Great Report of the Royal Commission.
In the Guardian Report you can download it fully (also on the Royal Commission website).
What they write about shunning is fantastic and needs to be discussed in a special thread as well.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-28/jehovahs-witness-handling-of-child-abuse-condemned-in-report/8063798.
by michelle brown.
jehovah's witnesses use of 2,000-year-old protocols when dealing with abuse complaints has been condemned in a report by the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.. last year, the commission examined the experiences of two abuse survivors within the jehovah's witness organisation.. it also looked at evidence from case files that recorded reports or complaints of abuse by just over 1,000 jehovah's witnesses.
Great Report of the Royal Commission.
In the Guardian Report you can download it fully (also on the Royal Commission website).
What they write about shunning is fantastic and needs to be discussed in a special thread as well.
at the recent circuit assembly in our area (nov 19/2016) a talk was given in the afternoon entitled “jehovah will resurrect the dead” it’s clear that the prohibition on blood is not going away anytime soon.
many of us here have expressed the hope that this death dealing policy would be softened or become a complete conscience matter.
not the case, jw’s are urged to not give in and to focus on the resurrection hope.
That guy has creepy ears....
Is he an elf? A Watchtower house-elf 😂
not playing their game, as i've learned here.
they came to my door to find me with a full beard and a nightmare before christmas hoody, playing a video game where the characters "do not act according to bible principles", and i happily answered the door.
i simply smiled and told them no when they asked if i have a minute.
Well done
for those who don’t remember, longo was a life-long witness (even a one-time ministerial servant) who strangled and/or drowned his wife, mary jane, and their three children, zachery, sadie and madison.
longo has been on death row in marion county, oregon, since 2003.. http://www.biography.com/people/christian-longo.
well, yesterday i talked to a woman who works with one of mary jane’s sisters who told me that longo was coming up for a new trial.
I don't know anything about this case.
But the death penalty is an out of date and most horrible thing that doesn't belong into a modern democracy.
i know only adultery is supposed to be grounds for "scriptural" divorce.
i'm a wicked apostate in their eyes, but my believing husband and i still can't get a divorce that would allow him to remarry.
we currently are separated - i have left him.
Welcome
Very courageous of you to go through all of that
I am in a similar situation but am 37.
I was disfellowshipped for apostasy. Even before that, my wife (a fanatic JW) separated. After more than a year I filed for divorce and we were divorced.
Elders can only give advice not to divorce, if there is no scriptural grounds for it. They don't hinder a couple; they just tell them that they are not free to marry again.
Only if you tell the elders that you had sex with someone else, your ex is free to marry again.
If not he would be disfellowshipped and go through the reinstatement process if he started to date.
I wish you all the best.
i have recently been disfellowshipped (after being reinstated in march).
i saw a group of jws gathered in the town car park yesterday.
they seemed startled when they recognised my car and talked amongst themselves giving one another a satisfied grin!
When I see one of the JWs I know, I smile and say Hi!
They have to react in a second so I laugh inside how they are behaving, not knowing if they should greet or not.
Then I am happy to be truly free. I breathe in and feel happy, also never ever to attend one of their meetings.
I wish you all the best... being free to live according to your conscience.
so i was talking with my daughter the other day and she tells me that she doesn't want me to push my beliefs on her.i am agnostic.
which isn't a belief.
it's a lack of belief.
Make it known to her that you love her no matter what she believes and that she might change her beliefs a thousand times.
Teach her to question things or views, even your own and to critically think for herself.
This is counteracting indoctrination.
so we were talking about noah for our family worship tonight and it ended with a little debate between me and my parents about how the flood was possible.
you know, where did the water come from, how did all the animals fit, etc.
of course it led nowhere and my parents came up with some strange theories like that there was "an expanse of water in the sky" and that's where all the water came from.
There are many flood myths from all over the earth.
They have their origins in the end of the last ice age 14000 - 8000 years ago.
The sea level worldwide was more than a 100 m lower than today, which gave the people immense living place that no longer exists.
As this huge ice melt, in many places of the earth were catastrophic floods, making the sealevel to rise.
The mesopotamic flood myths (Gilgamesh, Noah and some others) could all be rooted to one of such LOCAL floods.
Scientists Pitman and Ryan found out, that about 8000 years ago, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake. As the Mediterranian sea rose, it broke through the Bosporus and flooded the area 1 year long, creating the black sea, a huge catastrophy for the people living there.
If you look at the hebrew words in the flood account, earth could mean land and mountains could mean hills. So it is not in contradiction to a 'local' flood.
The Watchtower sometimes quotes Flavius Josephus work 'Jewish antiquities' to prove their point.
In 'Jewish Antiquities' Josephus mentions that there were many others who survived the flood.
I have the book in german... so i can't quote it...
In Paragraph 94-95 Josephus mentions other ancient sources who talk of a mountain called Baris where many fled during the flood and survived, one coming in an arc.
In P. 109 Josephus talks about Noahs sons who went down the mountain and convinced many others who were on that mountain to come down with them.
There are so many geological, scientific, historical proof, that there couldn't have been a flood 4400 years ago. Dig a little bit in the web.
Dendrochronology (study of tree rings) has some proof, the study of Ice Cores, Cave Paintings who are 20-40000 years old would have been destroyed in such a flood.
Find out more about Cosquer Cave in France.
At the time that was the tiping point for me... as the only entrance to this cave with magnificent paintings is 40m under sea level... so the human painters must have lived during the ice age when sea level was down, being one of thousands of proofs of human existence more than 6000 years ago.
Cosquer cave also shows that the sea level was not higher than today, as those cave paintings would show signs of salt water if they would have been flooded.
hi guys ,i'm new here 27 in 1 year out.. ive escaped 2 judicially by changing congs in rapid escape .i will tell my last dodged bullet.i swear these word as gospel honest.6 years ago in oz i'm in cong only about a year and tensions were running high due to a crazy old european bro ex elder who took no shit from the 10 apostles.i like him i don't know if it was the rebel in me or underdog syndrome but good guy 74years old he was.we just had this big sense the razor were getting sharpened.we arrive at thursday's night meeting my wife was at home so another big boring night i thought,was i wrong.the body has every mongrel breed.the three main characters were the italian dutch german,service committee.we start with song prayer ,the dutchy get up and says we are making adjustments to meeting tonight the arrogant bastard says only bible reading tonight then there agender.dutchy says.what is most amazing is these 10 idiots agreed to this changing of meeting program.
(these words are true)"we have a korah influence in cong and the 10 apostles have established an open judicial committee,the elders said there was evil in our mist .so to root out the evil if anyone has heard a bro say anything against any elders recently the are to report to the three stooges.well dutchy dims light and play the old prehistoric korah movie to the cong ,the bloody creation movie by russell was higher quality.
30 mins later german takes to the stage for the circus to begin.he repeats the dutch mantra ,well the publishers were looking at each other like it was north korea ,could have heard a pin drop,we are all thinking to ourselves we are all guilty of bitchin about the bastards .before meeting had finished halfway thru movie i rang my mate to tell him about "the burning "as the meeting became affectionately known.get home tell wife she don't believe me,within 2 days she believed.it was the talk of area.i had never rang bethel previously because i believed it was heaven and it didn't need my voice.next morning ring service desk in sydney and all i said i was concerned what took place at meeting last night .
It's weird... but I think your story and writing style are quite funny....
1. concerns about the effects it would have on yours and your family's social life.. 2. fear of being shunned.
3. the stress it will cause.
4. the thought of feeling isolated.
Mozzie
You can be spiritual but not religious...