in light of the recent threads on homosexuality, if you were gay would you let anyone on this site know?
would you feel supported as a gay exjw or would you feel ridiculed?
would you feel safe here?
This is the only place in my life that I actually meet any hostility towards my sexuality. But I guess the board reflects a broad cross section of people so it's not so surprising. I don't enter any of the gay debates because they don't really interest me.
It seems that recently on the forum sexuality is the new America or Iraq debate. How queer!
as larc's thread has mutated into the tired old nurture vs nature debate i thought i'd give a response to his question, which was how do you reconcile the bibles attittude to homosexuality and the living breathing reality of human beings.
i was at a recent screening of trembling before g-d, a documentary on homosexuals in the orthodox community who want to be practising homosexuals and still be accepted as part of the orthodox faith.
(my opinion is that they're wanting to have their cake and eat it but i was interested in the reasoning).
Starscream,
I'd rather you removed your post as it is irrelevant to this thread and you seem to have enough of a platform on the other threads you post.
Thanks.
as larc's thread has mutated into the tired old nurture vs nature debate i thought i'd give a response to his question, which was how do you reconcile the bibles attittude to homosexuality and the living breathing reality of human beings.
i was at a recent screening of trembling before g-d, a documentary on homosexuals in the orthodox community who want to be practising homosexuals and still be accepted as part of the orthodox faith.
(my opinion is that they're wanting to have their cake and eat it but i was interested in the reasoning).
As larc's thread has mutated into the tired old nurture vs nature debate I thought I'd give a response to his question, which was
how do you reconcile the bibles attittude to homosexuality and the living breathing reality of human beings
I was at a recent screening of Trembling Before G-d, a documentary on homosexuals in the Orthodox community who want to be practising homosexuals and still be accepted as part of the Orthodox faith. (My opinion is that they're wanting to have their cake and eat it but I was interested in the reasoning). The film was followed by a Q&A with the director, a local rabbi and the only gay rabbi there is. The prohibition all stems round Leviticus 18:22 but the reading of it in Hebrew, by both rabbis, was of a prohibition of penetrative anal sex. The gay rabbi is about to publish a book on what he reckons is the "true" meaning of this, which he sums up as a prohibition for using any sexual act as a form of domination. The local rabbi didn't agree with that but pointed out that the same phrase that we translate as 'detestable to God' is also applied to the mixing of wool & linen, which most Orthodox Jews choose to ignore. The rabbis interviewed in the film all came across surprisingly well and not the rabid fanatics I expected, but that may reflect my profound ignorance of the Orthodox community or just possibly the p.c. face they can show that the WTBTS can also have.
So if it's just anal sex that's off the menu there are obviously a number of alternatives. Intriguingly the rabbis struggled to provide a biblical reason against Lesbianism, so ladies, go for it!
Another interesting point that the director made was that we have to allow for a certain degree of homophobia. His reasoning was along the lines that 'Rome wasn't built in a day' and pointed to the fact that while his own mother is now a campaigner for gay rights, it wasn't a road to Damascus conversion for her but a gradual change. The film has been screening for 2 years around the globe and is breaking ground with educationalists in Israel and yeshivas around the world.
For the record I'm not Jewish, nor a Christian, but homosexual.
i've been lurking on the fringes of this site for a week or two and was just wondering whether there is anybody else here that i knew from the ministerial training school.
i was second to apostasise from my class (that being the fifth in britain, 1992) and thought it would be good to know if anybody else was here.
also, while i'm at it, if there's anybody with a connection to norwich thorpe congregation or with information on sarah brett it would be good to hear from you too.
You've got a Private Message.
nothing to do with jws but i thought it interesting anyway: .
the feminization of boysafter viewing 20/20's piece entitled, "a gender straitjacket", i have come to the conclusion that the mass leftist media needs a "sensitivity muzzle" when it comes to the feminization of the male gender.
a 15 minutes segment, filled with a quack named william pollack, telling me that 2 year old boys who paint their nails and play with barbie dolls is a normal thing, was more than my paunch could handle.
When will people realise that the accepted western identities that polarise male and female are constructs? Nail varnish and dollies do not make sensitive people.
i've been lurking on the fringes of this site for a week or two and was just wondering whether there is anybody else here that i knew from the ministerial training school.
i was second to apostasise from my class (that being the fifth in britain, 1992) and thought it would be good to know if anybody else was here.
also, while i'm at it, if there's anybody with a connection to norwich thorpe congregation or with information on sarah brett it would be good to hear from you too.
No Shanks isn't gay (yeah right!) but he was the CO that appointed me as an elder.
i've been lurking on the fringes of this site for a week or two and was just wondering whether there is anybody else here that i knew from the ministerial training school.
i was second to apostasise from my class (that being the fifth in britain, 1992) and thought it would be good to know if anybody else was here.
also, while i'm at it, if there's anybody with a connection to norwich thorpe congregation or with information on sarah brett it would be good to hear from you too.
Yes I was at John's wedding. And upon reflection can just about remember you through that alcoholic fug! John's whole family has an unorthodox take on their beliefs. Guess the money helped. My brother's married to his sister Alice (no, I'm not a Jackson, thank god!).
All the defected MTS guys are famous. Gay or Mormon. Was Ian Shanks in your class?
i've been lurking on the fringes of this site for a week or two and was just wondering whether there is anybody else here that i knew from the ministerial training school.
i was second to apostasise from my class (that being the fifth in britain, 1992) and thought it would be good to know if anybody else was here.
also, while i'm at it, if there's anybody with a connection to norwich thorpe congregation or with information on sarah brett it would be good to hear from you too.
Aha, so you're the infamous MTS graduate that became a Mormon! I was a friend of your partner John G. He's in Bournemouth and comfortably married but still an elder, albeit in his owm inimitable style.
back in 1991, a young brother maybe 18 years old living next to my place committed suicide.
his father expected him to be very zealous just like he was, but the son never wanted to be like that.
he was always controlled by his father.
I know of many suicides amongst Witnesses, 2 of whom were close friends. Of these I cannot say that being a Witness exacerbated their depression, that they were treated callously or that they weren't encouraged to accept proffesional help. They were profoundly ill and extremely intent.
In the 3 years I've been at University there have been more than a dozen suicides amongst the student population which seems a higher rate than amongst the Witnesses.
Perhaps we should keep in mind the fact that when the press report the details of suicides there can be a rise in the number of copycat incidents. The number of suicides amongst Witnesses may be of some interest but the means is irrelevant to this thread.
jim procanik spoke at the free minds, inc. healing workshop regarding the icoc.
here is an article you may be interested in reading:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/137/metro/a_christian_community_falters+.shtml
A couple of years ago the ICOC had some rather bad press in our student paper as a cult preying on vulnerable students. This of course intrigued me and I went along to their Sunday service. Whoa! It was just like being back in the KH, although more intense. Their study programme is 10 consecutive days after which you are free to decide. They were clean cut, over friendly (but no more so than JWs) and a good cross section of age, race and economic.
They have this arrangement that, were the JWs to practise it would destroy them. They meet in small groups and discuss areas in which each other are failing to live up to their faith. Can you imagine the pressure?!
What did impress me was that the guy who engaged me in conversation had the bible on palm pilot and at least 2 translations! I declined to give them my tel. no., address or email, but they were damned persistant.
