i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
Well put larc--and largely this was my point. However, the elders do have a scriptural responsibility to protect the congregation when a charge of immoral activity of any kind can be substantiated.
Wow!
Did I hit a nerve on this one. Am I disfellowshipped yet?
:)
Agape
i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
Hi Bob's Girl
Eee gads I should have let that psychology qualification slide. However, I also had a double major: English and Classics and Psychology. But I have never worked in the English Lit field. However, I have worked in the field of psychology at two mental health hospitals in Maine as well as volunteered to do one on one work with developmentally handicapped adults. I hit burn out. And now I am in a totally different line of work.
Anyway the answer is self evident. A true child molester is one who performed an act of child molestation. A pedophile is one who is inordinately attracted to a prepubescent child--sexually or sensually. And, yes, there is a difference.
RE: The writing style of the Watchtower. Mark didn't do such a good job with his gospel account either; but Oy, he did it. Why not help out?
i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
And some of them practice abstinence.
Peace 7of9
i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
Hi Farkel
And you are funny--though intolerant of opposing viewpoints.
PAX Christian
i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
Hi Texasbread
See Romans 2:3-5 with regard to an unrepentant heart,
See 1st Cor. 5: 1-5 with regard to disfellowshipping
See also 2 John 1:9-11
agape
i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
Actually, JT, the answer is an emphatic YES!
i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
Naturally you are correct. However, I will stand by my statement regarding there overall adjustment as a group. There has been more than one study. Give me some time to pull one out of my hat. My email is open to all. Email me and I will do my best to accomodate you.
i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
Sorry, but there is a vast body of research to show that not all pedophiles are child molestors. My word, why do you think child beauty apgeants are so popular. There are many people who hav pedophilic tendencies who never engage in child molestation. The child molester is seldom sexually motivated but is motivated by a desire to hurt and deflower innocence and exploit weakness.
PAX
i recieved this note from a young person i know personally.
it brought tears to my eyes for someone so young to see things so clearly.
why can't six million others see this simple reality and the need for change?.
Hi Stephen20
What you are saying is that the confidentiallity of all who turned to the elders, in the past, should be made available to the authorities.
I hardly think this is fair. The purpose in contacting the society's legal department is simply to safeguard the records that do not have any bearing on the case. And remember, when a case of true child molestation hits the papers it is the family of the molested child as well as the child that suffers most in the community. In many instances the society can arrange to gag the papers until the case is actually tried.
Once again I appeal to balance and due proceedure--not ignorance of the details.
"As apples of gold in silver carvings is a word spoken at the right time for it."
Yes, many who are newly disfellowshipped do need to find consolation. And it is consoling that God is the final judge of who inherits eternal life--not any man nor any body of elders. However, it is heartbreaking to lose friendships and more heartbreaking when family members also take a stand against the disfellowshipped individual. This need not be. I have been baptized since 1972 and have seen few family members turn on any who were disfellowshipped for reasons other than sexual infidelity. And in these instances many more within the organization choose to forgive and ride out the storm with the disfellowshipped individual--setting a loving example that encourages he or she to return to the flock. My problem was smoking. The society strengthened its stand on the use of tobacco products shortly after my baptism. And I have had a problem on and off ever since. Yes, I have been disfellowshipped more than once. Yet, I have not found the coldness that many refer to herein. In fact, my wife is always telling me how the brothers and sisters are hoping for my return. Prayerfully, I will return. There is no reason why one cannot.
I feel as though I am jumping into the middle of a flame war--good grief (TM Shultz) However, I do have one or two insights to offer as a disfellowshipped JW. No, I did not choose to be disfellowshipped; but, I did choose to obey the law of the Christ when I was baptized. And, yes, I had associated long enough to know that I was not joining an organization that was shepherded by perfect human beings. But the truth was evident to me--and it remains evident that that truth is indeed blossoming within the organization even as Proverbs 4:18 speaks, " But the path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established."
I did get on with my life and went through college with honors in psychology and on into graduate work in interpersonal communication. I found the aloofness of the professors in college--who had made a religion of the theory of evolution--far more unsettling than finding quickly averted eyes of one or two brothers whom I would meet while shopping. Argumentation and debate was the norm in school and many professors actually hated to see me in their classrooms as I DID have answers to their argumentation--answers which these professors had no logical counter debate with which to unseat my faith.
So, having been a staunch supporter of the Faithful and Discreet Slave Class for all of these years, I suppose that what I am truly getting at here is that it is my humble observation that there is more warmth and human understanding among the witnesses than anywhere else I have ever wandered. And if you cannot find perfection therein--give it and your brothers and sisters another 1000 years to improve. I think that that is, after all, the whole reason why Christ needed to come earth to teach us in perfect human form--by word and example. Remember that he asked that that cup of death on a torture stake be taken from him if possible--Luke 22:42. Further, do you recall Christ saying that: "I want mercy and not sacrifice. Matt 9:13. Christ, although the personification of mercy found NO mercy among the world and little faithfulness among his quickly scattered disciples. No. Jesus Christ knows that none of us are perfect. It will take all of us a very long time to put on the Christlike personality--and the elders are no exception. And, yet, I will argue that there are many fine individuals who are taking the lead in shepherding the congregations of the world wide organization of those called to be "a people for his [Jehovah's] name today--Acts 15:14-17.
The emphasis in the organization, correspondingly, is now on elders showing Christlike forgiveness when dealing with judicial matters. But clearly one of the prerequisites to becoming the recipient of this Divine mercy has always included a need to demonstrate principled reciprocity--a loving attitude of a willingness to "go and sin no more."
Glad to meet you all :) If I step on any toes email me.
