by WingCommander 194 Replies latest jw friends
LongHairGal
Although I don't worship, I absolutely love the Catholic art aesthetic. Going to Rome and seeing the Vatican itself, all the little churches and basilicas spread throughout the city made me fall in love with it. Even before all these changes I always wondered what the big deal was with the cross. Jesus died and that's all that matters.
Oh if I could be a fly on the wall...
A JW relative let me know today they watched the update video and lots of changes coming.
Thanks
Local standards? Bank tellers? TV news---the anchor or the idiot standing out in the blizzard. BTW what are chinos? Polyester pants unsuitable for dress up but not work?
Of course these are the guys who work on cars in a necktie and play volleyball in suits
Yes. I concur. This is all just too little,, too late.
How about a homeless shelter. Or even a soup kitchen for the ""less privileged" ones.
What does the captain do first when he determines his ship is sinking? He gives orders to jettison the cargo & other items that are weighing down the ship.
The GB of WTBTS are giving orders to the rank & file to jettison...get rid of unbiblical doctrines and teachings that are causing the Organization to implode/sink.
In the past many captains of sinking ships have made the mistake of not acting quick enough. Such is the case with the JW Governing Body...too little too late! Reversing their stance on long held harsh unbiblical beliefs today will not stop the inevitable...the sinking of the WTBTS...Yay!
You could be right.
Wow, interesting developments.
I have visited dozens of churches and JWs stand out as the most over dressed religious group around. No other group requires suits and ties, so this change was well overdue.
On the downside it will make dressing for the meetings a bit more complicated, as a cheap suit was at least a kind of uniform that most could afford. Smart dress outside of wearing a suit could easily get competitive and expensive. I guess some also wore expensive suits too. It’s a long time since I cared what I wore or what people think about it anyway.
Are relatives allowed to talk to DFed people in general now, or does this only apply at the meetings? It would be odd if relatives were allowed to say hello to DFed family members at the meeting but not at other times. I hope this is just a small step on more comprehensive move away from shunning.
Mike JW" It’s as if the GB are reading our suggestions here"
A relative working in the Bethel legal department assured me they do, years ago.
I had to go on the official JW org site to watch the entire thing...twice. They are obviously responding to legal issues around the world, as well as declining membership and donations. $$$$$
All I can say is that Farkel and alanf must be spinning in their graves.
Halcon:
I predict birthdays, mother's Day and Father's Day will be next. The blood thing is tricky bc there is explicit rules on it in the scriptures.
If I recall correctly the explicit rules in the OT were against partaking in blood for nourishment, as was the case in groups other than the Hebrews. I can still see that being a thing, making sure that your sausage doesn't contain any "meat by-products", which (in the 70s) was my job when going food shopping with my mom.
Blood transfusion as a medical treatment, though, is not - as former WT Publications™ falsely stated - a nutritional thing, and as such, cannot be interpreted to be a practice that is prohibited in the bible.
When your blood volume is severely and/or decreased (as in a trauma like a GSW or MVA, or a postpartum hemorrhage), you will die if you are not replenished. Also even if you survive, the loss of red blood cells takes a long time to naturally return to the level it was before the blood loss occurred. You need the red blood cells to feed the the body from the inside, providing oxygen, removing carbon dioxide and other waste materials, sometimes with the help of the lungs, other times with the digestive system. The brain cannot function properly with oxygen saturations below normal levels (92-100%); we can adapt and survive, but we can't thrive the way we should.
When a woman has a postpartum haemorrhage and her hemoglobin level drops to 70-80% of what is normal, she won't be able to produce milk for her newborn, because her body is severely occupied with keeping her alive. It can take months to recover from that. (been there, done that)
If anything, the GB can use the example of David pouring out water that his men had risked their lives for to acquire on David's behalf, as if the water was a blood sacrifice, to show the value of blood - what is now a very renewable resource in the field of medicine - to save lives. Ecclesiastes 9:4 "a live dog is better than a dead lion" conveys the meaning that it is always better to live when you have an option to keep yourself alive.
In the How Blood Can Save Your Life booklet, they came up with some cockamamy rationale that because Jesus gave his life for others, that JWs can only respect that sacrifice by being willing to sacrifice themselves in the face of death. It's just another lame control tactic by men in suits. I'd be willing to pay for a ringside seat when (not "if") a class action lawsuit for wrongful deaths happens brought forward by people who lost loved ones for coerced (or else DF) refusal of blood transfusions. The number of deaths around the world probably outnumber those of Jonestown by at least a factor of 20.
