Hello @nPeace
Let's have a look at this website:
11 kinds of Bible verses Christians love to ignore
(there are thousands of such websites to choose from)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but JWs don't believe in owning slaves, right?
I ask because this is something the bible is OK with as it gives instructions as to how to be a good master of slaves......
If it was against it then it wouldn't provide such instructions.....
Indeed it would state "Thy Shalt Not Own Slaves". But it doesn't. It could have said this but it doesn't.
Much to its shame, IMO.
I sincerely hope you do not believe slavery is OK???
And correct me if I'm wrong, but JWs don't avoid wearing clothes made out of two different types of fabric???
Also, if a son is stubborn and defies his parents/elders do you stone him???
No, you don't. You'd simply defellowship him, you'd isolate him from his entire family and leave him to sleep out on the street in a cardboard box, fending for himself
You therefore reject parts of the bible!!!!
One more thing...
I gave four things that shape the beliefs and practices of any Christian denomination
But I neglected to include a fifth one:
Authority
Liberal Protestants such as myself don't really have this so I forgot to include it
But Roman Catholics do as do JWs due to their hierarchical natures
You have The Watchtower Society which enforces a certain interpretation of scripture
Also, each JW congregation has a body of elders, who enforce JW orthodoxy and act as a kind of spiritual thought police
As such, your denomination is hostile towards dissent and free-thought in a way that other denominations are not - it suppresses personal reason and drowns out prior experience and the broader traditions of society
I find any organisation that surpasses free thought to be rather sinister but yes, it is your right to decide who is allowed to call themselves a JW and who isn't, I would never interfere in the affairs of your church or challenge its right to exist but that doesn't mean I can't outright reject it
But I think you are confusing the authority of the bible with the "authority" of humans
To return to the bible:
You guys clearly read it in the context of a certain tradition (e.g. you read it as a 21st century Westener would) in a way that is shaped by your own sense of reason, and in a way that is shaped by your life experience which all occurs in a certain cultural context (i.e. a tradition)
To deny this would render you mindless and would make the bible little more than a hypodermic syringe that injects spirituality into a passive body. No. You actively interpret it based on your culture and who you are. You all do this! It is not beamed into your head, you actively acquire it in light of your reason, your tradition, and your personal experience. Each person reads it in a different way. But in your tradition authority coerces people into a certain rigid interpretation that defies the personal reason of the members.
However, unlike in other contexts it appears that you do this in a climate of fear, coming from the elders who govern individual congregations: Authority seems to be an important factor in your religion.
Can I ask, you seem very well versed. Are you a church elder?
OK then.....For the record , Jehovah's Witnesses do not use reason, tradition, and experience to determine whether to accept a scripture, or not. Scripture comes first.
Let's have a look at this website:
11 kinds of Bible verses Christians love to ignore
(there are thousands of such websites to choose from)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but JWs don't believe in owning slaves, right?
I ask because this is something the bible is OK with as it gives instructions as to how to be a good master of slaves......
If it was against it then it wouldn't provide such instructions.....
Indeed it would state "Thy Shalt Not Own Slaves". But it doesn't. It could have said this but it doesn't.
Much to its shame, IMO.
I sincerely hope you do not believe slavery is OK???
And correct me if I'm wrong, but JWs don't avoid wearing clothes made out of two different types of fabric???
Also, if a son is stubborn and defies his parents/elders do you stone him???
No, you don't. You'd simply defellowship him, you'd isolate him from his entire family and leave him to sleep out on the street in a cardboard box, fending for himself
You therefore reject parts of the bible!!!!
One more thing...
I gave four things that shape the beliefs and practices of any Christian denomination
But I neglected to include a fifth one:
Authority
Liberal Protestants such as myself don't really have this so I forgot to include it
But Roman Catholics do as do JWs due to their hierarchical natures
You have The Watchtower Society which enforces a certain interpretation of scripture
Also, each JW congregation has a body of elders, who enforce JW orthodoxy and act as a kind of spiritual thought police
As such, your denomination is hostile towards dissent and free-thought in a way that other denominations are not - it suppresses personal reason and drowns out prior experience and the broader traditions of society
I find any organisation that surpasses free thought to be rather sinister but yes, it is your right to decide who is allowed to call themselves a JW and who isn't, I would never interfere in the affairs of your church or challenge its right to exist but that doesn't mean I can't outright reject it
But I think you are confusing the authority of the bible with the "authority" of humans
To return to the bible:
You guys clearly read it in the context of a certain tradition (e.g. you read it as a 21st century Westener would) in a way that is shaped by your own sense of reason, and in a way that is shaped by your life experience which all occurs in a certain cultural context (i.e. a tradition)
To deny this would render you mindless and would make the bible little more than a hypodermic syringe that injects spirituality into a passive body. No. You actively interpret it based on your culture and who you are. You all do this! It is not beamed into your head, you actively acquire it in light of your reason, your tradition, and your personal experience. Each person reads it in a different way. But in your tradition authority coerces people into a certain rigid interpretation that defies the personal reason of the members.
However, unlike in other contexts it appears that you do this in a climate of fear, coming from the elders who govern individual congregations: Authority seems to be an important factor in your religion.
Can I ask, you seem very well versed. Are you a church elder?
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