After reading the Nov 1 1999 questions from readers about voting... http://www.jwfiles.com/vote.htm. I'm wondering if they felt they needed to change their teachings on this because they feared legal action against them for disenfranchising their people. Am I on the right track with this? Can you think of any of any other teachings that could eventually get them into legal trouble in this same way?
WT illegal doctrine
by itsallgoodnow 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Elsewhere
They are still doing an "end run" around the laws regarding voting. If you read the article carefully they tell the reader to "vote your bible trained conscience regarding who you want your leader to be" (paraphrased). This tells JWs that they are supposed to do a write-in vote for Jesus or Jehovah.
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XQsThaiPoes
I would have to vote Jehovah. Jesus is too soft on crime.
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itsallgoodnow
But if, hypothetically, a Witness wanted to vote for, let's say, Kerry, in the next presidential election, they couldn't be disfellowshipped, could they? Based on this it seems it's up to each person, and no other witnesses can criticize, ie disfellowship. What do you think? It's written like this for legal reasons - in theory but not in practice?
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Nosferatu
Any "Questions from Readers" go directly to the WT lawyers now.
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glitter
Wow, I remember seeing that, but I wasn't looking out for changes then - I'll have to go and get that WT to show my mum (when she's calmed down a bit from her Memorial-induced JW-ness). Although, she *did* vote in a local referendum about a month ago, so she's not totally brainwashed.
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Gopher
she *did* vote in a local referendum about a month ago, so she's not totally brainwashed.
One of the JW indoctrination Bible verses is "don't put your trust in earthly man to whom no salvation belongs".
So they may not believe they can vote for an "earthly man". However, voting how your tax dollars should be spent is not honoring an "earthly man", so it may be acceptable to the mind of even a die-hard JW.
However if a JW believes that publicly voting (even for a litle referendum) could "stumble" a JW with a weaker conscience, then maybe that JW is stuck and cannot vote. Woe unto any JW who appears to "stumble" someone.
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itsallgoodnow
About the stumbling, I thought it was interesting they didn't put too much emphasis on it in this QFR. "there It just seems like they are covering their asses on this one.
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itsallgoodnow
About the stumbling, I thought it was interesting they didn't put too much emphasis on it in this QFR. "there may b It just seems like they are covering their asses on this one.
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itsallgoodnow
About the stumbling, I thought it was interesting they didn't put too much emphasis on it in this QFR. "there may be people who are It just seems like they are covering their asses on this one.