have you seen this?.
http://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/family/teenagers/whiteboard-animations/social-network-smart/#?insight.
Who doesn't remember that demonstration in a circuit assembly back in 2010-11, when a teenage girl would be counseled by her father for engaging with a social network that was given the stage name "Mold". Oh my god, how hilarious...
And some may remember the letter to BOEs that actually prohibited MSs and elders having facebook; and the "local needs" talk that followed in effect.
"Jehovah's chariot" moves fast indeed. Must have a satellite connection!
i saw a rumor a few weeks ago on reddit that the new imitate jesus convention is supposed to present new light and clarified understandings on the disfellowshipping/disassociation practices.. supposedly, if this rumor has any truth to it, there will be a talk given at the convention about how we should not be strict like the pharisees in how we shun people, loosening up some of the jw rules about this practice.. has anyone here heard anything about this or have more info on it?.
Regarding the thought that shunning could be restricted to some offenses (e.g. apostasy), but not others (e.g. smoking): no, I don't think this is going to happen. That would require the R&F to know which "offense" has taken place, so the policy of non-revealing the cause of DF would have to be reversed as well. But this cannot happen for obvious reasons (it could, and will have legal consequences, if the org makes the personal deeds of a DFed public).
Now, as for the general abolition of shunning: highly unlikely, IMO, unless the WTS decides to make a shift from high-control cult to mainstream Catholic-like religion. This could theoretically happen, but it would need a minimum "critical mass" of members: Let's assume the WTS decides to abolish the shunning rule. What follows is a mass exodus of members that don't believe anymore, leaving behind in the religion only the true, ardent believers. That will mean an instant decrease of membership, even by half.
The fact that a church grows older and becomes more widely known does not automatically mean loosening of shunning rules: The religion of Islam 1,400 years old, and is spread all over the world with more than a billion followers. Still, their shunning policy has not been loosened a bit; and the equivalent of "DFing" there is death, not plain shunning. So, abolition of shunning needs not only time and population, but also influence from secular, humanist, ideas. When that happens in JW-land, let me know
when i was a teen i had back surgery that could have easily gone bad because of the no blood policy, so it's always been of particular intrest to me.
i was just thinking to myself, not only do human mothers have white blood cells in their breast milk but so does nearly every other mammal on our planet.
so that would mean for one, god "intelligently designed" us, and every other mammal to literally feed on our mothers blood in the beginning of life for sustenance, only to make the use of blood sinful when it comes to saving not just sustaining our life later on.
Thanks, @FatherFirst! Very interesting!
Apparently, the percentage of white blood cells in the milk is ~100,000 per ml. This is about 100 times below the average percentage in the blood, but still is a significant amount.
We have a case here, indeed!
all that i can say is....what a shame!
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I'm glad I'm free, and feel I have disposed myself of a huge burden.
On the other hand, I'm 32; *not* in my teens. I feel I've lost many years already; I have difficulty in adapting to the new situation, and I feel like I'm 40 or 50 sometimes.
when i was a teen i had back surgery that could have easily gone bad because of the no blood policy, so it's always been of particular intrest to me.
i was just thinking to myself, not only do human mothers have white blood cells in their breast milk but so does nearly every other mammal on our planet.
so that would mean for one, god "intelligently designed" us, and every other mammal to literally feed on our mothers blood in the beginning of life for sustenance, only to make the use of blood sinful when it comes to saving not just sustaining our life later on.
Can you please provide a link where the blood cell percentage appears?
(because I can't find it in Wikipedia :))
Thanks
i've just signed up two days ago, but i've been lurking for about a year and a half.
here's my story if you're interested:.
my parents converted when they were in their first semester of college.
Well, regarding "where to go next", no-one should tell you go here or there; you are free to decide it for yourself.
And that's exactly the point: freedom. You said it, nothing is more important.
Which means, that if you embroil yourself in another religion, you will once again give up your freedom, at least a great part of it.
One of the main arguments of JWs when you announce that you no longer believe, is "Where else shall you go?" (in the way of apostle Peter's remark)
Well, my answer to that question is simple: Nowhere. We live in the 21st century, in the age of reason and science; we don't live in Peter's time when "no religion" was not an option (that's why he made that exclamation). One does not have to join another, equally false, religion just because he left the JWs. We are not sheep, despite what the WTS says. Maybe we were sheep some time in our past; it does not mean we can't "change back" to being human, free-thinking human, once again.
someone may have linked to this already, but the this interactive page in the pew religion study is pretty interesting, especially when you look at the trends for jw between 2007 and 2014. here's what it shows:.
jws are increasingly non-white.
in fact, the percentage of white jws has decreased from 2007 to 2014 by 12%, while hispanic jws have increased by 8%.
Just an observation, if I may, guys.
The fact that JWs are increasingly poorer, and non-white, in US, is not something to be embarrassing for the religion. It is not something to make us apostates and ex-JWs feel "good". I know that we are all happy to see less cash flowing in the Borg HQ, but let's be careful here.
The problem with JWs is not their population statistics, if they're black or poor, have blond hair or red hair. The problem with JWs is their false beliefs, their inhumane behavior (when they shun and deny emergency blood transfusions), and mainly, their leadership (GB). That applies to every 'faithful' JW, regardless if he's black or white, poor or rich, football fan or basketball fan.
i've just signed up two days ago, but i've been lurking for about a year and a half.
here's my story if you're interested:.
my parents converted when they were in their first semester of college.
Miss Behaving,
You have a very touching story. Lots of people here can understand you, and have gone through similar trials.
I am very surprised that you quickly made a clean-cut stance on the issue. I myself haven't made it to the last step (DA) yet, so I know you did something really brave.
Welcome to the forum, and keep posting :)
after reading that great post about the june 1 article on science i got to thinking.
although it is great to believe there is this huge group of guys in the jw writing department that are constantly looking to mislead us by twisting the words of scientist etc... i really think it is more likely they are google researchers that do not have the ability to grasp the thoughts that are being expressed in the scientific article they quote mine from.. i honestly believe the reason that this happens is because of the individuals they use to write these magazines.
these are not college educated men.
They have been misquoting long before google and the Internet, indeed. But the misquotes almost always were 'stolen' from older misquotes from other religious groups whose stance coincided with watchtower's in a particular matter. For example, check the misquotes regarding evolution (in the 1985 Creation book, for instance): they are almost all taken from old Christian creationists like Henry Morris. We are talking not about cut & paste from original writers, but copy & paste of misquotes from other ridiculous books!
So yes, I tend to agree with you: they probably are not intellectually equipped to even construct their own misquote. Nowadays, their anti-science misquote armory comes mostly from the Discovery Institute (the good old Creation Institute after facelift) and their "Intelligent Design" mumbo-jumbo.
Don't forget that every assignment in the Borg and is a so-called "spiritual", or "theocratic" assignment. This, in secular English, means that requisite for any assignment is typical JW things, such as sucking your "above", being good in congregational things, good speaker, having a broad jw social network, having fame inside the org, etc. In other words, nothing like scientific capacity and intellect. This of course includes assignment in the writing department.
with all the negativity here i was wondering if i am the only one here that's a witness.
.
the topic pretty much says everything..
Of course you're not the only active witness in here. Lots are, even if "under the radar".
Hate speech is not good, whichever side it is coming from.
On the other hand, exchange of information without censorship and fear of Inquisition is what we do here, and what can't be done in a KH.
