> The Lord's Evening Meal, also known as the Memorial, is performed on Nisan 14 by the Jewish calendar, which is the date that Jehovah’s Witnesses assign to Easter.
So they actually do it by the Hebrew calendar? They don't even care if it falls on a Sunday? That's surprising.
> The author’s father believed that Jehovah had arranged for John Lennon to be shot because He knew that he was too close to bringing peace to the world.
Now *that's* dated. :P
> Eating blood is sinful. The author’s family avoided ethnic food restaurants because they were worried that any dish might have blood in it.
I'm wondering just what this means concretely. Like I'm assuming they didn't restrict their meat-eating to kosher meat only...? That seems a little too Jewish...
> Aaccording to The Watchtower, if a child refuses a blood transfusion, Jehovah will save the child's life and the doctors will announce a newfound respect for the religion and/or renounce blood transfusions and/or become Jehovah's Witnesses.
Note there are techniques for doing surgery without blood transfusions! (Although it's not possible in all cases.) And it may even be better in a number of cases? It doesn't seem like the Jehovah's Witnesses are what caused the development of this though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodless_surgery
> If your spouse abuses you, you should stay married, because it will cause unbelievers to wonder what gave you such inner strength, discover it’s being a Jehovah’s Witness, and get baptized.
They didn't really think that one through, did they? "Wow! If I convert I can also be abused!" Eegh...
(I mean, OK, I realize the intended conclusion is "if I convert I will gain the strength to endure being abused", but that really seems like the less likely conclusion to be drawn, and anyway, better to be in a position where that's not necessary in the first place...)
I mean, the start of the new year is delayed if it falls on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday; the Wednesday and Friday rules are to prevent Yom Kippur from being next to Shabbat, and the explanation I've generally seen for the Sunday rule is that it's to prevent Hoshanah Rabbah from falling on Shabbat. Do you have any source for the claim that it's to prevent the 14th of Nisan from falling on a Sunday? Why would such a constraint be introduced, anyway? What would be wrong with the 14th of Nisan falling on a Sunday?
But huh, yeah, it does appear to be true that 14th Nisan can't fall on a Sunday. I didn't think to check that, I just sort of assumed that the possibility of adjustments to Cheshvan and Kislev inbetween Tishrei and then would destroy any pattern... I forgot that, whoops, no, arbitrary combinations aren't possible, there are only 14 keviyot and you can just check them all!
(Edit: I guess maybe the delaying rules that ensure that years are never doubly-abundant or doubly-deficient could perhaps also be described as having this purpose? But that still doesn't explain why you'd want to do that, and my understanding was that the main purpose of those particular rules was keeping the number of days at 354±1, not anything to do with holidays or days of the week...)
So, huh, that's interesting -- not only do they not care that it might not falls on a Sunday, it'll *never* fall on a Sunday!
Hm, this raises the further question -- why 14 Nisan? That's just *before* Passover, and the Last Supper was supposedly *during* Passover... shouldn't it be later than that?
Presumably it's on the night of the 14th, which is the first seder.
I didn't mean "to prevent it happening", I meant "it just doesn't fall on a Sunday". All the adjustments fall between Cheshvan 29th and Adar 1st, so there are only four possible days of the week for any day not between those.
> Smurfs are not allowed because one time a child brought a plush Smurf to Kingdom Hall and the doll shook and moaned and squirmed. When cast out in the name of Jehovah, the Smurf fled Kingdom Hall, ran down the sidewalk, and burst into flames. If you have Smurf bedsheets the characters will jump off the comforter and run around the bedroom. Smurf dolls also follow children around stores giggling demonically, or try to kill children. SIDS is often caused by murderous Smurf dolls.
>
> ...Jehovah’s Witnesses particularly disapprove of people the world admires, like Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama and Elie Wiesel, because they are activists who try to make changes to improve the earth, which turns people away from Jehovah. The author’s father believed that Jehovah had arranged for John Lennon to be shot because He knew that he was too close to bringing peace to the world.
Eventually there was some level of crackdown on the child beating (at least in Canada) and they now preach the opposite - the rod is a shepherd’s crook to lovingly guide your child, not corporeally punish them. Or there was a major cultural difference between Canadian and US American JWs.
Of course, the prohibition on talking to exiled members means that the elders often lie about the history of the organization during talks because they can confidently know that no one will search for verification. I distinctly remember being told that the Witnesses were the only religion without sects (and thus, self evidently, the true one). This is blatantly untrue, even if you bypass the fact that the Witnesses are a sect of Christianity, there is a splinter sect of the religion. This is not hard knowledge to find out; it’s on Wikipedia.
I also remember asking a practicing witness about the Silent Lambs organization for children of the JWs who were sexually abused by elders. The answer was that 1) you can’t trust anyone who left the religion and 2) there was once a Jehovah’s Witness who was imprisoned for sexually molesting a child who proclaimed his innocence for years and was vindicated as innocent after years of imprisonment. If you ask a Witness a question, you don’t get a real answer. It’s like talking to an NPC (even if it’s not their fault).
Cervical cancer is caused by period sex? Was there a proposed mechanism?
Period sex => JEHOVAH => cervical cancer.
What is so hard to grasp about this straightforward mechanism?
> The Lord's Evening Meal, also known as the Memorial, is performed on Nisan 14 by the Jewish calendar, which is the date that Jehovah’s Witnesses assign to Easter.
So they actually do it by the Hebrew calendar? They don't even care if it falls on a Sunday? That's surprising.
> The author’s father believed that Jehovah had arranged for John Lennon to be shot because He knew that he was too close to bringing peace to the world.
Now *that's* dated. :P
> Eating blood is sinful. The author’s family avoided ethnic food restaurants because they were worried that any dish might have blood in it.
I'm wondering just what this means concretely. Like I'm assuming they didn't restrict their meat-eating to kosher meat only...? That seems a little too Jewish...
> Aaccording to The Watchtower, if a child refuses a blood transfusion, Jehovah will save the child's life and the doctors will announce a newfound respect for the religion and/or renounce blood transfusions and/or become Jehovah's Witnesses.
Note there are techniques for doing surgery without blood transfusions! (Although it's not possible in all cases.) And it may even be better in a number of cases? It doesn't seem like the Jehovah's Witnesses are what caused the development of this though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodless_surgery
> If your spouse abuses you, you should stay married, because it will cause unbelievers to wonder what gave you such inner strength, discover it’s being a Jehovah’s Witness, and get baptized.
They didn't really think that one through, did they? "Wow! If I convert I can also be abused!" Eegh...
(I mean, OK, I realize the intended conclusion is "if I convert I will gain the strength to endure being abused", but that really seems like the less likely conclusion to be drawn, and anyway, better to be in a position where that's not necessary in the first place...)
14th of Nisan can never be a Sunday. Days are added or subtracted to prevent this.
I mean, the start of the new year is delayed if it falls on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday; the Wednesday and Friday rules are to prevent Yom Kippur from being next to Shabbat, and the explanation I've generally seen for the Sunday rule is that it's to prevent Hoshanah Rabbah from falling on Shabbat. Do you have any source for the claim that it's to prevent the 14th of Nisan from falling on a Sunday? Why would such a constraint be introduced, anyway? What would be wrong with the 14th of Nisan falling on a Sunday?
But huh, yeah, it does appear to be true that 14th Nisan can't fall on a Sunday. I didn't think to check that, I just sort of assumed that the possibility of adjustments to Cheshvan and Kislev inbetween Tishrei and then would destroy any pattern... I forgot that, whoops, no, arbitrary combinations aren't possible, there are only 14 keviyot and you can just check them all!
(Edit: I guess maybe the delaying rules that ensure that years are never doubly-abundant or doubly-deficient could perhaps also be described as having this purpose? But that still doesn't explain why you'd want to do that, and my understanding was that the main purpose of those particular rules was keeping the number of days at 354±1, not anything to do with holidays or days of the week...)
So, huh, that's interesting -- not only do they not care that it might not falls on a Sunday, it'll *never* fall on a Sunday!
Hm, this raises the further question -- why 14 Nisan? That's just *before* Passover, and the Last Supper was supposedly *during* Passover... shouldn't it be later than that?
Presumably it's on the night of the 14th, which is the first seder.
I didn't mean "to prevent it happening", I meant "it just doesn't fall on a Sunday". All the adjustments fall between Cheshvan 29th and Adar 1st, so there are only four possible days of the week for any day not between those.
> Smurfs are not allowed because one time a child brought a plush Smurf to Kingdom Hall and the doll shook and moaned and squirmed. When cast out in the name of Jehovah, the Smurf fled Kingdom Hall, ran down the sidewalk, and burst into flames. If you have Smurf bedsheets the characters will jump off the comforter and run around the bedroom. Smurf dolls also follow children around stores giggling demonically, or try to kill children. SIDS is often caused by murderous Smurf dolls.
>
> ...Jehovah’s Witnesses particularly disapprove of people the world admires, like Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama and Elie Wiesel, because they are activists who try to make changes to improve the earth, which turns people away from Jehovah. The author’s father believed that Jehovah had arranged for John Lennon to be shot because He knew that he was too close to bringing peace to the world.
Pinkie, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Eventually there was some level of crackdown on the child beating (at least in Canada) and they now preach the opposite - the rod is a shepherd’s crook to lovingly guide your child, not corporeally punish them. Or there was a major cultural difference between Canadian and US American JWs.
Of course, the prohibition on talking to exiled members means that the elders often lie about the history of the organization during talks because they can confidently know that no one will search for verification. I distinctly remember being told that the Witnesses were the only religion without sects (and thus, self evidently, the true one). This is blatantly untrue, even if you bypass the fact that the Witnesses are a sect of Christianity, there is a splinter sect of the religion. This is not hard knowledge to find out; it’s on Wikipedia.
I also remember asking a practicing witness about the Silent Lambs organization for children of the JWs who were sexually abused by elders. The answer was that 1) you can’t trust anyone who left the religion and 2) there was once a Jehovah’s Witness who was imprisoned for sexually molesting a child who proclaimed his innocence for years and was vindicated as innocent after years of imprisonment. If you ask a Witness a question, you don’t get a real answer. It’s like talking to an NPC (even if it’s not their fault).