(September 20, 2013 at 9:04 am)Zazzy Wrote: Most JWs don't really abide by this, do they?
Sadly, they do. I've read and heard stories from people who have been cut off. It's particularly heartbreaking to hear from parents who are not allowed to see their children or grandchildren because their children refuse any contact with them. The organization has made minor changes to the policy from time to time, allowing a limited amount of non-religious-based communication under some circumstances. But that goes back and forth, and last I knew they were using the strictest approach again.
There are some who will not abide the rules all of the time, but they must do so quietly or risk expulsion from the religion, at which point they get to experience the same cold shoulder they were giving to someone else. It is interesting to note that such cults show that fear of angering god has nothing on the fear of losing family and friends, for many people. I agree that it is a particularly insidious practice.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
