JW response to BBC program online

by freeborg 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  freeborg

  Below are a couple of coments from the BBC web page, youwill notice the typical JW response. Many more listed use the link below

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/panorama/newsid_855000/855727.stm

  I have been a Jehovah's Witness for 20 years and I have just read the comments regarding your programme. I am repelled that you are irresponsible enough to put out a programme that is obviously one-sided and will have an deep impact on the lives of many Jehovah's Witnesses who are law-abiding citizens and abhor the acts of paedophiles. If this leads to any vigilantism then I hope you are prepared to take the responsibility for the safety of innocent people.
  Linda Day
  Pontypridd

  As one of Jehovah's witnesses it is with both a mixture of sadness and anger that I write to you. I think it is almost deplorable the way you have misconstrued our beliefs into this little section of do's and don'ts, when in actual fact we are nothing like that. We all have our own personal reasons for being one of Jehovah's witnesses and we respect the decisions that are made by the "body" of elders in our own congregation. If we so desire we can take blood, but at our own risk. When we make our Dedication to Jehovah (not to the organisation, there are no forms to sign), we pledge to do as He asks of us, to the best of our ability. That means following the laws he has set, ie the not taking of blood. If you want to be part of anything, a country or a team of some sort then you surely have to respect the rules as laid out to you in the beginning, or is that to logical? Is it to much to ask of people today? It seems so, as most of us don't bother following simple traffic laws either! Also I think it would be beneficial to you if someone came to one of our meetings, and had a chat with a couple of us, as it seems your info came from this Bill guy, and it is plainly obvious even to the casual observer that he has negative attitude to us now. Therefore your supposedly "factual" programmes will now lose whatever credibility they may have once enjoyed, because of your "let's ask any old Joe for info". Your idea also that we only use certain scriptures from the bible, that we have specifically chosen, is also wrong. It takes our beliefs totally out of context. We use the entire bible to get an answer for a question, and sometimes we have to make up our own minds on matters, according to our "Bible-trained conscience". We are reminded that we are "no part of this world" (John 17v16, John18v36, James4v4, John15v17-19,), and that is the reason we don't salute flags and join the army, or sign the national anthem. We know that there is no hope for us when we look to this worlds rulers, it is plain and obvious even to a blind man, that men through the centuries have gotten it wrong. So when God does come to reclaim what is rightfully his, (the earth, and all those on it that want to serve and worship him with love and truth) then hopefully we will be counted as such. We have a better chance of doing so if we are following the rules, so to speak. On the subject of child molestation I won't comment as I am not an elder and therefore it is not for me to do so as I don't have all the facts, but to be honest with you, I really don't want too. If I dwelt constantly on the negatives in life then I would probably end up mad. To gain more information then please do come to one of our meetings, any and all that read this, just so that you can get the correct information for yourselves. Indeed that is the reason we go from door-to-door, to tell people the "good news", and to find out if they want a better future. I mean, don't we all? We don't go out to proselytise, or to convert, it is a personal choice if people want to join us. And just as you reserve the right to edit this letter (please don't though), then we also reserve the right to remove those who don't respect the rules. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you have any questions, then don't hesitate to ask. If you would like a copy of the Quoted Awake magazine then ask.
  A concerned Jehovah's Witness, Justin Palmer
  Croydon
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  Xandria

  I read the post and was sadden by the blinders many Witnesses chose to put on. Some even called the people on the documentary actors bent on slurring Jehovah's Organization. I ask you who said that the WTS was Jehovah's chosen Organization ?

  Jehovah is not contained to the four walls of Churches, Kingdom Halls, etc. He is bigger than any Organization. What the Organization is..... is man's interpretation of what God wants. An man is imperfect and corruptable. But again wrap it up, shut it up and don't allow yourself to believe it.. no no it is an actor, or a bitter apostate. Rather than taking a long painful look at the disease ridden body known as the Watchtower Society. Seeing the decayed holes that reek of festering injustice. Witnesses worry about the "organization" being persecuted. Well what about those innocent people who loved Jehovah who were tortured by their own ?

  No no just label them and sweep them under the carpet. They are just bitter apostates, d/a or d/f people. No no don't listen to the man behind the curtain... he is an apostate.

  They are afraid to step through the looking glass and see the other side. For they themselves may come face to face with the monsters , as we have. An they may not have the "power" to "slay" the monster.. because it the monster has the face of a beloved elder, sister, brother, friend or family member. Monsters are real folks.. they are abusers. An the more you ignore the monster in the closet.. the more scarier he/she/ it gets. The Organization gives them power to continue. Monsters live in dark places.. under your bed, in your closet.. in your homes, churches, Kingdom Halls and families... an until we drag them into the light. They will remain.

  For the people in the organization it is easier for them to hide their heads under the covers. While their children, friends and brothers and sisters...wait in dread for the footsteps coming to their rooms, or the screaming foaming visage of a face that is their parent.. looms towards them in anger to beat them for what ever slight they did...continues. An then they wonder why their children run, d/a themselves, PROTECT themselves from the monsters in the night.. well the answer is..it is because THEY failed to.

  The Truth is .. the child grew up into a adult that is no longer afraid to fight back. Why .. you took everything that mattered to them.. what else do they have to LOSE ? they lost everything anyway. The only choice given was to fight back. Regain what they lost.. but still in that there is a price. Shunning, no family (that is still is in the WTS), etc. Will it stop.. don't know, but we can try or go down swinging. Which is more than we had growing up.

  Xandria
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  Dizzy Cat

  The Panorama programme was interesting and insightful, but I would have liked it to go further myself (maybe another hour). It would have been good for the team to focus more upon the mind-set that leads to this stubborn and hard-line attitude, that prevents positive action taking place to help resolve these horrible crimes.

  The way the programme came across was upon reflection biased towards sensationalism, that will lead in many cases to a profound knee-jerk response from the mindless.

  Would it not be sad, if your average JW, had to face a barrage of insults due to a report through the media that seemed to suggest that every JW was a stubborn, paedophile protecting looney !?! When quite clearly this is not the case.

  I know when I was *in the truth*, I would have followed the company line and adhered to the rules laid out by the elders and GB, and I'm pretty sure that most ex-JWs would have done the same. looking back again, I can see how my mind worked at that time and can appreciate the steel box that one is bound by, so as not to have free thought in matters of moral law.

  My sadness lies with the victims of these terrible crimes and my anger lies with certain elders and members higher up, who should have known better. These possible paedophiles should have been handed over to secular authority in the first instance. Elders & the GB for the most part (I would assume) have no formal training to deal with these highly manipulative individuals. They need to come under pressure and intense scrutiny to unearth the truth.

  To cast the whole of the JW standards and philosophy into a pit of excrement straight away is foolish though, based upon one programme (which I know some people will do). I am grateful looking back, that enforced Bible standards helped me kick a drug habbit amongst other things out of my life and for that part of my existance, I have the WTS to thank (I can hear memebers of this board cursing my name ) .... .. .
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  Matty

  A typical JW response was the cynical and condemnatory way Jehovah's Witnesses see Bill Bowen and the work he has done. We have already seen it here by some of the posters in the last few months.

  I am still reeling over the way I heard members of my family yesterday denounced this wonderful, darling man, with no knowledge about him whatsoever. "He's no brother", "How can he be such a traitor by talking to the media like that!".

  I am so sickened I really had to bite my tongue!
• 

  Bang

  It's good to see that you can call a spade a spade now Matty.

  "Let your yes be yes and your no be no, all else is from the evil one"

  Bang
• 

  SYN

  There are some pretty good points in this thread. It is true that the programming I experienced while Assimilated helped me to avoid drugs and alcohol - in fact to this day I won't touch either. I was also strongly indoctrinated against WOMEN, but I touch those plenty today

  Yes, the Tower is not entirely evil. Yes, there are good people in there, many of them in fact, and I've known a few who truly loved their Brothers and Sisters.

  But does this excuse the actions of the boys at the top? Does this excuse the rampant abuse, funky Biblical translation, supreme chauvinism (no women in leadership roles, dishclothes), the UN NGO scandal, or any of the other things which have been uncovered? The GB KNOWS about all this stuff - and yet they do nothing. Better to protect the name of the BOrganization than try to help the children, is their opinion.

  Essentially, once you remove all the bizarre, unscriptural, incorrect, and just plain dangerous policies and doctrines from the Tower, the Tower will be gone. What will be left behind nobody knows, but I doubt it'll last very long. Remember, the Tower is powerful - their programming methods have been refined for over a century now. There is virtually nothing we can do to help people out of it - they must help themselves, and sadly for many the Watchtower mind-meme has become so much a part of them that is it has virtually replaced their entire personality, and when you take away the Tower, there is no more personality left, really, just a hollow, Watchtower-compatible shell.

  The beautiful minds of 6 million people have been engulfed and destroyed by this meme. God help them, wherever you are.
• 

  justhuman

  It is the typical double thinking of the JW's. If anyone says something they don't like they consider it persecution. They would be more happy if they were the only ones living in this world, so that no one say's anything against their filthy organization. But we are living in a free world and JW they have to realize this. That is why we have different opinions and they also must be heard.

  But when the Watchtower decides to write an aritcle in their magazines against any other religion, it is okey. That is not persecution, it is exposing false religion.

  My dear Witness friends, you have to accept critisizm because you are living in a free world. This is not your Organization that you are not allowed to have freedom of thought or speech. That is the true meaning of democracy that Greece show it to the world 2600 years ago. That everyone express freely he's point of view without any sactions.

  Perhaps you might ask your selfs, if the world was like your organization, would you exist today? You know the answer...

  It is because free demeocratic world has accepted you and many other cults like you it is the reason that you exist. But instead of respecting that, your organzation attacks everyone that disagrees with them, even those country's that they have quarrantee your freedom.

  Respect others and accept them even if you disagree with them. That is the meaning of democracy.

  Good work BBC, and I'm waiting to see the demonstration outside Brooklyn...
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  biblexaminer

  I am quite sure that if this had been a documentary on the Church of Scientology, or the Mormons, or, you guessed it, the Catholic Church, JWs would have lined up to cheer.

  Just change the names from JWs to Catholics and whamo! the whole JW community would be lining up to do obesience to the producers.

  But my good "Christian brothers" cannot see it. Satan has the whole mass of JWs blinded and they are all heading to a pit.