and that dangerous environment is exactly how high-control religious cults as WT like it...
Smiles
JoinedPosts by Smiles
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6
Damned if you do, damned if you don't - Religious Shunning and the Free Exercise Clause
by AndersonsInfo indamned if you do, damned if you don't: religious shunning and the free exercise clause.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3827&context=penn_law_review.
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Subliminal POMO image at JW.org
by Smiles inpomo-c. physically-out-mentally-out... of cult .
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https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/ukraine/update-4-brotherly-love-prevails-amid-ongoing-crisis-in-ukraine/.
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Smiles
@"peacefulpete"
Are you still a little bit mentally-in?
Don't be a cult apologist.
That's like praising a paedophile for buying cookies from a children's charity.
You said it yourself... WT truly harms lives.
No amount of "good" deeds can ever balance the scale of unnecessary suffering & death caused by WT doctrine/policies.
We've learned WT "humanitarian efforts" always have ulterior motives... narcissistic love-bombing. That, in itself, poses a harm to naïve observers, AND is eventually harmful to WT.
For what its worth, even the bible warns:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 6:1
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Subliminal POMO image at JW.org
by Smiles inpomo-c. physically-out-mentally-out... of cult .
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https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/ukraine/update-4-brotherly-love-prevails-amid-ongoing-crisis-in-ukraine/.
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Smiles
Yes, true humanitarian relief for refugees of high-control tyranny comes not from a box but from attaining POMO freedom
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Subliminal POMO image at JW.org
by Smiles inpomo-c. physically-out-mentally-out... of cult .
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https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/ukraine/update-4-brotherly-love-prevails-amid-ongoing-crisis-in-ukraine/.
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Smiles
POMO-C
Physically-Out-Mentally-Out... of Cult
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Alan F
by scholar inhave received news of the passing of alan fuerbacher today having just turned 70 years of age.
alan was an earlier and frequent poster on this forum and was a strident critic of wt bible chronology.
i enjoyed the continuous debate on matters relating to 607 bce and will miss his intellectual contributions and his scholarship even though i disagreed with much of his contributions on this subject.
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I pioneered brothers parked their BMW and got aride in my 20 year old car?? No support.
by Witness 007 inso i pioneered for 10 years in the 1990's it was 90 hours a month with alot of country driving.
i was shocked when brothers and sisters with full time jobs would park their brand new cars and go witnessing in my 20 year old orange datsun.
i was barely living on $250 a week as a yeah...window cleaner.
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Smiles
@007
And who did the circuit overseer & his wife gravitate towards... the Datsun, or the BMW ?
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Watchtower Dishonesty aka Theocratic Warfare
by Vanderhoven7 ini would like to collect as many instances of watchtower dishonesty and pretense as possible.
here is one from a bulgarian as an example of what i'm looking for.. are jehovah's witnesses disfellowshipped for receiving blood in a hospital?.
helge fauskanger writes: "if witnesses can’t convince the elders that they are utterly “repentant” for this vampiric lapse of theirs, they will be held to have disassociated themselves from the religion — even if they never said a word about wanting to leave it!
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Smiles
Presently in northern european nations (e.g. Norwary, Iceland, Belgium) Watch Tower is actively deploying crafty "theocratic warfare" strategies to maintain its eligibility for state funding status.
State agencies discovered Watch Tower shunning practices violate human rights principles.
Watch Tower legal teams, and letter writing campaigns by active JW membership now claim Watch Tower does not shun former members.
Meanwhile, thousands of JW congregations and families continue to actively shun former members in obedience to internal Watch Tower policies which enforce hardline shunning practices.
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Is ACTIVISM destroying Christianity itself?
by Terry inin this video (i watched this morning when i woke up) i suddenly discovered something i was only slightly aware ofwhich is bedeviling mainstream christianity and that a different kind of activism is at work.a different sort of "religious" movement than the one ex-jw's engage in.i'd like to get your thoughts on this.
i'm still thinking about it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gviljk-fnn0&t=616s.
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Smiles
Activism can spawn new sects.
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Am I Expected to Become One of Jehovah’s Witnesses if I Study the Bible With Them?
by Ron.W. in(ps.
(ps.
(ps.
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Smiles
As others here have replied...
Despite the easy going appearance Watch Tower portrays about its re recruitment strategy, the truth is:
Yes, there is certainly an expectation for interested persons and JW students to advance toward a permanent commitment to the JW religion.
If a student is slow to adapt, or fails to "progress", that student will be dumped, but will likely receive periodic "encouragement" to resume the serious path to full conversion.
So, BEWARE
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Mark Sanderson
by Iamallcool insince mark sanderson of the gb is never married, does he have his own room at warwick or have a roommate?
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Smiles
...and that Mark Sanderson/courtship rumor spawned from imaginative speculation over a comment by Sanderson while opening the 2021 annual meeting where he flattered the live in-person audience with this statement:
"Well, I've seen many annual meeting audiences, but I have to say, you're the most beautiful audience I have seen, for a variety of reasons."
Sanderson appeared to direct the latter part of that compliment to a specific section of the audience seated to his left. Sanderson's face also appeared to have blushed during his remark.
That interaction was observed during live-stream of the annual meeting, but is omitted from the video recording presently available on jw. org, causing a few to speculate it may have been a flirtatious Sanderson gaffe faux pas targeting a romantic interest present in the audience.
Since such behavior would typically be out of character for a member of the JW governing body on platform, most viewers understood Sanderson's words in the context of the audience being an exceptionally "beautiful" sight to behold as the first major in-person assembly of JWs after nearly two years of pandemic social distancing; however, Sanderson describing that particular audience as beautiful "for a variety of reasons" adds some complexity to interpreting exactly what/who Sanderson praised as "the most beautiful"
That was October 2021. It is now March 2022... and remembering JW teaching frowns upon extended courtships (increases likelihood of pre-marital sex sins) Sanderson is, to-date, still reported as unmarried. So, if Sanderson is courting, pressure would be mounting for him to finalize or abort.
It is well known that Mark Sanderson has long despised jest about his marital status, thus he did himself no favor by that ambiguously flirtatious comment to a large adoring audience which included several single ladies with ambitious culty fingers.