Anna

Not me

This seriously cracked me up! Where do you even go for these ideas?

What gets me is the constant mention of "mother's day" as if that day was somehow more significant to the death of the son than any other day. People get so weirdly sentimental over stuff that has been made up by people anyway. Folks arn't real anymore, it's all a facade and drama.

Honestly, I cannot imagine our group overseer ever sending a text like that. Nor anyone else in our cong. for that matter. Especially not the "I just need to keep a track of you" bit. That just sounds too creepy. But everybody is different, as are cultures. What sounds ok to some, sounds weird to another.

I guess that's why I've saved it

Thanks, but I don't want to watch it again. (I already have it saved, no idea why though, since I don't want to watch it again...)

Well yes, I am sure that WAS actually the theory. In practice of course it turned nasty. Even then it's a matter of opinion for some. As you know, there are people who believe the Holocaust never happened. BUT there is an arbiter of all wrongs and rights and that is God of course. He is the only one who has the right and ability to designate between the two. We humans, although created in his image, can never perfectly match his standards. In my opinion, both videos were absolutely awful 🤮. But I wonder how the new Bethelites see it. What if instead of sniggering about it among themselves, or making other disparaging remarks, they actually find it helpful?? Who knows??

I must admit, I agree with you. But then I wonder, maybe it's me who is seeing it "wrong". Attitude, after all, is everything...

Whether this is deliberate or not is a matter of opinion of course. In any case, I would hesitate to say that anyone makes deliberate mistakes unless they are truly evil. So you are suggesting that the GB are evil. Well, I do not think they are evil. No one condones Pedophilia. You make very general sweeping statements here about what and how Witnesses believe. Most of the Witnesses I know (I would say 99.9%) have a deep and private relationship with God themselves, with Jesus as their mediator. It must be just your idea to somehow involve a third party, the GB, in this relationship. I do not know anyone who does that!

Oh my. It seems Billy the Kid's imagination is running away with him!

I'll let her answer that. What I was saying is that not everyone who has faith in God, is recognized by God as a true worshiper. It is true that ultimately God reads hearts and reads motives, and that we cannot judge anyone, but it is also true that there are many people whose faith is obviously misguided and not in harmony with scripture at all. For example there are those who condone things that God hates and implicitly rejects (eg. practicing homosexuals). Then there are those who have so much faith in God that they will kill thousands of people including themselves, imagining they have rendered a sacred service to God and will wake up in paradise. My answer was to" Witness" who suggested that faith in God was enough to please God, and therefor those who leave the org. but still have faith in God are "ok". So I said it's not about the organization as "Witness" sees it. Firstly, the organization is only in place because of the preaching work. I do not know any other establishment, besides Jehovah's Witnesses, all of whose members go out preaching. Secondly, the organization strives to strictly adhere to the scriptures. I do not know any other establishment that does this. Also, as far as I am aware, those who "leave the org." do not continue to preach, and no longer strictly adhere to the scriptures. But, some of those "who leave the org." also come back. All those reasons you listed John, I can why someone could feel offended by them, but I also know they are arguable, and if anyone wants to learn the facts about these things they can, but many don't. There are also many that do not see those things you listed as reasons to leave the org. because they have understood the cause of them is not due to maliciousness or evilness, but rather over-eagerness, naivete, over-zealousness, pride, fear, and other human failings that have been written about in the Bible as being possessed by persons who God viewed favorably, despite those failings. These individuals were chastised for these weaknesses, but they never permanently lost God's favour.

It really is not about rejecting the organization, it's because not everyone who has faith in God qualifies to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses. It's about rejecting God's standards. For example, you may have faith in God, but believe the Trinity. Or you may have faith in God but see nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas, or practicing homosexuality, or living an immoral life style, or smoking......etc.

Painting by Briton Riviere

Loyalty vs. faithfulness in a dog (as explained by Outta here) is I think just a case of semantics. Although Outta here was correct in what he said, in practice people understand it the way they want. People like to project human emotions and behaviour on to animals. I do believe though that dogs are able to communicate with humans because they "know" how to react like us. They are sad when we are sad, and happy when we are happy and they show it the same way (ok, not quite). I think dogs were made for people 🙂

Yes, I know they share same genetics. But I think that when God created the domestic animals as per Genesis, he created the dog as a domestic animal 😀. I don't care what science says about the origin of dogs, they say the same about cows, sheep, chickens, pigs.....in that case, what would be the point of Genesis specifically differentiating between wild animals and domestic animals. (Actually, science says that everything came from prokaroytic microbes...)