Who Knows about Voting Being a Conscience Matter?

by jamiebowers 17 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  LUKEWARM

  How can they DF someone when they say it's a personal decision:
  
  If someone decides to go to the polling booth, that is his decision. What he does in the polling booth is between him and his Creator.
  
  Then this:
  
  There may be people who are stumbled when they observe that during an election in their country, some Witnesses of Jehovah go to the polling booth and others do not. They may say, 'Jehovah's Witnesses are not consistent.' People should recognize, though, that in matters of individual conscience such as this, each Christian has to make his own decision before Jehovah God.-Romans 14:12.
  
  And then the article seems to encourage a donkey vote...
  
  The November 15, 1950, issue of TheWatchtower, on pages 445 and 446, said: "Where Caesar makes it compulsory for citizens to vote . . . [Witnesses] can go to the polls and enter the voting booths. It is here that they are called upon to mark the ballot or write in what they stand for. The voters do what they will with their ballots. So here in the presence of God is where his witnesses must act in harmony with his commandments and in accordance with their faith. It is not our responsibility to instruct them what to do with the ballot."

  This article is GOLD!!!
• 

  chickpea

  i know MY conscience is clear(er)
  when it comes to voting!
• 

  honorsthesis

  Enlightening thread!
• 

  neverscreamagain

  Anything newer on topic?

  Or personal experiences?
• 

  Terry

  The Watchtower uses the words "individual conscience" in a special way that nobody else would ever use them.

  There are, first of all, no INDIVIDUALS allowed inside the Kingdom Halls who call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses.

  They are a group-mind and not entities solely determining outcomes based on personal preferences.

  The "voice in the head" of publishers is what the Watchtower means by using CONSCIENCE. The WT puts that "voice"

  in their head.

  What they are saying is: "As long as you do what we've told you to do you are following your christian conscience."

  If you do otherwise it is marked down as rebelliousness and apostacy.
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  If you admit that you have voted for a poltican candidate, you will be judged to have made the personal choice to disassociate yourself from the Cong.

  Doc
• 

  Eustace

  Doc,

  Is that proven?
• 

  Splash

  VOTING WT 50 Nov 15, p.445 - 446 : Conscience matter

  WT 73 Oct 15 p.627 : Not allowed to vote

  "Pay Attention" 1981 p.149 : Voting can result in disfellowshipping

  WT 99 Nov 1 p.28-29 : Conscience matter

  "some Witnesses of Jehovah go to the polling booth and others do not... in matters of individual conscience such as this, each Christian has to make his own decision before Jehovah God."

  Keep Yourselves in Gods Love (2008) p.214 : Not allowed to vote

  *** w02 1 /1 p. 28 Jehovah Has Provided “Power Beyond What I s Normal” ***

  [Albania 1986 when voting was not permitted].

  They mentioned the case of a dear brother who was determined to remain politically neutral in an upcoming vote. Since the State controlled everything, this meant that his family would not receive any food rations. His married children and their families would all be sent to prison, although they had nothing to do with his religious beliefs. It was reported that members of this brother’s family, because of fear, killed him the night before the vote, dumped his body in a well, and later claimed that he got scared and killed himself.

  *** w01 3/15 pp. 8-9 Courageous Integrity Keepers Triumph Over Nazi Persecution ***

  [Germany 1936 when voting was not permitted].

  The book Betrayal—GermanChurchesandtheHolocaust, edited by professor of history Robert P. Ericksen and professor of Jewish studies Susannah Heschel, explained that the. . . . Witnesses believed in political neutrality, which meant they would not vote for Hitler nor give the Hitler salute.” This, adds the same source, provoked the anger of the Nazis and put the Witnesses in harm’s way because “National Socialism would not tolerate such a refusal.”