just wanted to let everyone know that ex-jw amber scorch is on the daily show on comedy central tonight.
it should very good.
May Amber be to Watchtower what Leah Remini is to Scientology.
(Okay, a bit lofty goal- but you never know)
I ordered the book. Will read it during my trip to Tahoe Apostafest.
Her webpage says "Immersion in a foreign language and culture--and a whole new way of thinking--turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true."
I relate because moving to a foreign language congregation was like that for me.
we have long queried why so-called things of pagan or religious origin like christmas or easter are banned by the wts but the use of wedding rings were not.. i was talking about this with a friend who follows a wiccan path of belief and he has sent me the following information from one of his magic magazines.. quote: .
" why do we wear our wedding ring on our ‘ring finger’ ?
thus, to properly activate the ring finger we need to wear a golden ring on it.
Blondie, I will consider getting that as a tattoo-
jwdotorg: "As in all aspects of life, Christians should make decisions that will leave them with a clear conscience before Jehovah God."
As far as what I have to say- you all know what it is- It's a cult.
Things that allow you to associate more closely with "worldly" relatives and schoolmates and workmates- like Christmas, birthdays, Easter, etc.- must be banned. But the wedding ring marks you as married and, at least to an organization whose rules are from the early 20th century, provides a measure of protection/separation from the world.
iwantoutnow- Yup, that's their version of "never would we want to be like the Pharisees."
Atlantis- sad that they will never see it that way.
LV101, yup. Thanks for commenting.
Vidiot, I love it.
I saw that on FB and had to share my laugh.
i watched this video just a bit and from what i saw he made a lot of fundamental misstatements on jws.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le5kqhf8fx0.
Most people have no clue what JW's believe and practice.
I haven't watched the video because it is long. But as far as what's being said here, "cult" has taken on a modern meaning. What is narrowly defined as a "dangerous mind-control cult" is generally accepted for just the word "cult" today, but it did have the meaning of just an offshoot religion, which every single religion today is. It morphed into small offshoot religions and then to weird religions with various denominations being "sects." It isn't wrong.
Also, as far as laymen are concerned, the calling of the 144K did stop in 1935 when they started the "great crowd" teaching. And as far as laymen and many JW's are concerned, they do shun ex-JW's.
many years ago when the wife and i were still active we attended a friends wedding reception at a top class licensed restaurant in the cbd ,we were close friends with the bride and her family .apparently the grooms parents decided it was going to be a dry reception with no alcohol to be served.. as i said we were close friends with the brides parents an elder & " elderette" and they certainly liked a drink or two or three etc.. i asked the bartender for a drink for my wife & myself and was told it was a dry session & no alcohol was to be served as the grooms father was putting the bill.. so i said to the bartender i am quite happy to pay my own way for the drinks regardless ,so i got served while everybody else had to sit through a dry session.. and these were well off people trying to make a statement .. bloody wowsers..
I am an alcoholic. My JW wedding reception was dry. It was primarily because it was held at a public park facility that insisted on no alcohol. But I had no problem with that seeing I was not a partaker.
So my dad, never a JW, told me later about having alcohol outside in his vehicle.
At my brother's (non-JW) wedding reception, my dad had alcohol in a bag just in case the dinner was dry.
I mention this because most people should be able to endure without alcohol if that's what the occasion calls for.
Y'all might seriously consider that you have a problem if you need a flask or something sneaky to feed your urge.
i was wondering whether anyone observed this point in the previous week's wt study, in paragraph 17: "jehovah’s spirit moves “the faithful steward” to keep giving his servants their food supply.".
i see this as a subtle move away from earlier claims to be channel for spiritual food.
the gb earlier said that they weren't inspired or infallible.
This is DOUBLETHINK as described in Orwell's "1984."
Doublethink: the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination.
In this case, it's religious indoctrination.
The steward/slave class/Governing Body is "not inspired."
The steward/slave class/Governing Body is "spirit-directed" and now is moved by Jehovah's spirit.
You should all realize that being "spirit-directed" or moved by the spirit means the same thing as "inspired."
But the doublethink comes in this way- when they change doctrine, they are not inspired and can make mistakes.
At the same time, all doctrine is to be accepted as if it comes to the G.B. through God's spirit and is absolutely correct. When it changes, it becomes more correct instead of going from "wrong" to "right."
Remember, it's a cult.
"everything we do in the truth is voluntary" ... something i heard many times.
does that include reporting ministry?.
https://youtu.be/chgdiof05bk.
"You parents, do your best to package the gift of your children so that they will be useful to Jehovah and His organization."
That give me the creeps just hearing it.
I also got the creeps from the mother filling in the report for her son, making up the numbers so that he looked like he had return visits and video presentations to indicate "balanced" service.
"Reporting" is voluntary, but you can't get baptized until they have you reporting. If you stop reporting, they will harass you, but they cannot really do anything about it. Still, they brand you as "irregular" and then "inactive" and they say you are "not spiritual" and might even brand you as "bad association."
evidently they have changed their creative day from being 7000 years per day.
all blood transfusions were taboo but now blood fractions might be allowed to be taken into the body.
vaccinations were sinful at one time but not now.. can you name other views or beliefs that have changed from being considered “truth” to no longer “the truth “?.
They have not changed the creative day- OFFICIALLY. Like many teachings, they just don't talk about what they used to say.
They don't mention "millions now living may/will never die" or what happened with "Beth-Sarim."
I expected them to do this with the literal 144,000. But maybe that is too embedded in the doctrine. They might have to do like they did to "generation." That didn't go well.
