With all due respect. It sounds like many of you are reading way to much into this article than what was printed.
WTS says you are free to do what we tell you
by ozziepost 31 Replies latest jw friends
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RedhorseWoman
With all due respect. It sounds like many of you are reading way to much into this article than what was printed.
Xenu, this is exactly the point. JWs are always required to read WAY more into an article than what is printed. To the "mature" Christian, there are many key words and phrases that indicate EXACTLY what is meant, and it goes way beyond the basic appearance of the information.
Consider the poor JW who takes the article at face value, and then finds themselves being counseled or even reproved for singing a hymn at a worldly relative's funeral. Happens all the time.
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Francois
This topic was covered in a WT study article back in the 80s sometime. And it was the usual JW doublespeak. "It's OK to go, but..." and the "but" took about three paragraphs to expound upon what a true christian would do.
I say that meat sacrificed to idols is still meat. It means nothing to me, so hand that steak over buddy. It's my dinner now.
I also say the the JWs are a cult, and I say fuck 'em. I've invited them to a debate anytime anywhere and have met with nothing but silence. And these are the same people who said, back in the 30s and 40s that since the clergy wouldn't come out and debate Da Judge, that was proof positive they were preaching false religion.
Like I said, fuck 'em.
Francois
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ThiChi
Before I DA’d myself, the WT allowed voting to be a personal decision (Question from Readers). When I inquired with fellow Elders on the matter, their response was “the person would still be considered VERY spiritually weak” if they voted. You can’t win!
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Axelspeed
I believe its a case of you are free to "follow your conscience", but if you are "spiritually mature" you will be alert to follow the "leanings" of the WTS.
Can't tell you how many times I've heard that phrase and the question, "Which way is the slave LEANING?"...Can't you just feel the "refreshment" of the yoke?
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LDH
What really freakin' pisses me off is that marriage is God's arrangement according to their own wacky ass songbook.
So how are you gonna reconcile that two people are doing something that Jehovah blesses, but not in the way that's acceptable to the WBTS.
Who's got more rank here? Jehovah and his arrangment or the WBTS and the Boys in Writing?
Lisa
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eyeslice
I know that many witnesses, including those on the governing body, have visited sites of worship, including old Cathedrals, old churches and pagan temples. Writers for the Awake give accounts of religious ceremonies and festivals that they have obviously observed in lands where they have served as missionaries. I myself have visited many pagan temples and observed their own etiquette, such as removing ones shoes before entering a Hindu or Bahai temple and covering ones head ( as a male) in a Sikh temple.
What is trickier however is entering such a place when a religious ceremony is in progress, and, so the question arises, is physically being at such a place when religious worship is in progress an indication that you are in agreement with it? It is clear from the Bible that being an observer does not necessarily mean that you approve of what is being said or what is going on. Although attending a church wedding or funeral may be frowned upon by some elders, an easy answer is to use the example in the Bible of Naaman. He was the guy cured of leprosy by Elijah and hence became a worshiper of Jehovah. However, his problem was that when he returned to his land, he was required to lead his aged father (?) who leaned on his arm into a pagan temple to worship. As his ‘master’ on his arm bowed down to the false god Rimmon, Naaman would physical have to give way too – bending down himself as it where. Although this would be a disfellowshipping offense with many bodies of elders today, Elijah told Naaman to go in peace. In other words, God knows what is in a person’s heart, and how a situation appears may not always be a reflection of reality.
In the past, I have attended the funerals of route calls and the wedding of worldly colleagues. I cannot see that this in itself is an indication that I agree with what is said or goes on.
2 Kings Chapter 5:
17 And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.
18 In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, [that] when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way. -
William Penwell
Typical cult mind control tactics. "You are free to do what you want but Jehovah won't like it". So they, the WT is not telling you what to do but Jehovah may be displeased. Glad I am out.
Will
"I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's."
Mark Twain -
bluesapphire
This article made me literally sick to my stomach. Talk about P.R.E.S.S.U.R.E. That's all the JWs is about.
Can you imagine: I'm a JW woman married to a non-JW. Our child dies. I am in grief. But I have to consult the bound volume to tell me how I should act at my own child's funeral. Possibly, I would be "encouraged" (read pressured) into not attending my own child's funeral at a Catholic Church so that my "heart will be settled".
Or my husband's mom dies and he is very upset. But I pull out the bound folume to "explain" to my husband that I will be required to embarrass him at his mother's funeral in hopes that he'll tell me not to go.
IF anyone out there is studying ... LISTEN UP AND LISTEN WELL. The magazines are crying out to you! They are saying: THIS IS WHAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT!!
I wish I had been on line back in 1994 when I got baptized. I wish someone would have pointed an article like this to me.
This is the diet my little sister is on right now as we 'speak'. No wonder it's so hard to get the poor girl out. She is on this pathetic PRESSURE diet for five meetings a week.
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Wren
Looking from the outside in now, this looks like another page from Watchtower book of How to Instill Guilt and Uncertainty in Your Followers.