Yesterday, I wrote that the VastApostateArmy of former Jehovah’s Witnesses was starting to take direct action against the Watchtower Society. Now, some of you may be wondering why they are even bothering with a church that has rejected them or vice versa. Why not just “LEAVE THOSE WITNESSES ALOOOOOONNNNE!”. After all, they aren’t bothering anybody. It’s rude to protest at a Kingdom Hall where the good people of East Bumfuck are worshipping quietly and not making any trouble. At least they’re not out going door to door, right?
The problem with the witnesses is that there’s something very rotten at the core of their organization and the country’s movers and shakers might be taking lessons from high control groups like the JWs, but I’ll address that later. The one thing many people don’t know about JWs is that once you are baptized, if your family is also a part of the religion, anything you do that causes you to get the attention of the Watchtower Society could potentially separate you from your family for the rest of your lives. Many adolescents who were raised as witnesses are pressured to become baptized before they really understand what this means. Essentially, it means that you can never grow up because if you do, and start making your own decisions about how you want to live, what you can force yourself to believe and who you marry, your ties to your family can be severed by the elders at your Kingdom Hall if your decisions fall outside their very strict rules.
Now, why is this important? For women witnesses, submission to their husbands is the most important thing in marriage. And unless a spouse can be shown to have committed adultery, there is no divorce or remarriage. A divorce for any other cause than adultery is grounds for disfellowshipping. He says jump, you say how high. With that in mind, take a look at what is in the upcoming Watchtower on Feb. 12, 2012. It’s hard to believe this is the 21st century:
Note where the Watchtower’s Interests are.
Of course, this is a religion so who are we to judge, right?
Violence against women, not just for the Taliban anymore.
Update: Here’s a video from Vast Apostate Army member, Danmera, who was a domestic abuse survivor. She went to the elders for help. They told her to give her husband more sex. I’ll let you guess how that turned out.
This video has more of the text of the February 12, 2012 Watchtower but it also contains some disturbing (but effective) images. Viewer discretion is advised.
Filed under: General | Tagged: domestic violence, Jehovah's Witnesses, submission to husbands, VastApostateArmy, watchtower |
The Confluence 
A developing belief in God helped me to get away from an abusive man. Then, the church I went to minimized spousal and child abuse. I left that church but I didn’t leave God. Ten years later, I found a church that did not minimize abuse. Life and faith are complicated.
To each her own but I am beginning to see the point of a lot of non-religious women I’ve heard or read lately. You don’t need a religion to believe in a deity and the religions we have came from cultures that were hostile to women. There is no place for them in this century.
BTW, Susan, for every woman who left a man who was abusing her, there is a woman who left a man who was abusing her without any appeal to god at all. It would be very wrong to minimize their experiences, and the work they did all by themselves.
For more on what the bible says about women, see this no tract from the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
http://ffrf.org/publications/nontracts/Why-Women-Need-Freedom-From-Religion/
It’s time we faced up to the fact that it is not god that stands in women’s way to full emancipation, it’s religion.
It would be very wrong to minimize all women’s experiences, and the work they did all with or without “God”. That would include Susan, right? It doesn’t seem like she wants to be converted.
God is all around us; in every rock, in every tree, in every drop of rain that falls and every smile we see. We do not need anyone telling us when, where, or how to be with God. All we need do is think and we are in church and that church will not tolerate abuse of self or of others. Obviously, I’m a believer but not a belonger.
btw, wonderful discussions on JWs past few days. (My in-laws, who lived in a location besieged by various religions bent on converting them, once had a dog that only bit Witnesses. The Mormons thought that was funny, one remarking that the dog knew what to do about cults. Oh, irony thou art with us.)
Lol! That’s a hoot! How did the dog know? I swear, they gave me the creeps when I was a kid. Their eyes are all glazed. Maybe they smell like fear.
I don’t know but they all swore it was the truth. Our current very old outside dog (150 pound Akita) used to give the Mormons a hard time by scaring them to death. I wished she had learned how to keep the rest of them at bay.
“God is all around us; in every rock, in every tree, in every drop of rain that falls and every smile we see.” – all sounds nice and fluffy, but does that include God in every drop of tree damaging acid rain, deadly disease, deformity & disaster.
That’s a rather dystopian view of existence. Sounds like you would be pretty happy as a Jehovah’s Witness. They don’t seem to find anything positive about the world they live in.
There are many things to be positive about. That said, I just don’t see how a claimed deity is all around us: in every rock, tree or smile. If that is the case, then is god in a rock-slide that crushes passers by; is god in the rock and the hand that stones a woman to death in the middle-east. I could go on.
It just seems to me that some believers don’t put much thought into the claims they make. And that isn’t a positive thing.
smart pooch. 😆
Religion should not be practiced openly.
Or in groups that base their faith on 2000 year old literature version 1.0 beta.
religion is a personal thing.
It’s just you and whatever you believe.
It should never involve groups or even another person.
Solo.
Amen to that.
Oh, wait…
Patriarchy in any form is always unfair and unequal.
There is no place for it, anymore.
ERA NOW
Just after 08 elections, NOW leadership changed hands and I re-upped. I sent in dues. I was fired up again after a decade or two.
Recently, I’ve been getting calls from them for the usual.
I now tell them, I’ll give them money when I see them
demanding ERA get passed pronto. Until then.. nada.
I’m having good conversations.
We as a nation need to have that conversation.
ERA NOW
RD’s admonition about dropping the whole abortion thing a year ago as an issue…and go after the real nugget of equal rights, was blasphemy at first read but is absolutely the right approach.
It was? Gee, maybe someone should hire me for suggesting right approaches. I could be a Senior Right Approach Advisor, or something.
You’re in a feisty mood tonight. I like it.
Rico, another round!
Amen to ERA now!
The latest video on my blog, though very short, says all that need be said on the topic of religion.
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2012/01/alan-moores-thought-for-day.html
Well, *that* was different. I never quite thought of deities that way. The long blonde hair was a nice touch.