The JWs follow the technique of most sects - nobody is allowed to read or watch anything that might cast doubt on what their preacher tells them. So yes, they’re not likely to know/do anything interesting.
But in our town we have Polish JWs. I guess they practice bigotry and expel unbelievers better and cheaper than the English ones. Foreigners coming over here and taking over our ridiculous religions!
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Isn’t that JW SOP - sending missionaries to a foreign country so they depend on the local JWs for support? Makes it harder for them to leave the church, and the JW organisation gets its pound of flesh worth of work out of them.
I wonder what happened to the first and second eagle of the apocalypse. Was that what he called pop and grandpa?
Yep. I usually call him American Jesus since he’s so far from the real deal.
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As someone who grew up Russian Orthodox in America it’s weird to me that the church in Russia is so political. I understand it though, with the cold war and all (our church even had American flags flying inside near the altar), but the fact that the Church in Russia also delves into stuff that evangelicals and fundamentalists freak out on over here is unsettling to me.
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According to Hebrew masoretic text the word for the sin ultimately causing the flood was hamas which Maimonidies translates to the common hebrew gezel, as in the world was full of robbery or violent taking by the powerful from the poor. This is the traditional understanding of the passages regarding what some call fallen angels or sons of god, but actually translates to the sons of the judges and governors who would kill husbands to take the wives for themselves.
Similarly Maimonidies says the sin of the five God-bombed cities of the Dead Sea basin were the unwillingness of the powerful and rich residents of the formerly lush valley to deal fairly with the poor who came seeking help from the wealthy. The residents of Sodom wanted to rape the visiting angels of the story because it was the only way they could see to extract value from these physically attractive but indigent travellers who were assessed as unable to defend themselves from violence or the bent courts.
There is a fun story from the Talmud in volume Sanhedrin(supreme court) about Abraham’s lieutenant Eliezer and the attributes of perverted justice in Sodom.
Eliezer travels to Sodom for business but camps out, as was normal in that time, in the now closed town shuk. A Sodomite beats the apparently indigent Eliezer bloody at which point Eliezer stands and drags the assailant to the judge at the city gate. The judge hears both sides of the story and assesses damages to be paid by Eliezer to the assailant for theft of services, the judge assessing that the assailant was acting as a barber drawing off excess blood and was as of yet unpaid for these healthcare services, the judge explaining this is justice in Sodom. At this point Eliezer seized the club used as evidence of the initial assault and beats the judge bloody, once finished Eliezer asks that the fee for this kind bloodletting be paid by the judge to the assailant zeroing all accounts.
So it could be fair to say that the social justice divide in the US might be setting them up for a divine asskicking.
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Clement Attlee was probably an agnostic.
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I recall seeing one of his videos where he explains his name. I think the “first eagle” is St. John of Patmos who supposedly wrote the Book of Revelation, then some other revered saint is the 2nd eagle. Bill Tapley, in his retirement, one day just realized he had a “special knack for interpreting Bible Prophesy”, and boom. . . the Third Eagle was born!
He lives in rural upstate NY, lakes region I think, and I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be his neighbor.
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Not the Cold War, but the need to survive Stalin.
The exegesis of the hateful is never very carefully considered.
If it was, they’d have to admit that God is Love. 
Isn’t that what evangelicals are doing when they come to your house?
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Have you checked for Gideons?
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They came by once a year until I put up the no solicitors sign. They were also very polite and totes cool with a simple no thanks not interested. I have actually offered them some water as they are usually out in August.
Ok Mr Third Eagle of the Apocalypse, I can potentially be smellin’ what you’re sellin’. But first…I have some questions. Like what exactly happened to the First and Second Eagles? Why can their whereabouts no longer be determined? And can you explain those two fresh piles of dirt in your back yard?
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Wait wait wait…
Vladimir Putin’s destruction of the United States as the last King in the North…
God damn it, SPOILER ALERT!!!
Jesus, so Putin is going to take over Winterfell after all?!? Is Putin actually a Stark? Is he part white walker? Arrgh, I’m going to go nuts trying to work out how Russia defeats to Boltons!
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Plus you take their time from bothering other folks. Gold star!
Guuuurl! Let’s talk about your look. I see you looking all sassy with that open collar and crucifix. But really, we need to discuss your beard grooming. We wouldn’t want the Third Eagle of the Apocalypse represent with a nappy uneven beard now would we!? Be sure to trim the neck as well as the chin! Plus we would like for you to consider smaller lenses for your glasses, let’s really drive that smart Third Eagle look home!!
He may as well have said “Putin will destroy America because Reasons.” It would’ve made more sense.
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This comic always pops into my head as I imagine the poor young Mormon, Lutheran, Baptist, J4J, or J-witness as they innocently approach a guy with unexpected literacy in biblical and mishnaic Hebrew, Judean and Babalonian Aramaic, as it applies to the subject matter. Also useful is my halting Latin, though sadly no ancient Greek to clearly show illiterate to egregious changes in content translation inaccuracies between two alleged hand-of-god writings.
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/05/07#mutable_51354
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[quote=“Bobo, post:40, topic:60811, full:true”]Their logic: The Bible is the “living word of god” so any mistranslations, choices by clergy etc… in the past to include or not include things and whatnot were all guided by the hand of God for the explicit purpose of creating the 100% literal truth that’s down in print today. NO DEBATE ALLOWED THANKYOUVERYMUCH!
[/quote]
facepalm
Of course, in Christianity, the Word/Wisdom of G’d is supposed to be a being of G’d who was revealed in Iesus. The opening of the Gospel of John refers to this. There were related currents in Jewish thought, and in middle and neo-Platonist thought, though without considering the Word/Wisdom to be G’d. The so-called “Arian” controversy was about whether the Word/Wisdom was uncreated or created.
