As the world cautiously but optimistically celebrates the New Year, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other doomsday Christian fundamentalist groups wring their hands with delight at the current state of things. The world faces a global economic recession (the U.S. facing its worst since the Great Depression), a rapidly changing climate, persistent conflict in Bosnia, Congo, Israel, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Zimbabwe, devastating earthquakes, etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera. The worst things get, the happier Jehovah’s Witnesses are, since as Jesus prophesized in Matthew chapter 24, catastrophe’s mark the sign of the end of the world as we know it.
A minority religion globally, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that their adherents (and not even all of those), somewhere between 6 and 7 million, will be the sole survivors at the conclusion of Armageddon, the battle between Jesus and Satan described in the odd and even horrifying final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. In Jehovah’s Witness theology that would mean less than 9 percent of the worlds 7 billion population would survive, and Jehovah God in all his infinite love and wisdom would slaughter billions of people including innocent children.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have been preparing themselves for "the end" throughout its 130-year history (with its founding in Pennsylvania), with one failed predictions after another. The very basis of their theology is intrinsically tied to "Armageddon," and without that, there isn't much else to the religion. Worrisome for those of us who still have family members in the religion, Jehovah’s Witnesses are increasingly isolating themselves exemplified by recently revised congregational procedures.
First in 2008, the Watchtower Society who publishes the Watchtower and Awake! magazines began to publish two versions of the Watchtower, one for the public and one only for adherents. The Jehovah’s Witnesses-only version - described by the Watchtower Society as timely and important information for only those who are members - features articles used in their group study meetings.
Secondly, the Watchtower Society revised its five meetings/three times-a-week schedule to four meetings/two times-a-week and reduced their Sunday meetings form 2 hours to 1 ½ hours. Promoted by the Society as concern for rising gas prices and to allow members additional time to engage in personal and family Bible study and door-to-door evangelism, the change has signaled to many Jehovah’s Witnesses the beginning of the end. (The meeting time that was eliminated was the smaller study groups that met once a week in member homes however the study session was integrated within the other weeknight meeting). Although not officially stated by religious officials, chatter within congregations includes the possibility that government will soon turn against religion (again as prophesized in the book of Revelation), and the change in venue will prevent the authorities from targeting members homes. Further chatter includes how the "secret" members-only Watchtower will inform members when Armageddon arrives and how to navigate through global destruction.
Already, the Society is using guilt to ensure that members are using the extra evening to study Watchtower literature, instead of heaven-forbid, take a class, go to the gym. use the internet, or watch television with their families.
These changes are absurd but alarming as there are signs the group is becoming more socially and ideologically isolationist. Jesus and his message as found in the gospel accounts were never presented to a secret and privileged audience (with the exception of the Lords Evening Meal). Jesus welcomed everyone to hear his message and even confronted the Pharisees and others who he often criticized. Jehovah’s Witnesses who have a message intended or understood only by adherents is contrary to how Jesus operated his ministry.
Despite the fact that many of us former Jehovah’s Witnesses are cut off from our families, we need to find ways to watch over them to ensure that their social and mental isolation does not worsen and that they and their property are protected.
With the many global challenges facing us, we need to turn to pragmatic and transparent political and religious leaders and theologies who are working towards practical and long-term solutions to the worlds problems, not those who take advantage of fears while engaging in isolationism. Although humans are capable of shocking evil, we are also capable of wonderful good and as we begin the New Year, we need to look at ways to cooperate for a more equitable future, and not pursue or condone theology and ideology that promotes death and destruction.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Dumbing Down of Jehovah’s Witnesses by Misrepresenting Truth
Former and current Jehovah’s Witnesses are well aware of the Society’s view on higher education, which has fluctuated during the past few decades from downright prohibition to tacit approval for trade-specific vocational training. We have all known someone or heard stories of exceptionally bright Jehovah’s Witness youths who have turned down scholarships to colleges in order to pursue the full-time preaching work. Since Jehovah’s Witnesses are less likely to attending college, they are vastly under-represented in many fields such as medical, science, research, law and the arts.
More disturbing than the resistance to higher education that emanates from talks at conventions and congregation meetings, are the gross misrepresentations of the value of higher education in their literature. For example, an article in the October 1, 2005 issue of the Watchtower, entitled “Parents-What Future Do you Want for Your Children?” features an inset that asks, “What is the Value of Higher Education?” The inset begins, “Most people who enroll in a university look forward to earning a degree that will open doors for them to well-paying and secure jobs. Government reports show, however, that only about one quarter of those who go to college earn a degree within six years-a dismal success rate.” Considering that a bachelors degree requires four-years of full-time attendance, I am confused as to why this is considered “dismal?” Nevertheless, the article does not cite the “government reports” it’s referring to, so we are left to take their word for it.
Instead, the inset provides quotes from various non-Jehovah’s Witness “current research and studies,” to support the claim that higher education is not a worthwhile endeavor. Oddly, “current research and studies,” are nowhere to be found in the article, unless you consider pop-culture news magazines such as Newsweek and Time as venerable and rigorous institutions specializing in research on education. Woops, well never mind, we’ll assume the source articles provide results from reputable studies to support the notion that higher education is really a “waste of time and money,” as the article points out. Since I found the actual articles for myself, this is not entirely so.
The inset quotes Newsweek (November 1, 1999), “’Going to Harvard or Duke [universities] won’t automatically produce a better job and higher pay….Companies don’t know much about young employment candidates. A shiny credential (an Ivy League degree) may impress. But after that, what people can or can’t do counts for more.’” The Newsweek article entitled “The Worthless Ivy League,” by Newsweek and Washington Post columnist and economist, Robert J. Samuelson - who himself is a Harvard graduate (and published a book entitled Untruth: Why the Conventional Wisdom Is (Almost Always) Wrong) - questions whether an Ivy League education guarantees higher salaries in comparison to lower ranked public and private colleges, not that higher education in itself is valueless. The article points out that while Ivy League universities generally attract more “talented” and ambitious students, students who are “talented” and ambitious at any lower-ranked universities can do as well in terms of professional success and salaries. While the article does quote from a study, the study tested salaries between over-achieving graduates from Ivy League and non-Ivy League universities. Not exactly the message that the quote found in the Watchtower inset implies.
The inset then quotes from a magazine called American Educator, which is published by the American Federation of Teachers, a journal for educators from grade school to college. I hardly believe that their publication or any schoolteacher or college professor would pooh-pooh the value of higher education, but let’s examine what the article really says. The Watchtower inset quotes the publication, “’While today’s typical job requires higher skills than in the past…,the skills required for these jobs are strong high school-level skills-math, reading, and writing at a ninth-grade level….,not college-level skills.…Students do not need to go to college to get a good job, but they do need to master high school-level skills.’”
Personally, I find it disturbing that any publication would value “ninth-grade level” skills in reading, writing and math over a twelfth-grade level, considering that students in the United States are vastly inferior in these skills (especially in math) than students in other developed nations and even developing nations such as India and China. The article admits that in the United States, “Unfortunately, over 40 percent of high-school seniors lack ninth-grade math skills and 60 percent lack ninth-grade reading skills.” The American Educator article actually addressed “low-achieving” middle and high school students who average grades that are "C" or lower and said that encouraging them to pursue college may not be a reasonable option considering their difficulties in performing in an academic environment. In addition, the article suggests that these under-performing students could work in service or manual related jobs that can eventually lead to competitive salaries, as long as they are encouraged by school faculty and administration and have mastered “basic high school” skills (preferably at a twelfth-grade level). The article concludes by saying, “employers argue that they cannot trust that the high school diploma certifies knowledge of these high school-level skills. As a result, employers report using college degrees to signal that applicants possess high school skills,” again, not exactly what the Watchtower citation implies.
Thirdly, the Watchtower inset quotes from The Futurist, published by the World Future Society, which their websites explains, “is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and educational association of people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future.” It doesn’t appear that they disregard the value of higher education as the Watchtower cites from The Futurist article, “In view of all this, more and more educators are seriously doubting the value of higher education today. ‘We are educating people for the wrong futures,’ laments the Futurist report.” The actual article (and not a report) entitled, “Help Wanted: Creating Tomorrow’s Workforce,” was written by Edward E. Gordon, PhD, and president of the Imperial Consulting Corporation, dedicated to educational training and advancement. Mr. Gordon argues that both high schools and colleges are not preparing their students for work in emerging fields in technology, and rather focus on traditional “high-status” jobs such as in law or medicine. And he insists that “rather than focusing on one-career preparation path, current and future workers need a higher quality of education that integrates general knowledge in both the arts and sciences with emerging technology” (italics mine). Only a liberal arts college education can provide a core curriculum based on the humanities and science along with courses focused on knowledge of contemporary technical advances. The article is not lamenting education itself, but the ability of education to encompass coursework to prepare students for a technologically changing working world.
A quick review reveals that the Watchtower misrepresented what the “current research and studies,” I mean, magazine articles were actually arguing and instead, sought narrative, that when taken out of context, supports their baffling opposition to higher education. Let’s actually look at real current research and studies to understand the true value of higher education.
Serious, peer-reviewed economic and policy scholars and research organizations have repeatedly pointed out a growing gap in wages between college and high school graduates during the past 50 years. As jobs moved from manufacturing to service and high-collar sectors since the mid-20th Century, overall wages has dropped dramatically from its highs in the early 1970s, but higher education often means higher wages.
Gordon L. Berlin, the president of MDRC a highly renowned non-profit and non-partisan research organization that focuses on poverty and low-wage population groups, explained in his 2007 testimony to Congress, that the reasons for higher poverty since the post-war 1970s resulted from a changing job market, and a gap between higher paying college educated and a lower paying non-college educated groups. “A new skills bias started to dominate the labor market, creating high-paying jobs that required a college degree or better and lots of low-paying jobs that required no more than a high school diploma and often less. As a result, economic inequality — the gap between the richest and poorest Americans — widened during the 1970s and 1980s as earnings for those with college accelerated, while wages for those at the bottom fell in step with the massive loss of high-paying blue-collar jobs as a result of industrial restructuring.”
Researchers who examine economic inequality among groups find that the growing wage gap involves more than education (such as race and the “class” or economic standing of families), but consistently find that those who have completed a bachelors degree or higher consistently obtain higher wages and higher wage growth than those who do complete college (Danziger and Gottschalk, “American Unequal," 1995; Kerbo, “Social Stratification and Inequality,” 2006; Mishel et al., “The State of Working America, 2006/2007 –Economic Policy Institute, 2007; Ryscavage, Paul, “Income Inequality in America: an analysis of trends, 1999).
Ryscavage, (1999) observed that during the last three decades of the 20th century, “a rise in the relative wage differential between college-educated and high school-educated workers (due to the increase in the wage premium for college-educated workers and lower demand for high school-educated workers)…was induced by increases in labor demand within various sectors of the economy brought about by technological changes that favored highly skilled and educated workers” (pg. 118).
Mishel et al (2007), with the Economic Policy Institute, another non-profit and non-partisan research group, found that although college-educated workers are seeing a slow-down in wage growth since 2000, during 1973-2005, the “median wage of the male high school graduate fell 13.8% compared with a median growth of 12.8% for “male college graduates” in the same period. They also found that women college graduates are faring better than their male counterparts and may be related to the fact that women are completing college and entering the workforce at higher levels than in past years.
While the rigorous and peer-reviewed research discussed here is not a comprehensive discussion and there are many variables to explain the differences in wages, the reliable facts show that college educated individuals attained higher wages than individuals who did not. Changing job markets require changing job skills and much of the journalistic (non-research) articles quoted by the Watchtower are explaining that, not that higher education shouldn’t be pursued. The Society also enjoys pointing out that making money should not be the goal of a good Christian, but if one needs to work to support a family, doesn’t it make sense to allow members an opportunity to make more money for their 40-hours a week, than not? By irresponsibly discouraging the pursuit of higher education, the Society is dumbing down its members intellectually, as well as preventing them from reaching their full economic potential.
The Watchtower has grossly misrepresented the sources in their article, and this raises serious doubts about their ability to effectively and accurately base life-altering doctrines on scripture that also may be used out of context.
More disturbing than the resistance to higher education that emanates from talks at conventions and congregation meetings, are the gross misrepresentations of the value of higher education in their literature. For example, an article in the October 1, 2005 issue of the Watchtower, entitled “Parents-What Future Do you Want for Your Children?” features an inset that asks, “What is the Value of Higher Education?” The inset begins, “Most people who enroll in a university look forward to earning a degree that will open doors for them to well-paying and secure jobs. Government reports show, however, that only about one quarter of those who go to college earn a degree within six years-a dismal success rate.” Considering that a bachelors degree requires four-years of full-time attendance, I am confused as to why this is considered “dismal?” Nevertheless, the article does not cite the “government reports” it’s referring to, so we are left to take their word for it.
Instead, the inset provides quotes from various non-Jehovah’s Witness “current research and studies,” to support the claim that higher education is not a worthwhile endeavor. Oddly, “current research and studies,” are nowhere to be found in the article, unless you consider pop-culture news magazines such as Newsweek and Time as venerable and rigorous institutions specializing in research on education. Woops, well never mind, we’ll assume the source articles provide results from reputable studies to support the notion that higher education is really a “waste of time and money,” as the article points out. Since I found the actual articles for myself, this is not entirely so.
The inset quotes Newsweek (November 1, 1999), “’Going to Harvard or Duke [universities] won’t automatically produce a better job and higher pay….Companies don’t know much about young employment candidates. A shiny credential (an Ivy League degree) may impress. But after that, what people can or can’t do counts for more.’” The Newsweek article entitled “The Worthless Ivy League,” by Newsweek and Washington Post columnist and economist, Robert J. Samuelson - who himself is a Harvard graduate (and published a book entitled Untruth: Why the Conventional Wisdom Is (Almost Always) Wrong) - questions whether an Ivy League education guarantees higher salaries in comparison to lower ranked public and private colleges, not that higher education in itself is valueless. The article points out that while Ivy League universities generally attract more “talented” and ambitious students, students who are “talented” and ambitious at any lower-ranked universities can do as well in terms of professional success and salaries. While the article does quote from a study, the study tested salaries between over-achieving graduates from Ivy League and non-Ivy League universities. Not exactly the message that the quote found in the Watchtower inset implies.
The inset then quotes from a magazine called American Educator, which is published by the American Federation of Teachers, a journal for educators from grade school to college. I hardly believe that their publication or any schoolteacher or college professor would pooh-pooh the value of higher education, but let’s examine what the article really says. The Watchtower inset quotes the publication, “’While today’s typical job requires higher skills than in the past…,the skills required for these jobs are strong high school-level skills-math, reading, and writing at a ninth-grade level….,not college-level skills.…Students do not need to go to college to get a good job, but they do need to master high school-level skills.’”
Personally, I find it disturbing that any publication would value “ninth-grade level” skills in reading, writing and math over a twelfth-grade level, considering that students in the United States are vastly inferior in these skills (especially in math) than students in other developed nations and even developing nations such as India and China. The article admits that in the United States, “Unfortunately, over 40 percent of high-school seniors lack ninth-grade math skills and 60 percent lack ninth-grade reading skills.” The American Educator article actually addressed “low-achieving” middle and high school students who average grades that are "C" or lower and said that encouraging them to pursue college may not be a reasonable option considering their difficulties in performing in an academic environment. In addition, the article suggests that these under-performing students could work in service or manual related jobs that can eventually lead to competitive salaries, as long as they are encouraged by school faculty and administration and have mastered “basic high school” skills (preferably at a twelfth-grade level). The article concludes by saying, “employers argue that they cannot trust that the high school diploma certifies knowledge of these high school-level skills. As a result, employers report using college degrees to signal that applicants possess high school skills,” again, not exactly what the Watchtower citation implies.
Thirdly, the Watchtower inset quotes from The Futurist, published by the World Future Society, which their websites explains, “is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and educational association of people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future.” It doesn’t appear that they disregard the value of higher education as the Watchtower cites from The Futurist article, “In view of all this, more and more educators are seriously doubting the value of higher education today. ‘We are educating people for the wrong futures,’ laments the Futurist report.” The actual article (and not a report) entitled, “Help Wanted: Creating Tomorrow’s Workforce,” was written by Edward E. Gordon, PhD, and president of the Imperial Consulting Corporation, dedicated to educational training and advancement. Mr. Gordon argues that both high schools and colleges are not preparing their students for work in emerging fields in technology, and rather focus on traditional “high-status” jobs such as in law or medicine. And he insists that “rather than focusing on one-career preparation path, current and future workers need a higher quality of education that integrates general knowledge in both the arts and sciences with emerging technology” (italics mine). Only a liberal arts college education can provide a core curriculum based on the humanities and science along with courses focused on knowledge of contemporary technical advances. The article is not lamenting education itself, but the ability of education to encompass coursework to prepare students for a technologically changing working world.
A quick review reveals that the Watchtower misrepresented what the “current research and studies,” I mean, magazine articles were actually arguing and instead, sought narrative, that when taken out of context, supports their baffling opposition to higher education. Let’s actually look at real current research and studies to understand the true value of higher education.
Serious, peer-reviewed economic and policy scholars and research organizations have repeatedly pointed out a growing gap in wages between college and high school graduates during the past 50 years. As jobs moved from manufacturing to service and high-collar sectors since the mid-20th Century, overall wages has dropped dramatically from its highs in the early 1970s, but higher education often means higher wages.
Gordon L. Berlin, the president of MDRC a highly renowned non-profit and non-partisan research organization that focuses on poverty and low-wage population groups, explained in his 2007 testimony to Congress, that the reasons for higher poverty since the post-war 1970s resulted from a changing job market, and a gap between higher paying college educated and a lower paying non-college educated groups. “A new skills bias started to dominate the labor market, creating high-paying jobs that required a college degree or better and lots of low-paying jobs that required no more than a high school diploma and often less. As a result, economic inequality — the gap between the richest and poorest Americans — widened during the 1970s and 1980s as earnings for those with college accelerated, while wages for those at the bottom fell in step with the massive loss of high-paying blue-collar jobs as a result of industrial restructuring.”
Researchers who examine economic inequality among groups find that the growing wage gap involves more than education (such as race and the “class” or economic standing of families), but consistently find that those who have completed a bachelors degree or higher consistently obtain higher wages and higher wage growth than those who do complete college (Danziger and Gottschalk, “American Unequal," 1995; Kerbo, “Social Stratification and Inequality,” 2006; Mishel et al., “The State of Working America, 2006/2007 –Economic Policy Institute, 2007; Ryscavage, Paul, “Income Inequality in America: an analysis of trends, 1999).
Ryscavage, (1999) observed that during the last three decades of the 20th century, “a rise in the relative wage differential between college-educated and high school-educated workers (due to the increase in the wage premium for college-educated workers and lower demand for high school-educated workers)…was induced by increases in labor demand within various sectors of the economy brought about by technological changes that favored highly skilled and educated workers” (pg. 118).
Mishel et al (2007), with the Economic Policy Institute, another non-profit and non-partisan research group, found that although college-educated workers are seeing a slow-down in wage growth since 2000, during 1973-2005, the “median wage of the male high school graduate fell 13.8% compared with a median growth of 12.8% for “male college graduates” in the same period. They also found that women college graduates are faring better than their male counterparts and may be related to the fact that women are completing college and entering the workforce at higher levels than in past years.
While the rigorous and peer-reviewed research discussed here is not a comprehensive discussion and there are many variables to explain the differences in wages, the reliable facts show that college educated individuals attained higher wages than individuals who did not. Changing job markets require changing job skills and much of the journalistic (non-research) articles quoted by the Watchtower are explaining that, not that higher education shouldn’t be pursued. The Society also enjoys pointing out that making money should not be the goal of a good Christian, but if one needs to work to support a family, doesn’t it make sense to allow members an opportunity to make more money for their 40-hours a week, than not? By irresponsibly discouraging the pursuit of higher education, the Society is dumbing down its members intellectually, as well as preventing them from reaching their full economic potential.
The Watchtower has grossly misrepresented the sources in their article, and this raises serious doubts about their ability to effectively and accurately base life-altering doctrines on scripture that also may be used out of context.
Monday, June 23, 2008
More Americans Religiously Tolerant? Not if You're a Jehovah's Witness
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey released today by the Pew Forum, revealed that citizens in this country - the most religious among developed nations - are becoming more tolerant of other faiths. However, evangelicals and fundamentalists religious, categories that the Jehovah’s Witnesses fall somewhere in-between, were less likely to be tolerant. This is not surprising considering that the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that over 90 percent of the world’s inhabitants who do not belong to their faith will be killed very soon, during Armageddon, or God’s Judgment Day (an event they have predicted this since the late 1800s).
Jehovah’s Witnesses will not readily admit this belief if asked while at your door, but invite them in for a free home Bible study and over time, their privileged status as Gods chosen will become apparent.
According to the survey where less than 1 percent of Americans are Jehovah’s Witnesses, 77 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses respondents believe that there is only one way to interpret their beliefs compared to 27 percent nationally. Eighty percent of Jehovah’s Witness respondents viewed their faith as the one true faith compared to 24 percent nationally.
Considering that Jehovah’s Witnessed expel and subsequently shun individuals who do not agree with the above statements, it is not surprising that they are one of America’s religions least likely to be tolerant. In the current summer conventions held nationally, Jehovah’s Witness speakers are reminding adherents that the “Society” or the Faithful and Discreet Slave (a group of governing men located in Brooklyn, New York) are the only source for true Biblical knowledge and interpretation, and that independent inquiry from independent sources is not to be tolerated. Convention goers are also warned of the dangers of advanced education (beyond high school), and any who attend college are chastised.
Jehovah’s Witnesses practice McCarthy type control over each other and if one member is overhead expressing any type of dissent of the “Society,” one is reported to the Elders and is called before a judicial hearing. Granted, any expressed doubt of the Bible’s authenticity or whether it should be interpreted or read literally does not incur such drastic action, only if doubt of key doctrines (including interpretations of Biblical dates) or the authority of religious leaders is expressed. This is apparent in the survey where Jehovah’s Witnesses are nearly evenly split on whether the Bible is to be read literally, but overwhelmingly believe that they have the one true faith.
Since the religious inception in the latter half of the 19th Century, initially called Russellites (named for the religions founder, Charles Taz Russell), then International Bible Students and finally adopting the name of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931, there has been little tolerance for other religions and their isolationism has grown dangerous.
In an age where Muslim extremism calls for the death of Infidels or non-believers, Jehovah’s Witnesses are similarly and shockingly intolerant, albeit more peacefully. Nevertheless, families remain divided, and former Jehovah’s Witness parents or children are not in communication with their believing family members, for rejecting the absolutism of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Former members who are expelled for violating any number of the religions “moral” standards and do not "repent" are similarly shunned.
While there is hope since 16 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses answered that there are more than one belief system that leads to salvation, the sect needs to reconsider its relatively young existence (under 140 years) and place within a world that is struggling for greater tolerance. Isolationism, rejection of advanced education and dissent are hallmarks of tyrannical systems throughout human sociopolitical history. Jehovah’s Witness religious leaders, primarily located in Brooklyn, New York, need to be held to task for denying basic human rights to their adherents and to dangerous forms of social control.
Jehovah’s Witnesses will not readily admit this belief if asked while at your door, but invite them in for a free home Bible study and over time, their privileged status as Gods chosen will become apparent.
According to the survey where less than 1 percent of Americans are Jehovah’s Witnesses, 77 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses respondents believe that there is only one way to interpret their beliefs compared to 27 percent nationally. Eighty percent of Jehovah’s Witness respondents viewed their faith as the one true faith compared to 24 percent nationally.
Considering that Jehovah’s Witnessed expel and subsequently shun individuals who do not agree with the above statements, it is not surprising that they are one of America’s religions least likely to be tolerant. In the current summer conventions held nationally, Jehovah’s Witness speakers are reminding adherents that the “Society” or the Faithful and Discreet Slave (a group of governing men located in Brooklyn, New York) are the only source for true Biblical knowledge and interpretation, and that independent inquiry from independent sources is not to be tolerated. Convention goers are also warned of the dangers of advanced education (beyond high school), and any who attend college are chastised.
Jehovah’s Witnesses practice McCarthy type control over each other and if one member is overhead expressing any type of dissent of the “Society,” one is reported to the Elders and is called before a judicial hearing. Granted, any expressed doubt of the Bible’s authenticity or whether it should be interpreted or read literally does not incur such drastic action, only if doubt of key doctrines (including interpretations of Biblical dates) or the authority of religious leaders is expressed. This is apparent in the survey where Jehovah’s Witnesses are nearly evenly split on whether the Bible is to be read literally, but overwhelmingly believe that they have the one true faith.
Since the religious inception in the latter half of the 19th Century, initially called Russellites (named for the religions founder, Charles Taz Russell), then International Bible Students and finally adopting the name of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931, there has been little tolerance for other religions and their isolationism has grown dangerous.
In an age where Muslim extremism calls for the death of Infidels or non-believers, Jehovah’s Witnesses are similarly and shockingly intolerant, albeit more peacefully. Nevertheless, families remain divided, and former Jehovah’s Witness parents or children are not in communication with their believing family members, for rejecting the absolutism of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Former members who are expelled for violating any number of the religions “moral” standards and do not "repent" are similarly shunned.
While there is hope since 16 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses answered that there are more than one belief system that leads to salvation, the sect needs to reconsider its relatively young existence (under 140 years) and place within a world that is struggling for greater tolerance. Isolationism, rejection of advanced education and dissent are hallmarks of tyrannical systems throughout human sociopolitical history. Jehovah’s Witness religious leaders, primarily located in Brooklyn, New York, need to be held to task for denying basic human rights to their adherents and to dangerous forms of social control.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Economic and Iraq Mess, Armageddon: Blame the Gays
As Americans await their measly federal economic stimulus check to be delivered next month so they can take them straight to Wal-Mart, economy news seems to get grimmer by the day. Last week in surprisingly little U.S. press coverage, the president was warned that the U.S. military and their families are buckling under the strain of the war. Evidence points to a president increasingly out of touch with the results of his nearly seven and a half years in office. Since it appears that Mr. Bush will knock out former president, James Buchanan (who happened to be gay) for the number one top spot of the worst U.S. presidents in history, and it’s all because of the homosexuals.
How dare homosexuals seek marriage, the number one issue that the 2004 Bush campaign brilliantly placed upon Americans guaranteeing him a seat in the oval office for another four years (I still question the ethics of the Ohio election board, who like Florida, handed Mr. Bush the election). I still remember news reports on ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC like the woman in Indiana who said that, she “was gonna vote for Bush, cuz he’s against the gays,” or the man in Missouri who was voting with his “bible trained conscience” and that, surprise, “Bush is getting my vote because he’s not going to let those gays marry.”
(I’d love for the networks to find those people again and see how they’re faring four years later. Did they lose their home? Was a family member maimed or killed while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan? How do they enjoy spending nearly $4.00 for gas? – at least gays still can’t marry and that fact helps put food on my table, I don’t know about you).
After all, it was the gays who caused innocent people in Sodom and Gomorrah to be torched to death and it’s the gays fault for all the mess we’re in now. Things are so bad that if you're a Jehovah's Witness, Armageddon is surely knocking on our doorstep. I remember growing up and my Jehovah’s Witness parents and grandparents saying that “things are so bad now, how can they get worse?” while at home and traveling back from meetings and conventions where the end of the world was consistently drilled into us.
Just like 2001 (terrorists attacks in New York and Washington D.C.), 1986 (international year of peace – I actually remember a speaker at a summer district convention warning us that this could be the year), and any time some major natural disaster or news item would occur. I’m too young to remember 1975, but I can just imagine my parents and grandparents thrilled to almost ecstasy at the thought Armageddon was upon us then, and also major events such as Nixon’s Watergate scandal, the Vietnam war, the Korean war, the assassination of president Kennedy, the civil rights riots and world war II.
As the late fire and brimstone pulpit master Jerry Falwell blamed gays for the 2001 terrorist attacks, I too blame my people for the mess we’re in now. Never mind that I would love to marry the man who I have spent the last ten years of my life with so that he is my legal next of kin. I take the blame.
Contrite Homo
How dare homosexuals seek marriage, the number one issue that the 2004 Bush campaign brilliantly placed upon Americans guaranteeing him a seat in the oval office for another four years (I still question the ethics of the Ohio election board, who like Florida, handed Mr. Bush the election). I still remember news reports on ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC like the woman in Indiana who said that, she “was gonna vote for Bush, cuz he’s against the gays,” or the man in Missouri who was voting with his “bible trained conscience” and that, surprise, “Bush is getting my vote because he’s not going to let those gays marry.”
(I’d love for the networks to find those people again and see how they’re faring four years later. Did they lose their home? Was a family member maimed or killed while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan? How do they enjoy spending nearly $4.00 for gas? – at least gays still can’t marry and that fact helps put food on my table, I don’t know about you).
After all, it was the gays who caused innocent people in Sodom and Gomorrah to be torched to death and it’s the gays fault for all the mess we’re in now. Things are so bad that if you're a Jehovah's Witness, Armageddon is surely knocking on our doorstep. I remember growing up and my Jehovah’s Witness parents and grandparents saying that “things are so bad now, how can they get worse?” while at home and traveling back from meetings and conventions where the end of the world was consistently drilled into us.
Just like 2001 (terrorists attacks in New York and Washington D.C.), 1986 (international year of peace – I actually remember a speaker at a summer district convention warning us that this could be the year), and any time some major natural disaster or news item would occur. I’m too young to remember 1975, but I can just imagine my parents and grandparents thrilled to almost ecstasy at the thought Armageddon was upon us then, and also major events such as Nixon’s Watergate scandal, the Vietnam war, the Korean war, the assassination of president Kennedy, the civil rights riots and world war II.
As the late fire and brimstone pulpit master Jerry Falwell blamed gays for the 2001 terrorist attacks, I too blame my people for the mess we’re in now. Never mind that I would love to marry the man who I have spent the last ten years of my life with so that he is my legal next of kin. I take the blame.
Contrite Homo
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Compassion In The Most Unlikely Places
When I came out to my parents, I was as shocked as they were. My mother, whom I was always the closest with (and whom I was sure already knew), took the news terribly and became a hysterical mess. My father, the Elder, whom I had always felt distant to, handled it calmly. He proceeded to tell me that it was OK, but that I could just repress it, and that there were others in the congregation who “struggled with the same thing.” I had to stop him before he “outed” them, but he wanted to let me know that I wasn’t the only one. Although my relationship with them has deteriorated to the point where we are not speaking, I will never forget that brief moment of tender compassion and understanding.
Human compassion is a wonderful human trait but is highly underutilized. Although it is our nature to be compassionate and understanding, we allow divisiveness to pervade. We only need to look to the Hebrew God for an example of the latter. The Old Testament is fraught with tales of a chosen people, left to slavery and a forced nomadic existence. We see innocent victims slaughtered for the sins of others or for merely being of a different race and religion, or for merely being the “unchosen.” It is not difficult for us to understand how a religion who claims to worship this God behaves in a similar manner.
When I read the Bible in its entirety, I remember sensing a different, loving and up building message in the Gospels. It was as if the dark clouds parted and gave way to a warm sun and blue sky. There, Jesus gives us a message of hope, peace and love. If Jesus were to appear today, it is easy to imagine him – not as the judge and executioner – but as the compassionate man the Gospels describe him to be, who associated with the deviants, the poor and downhearted. He would no doubt scorn the religious elite, who insist of their own piousness.
In a small act of compassion albeit briefly, my father displayed a similar love and understanding instead of condemnation, that calmed a highly volatile and emotional moment. It is odd how those who profess their extraordinary righteousness are the least compassionate, but it is the humble that reveal the most. I always appreciate the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Go out and preach the gospel and if you must, use words.”
Peace and Love,
Happy Homo
Human compassion is a wonderful human trait but is highly underutilized. Although it is our nature to be compassionate and understanding, we allow divisiveness to pervade. We only need to look to the Hebrew God for an example of the latter. The Old Testament is fraught with tales of a chosen people, left to slavery and a forced nomadic existence. We see innocent victims slaughtered for the sins of others or for merely being of a different race and religion, or for merely being the “unchosen.” It is not difficult for us to understand how a religion who claims to worship this God behaves in a similar manner.
When I read the Bible in its entirety, I remember sensing a different, loving and up building message in the Gospels. It was as if the dark clouds parted and gave way to a warm sun and blue sky. There, Jesus gives us a message of hope, peace and love. If Jesus were to appear today, it is easy to imagine him – not as the judge and executioner – but as the compassionate man the Gospels describe him to be, who associated with the deviants, the poor and downhearted. He would no doubt scorn the religious elite, who insist of their own piousness.
In a small act of compassion albeit briefly, my father displayed a similar love and understanding instead of condemnation, that calmed a highly volatile and emotional moment. It is odd how those who profess their extraordinary righteousness are the least compassionate, but it is the humble that reveal the most. I always appreciate the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Go out and preach the gospel and if you must, use words.”
Peace and Love,
Happy Homo
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Freedom of expression…ACBnyc style
Welcome to freedom of expression ACBnyc style. Actually, the views I express are mine own and do not reflect the views of the overall group, but my involvement with the group has provided a platform for me to voice my frustrations and concerns (or if you prefer, to bitch). I first heard of A Common Bond in the mid-1990s from the LGBT Community Center in Manhattan, a few years after I was disfellowshipped for being a homo (a term my mother prefers to call us). I was more than elated since up to the time, I was certain I was the only JW homo in the entire world. It wasn’t true there were others like me. If you have ever been in a social situation where you are alone and don’t know the people around you, but eventually bump into an old friend, it’s like that, but a thousand times greater.
Imagine my disappointment however, when the telephone number listed as a contact for A Common Bond was disconnected. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I learned the contact had moved to another state and the LGBT center in it’s infinite bureaucracy (bless its heart) hadn’t yet updated the notice with the new contact. Oh well, at least there was someone out there, just like me…..somewhere. It was a couple of years later, while wandering Fifth Avenue near 23rd Street during the Gay Pride March, that as I glanced toward the march participants, saw a sign that read, “No More Watchtower, We’re Awake Now.” Without thought or word, I abandoned my friends, jumped the police street barrier and ran toward the small marching group screaming hysterically, “Where have you been? At last, I’ve finally found you, others like me.” Needless to say, the group was a bit alarmed at my presence, but they smiled politely and quickly handed me a piece of paper that listed their meeting times and dates, then were off down Fifth Avenue before I could say drag queen.
It was then, that I began my love affair with ACB, despite all its idiosyncrasies. Its very presence saved me. Although I am sprinting closer to no longer being an ex-Jehovah Witness (I’m considering becoming a Baptist so I can then become an ex-Baptist instead of this strange religion that no one person outside of the faith understands), I will always be grateful to the gift of brotherhood and the friends I have picked up along the way.
Hugs and Smooches,
Happy Homo
Imagine my disappointment however, when the telephone number listed as a contact for A Common Bond was disconnected. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I learned the contact had moved to another state and the LGBT center in it’s infinite bureaucracy (bless its heart) hadn’t yet updated the notice with the new contact. Oh well, at least there was someone out there, just like me…..somewhere. It was a couple of years later, while wandering Fifth Avenue near 23rd Street during the Gay Pride March, that as I glanced toward the march participants, saw a sign that read, “No More Watchtower, We’re Awake Now.” Without thought or word, I abandoned my friends, jumped the police street barrier and ran toward the small marching group screaming hysterically, “Where have you been? At last, I’ve finally found you, others like me.” Needless to say, the group was a bit alarmed at my presence, but they smiled politely and quickly handed me a piece of paper that listed their meeting times and dates, then were off down Fifth Avenue before I could say drag queen.
It was then, that I began my love affair with ACB, despite all its idiosyncrasies. Its very presence saved me. Although I am sprinting closer to no longer being an ex-Jehovah Witness (I’m considering becoming a Baptist so I can then become an ex-Baptist instead of this strange religion that no one person outside of the faith understands), I will always be grateful to the gift of brotherhood and the friends I have picked up along the way.
Hugs and Smooches,
Happy Homo
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