i'm all for religious freedoms.
i am not for a religious organization demanding freedoms from the government that they in turn take away from their own members.
why should the organization get religious freedom when they take that very thing away from it's members?.
It is emotional blackmail. It is coercion. Not freedom.
And it is not a practice that comes from a group of like minded individuals who had this idea and come together. This decision emanates and is enforced from the top down.
JWs don't have the right to associate with those judicial committees have been announced disfellowshipped or disassociated and remain JWs.
Of course, as I've said, I'm against any sort of ban.
this can only be a good sign.. my old congregation in liverpool has had a lot of money in it's bank account for years.
for a long, long time (almost 8 years) they've been looking for land to build a new hall.
the one they're in now is literally falling to bits.
I can help but ask again and again, "Where is all the money going?"
The Watchtower answer: to build Kingdom Halls in other places.
Of course, there is zero transparency. I remember a few months ago the LDC video where they said they were "pulling back the curtain" for a bit. Why have a curtain at all? Why not list all the Kingdom Halls being built in every nation of earth on the website?
i'm all for religious freedoms.
i am not for a religious organization demanding freedoms from the government that they in turn take away from their own members.
why should the organization get religious freedom when they take that very thing away from it's members?.
To be truly free to leave, one would be able to leave without institutional shunning. That is what exists in most denominations.
If a JW does not shun the leavetaker, then they are dealt with by the elders, and can find themselves on the outside and shunned as well. This is not freedom.
hello folks.
as some of you might know my dad couldnt keep quiet about my view of the world, so i have been "forced" to study with an elder.
otherwise i would be dragged to questioning, which is to much pressure for a young inexperienced person like me.
Then as has been mentioned: since you've been dip it is especially important to guard your tongue. Keep researching, do the bare minimum you have to, make friends with non-JWs, prepare for college and being able to support yourself afterward. Then you will be in a position to move on.
Never forget the convention last year where the girl was disfellowshipped and her father kicked her out. Watchtower is sending an implied instruction.
When I woke up, I examined the theology on this topic and others, and it does not add up.
Maybe this would be of use to you on the subject of the Great Crowd and "Other Sheep".
https://youtu.be/3qpVCF_q8RM?list=PLyNx0oM_bmgCUR4GVPmqsYwTx7AzrmMek
Of course, if you check my channel, you'll see there are other topics like 607, 1914, Door to Door where things fall apart on examination as well.
Of course, like I said it is best to keep it to yourself for now.
hello folks.
as some of you might know my dad couldnt keep quiet about my view of the world, so i have been "forced" to study with an elder.
otherwise i would be dragged to questioning, which is to much pressure for a young inexperienced person like me.
Have you been dipped?
That definitely would change the consequences of asking questions.
i'm all for religious freedoms.
i am not for a religious organization demanding freedoms from the government that they in turn take away from their own members.
why should the organization get religious freedom when they take that very thing away from it's members?.
Perhaps growth may stagnate in Russia, but what about growth everywhere else?
Think about how much 9/11 had people flocking back in. This could have a similar effect.
do you get the feeling that time is moving faster?
what do you think?.
It is a natural phenomena: the older we get, the faster time subjectively goes for us. I remember when I was a kid an hour seemed like a long time. Now whole weeks can go by in the blink of an eye.
Time is also relative depending of the frame of reference. A beam of light emitted from a star 13 billion years ago traveling 13 billion lightyears experiences no passage of time or space between emission and absorption. 13 billion years is not even a moment for something traveling at the speed of light.
Nobody has really been able to effectively answer the question: what is time?
It seems beyond human understanding.
Learning to mindfully dwell in awareness of the present moment, rather than the past, or the future, is a challenge, but on the occasion I’m able to helps eliminate stress and anxiety.
“The present moment is the only moment available to us and it is the door to all other moments.”
i'm all for religious freedoms.
i am not for a religious organization demanding freedoms from the government that they in turn take away from their own members.
why should the organization get religious freedom when they take that very thing away from it's members?.
Banning is counterproductive for cults. It feeds into the persecution complex. Those under cult indoctrination will dig in further.
Russia's banning of JWs is a win/win for Watchtower. They get to play the Persecution Card which validates the belief system. It also feeds into the whole "the end is so close" and attack by the "king of the north" hype, which also ends up being validating. JWs in all other parts of the world, who might've been on the verge of waking up and freeing themselves, will be scared back into "mother's arms".
Removing tax exemption and/or financial penalties targeted at the organization are the best stick. The answer is not penalizing individual JWs, who become victim twiceover, both of an authoritarian religion and an authoritarian government.
if there's one thing we can look back on and laugh and tell our kids it's the fact that knocking on strangers doors at inopportune times results in some funny or embarrassing experiences.
i'd be interested in hearing some of yours.
here's some of mine to get the ball rolling:.
Every dang time I was doorknocking was embarrassing.
i am just curious.. i have a cousin who is a baptist and his church streams their sunday services and i've been checking them out before i go to meeting with my jw wife.. i haven’t been to a church except for the occasional funeral and wedding and the only sermons i had heard were the tel-evangelist type.
anyway, all the church bashing by jws over the years made me unsure what to expect and i was pleasantly surprised.
they do use the bible and they don't spend the whole time begging for money.
I joined a mainline church, was a deacon for a time, and attended many non-fundamentalist services at varying denominations. I guess I'm more in the "spiritual not religious" camp these days, so while I don't have anything against churches in general, I don't feel drawn to go anymore.
