hi guys!!!!.
as most of you all know, i was going to the district assembly in san francisco, with my parents.. well, i went, and it was interesting.... here it goes....... i left on thursday night.
my friend pam came to pick me up.
Airwalk, it's been 18 years since I last attended at the Cowpalace(or in Ca. for that matter). I'm sure it hasn't changed much. I hated the traffic, especially after driving(crawling) 50 miles down the bayshore freeway.
Amazing, your reference to the 1971 Kezar assembly brought back some memories. Bad ones! Those were the worst seats I ever sat on. My wifes' father was in the orchestra too.
Allen
at tonight's service meeting, a letter was read concerning child molestation and the society's policy.. to preface, i jotted down notes in the form of a brief outline.
also, the elder reading it said that the letter is primarily directed to jws for the purpose of answering questions that we may encounter.. here's my outline:.
god's people are happy, in stark contrast to this world.. one reason is that we respect bible's view of sexual matters.. we abhor child abuse.. we will not protect abusers, or sheild them from the consequences of their wicked acts.. we expect elders to investigate every case (report) of child abuse.. but, we congregation follows bible stipulation that there must be two or three witnesses to establish a matter.. no congregation privilages extended to known child molesters.. elders are instructed to report abuse when required by state law.. people have the "absolute right" (my quotation marks for emphasis and to underscore that it is a quote from the letter) to report child abuse to the authorities.. since 1981 several articles published dealing with with matter in wt and awake.. when circumstances made the need clear, we have strengthened our policy over the years.. we feel that our bible-based policy is strong.. some additional notes: there were several scriptures cited and read, i did not jot them down.. well, i did note 1 tim 5:19 and 24. these verses were read after the comment abuout the need for two witnesses.
I too just came back from hearing the letter read at the service meeting. What stuck out in my mind was there was no obvious change in policy. The statement was made that the elders did not discourage the victim from going to the police.(when does a 6 year old do that?)
There was NO mention at all regarding the parents or others in the congregation having a moral or legal responsibility to go to the authorities with allegations of abuse. Non whatsoever.
The elder giving the concluding prayer referring to the allegations in the media used the trigger words 'Gods enemies' 'lying accusations' and prayed for those 'contaminated' by watching the show for having any lingering doubts to be strenghened and to avoid listening to future utterances from the froglike expressions found in revelation.
i have always tried to figure out for years what is the reasoning behind the name kingdom hall, any thoughts on this?
This change signified Rutherfords' perception of the church or congregation of god. With the recent reinterpretation of the identity of the great crowd in Rev.7 it seemed to Rutherford inappropriate to call the house of worship 'the church' any longer since the future coverts weren't even called christians at the time, but jonadabs.
Just my thoughts.
Allen
do i want to be like the ex-jws on this board?
deddaisy, it's because he's imitating his masters. Who have ALWAYS referred to themselves in the 3rd person all these years? All personal references are intentionally purged. That's why it is called Monologue instead of Dialogue. Devoid of pronouns.
one of the characteristics of a cult is deceptive recruting practices.
i would like to ask some specific questions about the accuracy of information that i have gathered thus far.. 1) how much do the jws stress on the usage of theocratic warfare.
in the field service?
No specific instructions that I've been aware of. The deception is by OMISSION. The two current 'tools' used to groom potential converts do not address the ramifications of openly questioning the validity,accuracy of the anonimous literature or authority of the self-proclaimed spiritual leaders who carry the shroud of anonymitity as well.
The current Organization book uses many blanket generalizations that sound good but gives the elder bodies a blank check to attempt to silence any potential threat. One example is found on page 146 "...safegaurding the moral and spiritual cleaness of the congregation and protecting its name".This is just one example.
Allen
wouldn't it be fair to say that early christians were.
obsessed with the name and person of jesus?
wish to deny that?.
I agree Metatron, the NT permeates with references to Jesus and stresses the need to put faith in HIM. Since I stepped down a couple years ago I have made it a point to listen to any and all references to Jesus. I haven't heard any mention of putting faith in Jesus at the hall in 3 years.(1 mention of putting faith in his blood in a school talk) At some meetings there is no mention of Jesus at all except in the prayer(injesusnameamen).
Since I stepped down and 2 other elders 2 years ago,the remaining elders have made it a point at each meeting to stress the F&DS. In their prayers they specifically ask Jehovah to bless THEM(FDS),and continue to have them guide "us". This had never before been stressed . This re-emphasizes their percieved role as "mediator" of the "great?crowd". You know Jesus must be shaking his head in disgust.
this morning i told my wife about my decision to step down as a ms and that i also would'nt be attending any meetings.
she made a few comments that i expected her to make, but strangely enough she was for the most part very silent.
she made it clear that she was against the decision but outside of a few other comments she said very little.
Leander, I too was a MS ,literature servant for many years.I turned in my "resignation" a while back. I used the cognitive dissonance approach. The lack of references,the anonymous quotes,quoting dead people,works no longer in circulation as prohibiting me from "making sure of all things" causing me distress,losing sleep etc....
I had one meeting with them afterwards.They threw the "do you believe its Jehovahs' organization" question at me. I said I did(past tense) but my conscious would not allow me to teach anymore. That was 2 years ago and they have left me alone. One word to the wise,DO NOT openly criticize if you want to do the 'fade away'
of course were all so familiar with the way the society covers up it tracks and it has taken a lot of work to expose its coruption.. but are there more sinister discoveries awaiting?.
why is the society so keen to cover up peadophilia in the organisation?.
does it reach higher than we are presently aware?.
Sleepy, I can only answer one question for you. The worth of the WTBTS is listed at just under 1 Billion. 951 million according to newsday.com listing of the top 40 businesses in NY city. I'm not sure that includes all the KH's that have the society as its "benefactor".
Allen
today i was thinking about how the 1st century christians had several congregations in place as well as a governing body.
so i'm wondering is that a valid reason for there to be a current governing body today?.
also i've been contemplating the issue of preaching.
Leander, In response to your second question re:Mat.28:19,20 Jesus was here talking to the faithful 11 on the mountain. The WTBS has eluded to Acts 15:6 in conjunction with Mat.28:19,20 over the years in the publications to insinuate that Jesus gave the command to preach to "all" his disciples.
Another interesting point is the non-use by the society to use the parallel scriptures found at Mark 16:15-19 {he that believes and is baptized will be saved} and Luke 24:47 {repentance for forgiveness of sins would be preached in all the nations.} because the message is too simple and the society has gone beyond the things written.
One last thought. The society often forgets to include verse 18 of that Chapter where Jesus says "ALL authority has been given me in heaven and on earth" because they don't teach Jesus is all powerful till he hands over the Kingdom to his Father mentioned at 1Cor.15:28
i was just thinking that if charles taze russell were alive today he wouldn't even recognize the religion he started.
in fact, many of the things he did are now disfellowshippable offenses.
for instance, he had a christmas tree in the bethel home and he wore a beard.
Justin, Rutherford also taught,excuse me, the faithfulofit and undiscreet slave taught that "Christ Jesus is the Mediator between man and God to bring man into reconciliation with God. The new creature in Christ is not under,nor the offspring of,any covenant that is mediated by Christ Jesus" ....Reconciliation pg.222 1928
As we know his successors later made a 180 degree turnaround and that's the truth ...89W 8/15 pg.30,31
