Mad Sweeney, I think that he's the same bro.
A Big Thanks to John Williams at Bethel
by mentallyfree31 25 Replies latest jw friends
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VM44
...and television is Satan's Eyeball!
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Pallbearer
"...and television is Satan's Eyeball!"
Don't believe that. LOL However, I'm inclined to think that it's the biggest thief since Robin Hood. I seldom allow the TV to swipe my time. I hardly ever watch the boob tube anymore. Most TV programs don't require the watcher to think for themselves. I think they are sometimes useful for keeping grownups pacified, sort of similar to those thing's they call "Mobiles" that twirl above an infant lying in their crib and that keeps a baby pacified. I'd much rather hang out on debate forums. They give me a way to exercise my noodles and also test my beliefs to see if they hold up under scrutiny and criticism.
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mentallyfree31
Was John Williams from the UK? I guess he did have a strong accent, I forgot about that.
Speaking of which, I just found an MP3 cd here that somebody gave me of 24 special talks, given by Bethelites and JW hard-hitters over the years. I never listened to any of them. I will hang onto it for a souvenir.
-MF31-
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palmtree67
I will hang onto it for a souvenir.
Frisbee, anyone?
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SnakesInTheTower
pallbearer....
funny that about television... some of the best times we had as a family was when our old television finally died. It was 2 years before we could afford a new one. We ate dinner at the dinner table not in front of the boob tube. We talked, we played games and read. Dad got the new one and it was never the same.
Now I have a television but I make the tube work for me. I have AT&T U-verse with a DVD. We record what we want and watch when we want. If it is dumb we delete it before finishing the program. My fiancee just bought me a Sony Blu-ray player with WiFi. Now we hook into the wireless U-verse internet and download movies via Netflix ($10/mo.) and listen to music via Pandora (free). Today I watched an old National Geographic special on Air Force One. Infinitely more interesting than most of the inane comedies and sitcoms and dumb game shows. I have a bunch of documentaries in my instant queue to watch when I am folding laundry in my quiet time. Toni has a movie or two lined up. Redbox, Blockbuster Express and the public library round out our cheap entertainment for DVDs and Blu-ray movies. We find promo codes for redbox cheap or free all the time.
Snakes (Rich )
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I quit!
Johnny Boy Williams was just expressing the fear the Watchtower feels over not being able control the information JWs get like they could in the past. But they are fighting a loosing battle. Some dubs may delete their accounts when they hear fear mongering like Johnny's but it is becoming more impractical to avoid contact with the internet and many of them will find their way back and then it is only a matter of time before they come across information like the information posted here.
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Rydor
For me that moment came during a circuit overseer visit back in the early 2000's. The public talk that was being given at the time consisted of a verse-by-verse explanation of Psalm 91. Psalm 91:3 reads,
"For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence."The application that the CO gave, which was of course the one given to him in the outline, was that "snare" Jehovah saves us from was nationalism..... NATIONALISM!!! I thought to myself, "So you're telling me that, when David was composing this song, thousands of years ago, he was praising God for saving his people from NATIONALISM????" The idea was beyond ridiculous. For me it was the first time that I believed the organization was wrong about something.
Of course, the standard dub-thinking took over: "Well, they're not quite right about this, but it's still God's organization. I'll just keep this to myself and Jehovah will work things out in time."
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sd-7
I admit, John Williams the composer is pretty awesome. I'd like to thank him, too. He did the Olympics theme too.
There was always a certain mental filter for me when it came to talks given and all that. Most of it went in, but the more extreme stuff kind of got stuck on the sides, you know? Whenever they did one of those fear-mongering stories about the guy who left the JWs and got beaten to death in a bar the next night, I always thought, you know, if you just weren't so scared and did so orderly, you could leave this religion and live a normal life. You see people going about their normal lives every day, and not all of them are HIV-positive serial killers or something. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of them aren't. They must be doing something right.
When it came to entertainment, I certainly didn't care about those warnings. I'd occasionally feel guilty and throw away games that had magic or movies that had PG-13 sex in them. But otherwise, nothing stuck with me.
I doubt this John Williams is all that different from plenty of circuit overseers and similar zealots I've encountered. It is indeed to them I owe thanks, as well. "You don't deserve a vacation--that's Satan's thinking!" Those words of a circuit overseer sealed the deal for me, confirmed that I wasn't imagining it, there really, truly was something horribly wrong with this religion.
--sd-7
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Pallbearer
"Snare of the trapper"
Look at how many people have been ensnared by nationalism. Few people have been able to keep from being swept up into nationalism, which only divided people. Some even say, "My country right or wrong."