Additional BBC-Wales coverage (short version, the interview with victim):
GLTirebiter
JoinedPosts by GLTirebiter
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10
BBC Report - Abuse Victim of JW Elder Speaks Out.
by Joe Grundy inhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-28151300.
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headline: "jehovah's witnesses' criticised over handling of sex abuse".
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Why did Ray Franz leave the Organization? Your Opinion Matters!
by SanLuisObispoTruthSeeker inwhat would make a man throw away all his earthly riches to expose the cult?
what did ray franz have to gain by leaving in total poverty?
if ray franz had stayed in place, he could have lived like a god, why did he leave?
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GLTirebiter
Ray Franz didn't leave voluntarily; he was pushed out. Their excuse was that he continued to meet and dine with a disassociated person (his employer).
"While Lyman Swingle stood up for Ray Franz and prevented him from being disfellowshipped at that time (Lyman knew all the facts about 1914), Franz was spied upon and later disfellowshipped for eating a meal with his boss, a former Witness (see Time Magazine of Feb. 22, 1982, p. 66)."
[Edit: added link and quotation, correct "disfellowshipped" to "disassociated"]
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US Supreme Court: Hobby Lobby wins we lose
by designs inthe old guys sided with hobby lobby today in denying birth control coverage to its female employees based on the owners religious views.
intact- is viagra for the guys.
funny how the far right evangelical owners of hobby lobby didn't want to touch that one.... read judge ginburg's scathing counter argument and opinion.. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-354_olp1.pdf.
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GLTirebiter
By this logic, a Jehovah's Witness employer could refuse to pay for blood transfusions. Another could claim their religions don't cover cancer treatment, as it goes against God's will. Whether true or not, they gain a competitive advantage, as that would bring down their insurance costs.
No, the court explicitly restricted the scope of this ruling to contraceptive coverage:
"This decision concerns only the contraceptive mandate and should not be understood to hold that all insurance-coverage mandates, e.g., for vaccinations or blood transfusions, must necessarily fall if they conflict with an employer’s religious beliefs. Nor does it provide a shield for employers who might cloak illegal discrimination as a religious practice ... Here, there is an alternate to the contraceptive mandate." [pp 5-6 of the ruling]
Is GM held to the same standard as Hobby Lobby?
The ruling addresses the issue of publicly traded vs. closely-held corporations:
Finally, HHS contends that Congress could not have wanted RFRA to apply to for-profit corporations because it is difficult as a practical matter to ascertain the sincere “beliefs” of a corporation. HHS goes so far as to raise the specter of “divisive, polarizing proxy battles over the religious identity of large, publicly traded corporations such as IBM or General Electric.” Brief for HHS in No. 13–356, at 30.
These cases, however, do not involve publicly traded corporations, and it seems unlikely that the sort of corporate giants to which HHS refers will often assert RFRA claims. HHS has not pointed to any example of a publicly traded corporation asserting RFRA rights, and numerous practical restraints would likely prevent that from occurring. For example, the idea that unrelated shareholders—including institutional investors with their own set of stakeholders—would agree to run a corporation under the same religious beliefs seems improbable. In any event, we have no occasion in these cases to consider RFRA’s applicability to such companies. The companies in the cases before us are closely held corporations, each owned and controlled by members of a single family, and no one has disputed the sincerity of their religious beliefs. [p. 29]
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GLTirebiter
( though "Big Bang" is sort of Tabloid Journalese for the event/s).
"Big Bang" was a perjorative term used by those attached to "steady state" models of the universe. They had no use for a cosmology where the universe has an origin uncomfortably similar to Genesis ("Let there be light"), especially one pioneered by a Jesuit.
Recommended reading: The Day We Found the Universe, Marica Bartusiak, ISBN 978-0-307-27660-5.
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99.9% Of a People Who Believe In Evolution Don't Understand It.
by Space Madness ini never believed in evolution as i thought it didn't make sense and that what was proposed was simply impossible.
how could an environment alter an organism's dna?
as we can see however, bacteria cannot become resistance to antibiotics.
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GLTirebiter
Antobiotic resistant bacteria arose the same way that corn with over-sized ears full of intensely sweet kernels did, the same way pure-bred cattle did: by selective pressure. Farmers saved the seeds from and cross-pollinated the plants that produced superior crops. Herders let the best bulls and mik cows breed, and sent the others to the butcher. Antibiotics "cull the herd" of less-resistant bacteria, allowing the more resistant ones to thrive. It's another variation of something that has been known since the dawn of agriculture.
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Harry Pothead
by Strangelove inmy apologies, but there actually is no refference to marijuana in this post.
i just needed an attention grabbing title to get at least one person to answer the question i am to...ask.
i left the orginization only a few months ago.
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GLTirebiter
Lord of the Rings = Bad
Perhaps because J. R. R. Tolkein = Catholic Bible translator?
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No Blood windshield stickers
by HappyDad ini just walked back from getting my mail and happen to walk right by an automobile that belongs to the jw's who live in the end of my building.
the sticker in the low left of the windshield caught my attention so i stopped to read it.
it was a sticker that said......advanced medical directive.....no blood!
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GLTirebiter
I think it's only for show (or perhaps a new loyalty test). I don't see how any emergency responder would trust such a decal on the car. How do they which occupant of the car put it there? How do they know it isn't intended as satire, wasn't a prank or an act of vandalism? Is it signed, dated, and witnessed? What if the driver has borrowed the car, or is a mechanic test driving it after repairs?
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Today is Father's Day in the US
by leaving_quietly init is one of those holidays jws do not celebrate.
there is no reason for it.
it is not a religious holiday.
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GLTirebiter
Shhhh! Don't tell the Witnesses that Father's Day has Methodist origins! Nor that it was also about remembering orphans who lost their fathers in a mine diasaster:
In December 1907, a terrible mine explosion in nearby Monongah claimed the lives of more than 360 men. Most of them had families, and the tragedy left 1,000 children fatherless.
Clayton was distraught by the thought of all those children growing up without a father's guidance, and wanted to do something to honor the importance of fatherhood. She asked her pastor to set aside a special day to commemorate fathers. She chose the Sunday closest to the birthday of her late father, also a Methodist preacher.
Christendom! Creature worship! Christian charity! Flee, brothers and sisters, flee to the spirit-directed organization!
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Kingdom Hall Weddings - November Kingdom Ministry
by BluesBrother inif this has already been posted up - then i missed it.. this question box left me .
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GLTirebiter
Although it is not a requirement that all in the wedding party be baptized, it would not be appropriate to include in the wedding party individuals whose lifestyle grossly conflicts with Bible principles or whose conduct would raise questions in the minds of those attending.
In other words, unbeliever daddy is not going to walk his daughter down the aisle, because that could stumble the ex and JW in-laws. Just sit there, shut up, and don't forget your checkbook.
@JuliaOrwell: good for you! I wish that had been my experience.
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Biblical verses my JW mom gave me for shunning
by bsand20 injohn 2:9-11-anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister[a] is still in the darkness.
10 anyone who loves their brother and sister[b] lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.
11 but anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.
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GLTirebiter
Why JWs even use the bible nowadays boggles my mind
For the most part, they don't. There is more extrapolation than scripture in a Watchtower article.