I recently clicked on a link to an article about a woman who is being shunned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a cult from which she has been expelled for being a lesbian, at the instigation of a man who sexually abused her as a child. Sounds terrible, right. Still, there is good in everyone, and there is something really good about the Witnesses.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses were founded by a con man who kept predicting the end of the world. It never came, but hey, everyone makes little mistakes. Apparently they have nothing on the Scientologists when it comes to disciplining the apostates among them:
The Jehovah’s Witnesses, with more than 8 million members worldwide, believe that an imminent apocalypse will end Satan’s reign on earth for 1,000 years, leaving those dead and alive to face judgment by Jesus Christ. Those who break Jehovah’s laws and don’t repent will be destroyed. For more than a century, the organization has leveraged that scenario to compel the loyalty of millions of Witnesses around the world. For the devout, disfellowshipping is literally a death sentence.
via Reveal
As I said, sounds bad, but they have one redeeming feature shared by far too few of their fellow whackjobs, that warms my heart:
Witnesses live by a litany of Scripture-based regulations that, if broken, can result in disfellowshipping. Among the activities that aren’t allowed: smoking, stealing, gambling, violence, gluttony, greed, idolatry, slander, drunkenness, drug use, voting, military service, acceptance of blood transfusions, birthday or holiday celebrations, speech against the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, and all sex except that between married heterosexual couples.
Emphasis emphatically added. To this we must all agree: if Jesus were able to speak from the grave, he would tell us he wouldn’t want them voting either.
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