Love and tolerance for other's religious beliefs:

"A Resolution . . .

As JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES, we testify that:

(1) WE ABHOR the reproach that Babylon the Great, and Christendom in particular, has cast upon the name of the one true and living God, Jehovah. . . .

(2) WE ABHOR Christendom’s adherence to Babylonish teachings, notably those of a triune god, the human soul’s immortality, eternal torment in hell, a fiery purgatory, and worship of images — such as the Madonna and the cross. . . .

(3) WE ABHOR anti-God philosophies and practices, so common in Christendom, such as evolution, blood transfusions, abortions, lying, greed, and dishonesty." (The Watchtower, 4/15 1989 p. 18)

Love for their children who disagree with their teachings:

"They cannot endure to have even their own child speak falsehood in the name of Jehovah. They must pierce him through because of his false prophesying. They must consider him as spiritually dead to themselves, as one with whom to have no religious association and fellowship and whose prophesyings are to be rejected." (The Watchtower, 10/1 1961, p. 596)

Respect and love for human life:

"We are not living today among theocratic nations where such members of our fleshly family relationship could be exterminated for apostasy from God and his theocratic organization, as was possible and was ordered in the nation of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai and in the land of Palestine. . . . Being limited by the laws of the worldly nation in which we live and also by the laws of God through Jesus Christ, we can take action against apostates only to a certain extent, that is, consistent with both sets of laws. The law of the land and God’s law through Christ forbid us to kill apostates, even though they be members of our own flesh-and-blood family relationship." (The Watchtower, 11/15 1952, p. 703)

Rejection of hate in their lives:

"Haters of God and his people are to be hated, but this does not mean that we will take any opportunity of bringing physical hurt to them in a spirit of malice or spite, for both malice and spite belong to the Devil, whereas pure hatred does not. We must hate in the truest sense, which is to regard with extreme and active aversion, to consider as loathsome, odious, filthy, to detest. Surely any haters of God are not fit to live on his beautiful earth." (The Watchtower, 10/1 1952, p. 599)

Religious tolerance and allowance for disagreement:

"Some apostates profess to know and serve God, but they reject teachings or requirements set out in his Word. Others claim to believe the Bible, but they reject Jehovah’s organization and actively try to hinder its work. When they deliberately choose such badness after knowing what is right, when the bad becomes so ingrained that it is an inseparable part of their makeup, then a Christian must hate (in the Biblical sense of the word) those who have inseparably attached themselves to the badness. True Christians share Jehovah’s feelings toward such apostates; they are not curious about apostate ideas. On the contrary, they "feel a loathing" toward those who have made themselves God’s enemies, but they leave it to Jehovah to execute vengeance." (The Watchtower, 10/1 1993, p. 19)

Compassion and forgiveness for the wicked:

"In Bible times persons who were considered as deserving of a resurrection were given a respectful burial. The ones slaughtered at Armageddon are shown as being left as food for the carrion-eating birds of the heavens. They will not be buried with military honors nor have graves with markers to memorialize them for mourners and idolizers. Those destroyed in this war will not be mourned, for the reason that they have shown themselves undeserving of mercy. By their removal the earth is cleansed." (The Watchtower, 7/1 1967, pp. 407-8)

"Men can spray a field with chemicals that kill weeds but spare crops; too bad they cannot spray cities with bombs that blow the bad to bits but leave the innocent intact." (The Watchtower, 7/15 1955, p. 436)

A religious such as Jehovah's Witnesses which claims to be motivated by love should have a motivater to set a good example for showing love and forgiveness, and here they are, "Jehovah" and "Christ":

"From his heavenly habitation, Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, he [Jehovah] roars with a battle shout loud enough to set heaven and earth rocking at the shock waves. He orders his King, Jesus Christ, to tread his enemies, who have been made as a foot stool for his feet. Into the valley of decision, as into a vast wine-press trough, the King leaps with his army of holy angels. SQUASH! The treading of the nations, including Christendom, begins.. . . Never before in all human history will so many human creatures have been slaughtered. Blood, as representing human lives poured out, will run deep and over a vast distance. Revelation 14:20 paints the appalling picture, saying: "And the wine press was trodden outside the city [God’s organization], and blood came out of the wine press as high up as the bridles of the horses, for a distance of a thousand six hundred furlongs [or, 200 miles]." (The Watchtower, 12/1 1961, pp. 725-6)

"A practical literal benefit will come because of allowing the birds to clean the bones of these enemies of God a health benefit. Many have been the epidemics that have been caused by the wholesale destruction and devastation of past wars. . . . This victory will be a feast, not only for the literal birds, but also, in a sense, for those who survive, for they will feast because of the end of wickedness." (The Watchtower, 7/1 1967, p. 408)

Yummy!

"The bodies of the slain will not molder in honorable burial places. Unburied, their flesh will be picked away clean to the bone, beyond identifying the bare skeletons. Because of the multitude of the slain, it will be a huge feast for the scavengers.. . .So, instead of having their bones eaten clean of all decaying flesh by the maggots at the Valley of Hinnom (or, at Gehenna), the carcasses of the slain enemies at Har Magedon will, as it were, be eaten clear to the bone by nature’s sanitation force, the carrion-eating birds and wild beasts. . . Quite evidently there will be many more bodies strewn over the earth as a result of the war at Har Magedon than there will be scavenger birds enough to dispose of them all in a reasonable time for human health reasons. So it is reasonable to expect that God will dispose of excess bodies by other means.. . .What a well-deserved, contemptible end for all these opposers of Jehovah and his Messianic kingdom at Har Magedon!" (Man’s Salvation Out of World Distress at Hand!, 1975, pp. 275-6)

Jesus asked his Father to forgive those who crucified him, for they did not know what they were doing, and Jehovah's Witnesses also follow his example and express this same love of humanity and forgiveness:

"A flesh-eating plague will destroy many. . . . Eaten up will be the tongues of those who scoffed and laughed at the warning of Armageddon! Eaten up will be the eyes of those who refused to see the sign of the "time of the end"! Eaten up will be the flesh of those who would not learn that the living and true God is named Jehovah! Eaten up while they stand on their feet!" (From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, 1958, p. 209)

Yeah, I see a whole bunch of "love" eminating from those quotes.

Farkel

Since when does belief in the "Organization" determine whether or not I believe the Bible? Since when can these bastards come between me and my relationship with God?

Man, this b.s. REALLY pisses me off!! Yet, Farkel, I appreciate your research. It's beneficial to review. "Know thine enemies..."

"I'm not a woman to be honked at." -- Maureen O'Hara, The Quiet Man

I'm in a funk. I worry about trusting myself to think. I worry that even though they SAY they forgive me, because they could see my good intentions, that I will not EVER be able to forgive myself the lack of REAL love shown in the name of the WT God --

outnfree ........... I do understand what you are saying ..... Every now and then it hits me too and
my baby is 31 .... but still I see the damage still in them all and mine were 12,11 and 7 when we left.

This is somethign that hit me between the eyes once when I was feeling thatway, and I keep it
handy so I can remind myself whenever I get into a 'funk'

Self Forgiveness

This is a quote I find helpful when trying to forgive one's self:

I have no right to judge myself from this place of strength, courage and wisdom
about that place where I was weak, afraid and unknowing.

It's True!

JanG

(((((((((farkel))))))))))
Thanks for putting this together......... a stellar example of love a la wts.......(ugh) can you say pea-soup? :> Tina

Carl Sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny...."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense,you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones."

I remember the stuff about the birds eating the dead bodies! I also thought that the end was near because the bird population was increasing greatly and it was even on the news how the birds were multiplying. It scared the bejebbers out of me at the time. How nice it is to not fear every day of my life now. News is news, and I don't tie everything in with the "time of the end," which I am sure all JWs still do. You are even taught that the daily news and the local news are things you should tie in with the sermon to the houselholder. I never thought about tying it in with the preaching work before, but if you say something with an ounce of truth and a fact in it, then that makes the other stuff you say more believable. Hmmm. Start to brainwash on the first visit at the door!

Lindy (Antique)

Farkel
Yet another great post! When I was in, I complained of the lack of love in the org. Several people, including elders, tried to blame it on individual beleivers. I don't know how many times I was told that we shouldn't look on the personal level for love to be shown.

I could never express that I saw it was coming from the top. This post does just that. Thank you.
wendy

The Borg doesn't see its own hypocrisy. Nor does it recognize or appreciate or admit its own false prophesying.

Do you all remember the times when the society brought back the concept of "blood guilt" for JWs? If your car had bad brakes and you knew it and failed to have them repaired, and then while driving your JW friends out in field service, for instance, you got in a wreck and someone in your car was killed, you were "blood guilty." And of course there are many other examples of the re-application of mosaic law by the Borg.

This was because that even though the old mosiac laws no longer apply, the "principle" still applies...according to the Borg.

Now consider the entire book of Galatians. The burden and thrust of the entire letter is a warning to those living in Galatia to be on the watch for any who would attempt to reimpose the old law. And the warning was made in the strongest terms.

There was no exception for the reimposition of the mosaic law via a claim that "principle" still applied. There was no exception at all.

So what we have here is the "only channel of communication that God is using today" violating the word of that changeless God in its naked attempt to reimpose the old mosaic law via specious claims of the application of "principle." It occurs to me that it's illogical to reimpose only a part of the mosaic law on "principle." If reimposing blood guilt is allowable and desireable, then the entire law must be reimposed. Can't pick and choose among the laws, after all.

I wonder when we're going to get back to stoning false prophets?

Safe4Kids,

: <"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.">

Yeah? Well a man without a woman will find all sorts of ingenous ways to violate a bicyle, and if it's been long enough, to violate the fish, too. Even if the fish is dead. Necrofishia is the medical term for that. (I made that up!)

Francoise:

"Do you all remember the times when the society brought back the concept of "blood guilt" for JWs?

I find it ironic that the idiotic leaders of dubs would use a term that applies to themselves more than anyone else. By their ban on blood transfusions, which cannot and never will be supported in scripture they are more "blood guilty" than any of their members that they accuse of having "blood guilt." I detest those bloody (no pun intented) assholes who are the biggest hypocrites, liars, manipulators and your basic and total self-serving jerks that I've ever known.

Farkel