MrMonroe
JoinedTopics Started by MrMonroe
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Another night, another JW dream
by MrMonroe insuch a ripoff when you dream you're back at the damn meetings.
i once dreamed a local (rather liberal-minded) elder, jack hoogendoorn, was smoking a cigar while he was giving a talk on the platform.. last night i was back there again: one elder who suddenly decided he was going to be "encouraging" gave me the latest stats on baptisms, while someone else i was meant to go witnessing with was not-so-subtly probing me about how many magazines i'd been placing lately.
i chose not to tell them i had decided against placing mags any more.
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Insightful quote on blind devotion ... but what was it exactly?
by MrMonroe ini have the feeling it was ray franz who wrote it, but search as hard as i can, i can't find it!.
there is a quote in the pile of books i have about the jws that says something along the line of ... it's forgiveable that you may be sucked in to something you come to believe in, but there is no excuse for refusing to ask questions and discover the truth about something.. it was obviously applied to the blinkered view most jws have about their organisation, therefore it is very hard to have sympathy for them being trapped in a high-control cult.
they have the option to examine opposing views and put them to the test, but simply refuse to entertain such thoughts.. it was a succinct, punchy quote; it was probably ray franz, but could have been jim penton, don cameron or james beverley.
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Transcript of Rutherford et al vs United States (appeal) 1919
by MrMonroe injim penton's book apocalypse delayed has an intriguing reference at pg.
323 to testimony jf rutherford gave in 1918 (though he may have erred there with regard to the date).. he wrote that the proclaimers book contained a number of "outright falsehoods that have become part of watch tower mythology.
it argues, as have many watch tower publications in the past, that the reason jf rutherford drove four watch tower society directors from office in july 1917 is that they opposed the publication of the book the finished mystery, which he had personally authorised.
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Why do JWs think God would kill these people?
by MrMonroe inthis article from the guardian is one of the most harrowing pieces of journalism i have read in a long, long time.
north koreans raised like rats in a cage, forced to work seven days a week, scavenge for food in cow manure, inform on family members to gain a tiny increase in their rations, tortured, starved, degraded .... which raises two big questions.. 1. why do jehovah's witnesses believe that these people would die at armageddon because they have not joined them in "god's organization"?
how can jehovah's witnesses think god would be so legalistic, so small-minded, that he would deprive those people of life in a peaceful paradise ... just because no brother in a shirt and tie has ever knocked on the door of their barracks and offered them a chance for a bible study?
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Shy JW at the door ... the pain of it
by MrMonroe insomeone tweeted today: "a jehovah's witness who is shy to people at the door.
those few words paint such a sad picture.
how many jws with little self-esteem and self-confidence, particularly born-ins who have never known anything different, are sent out into neighbourhoods to knock on the doors of strangers and speak to them, knowing the householder resents them being there?
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March 15, 2012 WT: These times are more critical than when we last called them critical, honest!!
by MrMonroe injust sad.
"the christian ministry has always been urgent, but now it is more critical than ever.
" (page 18).. what follows is more of the same disgusting tripe: the same scare tactics (nuclear weapons, terrorists, climate change, hurricanes, wars) that made me join in 1985 when the world was on the brink of nuclear armageddon.
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James Beverley's book on Penton's expulsion now on Abebooks
by MrMonroe in"crisis of allegiance" is a slim, but excellent book written by a professor of religion on the events in lethbridge, alberta, around 1981, that led to the expulsion of jim penton, a jw who believed he was anointed but also happened to think the wts had some doctrines wrong.. it's a great read that ties in quite closely with the campaign to get rid of ray franz, showing the dirty tricks used by the society to rid themselves of someone who dared to question them.
penton was an academic who the society loved when he wrote a book on their human rights legal challenges ... but when he expanded his research and decided to do a book on their history, pow!
they began regarding him with great suspicion.
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Vin Toole at work: How much of JWs donations are spent on legal challenges?
by MrMonroe inthis talk of vin toole's involvement in the steven unthank case in victoria reminded me of a legal case back in 1999 that went all the way to the high court of australia.. in february 1998 a 20-year-old sister named sherin qumsieh gave birth in a melbourne hospital.
complications developed, she required an emergency hysterectomy and began suffering severe blood loss.
she had signed a blood card, but the hospital warned her husband, nidal, that there was a high likelihood she'd die if she didn't have a transfusion.
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Interesting development in Victoria: Is this where Govt acts on Working With Children Checks?
by MrMonroe inas has previousy been noted, steven unthank gave a commendable presentation to the victorian government's inquiry into protecting vulnerable children, pointing out that the watch tower society had refused to require jws to apply for working with children checks.. the victorian attorney-general seems to have taken particular notice of this and the attempts by religions -- notably the catholic church and jewish sects (both of which have been accused recently of shielding sex offenders) , but also presumably the jws -- to evade their responsibilities.
here's a story in today's age:.
catholic sex abuse inquiry on holdthe state government has put on hold a public inquiry into sexual abuse by catholic clergy, hoping some key questions can be addressed by another current inquiry into protecting vulnerable children.. state attorney-general robert clark has received at least five different calls in the past two months for an independent inquiry into the church's handling of abuse complaints.. a spokesman said yesterday the government would defer a decision until the report of the protecting victoria's vulnerable children inquiry, due on january 27.. he said the inquiry's chairman, philip cummins, had said that while it was not investigating child sexual abuse within religious bodies in general, it might report on three particular issues:.
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Why a religion academic abandoned a plan for intensive study of JW doctrines
by MrMonroe inmichael gilmour, professor of engish and biblical literature at providence university college, manitoba, proposed a society of biblical literature workshop examining the watchtower society's use of scripture.
he thought they were poorly represented in deep academic analysis, particularly considering they have their own bible and are "persistent" (other people say "relentless") in their proselytizing.. in the end, he decided against it.
much of the reason is the suspicion and contempt held by jws towards "worldly" bible scholars, who, of course, may form different conclusions to those of the governing body.. james a. beverley, in his excellent book, "crtisis of allegiance," made the point that despite their claims to be bible scholars par excellence, the wts's writings or "research" are never (repeat never) cited by any other academics; none are ever persuaded by the claim that only the wts can understand the "deep things of god.".