Posts by Euphemism

if so please disregard as i'm sometimes way behind everyone else and think i've found some new and great thing just to learn that everybody else already knows about it.

it's a well documented encounter a gentleman had with a witness on the telephone who must have been so horrified by what she learned that she never called him back like she was suppose to.

Euphemism

Like Heathen said... that was in the Revelation book. Sorry, ela, this is actually 15 years late!

10

Shunning and Laws against incitement to hatred based on Race and Religion

by AlanB in

jw
friends

in the uk we have a law that seeks to protect against incitement of racial or religious hatred.

i think this may be a european law and so the scope may be a lot wider.

it is clear that the wtbs policy on da/df people is incitement and it may be argued that it is on the basis of religious views.

Euphemism

Alan, just a couple of remarks on your post:

A major court case (early 1990s?) held that taking drugs because it was religiously required is not allowed when drugs laws are violated

That would be Human Resources v Smith 494 US 872. That case overturned several decades of First-Amendment jurisprudence which held that the mere application of a neutral and reasonable law was not enough; the government must show a compelling interest in enforcing a particular law over religious scruples.

(I should add that some could perhaps argue that a compelling interest was present in that case. The court, however, explicitly threw out the compelling interest test, and adopted the 'neutral and generally applicable' standard instead. Legal scholars can endlessly debate the correctness of one view vs the other; personally, I think that Smith was a disgrace.)

Thus, if someone is disfellowshipped for "apostasy", that would be a violation of individual religious rights by an organization.

How can that be? The bill of rights does not protect individuals from private organizations. It protects them from the government, and only the government. Any personal protections against actions by private organizations are a matter of statute, not constitutional law.

One can argue that a law forbidding disfellowshipping would not violate the free exercise clause. But one cannot argue that disfellowshipping itself violates the First Amendment, because it is not a governmental action, nor done under color of governmental authority.

46

Does the night sky prove the universe is older than 6-7 thousand years old?

by m0nk3y in

i was just thinking about this today.

i'm not really that scientifically minded in space matters and stuff so i was hoping some of the smarter people on this forum could comment.

how many light years basically are the stars we can actually see from earth ?

Euphemism

Wow... you're far more of a geek than I realized, Craig! Good stuff.

(To clarify... yes, geekdom is a good thing in my book.)

4

Creation/Evolution....(for those who couldn't hack Chili Contest topic)

by Frannie Banannie in

jw
friends

god said, "you must go to field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer.

the cow said, "that's a kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years.

let me have twenty years and i'll give back the other forty.

Euphemism

Workin' on it, yeah...

32

World's Smallest Political Quiz

by rem in

jw
friends

here is a link to the world's smallest political quiz:.

http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html.

looks like i'm a libertarian:.

Euphemism

Well look at that, DrWtsn... we're practically twins! (Or should that be ?)

47

JWs at my door ... FINISHED the STORY !!

by Amazing in

jw
friends

[now for the rest of the story ... it begans again below with ### in front of the continuation] .

well, well, well ... well, well ... well, uhmmmmm ... this ought to be good .

these two ladies were standing there ... one was obviously an elder's wife ... say late 40s ... likely aux.

Euphemism

No joke. I would too, rather than knocking on doors being told to f-off over and over and over again.....

Gotta agree with shamus here. It was rare enough to find someone out in service with whom I could have a conversation... even rarer, one that would actually be intellectually stimulating! I always enjoyed and was grateful for such occasions, even if they were technically 'unproductive.'

16

Somebody please tell me, funeral for a disfellowshipped child

by freein89 in

jw
friends

i looked at our little local paper today and saw a young man had died.

he was the 20 year old son of jw's that used to be very dear friends.

i noticed that the funeral is to be held at the local funeral home and not at the kingdom hall.

Euphemism

km 3/97 7
What
if the deceased was disfellowshipped? The congregation would generally not be involved. The Kingdom Hall would not be used. If the person had been giving evidence of repentance and manifesting a desire to be reinstated, a brother’s conscience might allow him to give a Bible talk at the funeral home or graveside, to give a witness to unbelievers and to comfort the relatives. Before making this decision, however, it would be wise for the brother to consult with the body of elders and give consideration to what they may recommend.