now that we have stepped away from the jw faith, how do you feel about the bible itself?.
what about those awkward sections of scripture?
how did you rationalise or justify those sections?.
She bears mauling childern
Uzzah killed for a human reflex
Mass slaughter of innocent firstborn children in Egypt
Jacob sleeping with what he thought was a prostitute and that being an OK part of Jesus lineage
Solomon and David and Jacob etc etc having multiple wives and concubines (a euphemism for sex slaves - anyone watched the Handmaids Tale?) and still being considered honourable men
Thats just for starters....
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sex-abuse-stephen-lett-chessa-manion-20180620.html.
So sad.... makes me cry. And mad too. The culture of denial is sickening.
with the ever present issue of the society seeming to run out of money, and constantly asking the flock for more donations, maybe it is time to revive this quote!.
the leaked financial dept videos that have done the rounds, clearly show the society is in desperate trouble financially.. so, where is the "almighty's hand"?
where is his ability to provide funds?
Yep, time to pack up shop. They basically admitted in those leaked videos that God has not seen fit to provide the finances for all the projects they dreamed up. Yet in the same breath they still say they're waiting for him to bless these projects and see evidence of it! Completely delusional.
has anybody seen this movie yet ?
i really enjoyed it .and i couldn`t help but think of those with literally/poetic skills on this forum while i was watching it .. i would be interested in anybody`s comments reviews either good or bad ..
No, not yet, but looking forward to ti. It hasn't been released in Australia yet.
I'm a big fan of M.Shelley, I think she was a prodigy. As Magnum pointed out, to come up with such an amazing and insightful and deep exploration of the many issues and concepts in Frankenstein seems almost impossible for one so young. I'm in my late 40's, have read the book twice and seen great play versions of it as well and I'm still getting my head around the concepts.
In terms of being an ex-jw and an ex-beleiver/atheist I I've really gone back to the aspects the book that highlight issues re a creator's responsibility to its creation.... and all that it implies re the God of the Bible... a large part of the consequences of the story stem from the abandonment by the creator Dr.Frankenstein and his failure to understand the needs of his creature.
this article is dated june 7, 2018 and is likely a lead up to the bear ripping the jw bible article.
http://www.newsweek.com/wives-jehovahs-witnesses-jailed-russia-send-letter-putin-adviser-begging-end-965516.
the wives of jehovah’s witnesses rounded up and imprisoned in russia have written an open letter to a top adviser of president vladimir putin, asking him to stop the campaign of terror against the religious group.“this open letter to you is a cry of desperation.
I have taken the liberty of re-writing the letter from our perspective:
To the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses
This open letter to you is a cry of desperation. People who are very dear to us, our
families, those who feed us, the fathers of our children, our mothers, our children, peaceable, honest people, who are always ready to help others, are being SHUNNED and cut off from their family & friends for being suspected of reading apostate material and having a different opinion about God whose name, as recorded in the Bible, is Jehovah.
As of this day in Russia already hundreds of individuals are being SHUNNED. Some of
our family members have been SHUNNED for many years. Thousands more, all over the world, are being SHUNNED or are forbidden to have normal family relationships with those dear to them.
With each passing day, their number is increasing. Taking into account that there
are 8 million professing the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, we wonder how many more
thousands, or hundreds or thousands of victims of conscience will it take before the unjust
SHUNNING of people for their differences in faith is brought to an end.
Under the guise of fighting apostacy, many of us, and even our children, have been
threatened with expulsion and disconnection from our families. Our
privacy and social media accounts have been raided and searched, our reading material has been questioned, so we can’t live a normal life. Our personal photographs, and other
personal documents have been used against us, and our reading materials have been condemned. They are trying to force us to live in fear of God’s displeasure because we question our faith. Some have already been dismissed from their places of work after many years of faultless work just because the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses no longer considers them good associates. We cannot find the answers to the questions of why we are being subjected to such treatment form an organisation that claims to believe in freedom of religion?
Honorable members of the Governing Body, please help us to receive answers to these questions. In the face of such monstrous circumstances, we are afraid for the future of many others who make an honest examination of the truthfulness of their faith. The ground has been laid for children to be torn away from parents, because their faith in God )or lack thereof) has been declared “wrong.”
In return for freedom and a quiet life, we are being invited to disassociate ourselves or face secret judicial hearings where we are not allowed witnesses or other aspects of natural justice. We are not asking for any special privileges. We are asking for just one thing—please, defend our rights.
Honorable members of the Governing Body! A campaign of terror has been unleashed against an
entire group of people. Fundamental human rights are being trampled on: the right to freedom of worship, the right to change or leave ones religion without penalty and personal inviolability, the right to personal dignity, the right to privacy, the right to the inviolability of the home, to freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, freedom of worship, the right to private property.
If the Governing Body does not quickly put an end to this growing campaign of terror,
we will be faced with a global human rights catastrophe. We are certain that you have the power to take action now, and use all possible means to restore the rights of religious believers and those of no religion!
.
With respect, the ex-jw’s whose family’s have been taken from them by the policy of SHUNNING.
this is my first post.
i'm still a jw but am inactive.
im struggling with the fact that i agree with some of the doctrines (i,e, the stance on the trinity, there is no hell) but i disagree with a lot of things (i,e, men can't have beards, women have to wear skirts).
leaked: whq accounts: 2016-2020 budget [part 1 of 5] https://youtu.be/g08tw2v3b4s.
leaked: whq accounts: 2016-2020 budget [part 2 of 5] https://youtu.be/rpceb5v0vbe.
leaked: whq accounts: 2016-2020 budget [part 3 of 5] https://youtu.be/2xa08ukc_6i.
Good points Incognito, thats exactly what stood out to me. We see the same infantilising here as we see at the average congregation meeting and on the broadcasts. Having to "explain" in painful detail the basics of what a budget is and why its necessary as if they were speaking to children instead of finance departments of national organisations seems absurd in the highest degree! Obviously budgeting on that scale requires more skill than a simple household budget does, and they should be providing the training to each branch on how to manage complex budgets, not just speak to them like babies and tell them what a budget is.... no wonder they're in a financial mess.
cofty, this jw lady sent us a message with a question on a point she is trying to verify.. .
her question: (isn't the watchtower teaching a form of "evolution" right now and my jw family just don't realize it?).
hold on sandra, grampa (atlantis), says that (cofty) is pretty much an expert on evolution and can answer your question more accurately than we can.
To answer the OP: Its simply a matter of Evolution in a very general non-scientific definition/sense of things changing over time vss Biological Evolution, which is a very specific type of change. I think the society supports the former, not the latter.
Also, a comment on the above 82 Watchtower: This is completely absurd and shows the true nature of the two-class system. Anointed and Other sheep ARE NOT equal in JW theology as they like to claim (as in both righteous but have different destinies). If the heavenly resurrection is to perfection, why not the earthly resurrection? Both have dies and paid for their sins, so why does God create a new imperfect body instead of a perfect one, like he does for spirit bodies? Why do the great crowd have to work towards perfection for a 1000 years while the anointed achieve perfection instantly!?
oh wow...how the gb and the society could learn from this response!.
no victim blaming.
no passing of the buck.
Some further info from ABC news:
Last Friday, the minister had a positive meeting with representatives of the following churches (with some more percentages of abuse reported in private sessions included):
Australian Christian Churches, YMCA, Scouts, Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi were also present; Seventh-day Adventist Church (0.4 per cent) and Presbyterian Church (2 per cent) were apologies.
Jehovah's Witness (1 per cent) did not attend but will be involved in round two of negotiations — one-on-one meetings with the minister's department.
i have read countless times in this site and others that there is speculation that someone high up in the watchtower world required an organ transplant, and then because of that, their position that they had held since 1967 changed in 1980.i believe i have found a clue to who that person might have been.
i leave it to the exjw community to investigate further, but it's tantalizing!it is waay too much of a coincidence that:lee cordaway got a phone call in january 1980 that his kidneys were failing.
lee was 18 years old at the time.watchtower printed its "organ transplants are allowed now" article in march 1980.. january 1981: lee goes into the organ donor list for new kidneys.august 1981: lee receives his new kidney.september 1981: lee's new kidney is rejected, he has to have it removed.
The problem with that theory is there is usually up to a 6 month lead time on when decisions are made as to what articles go in the magazines, and the articles afr3e often prepared long in advance of that. So that article on organ transplants was almost certainly prepared long before the Jan 1980 date that the person found out they needed a transplant.
