Perhaps some of you here have already visited this site. I checked out after reading Happy Man's post in a thread. I was unaware at the time that he was a J.W as I haven't read many of his responses.
Well Lars this sounds nasty, if you have qestions, i just find a site how can help you, if you have a few days, read this , here i think you have all answers you want, several sites widh qestions , as is usual on this site, and how JW answer on this, so read on.
So, I checked out the site and was a mixture of entertained and disgusted. I have cut and pasted some of the highlites for those of you who have not had the pleasure.
This is where they flatly deny that unflattering old quotes exist.
In about 1895 a document was fabricated to incite hatred against the Jews. This document eventually fell into the hands of one Adolf Hitler, and the rest, as they say, is history. Since I tend to get alot of email from so-called "Christians," I have been finding a disturbing trend lately. Old Watchtower (and other WTS publications) quotations are floating around wherein the words quoted simply do not exist. These of course, are written in a way to make Jehovah's Witnesses look bad. It is sad, and ultimately frightening, that people are resorting to these kinds of tactics.
I always ask these people for a hard-copy, to date, I have never received one. I usually get the same answer, "I lost mine," or, most often, "I got it from a web-site, but I lost the URL."
Warning! Any document posted on a web-site AGAINST JW's that makes Witnesses look real bad, has an extremely high probability of being fabricated. People, this is not "Christian," this is evil.
This is where they pull the Woe me card because they get "picked on" for refusal of blood.
The reason for this is because it is easier to pick on a little group that is considered a "cult" rather than on larger groups that have powerful political backing
"...Mainstream organized religions often have the same problems (e.g. child abuse, misused funds) as some new religious sects, yet the former get off the hook. Although there may be some outcry about the specific incidents, no one in the mainstream uses these occcurences to smear organized religions as a whole....generally, if (say) a rabbi sins, he is seen as a bad rabbi, not as proofs of the evils of Judaism; if a 'cult leader' sins, that is proof of the evils of cults. Jews (and other mainstream believers) buy newspapers and will complain if their religion is abused; whereas cults are not seen as a serious constituency."
You Are Being Lied To/Russ Kick editor, p. 288
I am not sure when the aboved defense occured to them, before or after they smeared the catholics for their sexual scandels.
Here again they assert that nobody but the Jehovah Witnesses get bad press, even going as far as mentioning the Jews, as if they have not recieved their share of troubles and persecution. I guess not as much as the ever persecuted JW's.
We are not going to hear bad reports of Baptists and Jews, for that would mean trouble.What surprises me though is that intelligent persons fall prey to this myopic mindset.
Well at least they admit that we are intelligent
Why was the Watchtower a member of the U.N?
In 1991, one of the legal corporations of the WTS registered with the United Nations as an NGO for the sole purpose of getting access to the extensive library of the United Nations. This enabled a writer who received an identification card, to enter the library, to enter the library for research purposes and to obtain information that has been used in writing articles in our journals about the United Nations. There was nothing secret about it.
At the time of the initial application, no signature was required on the form. Years later, unbeknown to the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, the United Nations published "Criteria for Association", stipulating that affiliated NGO's are required to support the goals of the UN.
After learning of the situation, our membership as NGO was withdrawn and the ID card was returned.
From a reader: The WT says that the UN is the unclean thing and its not to be touched.Reply: That is not really true. The Bible and the WTS says that of Babylon the great, not the government (that is why the NWT cross-references 2 Cor 6:17 with Revelation 18). What the WTS has actually pooh-poohed is that the UN is mankinds last hope, or "God's kingdom on earth."
To defend other JW's, the Watchtower has also recently filed with the European Court, in order to protect our rights under the UN's Declaration of Human Rights. see http://www.jw-media.org/rights/european_court.htmSo you see now, it was really all for a library card, and they never really said anything bad about the U.N. Must have been those hasty rank and file members again.
And yet, Ron Rhodes has the guts to say:
"Despite its many predictions, the Watchtower Society refuses to concede it is a false prophet."
Mr. Rhodes calls these predictions, I call them speculations, the same kind that his church-members have been doing all along.So above we find out that the WT does not make predictions, but rather speculation. Very interesting use of semantics.
Many people believe that there are signs occuring now which seem similar to events in Revelations.Their have been in the future and presently authors who pen fictional account of events based on Revelations which no-one is forced to read or believe.The WT now believes this to be the same thing as their multiple false prophesies down to exact years which have forced many to give up educations, marriages, and children.
According to this issue of Time magazine, evangelical authors, like Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are making money hand over fist, feeding on people's fears that the end is near. "A TIME/CNN poll finds that more than 1/3 of Americans say they are paying more attention now to how the news might relate to the end of the world, and have talked about what the Bible has to say on the subject. Fully 59% say they believe the events in Revelation are going to come true, and nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the Sept. 11 attack." This is the same magazine (Time, July 1, 2002) that calls Evangelical author Tim LaHaye, a prophet.In fact if you choose to read the entire site, you will notice that they don't really address their false prophesy other than to say that they simply made speculations.IMO they simply whine and point to other people who have also made false predictions and seem to be saying, if they can do it than we should be able to.
Oh and here's a gem about how they view their publications.
Nor would we have our writings reverenced or regarded as infallible, or on a
par with the holy Scriptures. The most we claim or have ever claimed for our
teachings is that they are what we believe to be harmonious interpretations
of the divine Word, in harmony with the spirit of the truth. And we still
urge, as in the past, that each reader study the subjects we present in the
light of the Scriptures, proving all things by the Scriptures, accepting what
they see to be thus approved, and rejecting all else. It is to this end, to
enable the student to trace the subject in the divinely inspired Record, that
we so freely intersperse both quotations and citations of the Scriptures upon
which to build. -- "Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness," No. 2,
Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, 15 December 1896,
reprint, 2080.And How do they answer the molestation issue, well first of all it's a matter of homesexuality, not pedophilia.Let's get that straight.
The American Psychiatric Association describes (pedophilia) as sexual activity with a pre-pubescent child, generally age 13 years or younger," Maier said.
But, he noted, most of the recent allegations against Catholic priests involve teen-age boys.
"Technically, if we have a man having sex with an adolescent boy, that would be considered homosexuality, not pedophilia."They go on and on in what I considered to be a sickening tirade about how molestation problems are so much worse in other denominations, almost as if they are glad it happens as if just to take the heat off of them. It just rubbed me the wrong way. Molestation does occur everywhere and it is obscene anywhere it happens, but I can't think of too many other denominations that first of all absolutly expect their members to come to them first with a problem, and secondly can alienate them from family and friends for not following their directives. Here is how they answer this.
My reactions to statements like these are: "Who talks like this?!"
I have been a JW most of my life, and the above statements are absolutely foreign to me. They are simply not true, or at least, quite embellished. If something like this happened to my child, I, the PARENT will go to the proper authorities, the Police. I will not leave it in the hands of religious elders to that for me. It is my duty as a parent to protect my child, something these parents were unable to do."In addition to making a report to the branch office of Jehovahs Witnesses, the elders may be required by law to report even uncorroborated or unsubstantiated allegations to the authorities. If so, we expect the elders to comply. Additionally, the victim may wish to report the matter to the authorities, and it is his or her absolute right to do so. In the United States, reporting requirements vary from state to state. It can be quite a challenge to keep abreast of the reporting requirements, but our Legal Department makes every effort to do so."
http://www.jw-media.org/releases/default.htm?content=bbc020509.pdfAmazingly, NONE of those who were the closest to the situation reported these fiends, but saw fit to blame this on elders who were only trying to help, albeit poorly. This of course also hearkens to the "shift the blame mentality" prevalent in society today.I know this is long, but I thought some of you might find it interesting as I did, if not slightly sickening.
No one gets disfellowshipped/excommunicated for reporting crimes to the authorities, no one!
Edited by - meadow77 on 27 December 2002 21:4:47