i am new to this forum - it is only a couple of weeks since i have allowed myself to acknowledge and research my doubts.
i am trying to be fair by reading both sides of the story and considering jw official explanation of confusing matters.
one of the issues i have been looking at is shunning - and i was shocked to see the misleading information about shunning on the jw.org website: .
Giordano: Keep in mind that the Jw's and the WTBTS are in bed with a threesome of studipity on this matter of shunning......The Mormon's, Scientology, and the Amish.
Add one more: the Baha'i faith practices shunning. The Baha'i's, like the JWs, have evolved from a charismatic leader to another hierarchical organization run by a 'governing body'.
one reason is because the governing body's policies allow them to run loose in the congregation with their secrecy/kangaroo courts.
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to keep jehovah's name untarnished(organization sock puppet) they have put the little rank and file member at risk.. one member of the gb was a child molester.. sexual repression also seems to aggravate the situation and make matters worse.. the governing body main concern is not children but how to keep the scam going and so if they can get the victim to shut up and not go to the police as it offers a temporary fix.. etc.....
This question comes from ignorance. Any conglomerate of humans will contain all types of behavior. Any group.
In actuality, for the millions of JWs on record, a few hundreds of pedos is nothing more than a drop in a bucket.
From ignorance? Well, then, let's get rid of some of your ignorance.
http://www.sexassault.ca/statistics.htm
- Of every 100 incidents of sexual assault, only 6 are reported to the police
Reduce that number of "six out of hundred" substantially within the JWs - those stats above reflect the population at large - the number reported will be far lower inside the JWs. The JW religion has more than "a few hundred pedos".
Some more stats from the same site:
- 1 - 2% of "date rape" sexual assaults are reported to the police
- 1 in 4 North American women will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime
- 11% of women have physical injury resulting for sexual assault
- Only 2 - 4% of all sexual assaults reported are false reports
- 60% of sexual abuse/assault victims are under the age of 17
- over 80% of sex crime victims are women
- 80% of sexual assault incidents occur in the home
- 17% of girls under 16 have experienced some form of incest
- 83% of disabled women will be sexual assaulted during their lifetime
- 15% of sexual assault victims are boys under 16
- half of all sexual offenders are married or in long term relationships
- 57% of aboriginal women have been sexually abused
- 1/5th of all sexual assaults involve a weapon of some sort
The above noted statistics have been taken from various studies across Canada. While the numbers can never been 100% accurate, a few key generalizations can made:
- 80% of assailants are friends and family of the victim
- sexual assault is far more common than most would suspect
- relatively few incidents of sexual assault are reported to the police
- young and otherwise vulnerable women are most likely to be sexually abused
- most sexual assaults are committed by someone close to the victim, not a stranger
i am new to this forum - it is only a couple of weeks since i have allowed myself to acknowledge and research my doubts.
i am trying to be fair by reading both sides of the story and considering jw official explanation of confusing matters.
one of the issues i have been looking at is shunning - and i was shocked to see the misleading information about shunning on the jw.org website: .
The marriage relationship and normal family affections and dealings continue.
There is nothing 'normal' about the Watchtower's teachings on 'family affections' or family structure to begin with.
The idea of a man being 'head of the household' and the woman being submissive is a perversion of family relationships and is doomed to fail long before the WTS sticks their nose into it and ruins it even further.
The 'family' has been perverted from the start. Disfellowshipping is only throwing more rotten apples on top of the heap of rotten apples that have already been created by the WTS.
one reason is because the governing body's policies allow them to run loose in the congregation with their secrecy/kangaroo courts.
.
to keep jehovah's name untarnished(organization sock puppet) they have put the little rank and file member at risk.. one member of the gb was a child molester.. sexual repression also seems to aggravate the situation and make matters worse.. the governing body main concern is not children but how to keep the scam going and so if they can get the victim to shut up and not go to the police as it offers a temporary fix.. etc.....
Child abuse is rape.
The major motive for rape is power, not sex.
The Watchtower Society fosters a climate that is a perversion of power. The adherents of the JW religion have a distorted sense of their own power - on one hand, they are indoctrinated to believe that they have power over the rest of 'the world'. Yet, in actuality, they have no personal power whatsoever. Therefore, they seek out power wherever they can get it, and...children are the easiest site upon which to act out the perpetrator's need for power.
The natural vulnerability of children, combined with the isolation tactics of the cult, leads to the JW children being targeted for what JWs don't get from their 'god' (WTS) - personal power.
Child abuse is rape. Rape is an act of power, not sex.
should individual businesses have the right to pick and chose who they serve?
if a muslim decides he won't bake the cake of a radical zionist that says "reclaim the temple in jerusalem" should the government be allowed to punish the muslim baker?
maybe you can help me understand the issues more clearly because were becoming hyper-sensitive and soon your going to need a handbook what's the proper thing to say.
Maybe someday in the future, when society has evolved beyond cave man thinking, those religious institutions that promote hatred of gays and other marginalized groups will lose their tax exemptions if their doctrines promote hatred and discrimination.
In an ideal world, a religion that bans gays and promotes misogynist behavior would no longer be able to hide under the religious banner for tax purposes.
Geez...so you managed to grab a screen shot that looks like a woman is about to grab a guy's groin.
You obviously don't understand what "subliminal" means.
i find it hard to believe that adults on this forum make such a big deal about not celebrating birthdays, x-mas, easter, halloween, etc, etc, etc.
i grew up as a jw kid and it actually made me feel good, being different from the other kids in school.
we went to meetings.
Esse quam videri:
I grew up as a JW kid and it actually made me feel good, being different from the other kids in school.
You obviously learned your JW lessons well. "I was different" translates into "I was better than them because I will live forever and they won't."
It sounds to me like you had a superiority complex, which is not unusual for young males in a patriarchal cult.
Was I an unhappy kid because I did not celebrate all those x-mas, easter, birthdays,etc, etc, etc.? No, no and again no.
If you are an adult and feel you had a deprived childhood, grow up and get over it.
Easter, Christmas and birthdays were the times that our family couldn't visit and interact with the large non-JW family that would gather on those days. I missed out on what my cousins got - the unconditional love of extended family.
Grow up and get over it? I have. I gave those things to my children so that they don't grow up with a distorted view of what family love means.
Obviously you think that you don't have to get over it - you liked the feeling of false empowerment that being a young JW male gave you. Good for you. Have you grown up enough to get over your false superiority?
what i can't seem reconcile are the concepts of 'clergy' and 'ordained minister'.. the wts has consistently won legal battles, specifically in cases involving military exemption, by making the claim that each and every baptized jw is an 'ordained minister'.
and, they bolstered this label with the assertion that 'we do not have a clergy class'.
so, why is that different now in the sex abuse trials that happening right now?
Ah...never mind...open the bar and let's have a drink.
Bottom's up, Viviane. And no. I didn't respond to cappytan - he didn't start the drunk talk.
Lighten up? Sure...I will get right on that. I will post this on the jokes and humor section next time.
what i can't seem reconcile are the concepts of 'clergy' and 'ordained minister'.. the wts has consistently won legal battles, specifically in cases involving military exemption, by making the claim that each and every baptized jw is an 'ordained minister'.
and, they bolstered this label with the assertion that 'we do not have a clergy class'.
so, why is that different now in the sex abuse trials that happening right now?
Thank you for your valuable input, Viviane. Your posts contributed so much information to this subject.
It is encouraging when the subject of how laws impact child abuse cases is treated respectfully. Next time you wander in drunk to a discussion, do you mind wiping up the booze off the floor before you leave the room?
Thank you.
so what have you got?.
i'll start.. 1958 aboard steamship arosa star, english and german jw's bound for new york for 8 day assembly at yankee stadium.. .
startingover: Does anyone know how these phonographs were acquired? Did they have to pay for them, or qualify is some way to receive one? I have one in my possession but my parents who I got it from are now gone so i have no one to ask.
The phonographs were, of course, purchased by the JWs themselves. I have always been curious how much they sold for but have never been able to find that information as there was one in my family. My maternal grandparents would have purchased it as poor rural farmers in rural Canada during that time - the 30s or 40s. I would imagine it would have been a hardship for them to acquire it.
It was in our basement and us kids would play with it on rainy days. I still remember the day that my grandmother was over and she and my mother hauled out all the old Rutherford books and the phonograph, and the records, and burned them in the burning barrel. That would have been in the early 60s. My mother hated the sound of Rutherford's voice.
I can close my eyes and the smell of that old phonograph and records is still there. And the scratch of the needle. And the flames coming up whooshing over the side of the barrel...throwing sparks while that old box burned and the records melted!
