Friday and Saturday were for the most part pretty light, not too culty or doctinal, could easily suck in the unsuspecting. There were a couple of hypocritical lines that I took note of however. At one point the speaker said, "If your boss fires everyone who disagrees with him but promotes everyone who agrees with him, you might be tempted to agree with him just to keep your job. That's what it was like under king Ahab, who killed anyone who told the truth." I'm sure the hypocrisy is obvious in this one, with how they brand any dissenting beliefs as apostasy, forcing many to be PIMO. Another thing that was said, along similar lines, was, "Read the Bible daily so that you can prove to yourself that the faithful slave is in harmony with the Bible." Well I did exactly that, and that's how I came to be convinced that JWs are full of it. Of course they don't leave an option for any other outcome. If you 'study' the Bible you WILL agree with the GB . . . If you know what's good for you. Another annoying trend in a number of the videos was the portrayal of "worldly" people as seeking confrontation, of shoving their beliefs down your throat and mocking you if you disagree. I know there are some people like that, including JWs, but by and large such a stereotype is ridiculous. Most people are respectful of others beliefs, even if it upsets them, and prefer to avoid confrontation. On Sunday, things were stepped up. The whole morning symposium was about Us Vs. Them scenarios and all the obscure doomsday prophecies that somehow all apply to Jehovah's Witnesses, great tribulation, attacks, speculation etc. In one of the videos they even brought up the quote from that now infamous WT about obeying everything even if it doesn't make sense. The speaker later emphasized this, saying, "Brothers and Sisters: If in the future, you receive instructions that don't make sense from a human standpoint, follow them." They also showed an update on Phelicity, the little girl who had appeared on JW Broadcasting and said that she had died soon after. (JW Survey revealed that she had a GoFundMe campaign to get her to a bloodless hospital in the US for $150,000.) The movie about Jonah was well made. The pacing dragged in the second half, but overall it was a high quality production with decent effects and periodic humor, and I enjoyed it. During the last talk, the speaker said that at another convention when he said 'we've reached the end of the convention' a young one in the audience shouted 'hooray!' before his mother covered his mouth with her hand. Then he remarked, "Out of the mouth of babes". The day concluded with the video that many of us have seen already, about the small group of JWs being closed in on by the men with guns just as Jesus steps in and obliterates them with his bow and arrow. Among the JWs were the boy from this year's video that was disturbed by the apocalyptic painting in a WT publication, the Oriental real estate agent with the nose job from last year's sitcom, the family that had one tragedy after another from the movie from year before last, as well as some from other videos. It was accompanied by a new song called "Give Me Courage", and with the slick, powerful editing you can see how this would whip up any Witness into a cultish frenzy of emotion, even those on the fence. Up until I went, I was under the impression that this was the first year with no real new releases, (the two dramas don't count, everybody already knows about them). I had even looked at the new releases section and that's all that I saw. Well, this morning I see they added the MP3 version of the new song to Sunday's releases.
Review: 2018 "Be Courageous!" convention
by neat blue dog 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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stuckinarut2
Thanks for taking one for the team NBD! Interesting review.
The level of manipulative cultiness seems to be ever increasing!
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DesirousOfChange
Three days of your life that you will never get back!
Afraid that your review of the Convention is the closest that my wife and I will get to it. For that, thanks!
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Magnum
Bottom line is that we aren't even supposed to be here in "this system" now. JWdom was wrong, wrong, wrong. It has established a long record of being wrong. They can have all the conventions they want trying to whip up emotion about the coming end, but they cried wolf too many times.
Their conventions seem to be devoid now any kind of deeper doctrinal and prophetic analysis. It's just emotional manipulation - the kind they used to accuse "Christendom" of using.
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Finkelstein
how they brand any dissenting beliefs as apostasy, forcing many to be PIMO.
Ironic when its realized the WTS has always been an act of apostasy going against Jesus's instructions of preaching his Gospel.
The WTS has been a commercialized false prophet for over 100 years and the people who are involved and supporting this organization (JWS) are essentially forfeiting their chance of eternal life in paradise.
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neat blue dog
Magnum:
Yes, emotion is all they have left! I look around and see so many people who have lost someone, many from suicide, even more from old age, and they NEED to believe it. Somehow it'll all be different THIS time around, for THEM. As someone told me after the last session ended, 'The end is soooo close!' (I know, they say that after every event.) Back in the day it'd be all about pseudo logic/education, at least the illusion of scholarliness, (even though it was always bunk), but now, even the 'deep' talks like the ones on Sunday morning just rattle off the prophetic interpretations but don't even attempt to offer proof. (Reminds me of the hillarious show Psych when Jules says "He's prophetic" and Shawn looks offended and replies "You're prophetic!" thinking it means pathetic . . . But I'm digressing 😅)
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Finkelstein
Something to reflect upon is that there are thousands of people around the world who actually live off the Watchtower Corporation , including the GB members. $$$
That in itself is a underling reason why the WTS will continue to exist and will make up false doctrines implemented to support the continuation of the organization.
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scratchme1010
JW Survey revealed that she had a GoFundMe campaign to get her to a bloodless hospital in the US for $150,000.
Thanks for the summary. Normally I don't read posts related their events, but for some reason I found this one interesting.
Hmmm... There isn't such thing as a "bloodless hospital" in the US (that's not how the medical profession works), and if there was one, why would she need an additional $150,000 to use it?
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neat blue dog
scratchme1010:
I think you know what I mean by bloodless hospital: A hospital that has equipment and staff that specializes in bloodless surgery and has frequent Witness clientele. As for the $150,000 I made a mistake: They already spent all their money going to the US and other places, and Phelicity's last wish was to go home, but that would require a very expressive med flight. That's what the $150,000 GoFundMe was for.
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Are you serious
During the last talk, the speaker said that at another convention when he said 'we've reached the end of the convention' a young one in the audience shouted 'hooray!' before his mother covered his mouth with her hand. Then he remarked, "Out of the mouth of babes".
Thanks Neat Blue Dog for sacrificing yourself. The little boy's shout was about the only truth that was declared during the 3 days.