JW article in major Canadian newspaper today...

by Pathofthorns 28 Replies latest jw friends

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  Nanoprobe

  Dont miss upcoming stories by Cristina Simonetto.

  Faith and Betrayal follows the lives of three young Jehovah's Witness women as they come to realize that their religion has betrayed them. Faith and the City showed how Deanna Brown, Lisa Gollan, and Karla Brown wholehearted desired to serve God through the Watchtower Organization. The girls opted against university educations and chose part time jobs to allow them to devote 70 hours per month to the preaching work.

  Follow the heartbreaking story of these women as they discover that things are not always as they seem. They realize the wonderful information in the Protect Your Children magazine is different from actual WTBS policy . Read along as we see the girls slowly come to understand that their answers to disfellowshipping questions were not correct. Finally they see they are governed by unwritten law taught by a secret society in private meetings.
  Read the womens attempts to find husbands and jobs as their youth fades and their education are inadequate.

  Edited by - nanoprobe on 30 July 2002 16:48:15
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  joenobody

  What a skewed article... Tell me that a young pioneer sister would not normally be chastised for going out with a "worldly woman" esp. to a worldly concert!
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  morrisamb

  Sorry to be repetitive, but I thought I'd rework my post here earlier into a letter for the Toronto Star. I just sent it. What do you think? Donald Editor: I thought the article, Faith & The City was a pleasant description of three Christian girls in the city with one major exception: "they use magazines...featuring such articles as "Protect Your Children" (from pedophiles and "homosexual perversions)." Unfortunately that coloured the whole piece. The fact that a magazine title would lump criminals who torture children with adults of a particular sexual orientation is insensitive at the very least. That's not those 3 girls fault. That's what they are taught to use. But if someone handed me a magazine with that kind of heading, she'd hear a thing or two--I don't care how much she looked like Audrey Hepburn. On the other hand, I might make a trade if they'd accept this homosexual writer's copy of my memoir, Father's Touch. I could even call it: Faith and The Country": eleven years a victim of sexual abuse within a Jehovah's Witness family in southwestern Ontario. Donald D'Haene www.fatherstouch.com (author web site)

  Edited by - morrisamb on 31 July 2002 8:40:15
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  waiting

  Article Quote: Karla Brown explains, "There's a difference between Bible and religion. We do the Bible education because it's so important to reconcile the Bible itself with what religion says. As a religion, we allow the Bible to interpret itself." And they believe that the Bible would not condone any of the damage that has been wreaked in its name.

  Karla's good at PR.....and half truths. She should be - she's a JW Pioneer. There IS "a difference between the Bible and religion." So what?

  "We *do* Bible education."???? "important to reconcile the Bible itself with what religion says."? Really.......where is that reconciliation proven?

  "As a religion, we allow the Bible to interpret itself." JW's have been saying that since at least 1968 - 'cause that's what my 80 year old grandmother in law told me the EXACT same quote....which actually doesn't say squat when one thinks about it.

  Karla should have said, "As a religion, we interpret the Bible like we feel the Bible would like to be interpreted itself in support of Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs."

  This ignorant reporter is just sing-songing along with 3 young girls, talking about makeup, Dave Mathews, not going to college, & volunteering. The article doesn't address one issue in any depth. She writes just like one of those girls - a silly girl.

  waiting

  Edited by - waiting on 30 July 2002 17:22:6
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  Tammie

  While many of their peers are engaged, married, or pregnant, all three are currently single. What if a non-Jehovah's Witness asks them out? Though the organization does not condemn marriages to people of other religions, none of the three date outside the religion.

  There are so many holes in that article. This one caught my attention. I had an elder tell me that is a disfelloshipping offence.
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  plmkrzy

  As a religion, we allow the Bible to interpret itself.

  Fred France should have said that when he was asked how he was able to interpret Hebrew Scriptures
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  Pathofthorns

  Letters to the editor can be sent here: [email protected]

  Letters must include full name, address, and phone numbers of sender. Street names and phone numbers will not be published.

  We reserve the right to edit letters, which typically run 50-300 words. Photos are welcome.

  
  Path
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  expatbrit

  My letter:

  Sir,

  As a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect for the first thirty years of my life, I read your article "Faith and the city" with some amusement at the well-remembered deceptive techniques of the Watchtower organisation.

  Contrary to this article's extremely limited and one-sided portrayal of Witness life, growing up as one of Jehovah's Witnesses is anything but "normal". Witnesses are continually indoctrinated with instructions on every aspect of life, from which types of clothing they can wear to whether or not women should scream while being raped. The young women featured in this article were almost certainly given extensive instructions by Jehovah's Witness elders on what to say to the "worldly" reporter.

  Such coaching is evident in the example Watchtower magazine articles quoted on protecting children. In recent months the policies of the Jehovah's Witnesses leadership have been exposed by both NBC in the United States and the BBC in the United Kingdom with regard to covering up paedophiles and silencing thousands of victims within their organisation. These policies have resulted in the disfellowshipping and shunning of victims whilst paedophiles remain in good standing in their congregations. The Jehovah's Witness leadership continues to send known paedophiles to the houses of the unsuspecting public as part of their so-called "volunteer" work, in reality an aggressive conversion campaign.

  Another deceptive statement is that "those who simply leave the faith are not shunned." What you are not told is that they make sure that there is no way to simply leave the faith. Questioning, doubting, or not obeying the ever changing instructions of the leadership in any way is included amongst their list of serious sins. Those who simply wish to leave are frequently pursued by Witness elders, intent upon disfellowshipping or disassociating the leaver and thereby preventing contact with family members and friends who remain Jehovah's Witnesses. It is for this reason that I request my name not be published should this letter be, since I wish to retain as much contact as possible with my Jehovah's Witness family members.

  In conclusion, I find the Star to be in general an excellently balanced newspaper giving both sides of the issues. Unfortunately this article failed to demonstrate that balance, and the deeper research for which Toronto Star articles are well known.

  Yours truly,

  Expatbrit
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  Pathofthorns

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  Edited by - Pathofthorns on 30 July 2002 22:22:7