(June 11, 2015 at 2:22 am)Stimbo Wrote: But I'm talking of same-sex couples in a relationship, just like opposite sex relationships. Let's say I and my partner - call him Stan - wish to be baptised in a JW sense. We've been together ten years and committed, via legal ceremony, for the last three. In the eyes of the law, we are married. Would we (a) be allowed to join and (b) be expected to be celibate where a 'traditional' wedded couple would not? If the answer is no to either or both of these, what do you feel about it?
So for context, if someone wants to be baptized they have to first accept what JW's teach from the bible. If they don't accept them then they can't even be publishers (kind of like a pre-baptized person) They would study the bible for months or years and then get questioned from 3 different brothers about the basic beliefs of JW's. One of those is acts that displease god. And you have to accept all of this and desire to live by "bible principles" to be one of JW's in good standing. So if you and Stan studied the bible, went through the questions and got baptized, you would know clearly that there would be consequences to a homosexual relationship. And you could only get baptized if you adopted the belief that your attraction to men was your thorn in the flesh as it were, that is the phrase Paul used, and believed that God had not a intended those feelings as part of his original purpose. I honestly don't know what the direction would be for the legal commitment though. I am sure that if you two wanted to avoid homosexuality then it would be advised to not allow the temptation to sprout. Like maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to live together. But it wouldn't be a requirement. But if one or both of you rejected the teaching that homosexual acts are wrong then you wouldn't qualify to get baptized.
