JW's in Malawi vs. Mexico: Why the Disparity?

[TrueTomHarley]

In CLAM material last night, bans in Nicaragua and Zaire were discussed in back-to-back paragraphs. In one case, it was challenged and overturned promptly. In another, the Branch chose to ride it out for 7 years before mounting a challenge. The reason? It is not explained. That would entail analyzing reports received from the respective traveling overseers regularly reporting to them, and the feel of hundreds of mature ones sniffing out the current lay of the land, sniffing which way the wind is blowing. The Branch has sources. They are not merely shooting in the dark. Like any driver anywhere, they are in position to see more than do the passengers.  Imagine if participants here were to haggle over those countries. Surely, they would follow the same pattern they would follow here. Making up the facts they do not know, which is almost all of them, they would launch inflammatory accusations as readily as Serena Williams launches tennis balls. “At that point the Branch Committee had to make a weighty decision,” the Kingdom Rules book says. Nasty participants like @Micah Ongwho would pee their pants if called upon to make a weighty decision do not hesitate to condemn those who do. They have no clue how to build anything. They live only to destroy.

Even @James Thomas Rook Jr., of whom one vainly hopes better things will emerge, pours gasoline on the fire, though he is qualified to put it out. ‘It can only be racism,’ he charges, telling us of white, brown, and black people. JTR, who goes livid when the Western media, motivated solely by hatred of the man, declare Trump a racist, resorts to exactly the same tactics in dealing with the ones he hates.

The one person who knows anything, @JW Insider, because he rubbed shoulders with all concerned, says ‘Look, nothing is impossible, but racism is the last motivation one should imagine.’ No matter. To vicious persons, character assassins at heart, for whom slander goes down as smoothly as fine wine, knowing only there is a target they must destroy, it only interferes to have someone who knows what they are talking about.

[HollyW]

What JWs went thru in Malawi seems doubly horrendous in view of what the WTS said about being persecuted in some countries for not voting in political elections....circumstances that would make it a conscience matter.

 

Quote

[w99 11/1 QFR p.28-29] What of a country where voting is not mandated by law but feelings run high against those who do not go to the voting booth—perhaps they are exposed to physical danger? Or what if individuals, while not legally obliged to vote, are severely penalized in some way if they do not go to the polling booth? In these and similar situations, a Christian has to make his own decision.

 

Surely having a political card in a country where there's only one political party doesn't require any more participation in politics than a JW showing up at a polling place and even going into the polling booth.

[TrueTomHarley]

1 hour ago, HollyW said:

What JWs went thru in Malawi seems doubly horrendous

Somehow my comment got put before this remark, and not after, where it equally fits.

[Evacuated]

3 hours ago, HollyW said:

Surely having a political card in a country where there's only one political party doesn't require any more participation in politics than a JW showing up at a polling place and even going into the polling booth.

Can we get a view from a Malawian brother on this matter? Maybe someone who has actually faced the issue? Or is that asking too much now?

[HollyW]

22 hours ago, Eoin Joyce said:

Can we get a view from a Malawian brother on this matter? Maybe someone who has actually faced the issue? Or is that asking too much now?

What's your view, Eoin?  Any worshipful ritual going on with either one?

[Evacuated]

11 minutes ago, HollyW said:

Any worshipful ritual going on with either one?

I would see joining the MCP as more of an issue than entering a polling booth.

[HollyW]

 

12 minutes ago, Eoin Joyce said:

I would see joining the MCP as more of an issue than entering a polling booth.

Well, why?  You did read the reasons a JW is allowed to do the one, right?

[w99 11/1 QFR p.28-29] What of a country where voting is not mandated by law but feelings run high against those who do not go to the voting booth—perhaps they are exposed to physical danger? Or what if individuals, while not legally obliged to vote, are severely penalized in some way if they do not go to the polling booth? In these and similar situations, a Christian has to make his own decision.

[Evacuated]

22 hours ago, HollyW said:

JW is allowed

Thought it said they would need to make their own decision? So they are neither allowed or permitted.

The other issue was about joining a political party. I wouldn't join a political organisation under any circumstance, least of all the MCP, a party resolved to casting Jehovah's Witnesses out of human society and, self-confessedly, engaged in butchering opposers. I wouldn't join such a party any more than I would have joined the Nazi party.

So I don't see the issue of going to a polling booth as the same as joining a political party. Maybe you do. That is your perogative. Maybe you would do both, or neither. It's in your hands.

[HollyW]

1 hour ago, Eoin Joyce said:

  they are neither allowed or permitted.

 

We should be able to discuss these things honestly and not pretend JWs don't go by what the WTS tells them they can and can't do.  However, if that seems bothersome to you, ok.

[Evacuated]

20 minutes ago, HollyW said:

We should be able to discuss these things honestly and not pretend JWs don't go by what the WTS tells them they can and can't do.  However, if that seems bothersome to you, ok.

You may not realise it, but you project a very jaundiced spirit here @HollyW. Are you/were you a JW? because you seem to speak from a position of knowing what they feel or think about things? But then you are not like JWs I know, although I won't say I know so many as to be an expert in how they view their relationship with other Witnesses. But you certainly seem to be hurting about something.

However, I do know how I feel about things myself and am expert in that. And I will limit my comments to how I personally feel about things in this matter of making decisions about various practices or issues. What other Witnesses go by when deciding their course in life is up to them. That seems to me to be an honest approach. 

[bruceq]

Why be an unhappy Holly

" Happy is the people for whom it is this way! Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah"! PSALM 144:15. 

[HollyW]

14 hours ago, Eoin Joyce said:

You may not realise it, but you project a very jaundiced spirit here @HollyW. Are you/were you a JW? because you seem to speak from a position of knowing what they feel or think about things? But then you are not like JWs I know, although I won't say I know so many as to be an expert in how they view their relationship with other Witnesses. But you certainly seem to be hurting about something.

However, I do know how I feel about things myself and am expert in that. And I will limit my comments to how I personally feel about things in this matter of making decisions about various practices or issues. What other Witnesses go by when deciding their course in life is up to them. That seems to me to be an honest approach. 

Perhaps the same view expressed in a letter sent to Chilean JWs regarding flying the national flag at Kingdom Halls could have been sent to Malawi JWs facing more than just fines for non-compliance?  This is from that letter: Some may view the matter as simply complying with what "Caesar” requires, since no acts or expressions of worship are involved. (Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:7)