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Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
You know I'm a born Hindu right? I have repeatedly stated that I disagree with prostelysing. But shutting down a hall is not stopping prostelysing, its disrupting a congregation of peaceful worshippers. That is a direct violation of religious freedom and right to assembly (that one might be an American thing.) And prostelysing is a form of religious expression, which falls under freedom of speech. Besides this is a debate forum there is such a thing as "time and place."
Thanks SomeRandom, I didn't know you are born Hindu. True, I read you disagree with proselytizing. And of course this is a debate forum. Here we can try out everything. I don't care if people proselytize here. Even in the world I don't care; just their karma. My religion tells me "stay away from proselytizers; if all do this they automatically stop proselytizing". So I don't agree to put them in jail for just proselytizing [unless the Law in that country says different of course]. But I was just making a point that in the real world it is "not done". In virtual world we can practice and find out the limits without getting in jail [I hope so; I saw that anyone can read along and search stuff on RF using google; so I do restrict myself what i type here].
I just read that in China it's against the Law to proselytize. 1 year back I heard Putin already speaking about religious groups are welcome but must adopt Russian culture and if they want to proselytize they are free to go to their own country. I think that was very nice of Putin to say. Other countries have death penalty for that. The talk was very clear. I am sure JW knew it was coming [I was not surprised].
My religion teaches me to obey the Law of the country. If the country has a Law "do not proselytize", then just do not do that. It's so simple. I was 10 years in India, and I followed the Indian Law.
China, Russia, Middle East, Philippines etc. just have different "Religious Freedom". Respect means accept this when you are there. If you don't of course they will stop "congregation of peaceful worshippers". That is same in Holland. You don't follow Law, they put you in jail. We can't go and proselytize in a country that does not want that.[Country list where you can proselytize freely: http://www.brigada.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/OSAC-Proselytizing-Report-Country-List.pdf]
Christians are known to disrespect this "don't proselytize" Law. Because they believe they are above the Law [they told me in the Baptist Church I was; they follow the Law of God I think when it comes to proselytizing]. 1 good example that happened to the Baptist Church I went. They went to proselytize in Indonesia. A Muslim Island and gave the Muslims the Bible + 1 pig. And the man was proudly [sorry arrogantly] telling "you see what we did, we gave them pigs, so they eat pork = their forbidden meat". This felt very disrespectful to me.
Russia = NOT Legal to proselytize [so it should be not a big surprise what happened]: In 2016, a new antiterrorism law specifically regulates missionary activities in Russia, the types of materials that can be used by missionaries, and the admission of missionaries to the country.
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