Posts by Euphemism

i recall seeing a statement in the watchtower that those who personally disagree with major wt doctrines, even if they are not promoting their personal viewpoints, are apostates and liable to disfellowshiping.

i'm searching the wtlib, however, and i can't find it.

does anyone remember where it is?

Euphemism

Good stuff, Elsewhere!

It's funny how they create a dichotomy between "a trouble-making apostate" and "a Christian who becomes weak in his faith and has doubts." There's no in-between allowed for "a Christian who has strong faith, disagrees with the Society, but doesn't cause trouble."

15

Sins against the holy spirit...

by shamus in

jw
friends

so, what the heck is a sin against the holy spirit that cannot be forgiven?

they never had a clear answer in the whole time that i was in the cult..... what is it?

any ideaz?

Euphemism

The JW answer is pretty much the same thing, just not as clear.

6

Our glorious right to free speech

by Euphemism in

jw
friends

.

otherwise known as "the best legal brief ever": (warning: constant and repeated use of a vulgar synonym for coitus).

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/fword1.html

Euphemism

Otherwise known as "the best legal brief ever": (warning: constant and repeated use of a vulgar synonym for coitus)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/fword1.html

28

"AMICUS CURIAE", the USA Supreme Court and the WTBS Inc.

by MacHislopp in

swaggart ministries v. cal.

amicus curiae ".

amicus curiae '

Euphemism

So, if a third party does *not* file Amicus Curiae, are you saying they *don't* realize the implications of such suit?

No, but I'm saying that they have no other way of putting their position before the court. The court won't agree to hear them as a separate case, just because they don't want to be joined with 'false religion.'

Let's not forget that this is an organization that will compel its members to shun any relative or friend who swims in a YMCA pool, cuts a church's lawn or buys a cake at a sidewalk church bake sale

I believe that it is a d/fing offense to be hired by the church as a gardener, or to take a church contract if you own your own business. It is not a d/fing offense if you are an employee of someone else's business. The other two items, while discouraged, are not d/fing offenses.

I agree, the above restrictions are all ridiculous. But the key thing is that they all involve some sort of association, some sort of mutual exchange with a religious organization.

An amicus curiae brief does not involve any sort of association, exchange, or affiliation with any of the parties in the case. It is--or at least, can be--simply a petition to the Supreme Court to recognize the arguments and interests of the filer.

31

What if JWs had never been part of your life......?

by Scully in

jw
friends

prisca's topic about personal responsibility vs blaming the jws (http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/56286/824979/post.ashx#824979) got me to thinking..... where do you think you'd be if the jws and the wts had never been part of your life?how would your life be different from what it is now?what do you think you might have accomplished or done differently without the encumberances of the jws in your life?what kind of relationship would you have with your family?who would you be?.

there are no right or wrong answers, but think about those what-i-want-to-be-when-i-grow-up ideas you had as children and whether those dreams could have become a reality.. .

love, scully

Euphemism

I've thought about this question... and I've realized, as someone else said, that I wouldn't have been me.

My parents probably would have had kids sooner than they did, if they didn't spend their 20's pioneering. So I would have been born at a different time, had a different genetic makeup, and so forth.

But just for the sake of hypothesizing, let's put that aside for a minute...

One thing I wonder is whether I would be healthy. My parents' regular pioneer assignment was near a toxic waste dump, and they both came down with CFS, which I inherited. Whether there's actually a correlation there, no one knows. But it's an interesting possibility, one which would certainly change my life a lot.

If my parents hadn't been witnesses, my father probably would have gotten a PhD and been teaching English in some college somewhere. His friends would probably be other intelligent, intellectually minded people, so maybe they would have had intelligent kids, and I wouldn't have grown up feeling like such a freak. I dunno... just a possibility.

One thing's for sure... my father is, by nature, an easy-going man. If he wasn't a witness, I'm sure he wouldn't have pressured me from a young age to be responsible, to be mature, to be sinless, etc. He wouldn't have felt that he had to turn me into a perfectly obedient child by the time I was two years old, which means I would be free of considerable emotional hangups that come from that attempt.

I suppose his latent perfectionism might have found some other way to manifest itself, and that might have harmed me emotionally. But I am sure that whatever it was, it couldn't have harmed me as much as "the truth."

18

privileges

by kgfreeperson in

jw
friends

what people can give public talks?

(i.e., do you have to be an elder?

)

Euphemism

An 'ordinary brother' can only do 'student talks' on the TMS... the #2 and #4 talks. (And possibly a #3 if he's subbing in last minute.) The only exception would be congregations with a severe shortage of brothers.

41

The New World Translation

by MrsQ in

jw
friends

can anyone give me an explanation of how the nw translation came about?

who, exactly, were on this bible translation committee, and what were their qualifications?

when was it first published?.

Euphemism

I used to be on the "NWT is biased" bandwagon. As noted above, none of the translators had the proper skills or credentials for the job. And so I figured... how on earth could they produce a correct translation?

However, I've recently been reading Jason BeDuhn's book "Truth in Translation." (Note: BeDuhn is not a witness.) While I'm sure that some instances of bias can be proven against the NWT, BeDuhn clearly shows that the most commonly used Protestant bible translations are actually more biased than the NWT, at least as far as the translation of individual verses.

The two system areas where the NWT shows unjustifiable bias are the translation of stauros as 'torture stake' (although 'stake' would be fine, and even 'execution stake' would probably pass) and of kurios as 'Jehovah'.

None of these are as theologically significant, however, as the explicit trinitarian manipulation of the text by the NIV, NRSV, and KJV.

I would add that the NW is still in many ways an incompetent translation, because it is hyper-literal. Even 'formal equivalence' translations, which stay as close to the Greek as possible, should alter the word-order and grammar so that the sentence will flow smoothly in English; the NWT does not do that, which makes it very hard to read.

But that's an issue of stylistics, not interpretation.

28

"AMICUS CURIAE", the USA Supreme Court and the WTBS Inc.

by MacHislopp in

swaggart ministries v. cal.

amicus curiae ".

amicus curiae '

Euphemism

I have to agree with crownboy here.

Filing an amicus curiae brief is not in any way an endorsement of the party in the trial. It does not involve any organizational involvement with them, or any sort of co-operation or co-ordination with them whatsoever. It simply signifies that the filer is aware that their own interests will be affected by the precedent of this decision.

Registering as an NGO with UN, on the other hand, involved an agreement to actively publish articles in support of the UN and its policies.

Big, big difference.