Posts by james

63

She's Back! With a question about guns & JWs

by asleif_dufansdottir in

jw
friends

hey, guys.... looooooong time no see.

some of you might remember me but it's been a very long time.

still in grad school, and have a new (sort of) hobby.. i've always liked guns.

james_woods

Didn't Jesus ask if anyone had a sword? Wasn't it the point that they could have resisted if they wanted, but they wanted to prove they were not trying to get away? If so, maybe this "wild animal" scenario is a little thin. I kind of read it as if the sword was symbolic of resistance, but that resistance was not the will of Jesus...and that resistance was not to a mountain lion.

PapaJohn, while in no way am I aligned with the pro-gun lobby, I think there is plenty of evidence that the Israelite kingdom was quite warlike and used whatever weapons there were at the time, all with YHWY blessing. King David was a pretty good hand with a rock and sling, after all.

Did you ever notice how the society had to struggle to come up with New Testament validation of their "dont be a soldier" "antiwar" stance - there just isn't much there to support their cause to force people to go to prison over the draft...

39

What Are "Unfair" Things JWs Made You Do?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i was thinking how unnatural it is for most people to knock on stranger's doors and tell them that if they don't respond to what they were trying to get across, that they were going to be killed by god.

.....then there's the obligation to join the theocratic ministry school and go on a platform and give talks---even if you had a phobia!

.....or you're made to feel that you must answer at the meetings even if you're extremely shy.....are there other things that you can think of that made you totally uncomfortable?

james_woods

I cannot think of a single Judicial Committee action on which I served as an elder that would be called remotely "fair" by reasonable outside standards. I cannot think of a single person who was "helped" in any way by this judicial system, unless it caused them to just up and leave.

350

Called JR Brown regarding Cano Pedophile situation

by LDH in

just called their media line:.

http://www.jw-media.org/contact.htm.

asked a young man named bryce where is the official press release on the cano pedophile situation.

james_woods

So now they have a Watchtower Press Secretary? Is this JR Brown the only spokesperson - or is there a department?

How ironic - we knew we had "celebrated watchtower scholars" - looks like we may now have "celebrated watchtower sex offenders"...

82

Latest News In JW Sex Scandal

by Kenneson in

it's the top news at http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_178173758.html .

see "boy in minister sex scandal speaks to cbs.

investigators compiling mountain of evidence against suspect.

james_woods

And of course you are correct, under_believer. Thes issue is obviously NOT that some JW did this (no matter how many). The issue IS that the organization has followed a policy of secrecy and coverups.

Like the Nixon Watergate - the crime was bad (and a few bad people might have gone to jail) , but it was the coverup that got the president.

But I kind of suspect that the cult atmosphere either encourages this crime or attracts such predators to itself.

82

Latest News In JW Sex Scandal

by Kenneson in

it's the top news at http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_178173758.html .

see "boy in minister sex scandal speaks to cbs.

investigators compiling mountain of evidence against suspect.

james_woods

I must confess that I was very skeptical that there was really a pervasive child abuse problem in JW congregations. I had been out for about twenty years (since the 1980's) when Ed Dunlap's wife told me about the issue a couple of years ago. When I heard it, I just thought that maybe there were one or two isolated cases, and the local BOE tried to avoid the bad publicity. We did have one case reported when I was an elder, but the charge was against a fellow elder, and we just all assumed it was simply either a misunderstanding or a case of retribution. We just ignored it.

Now that I am seeing these alarming reports here on JWD - I must say that I am shocked.

Statistically, can anyone prove that this organization has an abnormal number of offenders? Probably not; we will likely never know how many there are...but the more cases that come up, the more I think there might be at least one or two in almost every congregation.

I don't remember where I saw it, but I also read of such a scandal running rampant within the Amish communities...and of course, the splinter groups of Mormonism.

Sickening.

15

The quantum of cruelty - were they that way without the JW?

by james_woods in

jw
friends

this idea came about after reading several very disturbing but sincere personal "issue" threads over the last few days...but i am going to blame blondie for galvanizing the idea!

she wrote - (in the topic "would a devout jw go to a df funeral?

i think there are some very cruel people who love to use the wts policies to deliberately hurt family members, perhaps to make themselves seem more holy in god's sight or more likely in the sight of other jws.. my conjecture is this: perhaps there is something going on with the jw culture which actually attracts really mean people to this religion.

james_woods

Please note that I was not trying to say that all JW converts are mean-spirited. But experience indicates to me that this religion seems to have a real propensity for attracting troubled people. A lot of the people who came in from the outside in my day were already screwed up by some misfortune in life. This is hardly a religion which can assist people with existing pschylogical problems!

That comparison to family abuse repeating itself is well taken.

Maybe this is also why there is such a problem with child abuse. I used to think that this was just an anomoly here and there - but after reading the many cases here on JWD, I am starting to suspect it is way more common than I could have ever believed.

63

She's Back! With a question about guns & JWs

by asleif_dufansdottir in

jw
friends

hey, guys.... looooooong time no see.

some of you might remember me but it's been a very long time.

still in grad school, and have a new (sort of) hobby.. i've always liked guns.

james_woods

Back in my day, the 60's and 70's, guns were not specifically prohibited, but were strongly discouraged. Of course, it being Oklahoma City, practically all the men not "born in the truth" had at least a rifle or shotgun - and usually several handguns. This was just sort of overlooked.

Hunting was also discouraged - many statements were made about it being wrong to do hunting as a sport, but only if it were necessary for food. Nimrod was invariably brought up as a horrible example of how ugly an activity hunting was - "we need to have respect for all life". Also pointed out was the possibility of having an accident with a firearm. But, it was kind of put up with if you really needed the game as food for your family.

Right - so you drive 200 miles each way, pay for a 500 dollar shotgun, plus outfits, dogs, and licenses, because you need a few quail for food?

The weasel rationale was that if you shot anything in the field, you had to eat it! Same with fishing - don't just catch them and release them.

On the cop profession, statements were repeatedly made that if a situation arose where you had to use deadly force, then a real christian would have a terrible conscience later over being a manslayer. They could not be used in the congregation as a servant if they had that job.

I had several "born in the truth" teenage guys beg me to take them out to target shoot - most had never had a pistol in their hands before.

59

SO, What happened to : "the generation will not pass away" idea ???????

by The_Replacement in

okay, growing up a jw in the 70's 80's and early 90's, all we heard about was how the generation of 1914 will not pass away,(much like witnesses in the 60's and early 70's all heard about 1975) (what a great parallel) conventions, watchtower articles, public talks, endless studies and of course every issue of the awake magazine had it on the inside cover, it was everywhere, brothers, sisters and elders were absolutely sure about this, the society constantly mentioned it in our kingdom ministry (service), it was everywhere.

then with the change in november 1995, it just kinda disappeared and became unimportant.. does the society even mention "this generation will not pass away" anymore ?????.

seems to me, that the past 10 years, it has hardly been mentioned anywhere anymore.. what do you think ??

james_woods

Just a couple of thoughts on this subject: Maybe the things said at the conventions vary from one convention to another. Having been gone a long time ago, I don't know anything about "generation" statements at the conventions - but -

When the 1975 thing was going hot and heavy in the early seventies, some speakers really came down on it hard; as if it was written in stone like the ten commandments. Even assigned speakers from Bethel did this in some cases. Others would kind of soft-soap it as if they were kind of ashamed that this was being put out - maybe they suspected that it was going to blow up in their faces. Remember when Schroeder more or less said that Jehovaha really had it planned for 75, but must have changed his mind?

Could it be that this was true of the generation thing as well?

Second point - the other night I was watching a history channel about supersonic test aircraft. The commentator stated that the X planes were used "a couple of generations ago". The time frame referenced was the late 40's to late 50's, approximately. The witnesses not only watched most all their oldsters even alive in 1914 pass away, but they also had to completely redefine what any normal persons means by "generation". To most anybody else it means whatever crop of children are born to normally aged parents at some time. Like - postwar baby boom, generationX, vietnam generation, etc. I guess they stretched out "generation" as long as they could before admitting that it was too long ago.

350

Called JR Brown regarding Cano Pedophile situation

by LDH in

just called their media line:.

http://www.jw-media.org/contact.htm.

asked a young man named bryce where is the official press release on the cano pedophile situation.

james_woods

I must agree that the people around him either knew something was going on, or at least should have known something was not right. After all, wasn't he kept around for years? And, made an elder?

Notice that it was the cops that caught him, not the JWs. I really don't think that someone suddenly develops this behavior all of a sudden in mid-life, as if this was the first and only time he attempted it.

Wonder how long it would have gone on if the police had not been monitoring such activity on the web? Or perhaps, he would have been one of the bethel lay-offs and sent to some unsuspecting congregation?

16

"Letter-preaching"

by Hellrider in

the thread above "help, my jw-mom is pioneering at the age of 76..." made me think of this:.

my grandma on dads side was a very devout jw.

unfortunately, she couldn`t walk very well, partly because of obesity.

james_woods

Yes, the Malawi letters were a big thing back in the mid-to-late sixties. However, I do not remember that we counted "time" for them...it was just sort of given as an order that everybody write one on several occasions. The announcement was made at the Service Meeting, and the Service Overseer collected them all (they were supposed to be put in an envelope and stamped by the pubs) and mailed them at once.

I always wondered (even back then as a little kid) if this was not really making the so-called persecutaion worse for those poor people. Of course, nobody had any idea that brothers in Mexico were buying their way out of the draft by buying a piece of cardboard just like Banda's party card. We young guys were probably too worried about the US draft and doing 5 years in federal prison ourselves.

When I was a pioneer, letter writing was considered as proper duty only for really old or infirm persons - if you could walk at all, you had to do your time from door to door.

The "handwritten" thing was rationalized by the idea that the person getting the letter would see that someone took the trouble to write it out by hand - copies were considered "too easy". Of course, it was really all about "time control" of the witnesses themselves. Even bed-ridden little old ladies were not exempt.

james_woods

Posts by james_woods