religious freedom and how we approach criticizing the wts, i've also been thinking about 'shunning'.. i think shunning is the most unifying complaint that most ex-members of religious groups that practice it have in common.

  it is the layer that runs under every other complaint - whatever the reason for leaving it seems "... and i was shunned" can be added to it as the final rap on the charge sheet.. of course it seems like a no-brainer to many of us and we hardly ever stop to really think about it - shunning is bad, the watchtower believes in shunning therefore the watchtower is bad.

  they need to stop it.

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  TerryWalstrom

  
  
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  16

  What is the most current information on the Ricco indictments of Don Adams re: Menlo Park?

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  did this quietly go away?.

  details, please.

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  TerryWalstrom

  Did this quietly go away?

  Details, please. . .
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  55

  Are we pro-shunning or against it?

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just to continue my theme about religious freedom and how we approach criticizing the wts, i've also been thinking about 'shunning'.. i think shunning is the most unifying complaint that most ex-members of religious groups that practice it have in common.

  it is the layer that runs under every other complaint - whatever the reason for leaving it seems "... and i was shunned" can be added to it as the final rap on the charge sheet.. of course it seems like a no-brainer to many of us and we hardly ever stop to really think about it - shunning is bad, the watchtower believes in shunning therefore the watchtower is bad.

  they need to stop it.

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  TerryWalstrom

  FORCED shunning is the issue.

  If you are threatened with spiritual death (disfellowship) if you make a personal choice of association, it is a crime against humanity. If there was such a thing as Christian Conscience permitted by the WT, it would be far more bearable.
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  8

  IDEAL BATHROOMS

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i use to dream about designing a bathroom that was, well.

  crazy.. today, i saw this photo and almost fell over.

  obviously somebody else had the same dream!.

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  TerryWalstrom

  I use to dream about designing a bathroom that was, well. . . crazy.

  Today, I saw this photo and almost fell over. Obviously somebody else had the same dream!

  
  
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  51

  EXPERTS ONLY! A Pop Quiz on (current) Watchtower teaching

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  pop quiz on jw (current) teaching.

  1. was jesus 2nd coming in 1914?.

  2. is jesus 2nd (parousia) presence the same thing as his coming?.

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  TerryWalstrom

  The GB is like the lazy relative who borrowed money from you years ago and every time you bump into them they have yet a bigger excuse and elaborate story as to why they don't pay.

  It becomes a kind of spectator sport watching them spin new webs.
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  7

  "Scum, roosters, jackasses, harlots, s.o.b.s" hate speech by JW's the reason for their "persecution"???

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from the online journal yad l'achim .

  http://yadlachim.org/?categoryid=203&articleid=577.

  in the above article jehovah's witnesses and the jews, a great many controversial issues are placed squarely in the spotlight of history.

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  TerryWalstrom

  The article gave the JW Org a real bitch slap.

  I'm posting it on Facebook.
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  7

  "Scum, roosters, jackasses, harlots, s.o.b.s" hate speech by JW's the reason for their "persecution"???

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from the online journal yad l'achim .

  http://yadlachim.org/?categoryid=203&articleid=577.

  in the above article jehovah's witnesses and the jews, a great many controversial issues are placed squarely in the spotlight of history.

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  TerryWalstrom

  Note that Yad L'Achim was formed in 1950 with the stated goal of to "help new immigrants to the newly born country, and to help them find a suitable religious framework. Over time the founders were disturbed by emerging missionary efforts in the new State, and then later by assimilation. It then turned a major part of its activities to combating these two issues."

  This group (responsible for the above article) is disturbed by the efforts of outside Christian missionaries to 'intrude' upon Jewish society in an effort to proselytize them. It is little wonder Jehovah's Witnesses have come under scrutiny with a view to undermining their claims of self-righteousness.

  So, this is the inborn 'prejudice' behind the writing of this article.

  
  
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  7

  "Scum, roosters, jackasses, harlots, s.o.b.s" hate speech by JW's the reason for their "persecution"???

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from the online journal yad l'achim .

  http://yadlachim.org/?categoryid=203&articleid=577.

  in the above article jehovah's witnesses and the jews, a great many controversial issues are placed squarely in the spotlight of history.

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  TerryWalstrom

  From the online journal YAD L'ACHIM

  http://yadlachim.org/?CategoryID=203&ArticleID=577

  In the above article JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES and the JEWS, a great many controversial issues are placed squarely in the spotlight of history.

  This article is arguably the first time the curtain has been pulled back from the standpoint of Jewish opinion squarely confronting Jehovah's Witnesses claims of 'persecution.'

  I strongly urge everybody to read the contents in great detail.

  __________________________________________________-

  Example:

  "In 1938, in yet another of their official publications in Germany, the true attitude of the sect to the Jews came loud and clear. Under the headline 'The Jews in Palestine' they write that Jews’ “eyes are blind and their ears are deaf to God’s truth.”(49) They explain that the Jews will never succeed in returning to Palestine because it is against the will of 'Jehovah'. And anyway the Jews belong to “organization of the Devil”. (49)

  And the declaration ends:
  “The Jews are the epitome of the fact how terrible it is not to be under Jehovah’s blessings. Separated from God’s grace, they are restless here, too. Sowing the wind they are reaping the whirlwind! Just how long?”(49)

  A clearer example of deep theological anti-Semitism is hard to imagine."

  Another example:

  'The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust' describes the behavior of members of the sect in the camps:
  “… they refused to cooperate with other illegal political groups, to try to escape or to rebel against SS… in the end the SS exploited this unusualbehavior of the 'Bible Students'” for their own benefit. For example, by the orders of Heinrich Himmler, they were allowed to gather mushrooms and fruits outside the camps, because there was no danger of them trying to run away or to attack members of the SS. As a result of this policy change by SS, the conditions of“Bible Students” in the camps improved."(32)

  The truth is that the moral conduct of 'Jehovah’s Witnesses' in the camps did not differ from conduct of other non-Jewish prisoners – some of them behaved like human beings and others not at all. This is how they are described in a book 'Face to Face with Nazis – fighters tell their story' (published by the 'Association of Invalids of War on Nazism' in cooperation with 'Yad Vashem') by a Jew who was together with them in the concentration camps:
  “In the camps in Poland they did not always behave according to their teachings. They served the cruel Nazi enemy very well with everything connected to murdering the Jews.”(53)
  The writer of these lines could not have known what were the teachings of the sect. If he had known, he would’ve understood that they behave totally “according to the teachings.”
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  11

  Why I became agnostic after leaving the Watchtower

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  one of many things that led me to agnosticism after leaving the jw's was the cognitive dissonance i encountered with those in the mainstream churches, especially the really conservative ones.

  these types would scream out in protest (rightly so) on all of the current atrocities going on in the world regarding islam and its radical extremists, but then justify the savage murders and slaughter perpetuated by israel in the old testament.. often i would take these passages and replace the names and places of these scriptures with current ones.

  for example 1 samuel 15:3 reads "now go, attack the amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them.

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  TerryWalstrom

  As a sidebar. . . my grandparents reared me and told their story of the Great Depression, and how it was Hoover that ruined the country. I never questioned any of it because, after all, they had lived through it. It was many years later I started reading about Herbert Hoover.

  The man donated every paycheck he earned in government to charity. He had only been in office eight months when the Stock Market crashed. Within the space of 4 years he was able to balance the budget, enact the WPA to employ thousands, built the Hoover Dam, and taxed the rich by increasing their burden from 25% to 63%.

  So, why was Hoover so hated? It turns out he was completely on the side of PROHIBITION of LIQUOR!

  As the economy crashed, more and more unemployed Americans sought solace in alcohol--but--they were truly angered when it was snatched from their grasp--and who to blame?

  I only mention the above because it took me a long time to realize my view of the world and how it worked was shaped by the people who reared me. Like most honest, hard-working people, they were filled with misconceptions about damned near everything---including God.

  By the time I met the fellow who introduced me to Jehovah and his surly band of half-Wit-nesses, my proper knowledge of God and the Bible had been crippled to the point of misunderstanding the difference between reality and nincompoopery.

  My grandfather's number one goal in life was said to be, "To find the only true religion."

  That false premise was passed on to me, alas!

  Like Donny, I think most of us travel the path until the path leads to nowhere. Possessing a modicum of intelligence we stop and scratch our head in wonderment. "Does this road lead nowhere at all but circles?"

  Sanity only commences when we are able to lend a strong dose of skepticism to EVERYTHING we hear--and especially from those whom we trust!
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  62

  NAILING DOWN the fraud of John 1:1 by demonstration

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  call me crazy, but i love to watch seminary classes when sharp teachers are in charge of the instruction.. in the following video, the teacher really nails jehovah's witnesses on john 1:1 with utter simplicity.. begin at 1 hour and 20 minutes in.. i've never seen or heard of this before.. .

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5qkj7tmbg.

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  TerryWalstrom

  James White (adjunct professor of Greek, Hebrew, systematic theology) discourages his students from using Interlinears by saying, "If you can't read Greek, an Interlinear won't do anything to help you, but if you do read Greek, you'll never need one."

  With arguably sound insight, teachers who teach NT Greek view Interlinears as a do-it-yourself-kit for crackpots eager to invent their own theology. I must say, the history of the Watchtower Organization seems to prove the rule on that one!