Decent? Hardly. The guy sold out his journalistic integrity just to please his mom. The guy should be strung up for that ridiculous misrepresentation of this dangerous cult. How many people must die, be molested or have their families ripped from them before this group will be exposed on a world wide scale? Knucleheads like this should be condemned as the apologists that they are.
Joel Engardio JW essay on NPR yesterday (link)..decent piece actually...
by M.J. 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Confession
I'm with OTWO and Shawn on this...
And I like it that my mom doesn’t politicize her beliefs. She’s never voted for a law that discriminates against gay people, or anyone who isn’t a Jehovah’s Witness. Her Bible tells her to love, above all.
Give me a friggin' break. We could also say...
"And never once has she spearheaded a community effort to burn crosses in the lawns of local blacks, nor has she advanced legislation to block gay marriages."
If JWS did vote, you'd better believe they'd be voting against anything gay-favorable. And, while it's true that "love" is taught in the Bible, I don't think anyone can seriously call it, "love, above all." The official stance of the WTS is to consider as evil, hate, and never pray for family members who simply don't recognize The Watchtower as their channel of communication to God.
Joel, I know you feel bad that you let your mother down. I know it must feel good to build a sort of bridge back to her. I know you think you've found a way to both maintain your life as a homosexual and find a form of acceptance from your mother and former community of friends within the JWs. But you're grasping at straws, Joel. And, at the same time, endeavoring to bring validation to a legalistic and authoritarian organization that--unless you deny yourself and cease living as a gay man--proclaims you a perverted reprobate.
Tolerance is good. But it's hard to make a good case for "tolerance for the intolerant."
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Death to the Pixies
Still, I didn’t have a bad childhood. Our Saturday morning ministry meant sacrificing my Saturday morning cartoons, but our 10 o’clock coffee break was a blessing.
Not a bad childhood? Yeah there was a lot more than just no Saturday morning cartoons. Add to that, no birthdays, no Christmas, no trick or treating, no Easter egg hunting, being forced to "make a stand" in the classroom to refuse the flag salute and refuse to enjoy classroom parties if they are birthday or holiday-themed, no school dances or clubs or proms, being forced to go to three meetings a week (including two in the evening on days when you have school the next morning with homework to do), being indoctrinated with the scary belief that the world is going to end any minute now (so what good is school), with many of your non-Witness loved ones dying, being forced not to study and accept certain things that science has demonstrated, having your mind confined by dogma that is supposed to be accepted as the "truth", missing your friend's farewell when they are moving away because you have to go to a stupid JW assembly, having to face an abusive authoritarian when being "babysit" by a JW pioneer, getting spanked publically in the bathroom when you can't sit still during those boooooring meetings you had to go to three times a week, etc. etc. Yeah, not a bad childhood. I'm so glad it only involved missing Saturday morning cartoons!
Oh, and we rarely ever had a 10 o'clock coffee break.
We always knew when you were “home but hiding.”
Now that is true. Especially me. I had phenomenal hearing as a child (sensitive hearing, the clapping at the kingdom hall would hurt my ears), and I could always tell a person was home from the high-pitched tone emitted by a television even when the set is muted -- and I could sometimes hear it across the street.
Obviously I don’t agree with my mom’s belief that same-sex relationships are wrong. But I tolerate her religion because she has a right to her beliefs.
It's too bad the religion's "organization" does not show the same tolerance that he displays. It's easy to forget that it isn't just a "religion" in the sense of a people sharing the same beliefs, there is also an organizational structure that sets policy and controls how people treat each other. Criticism of policy is not necessarily intolerance. Especially when that policy involves discrimination and intolerance.
She’s never voted for a law that discriminates against gay people, or anyone who isn’t a Jehovah’s Witness.
True, but there are many other ways to discriminate against people. In fact, discrimination is most acutely felt in person-to-person interaction, and less in abstract laws that less directly impact people's lives.
The point is the people we don’t understand become less scary when we get to know them as real people.
True again. Unfortunately, the organization does not let the average JW get to know gays, former JWs (i.e. "apostates" as the Society likes to call them), etc. as "real people". They are summarily classed as "bad associations" and JWs are urged to restrict contact with them, even shun them -- even those who had to choose to leave the JWs for conscience reasons. Unfortunately, the organization that JWs recognize as their earthly authority tries to prevent them from "getting to know them as real people".
We don’t have to be each other’s cup of tea, but tolerance lets a variety of kettles peacefully share the stove.
A great ideal, but not practised in the congregation. It is the organization's way, or the highway.
I believe our capacity to tolerate both religious and personal difference is what will ultimately give us true liberty—even if it means putting up with an occasional knock on the door.
But what does the JW child have to put up with if he or she faces a lack of liberty in believing what he/she wants to believe or love who he/she wants to love? Joel should know.
Boy, what a negative, missed every single actual point he made, bunch of non-sense. And you are a scholar? I question your abilities to be objective.
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Gayle
He speaks as a full authority of WTS.. He never was committed 100%, never baptized,,never a full reality,,having some good times at Duncan Donuts with JWs,,leaving young and never taking on the JW life to a fullness, not ever under the 'intolerance' of the disfellowshipping control of the WTS,, doesn't make one an authority,,he is very two-faced.
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Junction-Guy
I grew up in it, and never got baptized, and I can still see the damage this cult has done, not only in my life, but my Mom's, and even my brother to a smaller extent.
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Borgia
Nice to read, although I found some peculiar point in there. But this one caught my attention:
And I like it that my mom doesn’t politicize her beliefs. She’s never voted for a law that discriminates against gay people, or anyone who isn’t a Jehovah’s Witness. Her Bible tells her to love, above all.
The statement itself must be correct. If she is a JW, she really did not vote......at all :-) How does that reflect on his representation of fact and objectivity? (see me being gay and applauding JW's?)
"politicize.. believes".
Merriam Webster:
1 a: of or relating to government, a government, or the conduct of government
b: of, relating to, or concerned with the making as distinguished from the administration of governmental policy
2: of, relating to, involving, or involved in politics and especially party politics
3: organized in governmental terms (political units)
4:involving or charged or concerned with acts against a government or a political system
I feel that all the JW believes have a political connotation: 1) it clearly does not allow for entanglement in earthly governments and 2) the heavenly government would eradicate (soon) all civil liberties we now enjoy. To hold JW believes is quite a political statement I dare say!
Cheers
Borgia
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Room 215
Somebody ought to lay some of this good stuff on NPR; they regulary broadcast responses from listeners, don't they?