I would just tell the Customs that I'm taking pictures for my Website, JW.ORG. JW is short for Jew.
Watchtower encouraging members to go and preach in Israel
by wannaexit 71 Replies latest jw friends
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OrphanCrow
I find this call for people to preach in Israel quite alarming.
Muddywaters, you said
In William Schnell's book, "30 Years a Watchtower Slave", he described how Rutherford would DELIBERATELY send in his "companies" (publishers/colporteurs) into areas of high resistance to stir up persecution, which he would then push through the court system to help the WT gain legitimacy, protection, legal status, publicity, sympathy, and whatever else they could gain from having his minions be beaten, thrown in jail, tarred & feathered, etc.
Yes. It was a deliberate campaign organized primarily by Hayden Covington.
Jennifer Jacobs Henderson, in her paper The Jehovah's Witnesses and their plan to expand first amendment freedoms, published in 2004, speaks of this very thing.
http://www.manitobaphotos.com/theolib/downloads/First_Amendment_Freedoms.pdf
The legal department was up and running when Hayden Covington joined the staff in 1939. At the
time of Covington's arrival, the Watchtower legal department consisted of the chief legal counsel,
several assistants, and a clerical staff. Many of the practices for gathering information from local
congregations and contacting attorneys had already been established. Booklets providing legal
instructions to Witnesses in the field had been distributed. The legal department was not proactive,
however, until Hayden Covington arrived. Covington's first task was to develop a legal strategy as
aggressive as Rutherford's spiritual one. The first step of his plan was to identify local communities
where Witnesses faced legal roadblocks to their ministry.IDENTIFYING LOCATIONS
Covington would determine which communities were targeted for intensive fieldwork, and thus,
potential future litigation. Covington would "send people into areas they knew would be a problem,
especially if there was a large Catholic population," (29) "an active priest," (30) or "previous
opposition." (31) Covington would simply inform a certain congregation that they needed to preach in
a certain territory, often adding, "It hasn't been preached in awhile." (32) For example, in New Haven,
Connecticut, three Witnesses and two of their sons were canvassing Cassius Street with a new
Judge Rutherford recording attacking the Roman Catholic Church. About 90 percent of the residents
of Cassius Street were Roman Catholic. (33) While Covington never admitted to deliberately
provoking local residents or law enforcement agents, his tactics often produced the desired
outcome--arrest.Identifying localities ripe for litigation was a long, often challenging process. When communities
initially targeted produced little response from law enforcement, Witnesses were sent on to the next
potential test site. Professor Jerry Bergman, a former Jehovah's Witness, explained, "They would
deliberately send them into this area and if there was no problem, send them into another area." (34)Covington "probed in community after community," Historian Merlin Owen Newton wrote, "to
determine local limits." (35) Covington saw the process of cultivating arrests and appeal as a
"long-term struggle," one that would not end by "winning a case tomorrow." (36)Witnesses were often sent into confrontational situations unaware of the danger, (37) but they did not
question Covington's plan. Even when they may have suspected trouble, Witnesses were taught not
to question decisions from the Watchtower leadership who claimed they had a direct line to God.
Also, Witnesses saw themselves as instruments of God, and "God was fighting this battle." (38)
Witnesses believed that they should be used in whatever way necessary to advance the cause.
Newton explained that Roscoe and Thelma Jones, whose case Jones v. Opelika would reach the
Supreme Court in 1942, believed "if their convictions could be used to further the larger cause ... then
their convictions must be part of Jehovah's divine plan." (39)Many of the witnesses sent into these 'hotspots' were brutally treated. Some of the accounts are horrifying - one young boy was castrated. Because at the same time that Covington sent his army of witnesses into the field, the children were being tested on their allegiance to either the Theocratic Government/Watchtower Society or the Amercian flag and the American pledge of allegiance.
It was ugly at that time to be a Jehovah's Witness when you were being called upon to make changes in the American constitution.
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LoisLane looking for Superman
The letter says that the "Service Committee" of the GB has agreed to this insanity.
They say it is a relative safe country, and that single sisters should/may pair up with another single sister and go. They are hoping for a minimum of 2 weeks, to 3 months. (Tourist Visa).
I have been to Israel. I would never go again. I don't like gun carrying army personnel going through all of my things at every checkpoint. And there are many checkpoints. JW.org is trying to pretend this could be a carefree, holiday trip for single women. It is not.
LL
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OrphanCrow
That is odd, to be encouraging single women to head over to Israel.
Who knows what the Watchtower Society's ulterior motive is....but, for sure - it isn't looking for converts - the JWs have been used as a political 'force' in the past and I can't see the Society changing its ways.
I don't know if this has any bearing on why single sisters are being recruited:
There are several reasons that confer exemption from military service in Israel to the person involved; some only apply to men, others apply only to women, and others to both sexes.
Other than marriage, pregnancy and parenthood, there is another criteria that allows women to avoid being conscripted:
Exemption for religious reasons (for women only), in accordance with sections 39 and 40 of the Security Service Law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exemption_from_military_service_in_Israel
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EmptyInside
A couple in my family signed up to go to Israel for two weeks. I hope they aren't accepted. He also told me Jerusalem was very safe,because the police carry machine guns. Okay,why do they need machine guns then,ugh.
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talesin
OC - two points.
Non-Jews who are tourists, do not have to serve in the Israeli army. They are tourists. EDIT: I don't know if it's true now, but I had a friend who visited Israel in the 80s, and he was an Orthodox Jew who had a visa to stay, I think it was 2 years. As soon as he arrived and was through Customs, he was conscripted! Within 2 weeks, he was shot by a tracer bullet, hospitalized, and returned to Canada. SO, yeah, if you are Jewish, that may be a possibility.
The paper you quoted has some really awesome stuff, but it is about 1st Amendment rights - ie, people serving in the US, "where the need is greater" TM , not missionairies who were/are sent abroad from the USA. We do not want to be like the WTS and quote things 'out of context' in order to make a point.
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hoser
I wonder if they will do something like this?
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hoser
OK so this is from the US department of state
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2011/nea/192887.htm
From the above documents
"During the year members of Jehovah’s Witnesses reported assaults, threats of violence, and other crimes and noted the difficulties their members faced in convincing the police to investigate or apprehend the perpetrators. On August 13, in Holon, approximately 15 Haredi men disrupted a religious meeting held at a sports hall and one of them punched a member of the community. However, after police questioned the attacker, authorities only gave him a restraining order."
"After Jehovah’s Witnesses held several meetings in the Raanana sports hall in November, city council member Ilan Cohen called publicly for halls to refuse to rent space for “missionary activities.” Afterwards the sports hall could no longer find an available date for any future Jehovah’s Witnesses’ gathering. In Netanya on December 13, police fined two members of Jehovah’s Witnesses NIS 730 ($200) each for sharing their faith from door to door and passing out free literature, stating in the citation that such religious activity was “peddling” without a license. Authorities also confiscated their Bibles."
"Major Protestant denominations that have been in the country for many years, such as the Assemblies of God, Baptists, and Lutherans, among others, are not recognized. Four religious communities that have applied for official recognition have had their applications pending for years: Ethiopian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Evangelical Alliance of Israel. Jehovah’s Witnesses presented two applications for recognition as a religious congregation, in 2003 and 2008, which were rejected."
As noted in previous posts the watchtower corporation is using this campaign to cry persecution. They throw their own under the bus.
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talesin
Yeah, I wouldn't be going to Israel. My little fantasy of "Eretz Israel" was shattered when my friend arrived back in Canada. Luckily, it was only a 'flesh wound'.
I remember when friends where in Ivory Coast and Liberia. The one in Liberia had to come home quickly, it was a real 'hot spot'. The b'Org really cares nothing for their people.
They are only getting bad pubilcity atm re the sex abuse scandals, so are looking for a way to appear holy, I guess. Imagine the fundy Xtians in the south - look at the JWS, going to help those JEWS!tal