Is Terrence Howard a Jehovah's Witness?

[cherrypye]

I guess it's kinda better than being a $cientologist.

Yeah, in the sense that they've never directly participated in a murder...so I hope.

The mind control is just as damaging...JWs also make their members financially dependent on the organization by discouraging higher education, and strongly discouraging taking a demanding job. If a job interferes with church meeting times, then the employee is encouraged to quit, and trust on Jehovah to provide.

[Laurent]

JWs also make their members financially dependent on the organization by discouraging higher education, and strongly discouraging taking a demanding job.

Catch 22 for the church. Better education, better job and more money to give to the church. On the flip side, better education, more opportunity to start asking questions, branch out into the world and leave JW.

[cherrypye]

^^Exactly! Education breeds the dangerous "spirit of independent thinking" (that's what the JWs call it) and causes people to question the organization.

My mother is still ashamed to tell people I'm in college. LOL

[DitaPage*]

"In my heart, I wanted to be a Witness. If it wasn't for the smoking of cigarrettes and all ... I would be a Witness."

Thats me, exactly. I study it and my friend has taken me to meetings, and I believe it. I'm an ex-catholic. But i could never really commit to it. I have habits that are disapproved of. For a start, the music I listen to. The 'devil' music. I tried throwing my cds out only to buy them again, or burn the music again. So I've failed there. Huge sacrifices need to be made.

Sometimes it takes awhile to be able to qualify. You have to qualify to run in the race. I'm exercising," he says.

Thats the perfect way to put it. I'm still on the fence. You cant just walk into a church and ask to be baptized, like you can with Catholicism. You have to really be committed. There are also the really pushy Witnesses but I've never come across them. I've met the 'Your choice' type. I've never felt any pressure. But I know other people have had bad experiences. My best friend is a Witness and I feel so blessed to have her in my life. We've got a great friendship. And I've only ever met lovely people at the meetings, etc.

[KristiB]

I know work with of Witnesses and they're pretty cool. Some of them drink a lot though.

The holiday/birthday thing was explained to me. The reason they don't celebrate is because modern holidays all originated as pagan holidays. And birthdays used to be celebrated with sacrifices.

[cherrypye]

JWs are lovely people. They are honest and kind, and really go out of their way to be hospitable. Their children are well-trained and have excellent manners.

HOWEVER the organization and the men who run it are very dangerous. Please, before you commit to it, go to Jehovahs Witness Discussion Forum - Homepage Research their policies on not reporting sexual molestation to the authorities, and please familiarize yourself with the way this religion has destroyed families. Once you're in, it is nearly impossible to walk away from it.

Please PM me if you have any questions. Please.

[gossipmaven]

Selena was a JW. Because of this, she didn't receive the blood transfusion she needed after Yolanda Saldivar shot her in the upper back. Her family refused the blood. HER PARENTS for freak sakes.

When I heard that I was like...okay...she could have lived.

[MissDecember]

^Wow, that's extremely fucked up. I've never heard that before.

[sparkly]

They were raised JW, and although they've confessed to believe it, they've done things that would have gotten a non-celeb witness kicked out in a second (dating non-jws, singing the national anthem, dressing provocatively, wearing stars and stripes, etc.) Also, they admitted that they don't participate in the preaching work, which is required to be considered a JW. They would be considered inactive JWs, which is not a title to be proud of in that religion.

Also, one of them slept with my friends' married brother. Something only a "wordly" person would do. That's not what I would call a practicing witness.

[sparkly]

JWs are lovely people. They are honest and kind, and really go out of their way to be hospitable. Their children are well-trained and have excellent manners.

HOWEVER the organization and the men who run it are very dangerous. Please, before you commit to it, go to Jehovahs Witness Discussion Forum - Homepage Research their policies on not reporting sexual molestation to the authorities, and please familiarize yourself with the way this religion has destroyed families. Once you're in, it is nearly impossible to walk away from it.

Please PM me if you have any questions. Please.

Unfortunately, I was forced to be a Jehovah's Witness through my childhood, until I refused to go. Their views and perceptions are very skewed. Perhaps the congregation you went to was polite, but ALL of the ones I had to attend were hateful. They were the most judgmental, hypocritical people I ever met in my life. The gossipped more than a room full of old women at a hair salon, and enjoyed publicly humiliating people for making mistakes that "worldly" people make. They put themselves on a pedestal, comparable only to other cult members who have a deity complex. Perhaps there are some very kind witnesses out there, but if someone is interested, or they have a friend trying to recruit them, be careful. Because if someone decides they do not want to become a JW, their friend will drop them like a piece of trash. Most of the teens I knew who were JW's had a lot of inner turmoil going on, and many of them hid their wild ways from their parents. This church does not forgive, and never forgets someone else's mistakes. Second chances are hard to come by, and you are expected to consider yourself better and more pure than other people, treating them similar to a Canaanite. Everyone, please be aware of everything, no matter what religion you're interested in pursuing.

[Cali]

Can I ask a question, in the least offensive way possible? I know nothing about Jehovah's Witnesses other than a guy I went to high school with who was raised as one and he was completely traumatized by it.

I've noticed that there seems to be a connection between the black community and Jehovah's Witnesses. Is this just the people I know, or is this a reality? Any idea why this is / how it came about? I'm just curious, not passing judgment in any way.

[DitaPage*]

^I wonder that too actually.

[MissDecember]

^Hmmm, good question Cali. I have no idea, but the woman I knew who was a JW was Puerto Rican, a defected Catholic. I worked for her at a boutique during summer vacation when I was still in high school. She didn't seem like a religious nut from the offset...she dressed trendy and played Jennifer Lopez music during business hours. She seemed very much "of the world".
And then one afternoon she asked me if I wanted to attend JW services with her. I felt very uncomfortable and told her I was Jewish, which usually deters would-be proselytizers. She gave me a JW pamphlet and told me to let her know if I changed my mind. After that, I sensed a distinct chill and felt awkward around her. I remember being very concerned about losing my job after that, lol (I didn't) and sought my father out for advice. He told me to just "play the Jew card" and to not worry about getting fired. Another woman who'd worked there since the boutique had opened filled me in on the no-celebrating-birthdays thing. She also told me that she and I were the only non-JW's to work there, and that the owner had converted two other girls. The whole JW thing just left a sour taste in my mouth. Creepy shit. I remember feeling so bad for the children of this lady, who'd never get to blow out candles on a birthday cake, or to dye Easter eggs, etc. Those are the highlights of a happy childhood, lol. How can you take those things away from a kid?

[cherrypye]

The area I'm from has a great deal of African American and Latino JWs. I am a Latina and my best friends were African American, and I can tell you this much:

This religion preys on uneducated people who are not able to think for themselves. It offers them hope in an otherwise bleak existence, educates and disciplines their children, and encourages the members not to think for themselves. It is EXTREMELY RARE to find a college-educated person become a JW. Most JWs that attend college leave the religion, which is why advanced education is so heavily discouraged.

As a result, the under-educated communities are targets of the JWs, as are new immigrants to the US that haven't developed a support system. In my area, we had a huge (mostly poor) African American/Latino mixture of people.

We did have some Caucasian JWs, but it was pretty rare.

[cherrypye]

Some more info on African Americans and JWs

"Since their origins in late nineteenth-century America, the Jehovah's Witnesses have evolved into a well-defined and efficiently organized religious group of global proportions. Recent Society statistics indicate that less than one fourth of contemporary Witnesses live in the country of the movement's birth; the Society now claims a world-wide core membership of over four million.1 The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society--the movement's legally incorporated name--takes special pride in its international membership. One of its recent publications proclaims that "Christian brotherhood unmarred by racial distinctions is a reality among Jehovah's Witnesses in the 20th century."2 Witnesses worldwide routinely gather together in their circuit and district conventions to "rejoice in the same- ness" that transcends their national, ethnic and cultural differences.3

Witness scholar M. James Penton acknowledged that the Watchtower Society "has emphasized the value of ethnic and racial tolerance among its adherents to a greater degree than is the case with most other religious organizations."4 Even in the segregated American religious South, Witness congregations, assemblies and conventions have been fully integrated for decades.5 Based on his research on Witnesses in Africa, Bryan Wilson argued that Witnesses "are perhaps more successful than any other group in the speed with which they eliminate tribal discrimination among their own recruits."6"

Jehovah's Witnesses and Ethnicity

I imagine that could have looked pretty attractive to African Americans toiling under segregation in the South during the 60's-70's. This could likely be a cause of the high percentage of AA JWs.