by barry 26 Replies latest jw friends
I just went to a pre screening of this movie about an Adventist guy who didn't want to kill but joined the army as a medic on the front line. Desmond Doss saved 75 men in one operation singlehanded on the island of Okinawa where desmond worked lowering men down a 400ft cliff to safety.
I thought this may be of interest to JWs because of the pacifist stand they also have.
The movie comes out on the 4 th november.
Dying to see it. Lucky you!
Edit would bible students have joined the Ambulence corps or equivilent back during the Great war?I'm thinking yes, would I be correct?
I thought this may be of interest to JWs because of the pacifist stand they also have.
You know this is an EX-JW sit, right?
Thanks for that barry , looks like a good movie based on a true story .It would have taken a lot of guts to do what he did.
Already like it....
interesting. I was conscripted for Vietnam and the elders told me I could not do 'alternative' service but to say it was my idea.
In that time I was not a JW and I was balloted out of being conscripted , however it was not long after I became a JW,how lucky was I.
The WTS does not consider their members pacifists. They are not anti-war but support God's wars.
WTS members are told not to claim conscientious objector status but to claim minister status.
Pacifists
There is variance amongst the listed groups as to whether physical force can ever be justified in self-defense, as well as differing opinions regarding non-combatant military roles, such holding medical positions, or performing non-battlefield services that assist in war. True peace churches adhere strictly to nonresistance even when confronted by violence.
The best known Pacifist writing is the Friends Peace Testimony from 1651. Some Friends extend the Peace testimony to even refusing to pay the "War Tax" component of income tax in the United States. (See Minute on Conscientious Objection to War approved by FCNL's General Committee 11/14/04 as displayed at www.fcnl.org/priorities/war_109th_printer.htm 25th February 2007) Quakers were instrumental in establishing the option to avoid conscription as conscientious objectors during the United States Civil war.
Pacifism is "opposition to war or violence as a means of resolving disputes" (American Heritage Dictionary). Quite significantly, the Watchtower Society is not a peace church. Despite being neutral in war, Jehovah's Witnesses are not pacifists. A Witness may draw arms in self-defence. Jehovah's Witnesses are only forced to stay neutral until they are in the situation where they are required to defend themselves.
"The situation may be such that the only thing a person can do is to use whatever is at hand to protect himself or others. As a result, the attacker may receive a fatal blow. From the Scriptural standpoint, the one acting in self-defense would not thereby incur bloodguilt." Awake 1975 Sep 8 p.28 Should You Defend Yourself?
"True Christians love peace. They stay completely neutral in the world's military, political, and ethnic conflicts. But, strictly speaking, they are not pacifists. Why? Because they welcome God's war that will finally enforce his will on earth-a war that will settle the great issue of universal sovereignty and rid the earth of all enemies of peace once and for all." Awake! 1997 May 8 p.23
"They are not against war between the nations, and they do not interfere with the war efforts of the nations nor with anyone who can conscientiously join in such efforts. They fight only when God commands them to do so, because then it is theocratic warfare.
Were Jehovah’s witnesses today to claim to be pacifists, it would mean for them to denounce all the pre-Christian witnesses of Jehovah who took up arms to uphold Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and his theocratic nation of Israel. But this denunciation we cannot make. Jesus Christ never did so, and he is Jehovah’s greatest witness, who has earned the title “The faithful and true witness”. (Rev. 3:14) Jehovah himself is no pacifist. Neither are his witnesses such, although they are conscientious objectors." Watchtower 1951 Feb 1 p.70 Why Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Not Pacifists
Furthermore, pacifist churches such as Quakers are against the death penalty, which the Watchtower Society is not. The Watchtower Society "recognize the right of governments to do as they wish" in regards to the death penalty, noting that the Mosaic Law advocated the death penalty. (g 96 3/8 p. 23).
