Monday, March 25, 2013

Watchtower Shell Game And The Apostate Rube Who Cries FOUL!

 By Terry Walstrom\JWN

 In the traditional traveling carnival there is a shell game at work. You've seen them; we all have. The pitchman entices a group of people to watch him place the pea under one of three walnut shells as he hides it and switches quickly first this and then the other shells. The object of the game is to bet something on where the pea might be. Guess correctly and you win! Lose and you try again.

The Watchtower hides Armageddon under its doctrinal shells which it switches in a blinding confusion of dates, explanations and cop-outs. The winner gets Paradise on Earth or a special prestigious trip to Jesus on the Rapture express. All you have to do to play is pay up front for the privilege of betting it all on where the pea will be!

And bet they do! You see, readers of the Watchtower have been on a wild ride over the decades. They went from being anxious about the second coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven in 1874 to finding themselves knocking on doors spreading the word about an invisible Jesus commissioning magazine sales. In fact, they bet their lives, their honor and their fortunes on picking where the pea would turn up. (Hint: it never turns up! Surprise!)

The crazy shell game started with the readers of the Watchtower being Bible Students. Then, they were colporteurs on street corners peddling end times like newsboys shouting out a headline: "Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Armageddon has already started! The end comes in 1914!" (1918, 1915, 1975!)

The faithful believers bet it all on where the pea would land and came up short every time! One date followed another as each was explained away. Like any circus crowd of onlookers interest waxed and waned over the years. The bet was always a big one. But, the stakes got heavier fast!

 The second Watchtower president, J.F.Rutherford upped the ante on the old shell game. Now Bible Students had to bet the whole wad: absolute compliance with rigorous policy changes. To play the game and find the pea (Armageddon) you had to ignore your country's flag, stop celebrating holidays, shun your family if they didn't tow the line and you might have to let your loved one's die avoiding a blood transfusion. But, hey! That's not all! If you act now you get to go to prison refusing alternative miltary service, avoid pasteurized milk, abstain from aluminum cookware, refuse antibiotics--and (drum roll) for the first time ever, Christians get to change their name to Jehovah's Witnessess! No more heralding the presence of the King Jesus Christ; no! Knock the doors, peddle the books and get the money for JEHOVAH!!

 The shadow of these events casts a long dark pall of tragedy over the history of the Watchtower Society. New dates for the End brought in more and more bets as the population of Jehovah's Witnesses mounted. Who wouldn't want to WIN BIG? (Guess where the pea lands and win it all!!)

 But, the fallout of the errors took a huge toll like the wake of a powerful storm that wipes out the assets and security of families and plunges communities into despair. The community of brothers and sisters who labored day and night spreading these phoney warnings about the end became hobbled by financial woes, poor educational opportunity for the children and endless demands for more of their time and less criticism of the disharmony between the policies ever-changing and the stark evidence how empty the promises all were.

And yet, when at last the eyes of a few were opened to the petty larceny of it all--they were quickly marginalized as troublemakers and ousted from the ranks of fellow believers and consigned to the purgatory of Apostacy! Like the kid who watches the Con Man hide the pea in his hand and shouts a warning to the crowd that they are being cheated, the disfellowshipped ex-Witness finds himself escorted away and dismissed as a liar and a ne'er-do-well. The now so-called APOSTATE is on the enemy list to be avoided, shunned and ignored hence forth.

 What should an ex member do, keep their mouth shut about the con that is being worked on others? Should a victim of fraud keep silent and lick their wounds in fear of losing their family to the crowd still betting away on where the pea will turn up? No! It is immoral to hide a crime perpetrated on innocent victims. Worse, it is unthinkable to allow one's own family to be defrauded in the name of God and his service.

 The so-called APOSTATE begins to spread the word that a contagious and insidious harm is being carried out by a protected religious outfit that makes special claims for its authority.Then, the critics come to the APOSTATE and chide them for their passion and ridicule their motives and scold them for their messege.

How is one to answer such charges of unfair criticism? Shouldn't the good of the Watchtower Society be praised equally? After all, they aren't axe-murderers!

 Here is one answer.

The Watchtower has over ONE HUNDRED YEARS head start on the whistle-blower. Their propaganda machine is a well-oiled multinational high octane monster. All Watchtower- bashing all the time couldn't catch up with the damage they've done.

 In short, they steal men's souls by sucking time out of people's life to do anything personally beneficial. The busy-busy slave work spreads the viral infection to others. They use as bait the dazzling promise of paradise and the ultimate escape vacation from cares and woes. What they leave behind is the dried out husks of used up people left disillusioned, spent and devoid of a shred of self-worth.

And the Watchtower needs defending?

 Watchtower critcs are a tiny, almost infinitesimal anti-biotic in a sea of monstrous bilge spewing forth from Brooklyn. We are awash in their hate-mongering as they label honest query and righteous demands for accountability as Apostasy. They hold families hostage and pit fathers against children and husbands against wives in their bid to own the very mind of each of their captives.

 I say this. Here on JWD, FREEMINDS and other sites, we are a hospital; a triage unit on a battlefield so vast and littered with so many wounded, it can never be said the succor can ever equal the devastation to damaged lives. (Read the personal stories and add up the misery!)

Stifled voices strain to cry out here after decades of cover up, repression and mind control. The tortured souls of the innocent victims seek asylum in our embrace. The moans of exasperation have reached high into the empty skies to overflow the gates of Jehovah's abandoned Palace of Justice.

 This, for the "apostate", is our only paradise, our purgatory and our hell all rolled into one. Let each man, woman, and child say what he will without restraint and some small measure of balance might be restored to toppled lives hungry for amnesty from the awful shredding evil of the Watchtower menace.

 Extol the imaginary virtues of the Watchtower Society as you will, their graveyard of damaged souls grows yet more vast each day. For they are but a mirage of pretended righteousness which hides a smoldering wasteland of scorched immorality; those vampires of feckless misery. I have tasted the fruits of the Watchtower ministry and the sour poison has sickened me. But, it has not numbed my tongue.

 I've not one word to say on their behalf and they have none to say on mine. That is balance enough.

Monday, March 11, 2013

DFing....Human Rights Violation And DEFAMATION Of Character?

 By Terry Walstrom


>>>>>>>>>No one can allow human rights to be violated--not even inside the insular confinement of Relgious Policy>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What are "rights" and where do the stem from?
Human equality.  One life is as valuable as another.  Life is sacred.

I'm alive and you are alive and the next person is alive. So, we ALL have rights.  Natural rights.

Human rights stem from a very practical source.  Humans have certain needs in order to continue living and to prosper.
Without being able to meet our needs we perish.  So, we have a RIGHT to act in defense of our personal needs to survive and prosper.

Basic premise: all rights stem from LIFE because without life you can't exercise any!

Because they ignore natural human rights.......Jehovah's Witnesses have a genuine moral problem.

Watchtower leaders don't value human life qua life...and consequently officially and through policy--deny certain automatic human rights.
Witness policy isn't about LIFE so much as it is about the LABELS they assign to various people.
By labeling somebody a goat they deny them basic human rights.
By labeling a skeptic an Apostate they deny them basic human rights.
 How?
Remember: JW's say DFing leads to DEATH at Armageddon.   So, depriving a person of LIFE by DFing them is the equivalent to EXECUTION.
If we keep that firmly in mind---we might wake up to what is REALLY AT STAKE in religious policy which denies the right to life.

A Judicial Committee meeting is LIFE or DEATH judgement wielded by arbitrary non-elected men of bias interpreting without law.
False accusations and plenary power can deprive you of your LIFE.  Are you compelled to recognize the power of arrogant men to EXECUTE YOU?


Do we human beings have the right to question authority or don't we?
Do we have a right to rational discourse or don't we?
Just because we join a religion doesn't mean we forego the USE of our brain forever---does it?

As wives, husbands, parents and citizens we are vigilant of encroachments eroding our security and well-being.

After all, we aren't living under Roman Empire rule--are we?

By railroading a person who has doubts and questions-- the elders are devaluing the basic human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

FORCING THIS HUMAN RIGHTs ISSUE OUT IN THE OPEN might wake others up (with doubts, too)  to what is really going on.
Elder judges may sometimes be found to be exercsing power without morality.

By treating their immoral valuation of you (and their death sentence) as unworthy of compliance YOU CHALLENGE their morality in the "court" of public opinion.

Who really is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?  And who is the Evil Slave?
The Evil Slave abuses power over others.
Jesus LEFT THE 99 to go after the stray. Conclusion?  Jesus embraces the stray.
The Evil Slave drives out the one.  Conclusion: abusive Elders are embodying the Evil Slave.

CASE IN POINT:

If you call the police and report child molestation after the Elders tell you to keep quiet are you a reviler deserving their "death" sentence: DFing?
Yes--to the stonewalling Elders who won't protect the innocent victim.
If you report them---who gets arrested?    THEY DO.
(What is the alternative? Keeping your lip zipped?)
NO!  You are doing the MORALLY RIGHT thing.
Any Religious Policy which makes you complicit in cover-up is automatically IMMORAL.

Why? IT VIOLATES BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS.
So, you get DF'd.  What then?
Should you ACCEPT YOUR FATE?
NO!
THIS IS A HUMAN RIGHTS CROSSROADS.

>>>>>>>>>No one can allow human rights to be violated--not even inside the insular confinement of Relgious Policy>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Others inside the congregation are watching and deciding.  They are--in effect--having their own morals tested.
Your public treatment puts their integrity to the test.  But only if it is PUBLIC and witnessed.
Otherwise...it is all swept under the rug of secrecy and the festering injustice continues.
Business as usual.

When did public opinion change about the Catholic Church? When the evil policy of cover up became public.
When did public opinion change about Scientology?  When defectors went public about violent abuse.


For Evil to prosper good people only have to do nothing.

We have a basic human right to educate our children and to earn a substantive living and to enjoy our free time.
The Watchtower religion VIOLATES these basic human rights too with opressive and suppressive policies that
rob families of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.