by Oroborus21 17 Replies latest jw friends
Greetings!
Don't know if anyone cited this previously here at JWD.
This is a very interesting, FAIR and ACCURATE article summary of paper presented last June at a CESNUR conference.
http://www.cesnur.org/2005/pa_brown.htm#_edn37
Simon and JWD were mentioned!
-Eduardo
Yes! That was a very interesting article.
I thought the end part where human rights representatives support the right for a person to have religious freedom interesting. My son has a JW girlfriend in her early twenties as he is. She does not want to continue pioneering and she does not want to go to the meetings. Yet when she refuses she gets slapped around the face by her father who is, as I remember the ass**** , a JW fanatic elder.
What a about her religious freedoms!
I know of many families, though not all, in which violence was the end result of a child refusing to go to the meetings, even a child who was now an adult!
The cult, because that's what it is, breeds desperation and fear for survival. This in turn breeds anger and violence when a member of the family begins to rebel!
It's a cult whatever this article says!
Here is the part about JWD:
Private Message Boards for Former Jehovah’s Witnesses
Nothing has been more controversial then the postings from private message boards for former Jehovah’s Witnesses. The most popular message boards are Jehovah’s Witness Discussion Board (JWD) started by Simon Green, and Jehovah’s Witnesses Online (JWO) Dan Ferro. Even within the anticult community JWD and JWO are said to be famous for “flaming” and even “cyber stalking.” JWD founder Simon Green is on the defense because of accusations.[xxxvii] There are reports that Green misrepresented statistics about the number of visitors to his site. This issue will be further researched. There has been one court case against a member of JWD and there are reports of cases pending against members of JWO.”
some comments on this:
Flaming: yes of course this is done here. That is quite normal on message boards. Different people
Cyber stalking: bit overreacting I think.
Case agains JWD member: This shows something of the writer of this article. But I heard that there is even a case agains a Jehovah whitness..... real big argument.
For me this messageboard is valueable. Lot of research is done. Lot of different opinions.
Of course half of what the people write is trash, but that is on every board, in every library etc.
About this article in general. It is true that JW did something good for religious freedom. They did this only for there own self interest however.
I just wonder how much religious freedom would there be if 90% of the people were JW's?
Danny
Interesting that they reference this post in particular: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/22/85447/1.ashx
JWD founder Simon Green is on the defense because of accusations.[xxxvii] <--Link
I am curious to hear Simon's statement on that.
There was another thread on this article.
If anyone wants to look it up, it was around April/May, I think. It was quite a nasty post, and the article (as well as CESNUR) took quite a beating.
My old friend Eduardo, I hope you are doing well with your enterprise and practice. I'd love to hear from you personally. PM me if you have the chance.
There has been one court case against a member of JWD and there are reports of cases pending against members of JWO.”Imagine that.
ACLU = One of the biggest modern-day threats against Christian values.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses religion is a sectarian (not cultic) Protestant community whose existence started with affiliates of other faith communities in the Baptist, Methodist, Congregational, and Presbyterian traditions.[i] The Jehovah’s Witnesses are an Adventist schism started by Charles Taze Russell.[ii] Russell started publishing the periodical Watchtower and Herald of Christ’s Presence in 1879, and incorporated of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania in 1884.[iii] This Jehovah’s Witnesses has been hailed as champions of religious freedom and human rights while they are also railed as a destructive cult by the anticult movement.Jehovah’s Witnesses and Religious Freedom
USA Today hails Jehovah’s Witnesses for the “rich contribution they have made to the First Amendment freedoms we all enjoy.” [iv] In the United States Jehovah’s Witnesses have contributed more to religious freedom in than any other faith community. In the 1940s ten of the thirteen cases about religious freedom that went to the US Supreme Court involved Jehovah’s Witnesses. The faith community initially won six of the ten cases. Two of the remaining four the Jehovah’s Witnesses did not win were later reversed in their favor
Definitely an outsider's viewpoint. As an insider for most of my life, let me give an opposing viewpoint:
The court cases won by the Watchtower Society, as referenced in the article, giving them the freedoms and rights as guaranteed by the government is all good and fair...for the organization, but does nothing for the individual members of the religion.
I have not been given the same oppurtunity to exercise my right to freedom of religion as set forth by the founding fathers of the government of which I live under. I was "born into" the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses and was baptized as a child to become a full fledged member of the JW organization. As a child, I was not able to make a reasonable, informed decision as to what I was doing nor did I know the full ramifications of that uninformed decision.
Now, as an adult, I cannot exercise my right to pursue the religion of my choice because if I do so, I will be treated as an evil person by any and all former associates in the religion. This would include losing my family relations as most of my family are still faithful Jehovah's Witnesses. If I was to attempt to exercise that right and the elders in my congregation became aware of it, they would announce my removal from the congregation. That in itself is not the problem. The problem is that Jehovah's Witnesses are indoctrinated to treat all renouncers of the faith as if they were dead, or worse, as part of Satan's organization. To keep my family ties, I have to remain on the Jehovah's Witnesses membership record and hope to "fade away" from any attention from the elders of the congregation.
If one cannot leave an organization without fear of reprisal or punishment, what kind of organization was that one part of? The actions of the religion speak for themselves. Their actions in shunning of former members is why former members consider them a cult. The Jehovah's Witness religion uses fear and guilt to keep members in line and to keep members from associating with former members. Sounds like a cult to me, despite what court cases they won.
Thank you for the fascinating article, Eduardo. Please let us have more when you get it.
