by The Searcher 43 Replies latest watchtower bible
I firmly believe that *everyone* has something that he elders could use to DF them.
Even a bad attitude could do it.
The confession of secret sins is a way to scare the r&f.
I don't see more confessions, just a reinforcement of the power the elders wield to DF and ruin friendships and families to maintain control.
The reminders to shun contained in the current and future studies prove this.
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You will recognizes them by their fruits
"It can hinder the flow of God’s spirit and threaten the peace of the entire congregation."
Damn right!
Proof this organization doesn't have one iota of God's spirit. The leaders have been lying and hiding their sins for over 100 years. Hypocrites!!
Reminds of the biggest truth ever spoken by the judge : " Religion is a snare and a racket"
People are scared to confess for the same reason they are scared to leave...
a person could lose their entire family and social structure.
So when an article like this comes along it heightens the feelings of guilt over trivial (and sometimes more weighty) wrongdoings.
Then what happens?
To relieve the torturous guilt feelings the individual does more.
More donating of time and money.
More self flagellation about trying to walk the straight and narrow.
Also, the individual "gives up stuff" maybe its watching sports.
Maybe its watching TV in general. Maybe its social time...
whatever it is the poor person makes up some kind of penance and tries to carry it out.
This all can only benefit the Org. Their lazy words in the article are meant to be a guilt trip punch to the gut, like cracking a whip on the poor publisher who hasnt managed to be a "perfect" Witness yet.
'Me confess? What are you going to disfellowship me for? APOSTACY? You'll never make it stick.......I wrote most of this $hit! AHHHHH...ha...ha...ha...ha....ha...ha....!'
(Disclaimer: There was no 'formal' disfellowshipping in the Judge's day. He thought it was wrong. But if he didn't like you, he'd kick you out of Bethel personally.)
THE SEARCHER:
As others have posted: if secret sin was to inhibit "Holy Spirit", the religion's pedophilia scandal should have killed off HS throughout the religion.
As far as "confession" goes: this is not the Catholic Church where a priest is generally there for life and only speaks to other priests. This is the chaotic and stupid Witness religion with uneducated, unprofessional, no legal accountability type of men. These men can step down from their positions and what becomes of all the secrets they have learned??? What happens when they tell their wives things?
The only thing this will accomplish is to increase the already off-the-charts gossip as everybody will know people's business and their kinky secrets. Come on now everybody! What do you think is going to happen here?
Anybody who makes the mistake of confiding anything to these guys may come to regret it. It will not remain secret in that place. You may as well leak it to the press.
LHG - I agree 100% with everything you said!
This "secret sin" bs is their scapegoat for when things go wrong at a congregation. They just claim that there must be a secret sin and that's why things suck so bad.
such “older men” cannot absolve anyone of sins...However, they are...qualified to reprove...a person...
So they cannot absolve or forgive sins, only God can do that; but they are qualified to JUDGE and then spiritually stone you. Makes perfect sense to me...
It's all bullshit because no cong would claim that Holy Spirit to be absent if an elder hid sin for twenty years. Elders book p38 para 19 says an elder can possibly keep his job if his immorality was more than a few years in past, their internal elders book even goes on to say that there may be signs of gods blessing on his life, how can there be signs of blessings on his life while at same time gods spirit in hindered in cong due to this immorality.
Genuine love moves Christians who have committed serious sins to speak [confess] to the elders.....
Where is the dividing line between a serious sin and not so serious sin and why should only serious sins be told to Elders? There is no biblical requirement to confess to Elders. Since they try to base it on some 'pulled out of the hat' biblical principles then I applied equally to minor sins as well as major sins.
Personally, I always thought that if I had done something bad to another person I should be seeking their forgiveness, going to a confessional or third party was unlikely to achieve anything.
This arrangement gives the Elders power and a level of importance, making their positions more enviable.
