Yes, I know that. I was wondering what led wreck to associate a name with "hate and murder". You only mentioned three place names..."Land Down Under", "Australia" and "Bondi Beach". None of those made me think "Oh yeah, what an appropriate name for a place of hate and murder". I'm thinking that those names engender thoughts of billabongs, kangaroos and surfing.
Oh, absolutely did not make that connection. Not sure why the pronunciation is different but I'm so familiar with "Bond-eye" Beach that it didn't register that it's the same spelling as Pam "Bondee". I try not to think about her at all.
When I hear Bondi Beach I immediately think of a YouTuber from there who goes by the name Bondi Treasure Hunter.
The gunfuckers tried to frame this a “lack of 2A failure”.
The internet reminded them that assault weapons would have resulted in a death toll orders of magnitude higher. And also that this is the first shooting related incident in decades.
In reading the accounts of abuse, one is gobsmacked by the capacity for violence in the Religion of Love (tm). But then one reads the bible and how it treats females of all ages and finds they are not so very astonished after all.
Women are property. Worse, even today, women in some denominations are told to submit to their men in all things. I'm not certain that even measures up to second-class citizen status.
It is way past time that this whole business of religious "law" versus the secular justice system was called out, and those who prefer the former taken to task.
Is it any wonder that that sect/cult has the highest attrition rate of any religion? Reportedly, 66% of people raised in that 'faith' no longer practice as adults. Apparently, the ideal JW is an authoritarian male who will keep his family disciplined and attending services... and tithing.
If some deity demanded something, I want some damned EVIDENCE that he/she/it did so. Otherwise, whoever wants to claim that is talking out of their ass.
And why would I want to listen to someone like that, let alone obey?
Ikr?!? Scientology is probably one of the worst..."Christian" Nationalism is rising up the list as well (had no idea that this is now what the Southern Baptists has always been!).
👆🎯They are either property to be raped at will, including by their fathers, see: perverted dirty old man Lot, who told his daughters the world had ended, and kept them captive in a cave. Or, chattel to be married off to be a broodmare for the highest bidder. Or concubines given away to a crowd with bloodlust to be torn apart.
There are a great many religionut who hold god's law is above man's law. We saw just one yesterdya. When they start claiming they have SPECIAL rights because god, well that is a sure sign they have slipped the restraints of sanity.
"He admitted to digitally penetrating her, but only because, at her request, he was trying to teach her how to track her “vaginal mucus” so she could assess a natural method for birth control. "
I had a few visits from JWs while we lived in Bedford Heights. Those encounters were calm and polite, but I made no bones about 1) being an atheist and 2) calling them on their BS where necessary.
They haven't come to the new place ... yet. My response to them, however will remain consistent.
My one and only encounter with one, ended with her running down the stairs after I threatened her to release my Doggesses if she didn't get the fuck out 😁
It was between 2009 and 2011. I must have been labeled as the crazy woman with dangerous dogs because I never got bothered again.
PS : at that time, I had a JW neighbor. One of the kindest znd most polite man I ever met, and he didn't feel the need to preach to every person he met.
I once opened my door wearing just a T-shirt believing it was my mother. It was a delivery man who rang the wrong apartment. The poor man didn't know where to look, and it took him a couple of minutes to ask me where was apartment X (half a floor below. Don’t ask, my building was probably conceived by an architect with too much creativity).
When I was a youngin (4th of 5th grade) I was selling something door to door as a fund raiser. We lived out in the country, so I walked to our nearest neighbor's house which was about a 1/4 mile away. Didn't know them, the school bus didn't stop there, so no kids. I walked up to the door and knocked. A few minutes later a young women answered the door wearing nothing but a towel and not really wearing it, just holding it in front of her. She said something like just a second and turned around and rand back into the house. Full backside nudity. Before she returned, I bolted and ran all the way home.
Your JW neighbor was a rarity. Nice when that actually happens.
As for me, I suspect they labeled me as ... oh, hell, who knows? Aggressive (I wasn't), know-it-all (I'm not, but I know what I know), and maybe-just-maybe: Don't go back there!
When I was living at home and taking care of my parents, JWs would knock on the door (despite the rather prominent NO SOLICITORS sign). I calmly told them I was an atheist. Without fail, they turned and left without another word.
My first encounter was in 2010, and just about the first thing I told them was that I was an atheist.
"Oh, my," said the woman," I don't believe I've ever met an atheist before. Did something happen to you to cause you to become an atheist?"
"Yes," I answered, calmly. "Common sense."
The conversation wound around for perhaps another five minutes or so, but ended with her asking why I don't believe. I answered with Carl Sagan (whom she had NEVER heard of!): "I don't want to believe; I want to KNOW."
If any of them had asked me if something happened to me to cause me to become an atheist, I'd have told them "Yes. I read the bible from cover to cover." Then I would have told them "But long before that, I lost the belief at age 8 before I knew what an atheist was." Had I added "What's your excuse for believing as a grown adult?" I wonder if things would have gotten testy.
I read on an atheist blog once, that a guy opens his door to JWs and says, 'Sorry, wrong house, no kids here for your leaders to abuse and then cover up.' I wanted to try this and 10 months later, got the knock. I said 'Wrong house, no kids here.' The woman replied, 'Oh the bible's not just for kids.' I explained I could never join any organisation that allowed child abuse and its cover up by leaders. I swear she opened and closed her mouth twice and managed to say, 'Oh but we'd never do anything like that.' I told her to try something called Google and she's soon see I was right. She backed unsteadily down the 6 steps from my front door speechless, and she and the young guy with her at the bottom, slunk off in silence.
Before I stumbled here, I never heard of Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson. Most Frenchies who grew up in the 80/90's and had a passing interest in Astronomy knew only Hubert Reeves.
They will put you on a do-not-knock list if you ask. All the door knocking is more about keeping power and control over members, proving that the outside world is evil, than about recruiting new converts.
After three visits in three years, starting in 2010, they quit for a while. Several years after that, I started getting visits again. Still calm, still polite, but more pointed and more willing to point out their poor thinking and problems with faith / gullibility (and yeah, I DID call it JUST THAT to their faces!).
The day Roe v Wade was overturned, I saw some young Mormon missionaries down the street coming my way. I stood on my porch glaring at them, spoiling for a fight. Don’t know how they felt my vibes from 2 houses down, but they crossed the street before they got to me.
I've had a line primed for such people, since long before RvW got taken down, to wit: "What gives you the right to tell someone else how to live their lives, and DO NOT try to tell me, 'The bible.'"
It never fails to surprise me how much people who cannot keep their own house in order want to keep everyone else's.
I once told some dewy-eyed JW door knockers: “fuck off I’m a Satanist!”. They fled and I was smug. Only later did it occur to me that they were just indoctrinated kids and that I’d probably made them feel really scared, worsening their plight. This post reminds me of my heartlessness in that moment. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I really wish I didn't have to post this, but so long as children are abused by believing adults, regardless of what belief they subscribe to, I mean to keep on keepin' on:
I am not sure if they will end up having to pay. I think Donald Trump pardoned them. I know it is Australia, and the pardon was written on a hooters menu with chicken grease and upload to truth social, and half the pardon was about how poisonous snakes stole the 2018 election and that Jim Daley has a pants snake, which was venomous too, but windmills. But I still think it might be legal.
Every once in a while, I receive a letter from the local den of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They always want me to hear their wonderful message, but they don’t bother anymore to deliver it in person. It’s just a letter they send. One time, was even addressed to my former boyfriend, who’s been dead for more than 30 years, and never took my last name. That’s how goddamn lazy they are.
So this is what I sent to them now.
You know, you Jehovah’s Witnesses are really a bit much. Three or four times a year, I receive one of these letters from you. In one case, I received it on behalf of someone who’s been dead for 30 years. You’re not even bothering to spell my name correctly anymore.
Each time I receive one of these letters, I send you in return one of my letters, and always, with a request that you stop sending me these letters. But it never works, and I don’t really expect it to. So I decided to take a different approach this time. I will send you the letter I have always sent, but I’m sending you this one as well.
It used to be that Jehovah’s Witnesses went from door-to-door, trying to sell your religion and your Jesus. But of course, that was remarkably ineffective, and your leaders knew that. Nobody really wants to sell sell sell, especially their religion. But here we are, three or four times a year, getting these letters from you . Because that’s what your leaders have decided needs to be done. The door-to-door approach was not working, and I’m sure your own people were objecting to it. So they decided to make it easier on you, instituting the laziest possible kind of proselytizing that requires so very little from you. I used to get handwritten letters, but yours is just printed from a computer, because that requires even less effort on your part. Now you just get to tell the bosses that you’ve done that much, and there’s nothing else required of you.
Like the prayer so many Christians are ready to offer up at the drop of a hat, sending these letters does no good, but it does make you feel like you are doing something, even though I suspect you don’t want to do anything at all, and even though it requires virtually no effort on your part. But the problem with that approach is that you’re putting nothing into it, and that’s obvious. So it’s extremely unlikely that you’re going to get anything back, except the approval of the leaders when you file your reports telling them how many letters you wrote.
Letters. Not even a visit, much less a hard sell. But that’s the point, isn’t it?
So one more time, I will make the appeal: stop sending these letters. Stop wasting the money to send them. Stop wasting the time to send them. Why don’t you go out and actually do something that benefits your community, and not merely your tribe. Volunteer at a food bank. Volunteer to help the elderly or the sick. Do something practical in the real world.
That would be something that demonstrates real Christian witness. Sending out these letters simply confirms what so many people think already about Christians — it’s all for show.
Why isn't this level of cover-up classified as a criminal offense? A conspiracy to force the victim to only speak to the police if (and only if) the perpetrator is present? One who made credible threats of grievous harm if she said anything about the ongoing abuse?
I know that they cannot arrest and prosecute the entire JW organization, but why aren't these elders facing prison?
It is good that the victim is compensated, however poorly a big pile of money does that. But the accountability needs to go much farther.
Well, as my dad said to justify his friendship with a former minister who’d strangled his wife, “he’s a great financial advisor!” Money always comes first. Their church, too, pressures abuse victims to stay in marriages and to not go to the police. “Besides,” my dad continued, “his wife turned into a lesbian.” “And your church teaches that homosexuality is worse than domestic violence?” “I guess you could say that.” And thereafter my mother no longer allowed him to speak to me on the phone or spend time with me without her supervision—heaven forbid he impulsively further damage her church’s reputation. Image is more important than justice.
For a very long time, I have seen social inertia screw things up in our society, ESPECIALLY as regards society's treatment of religion. Change in attitude comes slowly, if it comes at all.
Intimidation and coercion, plus the threat of social disconnection if she doesn't obey. Those JW bastards deserve to be raked over the coals for this crap.
There is no idea so absurd there will not be people who believe it, and there is no leader so evil there will not be those who willingly follow. That kind of sums up the JW's, and many other cults in my view. There is no situation so bad it cannot be made worse by religion.
Any organization that cares more for its reputation than it does for the safety and well-being of its members deserves to burn to the ground- especially when it elevates abusers to positions of power with such alarming regularity. Organized religion has a particular vulnerability to such people climbing through its ranks; they believe that they need answer to no Earthly authority, and unaccountable power like that attracts abusers like a bug lamp draws mosquitoes (though, sadly, without a comparably satisfying end result).
"And religion should never serve as immunity against justice."
And yet, the father barely got a slap on the wrist, as usual "If there’s any good news here, it’s that the police took action. Her father was eventually convicted of his crimes in 2004—five counts of unlawful and indecent assault and another count of attempted rape—and spent THREE years in prison."
Tell me again how crime against women (all women) and children are taken seriously 🤬
Good on ya, mates.
Also good to see the leaders of the Land Down Under are looking to tighten gun laws in Australia following Bondi Beach.
Thank non-existent god we do not have an NRA or gun lobby so we can actually do something about this shit.
Appropriate name for a site of hate and murder.
Land Down Under?
A popular nickname for Australia.
Yes, I know that. I was wondering what led wreck to associate a name with "hate and murder". You only mentioned three place names..."Land Down Under", "Australia" and "Bondi Beach". None of those made me think "Oh yeah, what an appropriate name for a place of hate and murder". I'm thinking that those names engender thoughts of billabongs, kangaroos and surfing.
You probably know her as Pam Blondie.
Oh, absolutely did not make that connection. Not sure why the pronunciation is different but I'm so familiar with "Bond-eye" Beach that it didn't register that it's the same spelling as Pam "Bondee". I try not to think about her at all.
When I hear Bondi Beach I immediately think of a YouTuber from there who goes by the name Bondi Treasure Hunter.
The gunfuckers tried to frame this a “lack of 2A failure”.
The internet reminded them that assault weapons would have resulted in a death toll orders of magnitude higher. And also that this is the first shooting related incident in decades.
In reading the accounts of abuse, one is gobsmacked by the capacity for violence in the Religion of Love (tm). But then one reads the bible and how it treats females of all ages and finds they are not so very astonished after all.
Women are property. Worse, even today, women in some denominations are told to submit to their men in all things. I'm not certain that even measures up to second-class citizen status.
It is way past time that this whole business of religious "law" versus the secular justice system was called out, and those who prefer the former taken to task.
Is it any wonder that that sect/cult has the highest attrition rate of any religion? Reportedly, 66% of people raised in that 'faith' no longer practice as adults. Apparently, the ideal JW is an authoritarian male who will keep his family disciplined and attending services... and tithing.
Heavy on the tithing part. Even JW kids are asked to give their candy money to the JWs.
Like all religions, it is a racket.
One of the more obvious ones like Scientology, and the Mormons.
God demanded it. So there are NO limits
If some deity demanded something, I want some damned EVIDENCE that he/she/it did so. Otherwise, whoever wants to claim that is talking out of their ass.
And why would I want to listen to someone like that, let alone obey?
Oh this is minor—go listen to Knitting Cult Lady and other survivors of the Family of God child sex cult….
Ikr?!? Scientology is probably one of the worst..."Christian" Nationalism is rising up the list as well (had no idea that this is now what the Southern Baptists has always been!).
👆🎯They are either property to be raped at will, including by their fathers, see: perverted dirty old man Lot, who told his daughters the world had ended, and kept them captive in a cave. Or, chattel to be married off to be a broodmare for the highest bidder. Or concubines given away to a crowd with bloodlust to be torn apart.
Don't trust any organization that tells you to be ashamed of your body.
Don't trust them if they make you feel shame for being human.
Don't trust them if they tell you that you are responsible for other people's thoughts.
Don't trust them if they tell you to avoid the opposite sex for fear of "temptation".
Don't trust them if they are unaccountable to anyone.
Don't trust them if they if they do not have rules in place that include immediately involving the police for abuse allegations.
Don't trust any organization that will not publish their financial books.
Do not trust any organization that claims exclusivity on the truth of the divine.
Do not trust any organization that asks you to disbelieve your senses, the evidence, and the opinions of experts.
Do not trust organizations that demand isolation from outsiders and threaten isolation if you refuse to fall in line.
Don't trust an organization that tells you to follow THEIR rules when they can't be bothered to follow secular law!
There are a great many religionut who hold god's law is above man's law. We saw just one yesterdya. When they start claiming they have SPECIAL rights because god, well that is a sure sign they have slipped the restraints of sanity.
Restacked, thank you!
"He admitted to digitally penetrating her, but only because, at her request, he was trying to teach her how to track her “vaginal mucus” so she could assess a natural method for birth control. "
Just.Fucking.Gross.
'track her “vaginal mucus”'?!? Good night, Irene!!! 🤦♂️
“Gross” is how xtians roll.
That was so disgusting I threw my phone across the room
I will be 80 this year. I have read a lot of those trash books at work, but never have I heard it referred to a "vaginal mucus,"
Maybe a medical texxt book?
I second that revulsion. No daughter is "requesting" that her father stick his fingers anywhere, in any orifice, EVER! Ewww!!!
Well, don't you know? MEN lie.
I wonder you told him that lie to use?
You, or who?
I kept a sign on my door that read:
“I shoot every 3rd Jehovah’s Witness who comes to this door and the 2nd one just left”.
😎
I had a few visits from JWs while we lived in Bedford Heights. Those encounters were calm and polite, but I made no bones about 1) being an atheist and 2) calling them on their BS where necessary.
They haven't come to the new place ... yet. My response to them, however will remain consistent.
My one and only encounter with one, ended with her running down the stairs after I threatened her to release my Doggesses if she didn't get the fuck out 😁
It was between 2009 and 2011. I must have been labeled as the crazy woman with dangerous dogs because I never got bothered again.
PS : at that time, I had a JW neighbor. One of the kindest znd most polite man I ever met, and he didn't feel the need to preach to every person he met.
Someone once suggested opening the door naked and telling them you aren’t allowed to have visitors by court order. 😎
I once opened my door wearing just a T-shirt believing it was my mother. It was a delivery man who rang the wrong apartment. The poor man didn't know where to look, and it took him a couple of minutes to ask me where was apartment X (half a floor below. Don’t ask, my building was probably conceived by an architect with too much creativity).
When I was a youngin (4th of 5th grade) I was selling something door to door as a fund raiser. We lived out in the country, so I walked to our nearest neighbor's house which was about a 1/4 mile away. Didn't know them, the school bus didn't stop there, so no kids. I walked up to the door and knocked. A few minutes later a young women answered the door wearing nothing but a towel and not really wearing it, just holding it in front of her. She said something like just a second and turned around and rand back into the house. Full backside nudity. Before she returned, I bolted and ran all the way home.
Ah, we finally have an answer to the question "Who let the dogs out?".
I didn't. Do you have the slightest idea how difficult it is to wash two dogs* who don't like water ?
* Rhapsodie used to play possum, and at 28 kg moving her was a pain in the ass.
Your JW neighbor was a rarity. Nice when that actually happens.
As for me, I suspect they labeled me as ... oh, hell, who knows? Aggressive (I wasn't), know-it-all (I'm not, but I know what I know), and maybe-just-maybe: Don't go back there!
Oh, don't I wish!
When I was living at home and taking care of my parents, JWs would knock on the door (despite the rather prominent NO SOLICITORS sign). I calmly told them I was an atheist. Without fail, they turned and left without another word.
My first encounter was in 2010, and just about the first thing I told them was that I was an atheist.
"Oh, my," said the woman," I don't believe I've ever met an atheist before. Did something happen to you to cause you to become an atheist?"
"Yes," I answered, calmly. "Common sense."
The conversation wound around for perhaps another five minutes or so, but ended with her asking why I don't believe. I answered with Carl Sagan (whom she had NEVER heard of!): "I don't want to believe; I want to KNOW."
If any of them had asked me if something happened to me to cause me to become an atheist, I'd have told them "Yes. I read the bible from cover to cover." Then I would have told them "But long before that, I lost the belief at age 8 before I knew what an atheist was." Had I added "What's your excuse for believing as a grown adult?" I wonder if things would have gotten testy.
I read on an atheist blog once, that a guy opens his door to JWs and says, 'Sorry, wrong house, no kids here for your leaders to abuse and then cover up.' I wanted to try this and 10 months later, got the knock. I said 'Wrong house, no kids here.' The woman replied, 'Oh the bible's not just for kids.' I explained I could never join any organisation that allowed child abuse and its cover up by leaders. I swear she opened and closed her mouth twice and managed to say, 'Oh but we'd never do anything like that.' I told her to try something called Google and she's soon see I was right. She backed unsteadily down the 6 steps from my front door speechless, and she and the young guy with her at the bottom, slunk off in silence.
Before I stumbled here, I never heard of Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson. Most Frenchies who grew up in the 80/90's and had a passing interest in Astronomy knew only Hubert Reeves.
They will put you on a do-not-knock list if you ask. All the door knocking is more about keeping power and control over members, proving that the outside world is evil, than about recruiting new converts.
After three visits in three years, starting in 2010, they quit for a while. Several years after that, I started getting visits again. Still calm, still polite, but more pointed and more willing to point out their poor thinking and problems with faith / gullibility (and yeah, I DID call it JUST THAT to their faces!).
We'll see what happens, now that we've moved.
The day Roe v Wade was overturned, I saw some young Mormon missionaries down the street coming my way. I stood on my porch glaring at them, spoiling for a fight. Don’t know how they felt my vibes from 2 houses down, but they crossed the street before they got to me.
I've had a line primed for such people, since long before RvW got taken down, to wit: "What gives you the right to tell someone else how to live their lives, and DO NOT try to tell me, 'The bible.'"
It never fails to surprise me how much people who cannot keep their own house in order want to keep everyone else's.
UBU. I had a family member who was for a time caught up in JW BS.
This story out of Australia is typical of the JW cult
https://substack.com/@friendlyatheist/note/p-181599774
I once told some dewy-eyed JW door knockers: “fuck off I’m a Satanist!”. They fled and I was smug. Only later did it occur to me that they were just indoctrinated kids and that I’d probably made them feel really scared, worsening their plight. This post reminds me of my heartlessness in that moment. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Thanks for the laugh 😂
Get a German Shepherd & let it bark at them. I used to pretend I could "barely" hold her, lol 😆
She was only 70 lbs, but she had a intense bark.
Jehovah witnessed it all (supposedly) and did nothing.
I really wish I didn't have to post this, but so long as children are abused by believing adults, regardless of what belief they subscribe to, I mean to keep on keepin' on:
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑒𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝐺𝑜𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝐺𝑜𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑠, “𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒, 𝐼’𝑚 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢.” 𝐼𝑓 𝐼 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑, 𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝐺𝑜𝑑.
-- Tracie Harris
They did something, they took more notes about how to get away with abuse.
There is nothing xtian cultists won't make allowances for to protect abusers and pedophiles.
https://ibb.co/FLWrhS5f
I wonder how much of this is only a slight exaggeration of the truth.
Thanks for the funny. ROFL 🤣
I am not sure if they will end up having to pay. I think Donald Trump pardoned them. I know it is Australia, and the pardon was written on a hooters menu with chicken grease and upload to truth social, and half the pardon was about how poisonous snakes stole the 2018 election and that Jim Daley has a pants snake, which was venomous too, but windmills. But I still think it might be legal.
Was it signed live or with an autopen? That's all that matters.
I don’t think an auto pen can replicate the Don’s scrawl.
If an EKG readout showing a heart attack can do it, then an autopen should be able to.
Maybe an earthquake monitor is a better example. : )
If you honestly believe "I only stuck my fingers in her vagina" is a legitimate defense, you really should consider offing yourself.
I have to wonder if that JW thought we were all as naive as he was/is. That man needs a serious wake-up call, and I hope he gets it.
https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/Ancient-Astronaut-Theorist-Suggest-The-Answer-Is-YES-by-andyzdesigns/108694009.LVTDI
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmemesbams.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F10%2Faliens-meme-original.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=4d4349a4a1e1b484eaec84070f13dc30fd1597e33c51f04bf82982759d85c625
imgur.com/gallery/kCUNxxK
Ya THINK? 😉😁
Qu'est-ce que j'y peux si alien connerie a raison pour une fois ? 😁
Oh, I dunno ... maybe just laugh and enjoy?
Every once in a while, I receive a letter from the local den of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They always want me to hear their wonderful message, but they don’t bother anymore to deliver it in person. It’s just a letter they send. One time, was even addressed to my former boyfriend, who’s been dead for more than 30 years, and never took my last name. That’s how goddamn lazy they are.
So this is what I sent to them now.
You know, you Jehovah’s Witnesses are really a bit much. Three or four times a year, I receive one of these letters from you. In one case, I received it on behalf of someone who’s been dead for 30 years. You’re not even bothering to spell my name correctly anymore.
Each time I receive one of these letters, I send you in return one of my letters, and always, with a request that you stop sending me these letters. But it never works, and I don’t really expect it to. So I decided to take a different approach this time. I will send you the letter I have always sent, but I’m sending you this one as well.
It used to be that Jehovah’s Witnesses went from door-to-door, trying to sell your religion and your Jesus. But of course, that was remarkably ineffective, and your leaders knew that. Nobody really wants to sell sell sell, especially their religion. But here we are, three or four times a year, getting these letters from you . Because that’s what your leaders have decided needs to be done. The door-to-door approach was not working, and I’m sure your own people were objecting to it. So they decided to make it easier on you, instituting the laziest possible kind of proselytizing that requires so very little from you. I used to get handwritten letters, but yours is just printed from a computer, because that requires even less effort on your part. Now you just get to tell the bosses that you’ve done that much, and there’s nothing else required of you.
Like the prayer so many Christians are ready to offer up at the drop of a hat, sending these letters does no good, but it does make you feel like you are doing something, even though I suspect you don’t want to do anything at all, and even though it requires virtually no effort on your part. But the problem with that approach is that you’re putting nothing into it, and that’s obvious. So it’s extremely unlikely that you’re going to get anything back, except the approval of the leaders when you file your reports telling them how many letters you wrote.
Letters. Not even a visit, much less a hard sell. But that’s the point, isn’t it?
So one more time, I will make the appeal: stop sending these letters. Stop wasting the money to send them. Stop wasting the time to send them. Why don’t you go out and actually do something that benefits your community, and not merely your tribe. Volunteer at a food bank. Volunteer to help the elderly or the sick. Do something practical in the real world.
That would be something that demonstrates real Christian witness. Sending out these letters simply confirms what so many people think already about Christians — it’s all for show.
About once a year I get a pamphlet tucked into the front door.
𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦. 𝐹𝑢𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑—𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡.
Why isn't this level of cover-up classified as a criminal offense? A conspiracy to force the victim to only speak to the police if (and only if) the perpetrator is present? One who made credible threats of grievous harm if she said anything about the ongoing abuse?
I know that they cannot arrest and prosecute the entire JW organization, but why aren't these elders facing prison?
It is good that the victim is compensated, however poorly a big pile of money does that. But the accountability needs to go much farther.
Well, as my dad said to justify his friendship with a former minister who’d strangled his wife, “he’s a great financial advisor!” Money always comes first. Their church, too, pressures abuse victims to stay in marriages and to not go to the police. “Besides,” my dad continued, “his wife turned into a lesbian.” “And your church teaches that homosexuality is worse than domestic violence?” “I guess you could say that.” And thereafter my mother no longer allowed him to speak to me on the phone or spend time with me without her supervision—heaven forbid he impulsively further damage her church’s reputation. Image is more important than justice.
Social inertia : religion is inherently good, it's only a few bad apples, bla bla bla.
christian sects have established the narrative since the end of the first century with their first books, and controlled it since the ban of Paganism.
For a very long time, I have seen social inertia screw things up in our society, ESPECIALLY as regards society's treatment of religion. Change in attitude comes slowly, if it comes at all.
And the kids continue to get hurt.
I like pointing out that the full aphorism is: "A few bad apples spoil the entire barrel."
Intimidation and coercion, plus the threat of social disconnection if she doesn't obey. Those JW bastards deserve to be raked over the coals for this crap.
There is no idea so absurd there will not be people who believe it, and there is no leader so evil there will not be those who willingly follow. That kind of sums up the JW's, and many other cults in my view. There is no situation so bad it cannot be made worse by religion.
"𝐻𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑚, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑛"
Smacking a child on the bottom and/or using a wooden spoon is considered physical abuse and prohibited in over 23 EU member states.
Damn, I wish I lived in the EU as a child. I received those and more.
You were out of luck if you were born before 1979, prohibition started in Sweden in 1979, In France you had to wait to be born until 2019.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/wsfx6p/spanking_children_legality_across_the_us_and_the/
I was definitely out of luck.
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.
Any organization that cares more for its reputation than it does for the safety and well-being of its members deserves to burn to the ground- especially when it elevates abusers to positions of power with such alarming regularity. Organized religion has a particular vulnerability to such people climbing through its ranks; they believe that they need answer to no Earthly authority, and unaccountable power like that attracts abusers like a bug lamp draws mosquitoes (though, sadly, without a comparably satisfying end result).
Happened each and every time a God was given prominence in Ancient Egypt. Great priests tried to dictate how pharaoh should reign, or replaced them.
OT - Andromeda and the Boab
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251216.html
I would give real money to be able to find and take shots like that!
Oooooh! Aaaaaaaaah!
Great shot. Here, I have not seen a star in 30+ years.I need to go about 40 mles to see them.
"And religion should never serve as immunity against justice."
And yet, the father barely got a slap on the wrist, as usual "If there’s any good news here, it’s that the police took action. Her father was eventually convicted of his crimes in 2004—five counts of unlawful and indecent assault and another count of attempted rape—and spent THREE years in prison."
Tell me again how crime against women (all women) and children are taken seriously 🤬