Again the Russians are after the witnesses! Well they're damn right, the literature does denigrate non jw beliefs and by extension their believers. The Russians have a fabulous literary tradition and where we revere sports and movie stars they revere poets. Crappy jw literature must be insulting to many of them.
Julia Orwell
JoinedPosts by Julia Orwell
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3
Jehovah must hate the Russian witnesses. He only backs Americans
by BackSlider inobviously, i don't believe that there's a god that backs one race over another.
i do find it interesting, however, that the borg always takes credit for their wins in the supreme court, and that they find it so obvious that they have jehovah's backing in all they do.
so if this reasoning is to float, then wouldn't it clearly mean that jehovah hates russian jehovah's witnesses.
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The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
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Julia Orwell
Oh gosh another thread that has become a slinging match between believers and non believers. Why must this always happen!?
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Should Creationism Ever Be Taught In Schools?
by nicolaou inthis is taken from the bbc's sunday morning show 'the big questions'.
i was going to pick out a few highlights but really, you need to watch the whole thing - it's only 23 minutes.
seriously, i could feel the bile and frustration rising in my gullet .
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Julia Orwell
It can be taught quite legitimately in school. Just not in science. It can be taught in lesson on comparative mythology or religion in a social studies class. You could use it in English to establish socio cultural context of texts like the Crucible. Creationism is ok and even necessary sometimes, especially if in English you're studying issues of religion vs rationality. It just shouldnt be taught in science cuz it's not science.
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Your an apostate whether you are an ex JW or just a member of a christian church .
by smiddy injehovahs witnesses have long said that christendom has apostasised itself from the true religion after the apostles left the scene , and by the 3rd /4th century the weeds had taken over .. however they have always taken a softer stand with christendoms members because thats where their potential members would come from , and for decades this proved to be true.
is this still the case ?
or has their been a shift by witnesses against family members who are of a different faith .. a baptised witness who leaves the religion is cut off , shunned by family members unless they return to the fold.. depending on the time one has been a witness , how strong they are as members , or how indoctrinated they are does tend to vary with individuals.. yet the organization has strongly come out against apostates especially among their own , do you see a trend against family members who are christian though not jw`s ?.
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Julia Orwell
Hm not sure. I would think that JWs would still be expected to be tolerant of their relatives of other faiths with the view of giving a witness and sucking them in. Wherever there's a potential convert to be made, JWs should, according to the teachings, be a 'good witness' but not go to the relative's church (weddings and funerals are a conscience matter).
Interestingly, most JW preaching materials are targeted at 'Christendom's' people. If the WT is gonna rag on a religion, it is going to be the bulk of Christian faith (as if the zillions of denominations actually believe, practice and represent the same things!) and not say, Buddhism and certainly not Islam. Ragging on Islam would get them blown up!
I know as someone who had never-JW relatives including my closest family members, the pressure was on me to 'win them without a word' through good conduct. There were those who tried to drive a wedge in between me and my parents, but I never listened to them. I love my parents, and being with them was not so much about converting them but the intrinsic benefits of our relationship. A more 'spiritual' JW might have completely cut off their never-JW parents. I know of quite a few converts who cooled it with the family after they became JWs.
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How many victims of the blood issue do you know?
by refiners fire ini knew two personally, in my congo.
i suspect this is pretty rare.
not that man people die of refusing a blood transfussion i think.
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Julia Orwell
This is an old topic but a good one!
I know of a teenage girl who died in the 90's from not taking blood. She'd been injured and bled out. I met her sister who was an active JW.
I know of an older brother who is dying of cancer because the doctors can't remove it without giving him a transfusion.
There may be others I know who have died who did so because they refused blood, but it's not something that gets out around here.
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Can you prove Jesus existed outside of Bible (so called) evidence?
by punkofnice ini thought i'd done a thread on this before but can't find it.. so.
did jesus actually exist?.
without using the bible i'd like to see obvious proof..
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Julia Orwell
Joseph Smith died for his crackpot beliefs and I'm sure some of his followers did too. Joseph Smith's example goes to show how one can believe one's own delusions so thoroughly.
As for the message of Jesus, whether he really spoke the words of the gospel or not, you don't have to be religious to benefit or be inspired by them. Let me illustrate. I don't believe inReincarnation or nirvana, but I embrace some of the teachings of Buddhism because they're appealing on the basis of their humanity. Heck, I embrace the teachings of George Orwell and Alexander Solzhenitsyn too. Good teachings are good teachings. Whoever wrote the gospels had some positive ideas on forgiveness and charity, so whether you believe Jesus was divine or not, you can gain from the ideas credited to him.
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Can you prove Jesus existed outside of Bible (so called) evidence?
by punkofnice ini thought i'd done a thread on this before but can't find it.. so.
did jesus actually exist?.
without using the bible i'd like to see obvious proof..
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Julia Orwell
Classic Roman writers tacitus, suetonius and pliny the younger mention him. Jesus is generally considered by scholars to have been an actual person whom they designate 'historical Jesus' rather than Jesus in the religious son of god sense. There is no doubt that gautama Siddhartha, Mohammed and other founders of world religions existed as far as I know. Joseph smith and Elvis will be just as mythical in 2000 years.
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Latest article about domestic violence and abuse
by confusedandalone inabout 10 minutes ago a neighbor asked me about a friend who is a witness and said at one of their church meetings it said that they can only seperate under extreme abuse not just abuse.. i have not been to a meeting in a long time and i do not know aboput this or if it is true.
does anyone know what article this was in so i can print it and give it to them.
they are highlyy upset by this and i want to stoke the fire.
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Julia Orwell
A JW friend of mine was getting bashed senseless every day (she now has a broken spine because of it) and the elders just said, "Don't provoke him. Try to be more submissive." Got her back broken. A sensible person would have encouraged her to leave before it got to that point. How many maimed and crippled JW women must there be out there because of the elders' advice?
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Proof the anointed aren't being resurrected yet.....
by EndofMysteries inthe society teaches that since around 1919 the anointed who have died and do die, are resurrected as spirit creatures.
the only one to be resurrected as a spirit that is documented in the bible is jesus.
when jesus was resurrected, did he appear to his disciples yet his body was still buried?
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Julia Orwell
Hang on, who has actually exhumed the dead anointed to find out if their bodies have disappeared is what I want to know!!!
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April 2014 WT is up, more attacks on career and unbelieving family!
by EndofMysteries inhere are some highlights from the magazine.
the first article, "imitate the faith of moses", teaches how moses didn't remain in pharohs court, they then skillfully spin getting a decent paying job and career as equaling "enjoyment of sin", and how those who have "enjoyment of sin" will die at armageddon with everyone else who enjoys their job.
here are some quotes from the article.... "when tempted to engage in sinful conduct, ask, what future do i want for myself?....
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Julia Orwell
"The apostle Paul directed that when older Christians cannot make ends meet, their children and grandchildren should “repay their parents and grandparents what is due them."
This is quite disturbing as it is but another such statement in a new chain of them which say children should be providing for their old parents. Someone else made a point about this coming out in a recent WT study. It also resonates with many of our posters' personal experiences of elderly parents with nothing wanting to move in with or be supported by the non-JW children who've gone off and made good financial decisions, like Confused and Alone. I see in this that the GB/Org is noticing that people who've been pioneering for decades and who have nothing because of it are falling on hard times as they age and 'the new system' hasn't come. They are therefore telling the younger JWs to step into the breach and clear up their messes. This is gonna be hard for the youngsters though as the org is ramping up the anti-education rhetoric. Oh my.