From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie)
Subject: Re: A correction is in order
Summary: Yet Another JW Thread.
Keywords: Keyletters: Keysentences: Keyparagraphs: Keypages: Keystrokes:
Organization: Glassboro State College
Disclaimer: Brandy ran out of space before we got to `Keytomes'.
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 04:18:38 GMT


Continuing the debates over the JW book on custody battles, Mark Sornson
wrote that the book does exist, that it is published by the JWs, and that
it isn't available to the public at large.  He guesses that this is due to
the rapid changes in the legal world which require that the book be kept
current.

But that justification does nothing to explain why Willard Smith, after
asking for the book, got the brush off.  Given that the WTBTS does not want
to let the general public see it, that Antti Siivonen didn't believe it was
a JW publication, and the comments from the judge, I rather strongly suspect
that it contains things which aren't at all in line with the things the JWs
claim to teach.  Judges are only human, and may be affected by biases, but
not many people can lose sight of their jobs and honesty badly enough to make
a public and legal slam of a religious group on no justification.  Acting as
if you have something to hide is a good way to convince people that you have
something to hide.


Also, the existence of both Witness-specific publications, and non-public
meetings, raises another problem: "giving alms in secret".  Some time ago,
Steven Edwards asked when was the last time a JW gave to a charity not run
by his group; I responded that this was not a fair question, because Jesus
instructed people to do their charity in secret.  Mr Edwards responded that
the JWs publish in a very public forum detailed lists of all the money that
they give out every year.  And somebody (Steve Peterson, maybe?) replied that
the JWs publish those magazines for internal use, and distribute them since
others might be interested.

At this point, I was satisfied: having to publish things for both private and
public distribution is a lot of extra work if you don't have the mechanisms in
place, and doing the extra work will take money from the good you could be
doing.  If you try too hard to be secret, you'll never get anything done.  It
seemed odd they couldn't just say "don't give this list away", but that's only
quibbling.

But now Mr Sornson has said that there *is* a mechanism for distributing
things only to JWs, and that there are publications distributed in exactly
that way.  My natural reaction to this is to feel somewhat deceived over the
earlier comments, and to re-ask the question:  why don't the JWs keep their
ledgers to themselves, instead of trumpeting every penny publically?

-=-=-

I noticed something interesting today:  the JWs are the only religious group
that gets worse the more I find out about them.  I used to just think they
were a somewhat-mistaken bunch of Protestants, but otherwise fairly normal.
Their testimony here on the net, my personal interactions with them, and the
pattern of questions that never get answered, have combined to reduce them
significantly in my estimation.  Presumably this isn't what they intend...


kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu      Darren F. Provine      ...njin!gboro!kilroy
"This is the happiest day of my life!  We held the Congress and we said the
 Soviet Union exists.  Now let them try and tell us that isn't so!"
          -- Sazhi Umalatova, Chairman of the Sixth Extraordinary
                               Congress of People's Deputies, 18 March 1992
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc