Lesbian Jehovah's Witness: July 2013

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Calling all Feminist Lesbian Vegans

A call for Feminist Lesbian Vegans!!
Part 1

So I've always had doubts but, I've always said that I'll stay because what else is there for me out there, and 'this is the truth' and (blush) 'even if I don't get into the new system this is the best way to live'. Then after reading some insightful threads on www.jehovahswitnessrecovery.com about reasoning with people to help wake them up from being in a cult I realised that my reasoning was not only faulty and dangerous and sad (so sad) but misguided- because here it is- if I didn't think that I'd be in the new system why was I still in the religion? I always thought that no matter what the religion condemned me in-
worldly associations
university degree
entertainment
meeting attendance
field service (lack of ) attendance
I knew that Jehovah didn't care about those things.

Those things were imposed by man. I knew that, so I lied when I said I didn't think I'd make it into the new system. I knew that Jehovah would read my heart, I'm a good person.
However, the stumbling block came for me when I realised I was gay. I kind of didn't think even Jehovah in all his wisdom would allow that. And then, knowing how I feel about myself, and feeling that surely God wouldn't want me to die just because I like woman, especially feeling like I had no choice about who I like, I've come to reason that I need to work out what the bible actually says about homosexuality and what JW say about homosexuality.

A JW summary on homosexuality
So my understanding has always been that they don't condemn the person only the practice. I've had some gay friends and I've always likened it to being friends with people who decide to live together outside of marriage- it's their choice (clarification I see now how faulty my reasoning was in this area and how it contributed to my confusion about my own 'coming out'. Being homosexual isn't like 'choosing' to live with someone. It's not a choice therefore my comparison was flawed and something my brain used to make me think that I was choosing a different life.)
I've understood that homosexuality is depraved. That it is what you engage with just before you become a pedophile or engage in beastiality. It has everything to do with wrongful desire and is perverted. How did I come to those understandings?

The Young People Ask Book, chpt 23, pp 165-171
“What does the Bible say about homosexuality?”
“The Bible makes it clear that God designed sex to be engaged in only between a male and a female and only within the arrangement of marriage. (Genesis 1:27, 28; Leviticus 18:22; Proverbs 5:18, 19) When the Bible condemns fornication, it is referring to both homosexual and illicit heterosexual conduct.”*—Galatians 5:19-21.

Genesis says he created them, it doesn't say anything about sexual orientation. Leviticus says that if a man 'lies down' with a man (or a woman does the same with a woman) it is 'detestable' and they should be killed. And, Proverbs says that you should love your wife- again nothing about homosexuality. So really, the only scripture her of importance is Leviticus 18:22- sandwiched as it is in-between the creation of humankind and the love of humankind- the killing of the gays. So what's that about?

The book of Leviticus

The Insight book (it-2 pp. 242-244) says that Leviticus-
The third book of the Pentateuch, containing laws from God on sacrifices, purity, and other matters connected with Jehovah’s worship. The Levitical priesthood, carrying out its instructions, rendered sacred service in “a typical representation and a shadow of the heavenly things.”—Heb 8:3-5; 10:1.

But we know that the Israelites had the 'kingdom taken away' from them. Yet Leviticus was used to keep God's people holy and separate them from the nations that surrounded them. I have no problem with that. The issue arises when some scriptures are kept (Leviticus 18:22) and others are discarded (Leviticus 11.4-8 which says ‘Only this is what YOU must not eat among the chewers of the cud and the splitters of the hoof: the camel, because it is a chewer of the cud but is no splitter of the hoof. It is unclean for YOU.+ 5 Also the rock badger,*+ because it is a chewer of the cud but does not split the hoof. It is unclean for YOU. 6 Also the hare,*+ because it is a chewer of the cud but it does not have the hoof split. It is unclean for YOU. 7 Also the pig,+ because it is a splitter of the hoof and a former of a cleft in the hoof, but it itself does not chew the cud. It is unclean for YOU. 8 YOU must not eat any of their flesh, and YOU must not touch their dead body.+ They are unclean for YOU.+)

It makes me suspect that if JW doctrine had been written by a feminist lesbian vegan then we'd be experiencing 'the truth' differently.

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Is your teaching up to date?

Is your teaching up to date? LOL

This is teaching box in the April 15, 2013 watchtower study article entitled "Receive full benefit from reading the bible".

Interestingly it starts off 'we want to stay up-to-date with the understanding of Bible truth' and the implication is that there is a way to be out-of-date. The semantics here limits the enormity of the statements. The fear grows because once out of date with jehovah's organization the unforgiving nature of the truth leaves you behind.

And it's all up to you. Oh that should read And it's all up to you?

It's no longer about faith and God and the bible it's seductively about you needing to closely 'religiously' following the faithful and discreet slave or the governing body- sorry explain the simple difference again. The generation update has been slid into the religious brain of the participants in the religion, wrapped in a bit of logical fear and loyalty. Most of us were too tired at the time to question it. The way the mind control was packaged I don't think I even noticed, I had for so long been walking dead.

Deadened body members, deadened heart because of it's treachery, deadened conscience, deadened intellect.

So... who did Jesus have in mind when he spoke of 'this generation' mentioned at Matthew 24:34?

Monday 1 July 2013

Happiness

Here's the thing. Happiness makes you pretty. It makes you handsome. It makes you smart- or your dumbness not so unappealing. I have been unhappy for so long that I don't remember what 'happiness' is like. I know the academic expression of it.

I met my girlfriend on the internet. Not on a dating site, but on Afterellen- a special interest site for lesbians. We met in a chat room. We messaged each other. I found her terribly funny and she made me smile, even across the electronic pathways. Writing to her made me so happy.

Suddenly I found myself walking down the streets smiling. She later confessed that she almost got hit by a bus because she was so 'happily distracted' by me.

It is impossible to have happiness without experiencing an element of control in your life. And now I had stumbled into this beautiful friendship created by me and for me, controlled by me.

It had got to the point in the religion where I no longer had any or enough control. And I think that contributed to my depression. And I think it contributes to a lot of Jehovah's witnesses feeling pressured by the 'system' and 'weighed down' and 'discouraged'. But I can't talk for them, but I can say that since I have left, the happiness has come back. The pressure is gone and the days are brighter. I'm not happy 24/7. But the door is open for me to do so much more about my own happiness. That's empowering, that's control!

A friend of mine left the religion and her long time illness disappeared. People in the religion said that it was because she was in denial and 'running on adrenaline' and that it wouldn't last. But, 10 years later, she is still illness free. A relative of mine had several painful ailments and when he left the religion they also left him. He can't say why, unlike so many Jehovah's Witnesses he is not a doctor! But, he has a theory that the religion makes you sick.

It doesn't seem like a lot, only semantics, but the religion often tells it's followers how happy they are. And when you are in the religion and you are unhappy the only thing that happens is you internalize your feelings into illness or depression. Remember at this point, when you believe everything you read, there is no reason to doubt the truth of the 'happiness' statement. And I just kept thinking how unhappy I was and wondering what was wrong with me.