A JW commenter on JW Blog found the religious beliefs of others to ' make his head spin'. Well, I'm sure many other people find the beliefs of his fundamentalist Christian denomination make their heads spin. I am an atheistic former JW. Well, another commenter preached about how the JW's were trying to 'undo' the 'false' teachings that non-JW's are taught by non-JW religious groups because those people are 'manipulated' into believing it because of 'peer pressure'. What an ignorant man he seems to be. I mean most non-JW's don't consider the beliefs that their religious group teaches them to be 'false', don't want their beliefs to be 'undone' by the JW's, many of them consider the JW's to be a false religion under the control of 'Satan' and many of these non-JW's are not 'manipulated' in to believing the beliefs of their specific group because of 'peer pressure' , some are. This JW man is quite a hypocrite as the JW's will largely manipulate lesser- committed members by using peer pressure to get them to conform to the WBTS' laid out beliefs and practices or the person will be 'disfellowshipped' i.e. excommunicated and shunned if they don't conform. On Religious Tolerance website it mentions the JW's view that they are 'not sexist' but that women have 'separate duties' from men. Well, the JW's are sexist in that women are required to raise their kids in the denomination without giving them a choice to explore other paths and cannot hold a position of religious authority, can only teach female converts or teach other members through a ' talk' or 'sermon' if they wear a head covering if a man is not present and that they are really only allowed to be heterosexual housewives who must fulfill their husbands sexual needs and take care of their children and carry on household responsibilities. The JW's are sexist in that fact that they believe women should carry out 'separate functions' from men. Women do not and should not carry out stereotypical responsibilities from men that women should because 'certain responsibilities' belong to women.
An article I was read by a gay man and his male partner who are both ex-JW's talk about how kids raised in the JW's are taught to hate gays and of a comment by a homophobic JW sticking his nose in the sex lives of same-sex male couples. I think the JW's should be ashamed of teaching their kids to view gays, especially those in romantically and sexually-active relationships with a same sex partner in a hateful way or to be looked at as 'inferior' to heterosexuals and that JW man should not stick his nose in the sex lives of gay couples. One reason I as a heterosexual woman left the JW's was because of the homophobia, transphobia, biphobia and bigoted attitudes towards sexual expression and sexuality that I saw.
At any rate, what are practicing JW's doing on a blog run by former members of the denomination? They should know better. I am an ex-JW and am entitled to access to information about any given subject I wish. The JW's can only explore what the governing male members of the denomination permit them to explore. My goal is not to change anyone's mind but to state obvious facts about the former religions that I am a member of which includes the JW's which I was raised in. I think kids in the JW denomination should be allowed to make up their own minds about what they believe and many of their parents should be ashamed of themselves for largely forcing their specifically chosen religious worldview on their children and telling them that this is the view that must maintain for the rest of their lives or else suffer the consequences of being shunned or treated differently. Only 37% of people raised in the JW's stay in the denomination. Most people raised in the denomination leave and never return. People have to make up their own minds about what they think and that includes kids raised in the JW's. Some kids in the JW's might end up becoming Mormons for all you know and that is fine even if I don't personally agree with most of the beliefs and practices of the Mormons. People have to decide their religious, spiritual-but-not religious or non-religious beliefs for themselves as that is what is right and fair, I think.
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