umbertoecho

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Posts by umbertoecho

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  44

  How do you manage to keep JW friendships after you left the organization?

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems incredibly difficult.

  those who leave the org.

  (or fade) no longer have anything in common with jehovah's witnesses, nor do they want to stick around to get radiated by the fear and guilt that saturates every aspect of a witnesses' life.. i've lost all but one of my jw friends quite simply because i can no longer condone the evil things that they condone.

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  umbertoecho

  You could've said.........I love me. Just to reject all the (mainly) shallow profusions of love

  go on there.
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  20

  Is it necessary to prepare for the Watchtower or book study?

  by BashfulAshG in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  all of my years in the truth, i never understood why we had to study before each meeting.

  the contents are self-explanatory with the answers to the printed question within the first or the last sentence of the paragraph.

  then, commenting never made sense, especially comments and experiences that don't answer the printed question.

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  umbertoecho

  I found that pre studying at home. Then going through it all again at the meeting was a good way to brain wash everyone. You know..........repetition for emphasis/indoctrination.

  Not too many comments are allowed that don't come directly from the magazine, for the magazine has the answer supplied.
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  58

  Strange Moment During The 2015 Regional Convention

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi, i'm new here but hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere yet.

  during the "imitate jesus" rc there was a strange moment where they played a video of a brother trying to explain the 1914 teaching.

  the brother quickly goes through all the scriptural "proofs" and the householder is dumbfounded.

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  umbertoecho

  They could get away with saying that the big A is due to start "the day before tomorrow" and no one would notice.

  In my fifty odd years, I have had it pointed out to me in various ways and with some frustration on the part of the person trying to convince me of the accuracy of the society's date.

  When studying, I was told to trust in the wisdom of the org and Jehovah, and my study conductors (one of whom was smarter than the other) Just ended up shaking their heads. You see, I was leaning toward the "unteachable". That is a phrase that is used quite a lot amongst the JWs
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  16

  Synthetic Blood in 2 Years? How Will the GB Shoot This Down?

  by DarioKehl in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  interesting read.

  if they already allow "fractions," there's no way they can ban this.. here:www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-to-give-volunteers-synthetic-blood-made-in-a-laboratory-within-two-years-10343279.html.

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  umbertoecho

  Stem cells? I see a can of worms opening here. They keep changing the rules on organ transplants and I wonder if stem cells are anything like that. I am ignorant of such things so I'll have to have a look see.

  If it does pass the test as devised by the collective papacy in WTland. Then they will give it a WT form of benediction, and claim Yahweh's support.

  My sister went to another country for an operation. She knew she would need blood transfused in this op and being a witness, she was in a hard place. So off she went and had the op and the transfusion. After that, she really really did leave the org. She just didn't bother to tell them about it.

  Clever chick, my sister. I really like her craft in this situation. No one dare condemn her, for no one was with her. No one in my side of the family would inform the elders anyway. Still, she had to be careful as her daughter is full on into the WTBTS
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  16

  WT Historians: You can own Charter paperwork for WT Corporations1884-2003

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  today, i have made available through my website, www.watchtowerdocuments.com, an e-document containing the handwritten watch tower corporation charter, plus the following material as explained on my website.

  "on december 13, 1884, charles taze russell and his wife, maria f. russell, founded a corporation in pennsylvania which they named, zions watch tower tract society.

  the charter for that corporation was amended in 1896 changing the name to watch tower bible and tract society.

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  umbertoecho

  What's that saying in the bible? " A man is worthy of his labour?" I don't see a problem with gaining an income, a reasonable income from your' efforts. Not at all. Just don't go starting another religion with the money please. We have enough religions already.
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  7

  Yahweh was a pagan cannanite God 2000 years before Abraham??? Shocker!

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  years ago i used wikipedia to study "yahweh" ..i was shocked to find out yahweh was one of many gods in the cannanite religion.

  there i see a cannanite coin with pagan yahweh on his winged chariot???

  this was faith destroying.

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  umbertoecho

  I always wondered at Moses asking god at the burning bush, what his name was. I thought back then as a young teen that god's response was so open ended....I am whosoever I want to be......and other such renderings according to what bible you are reading. When I learned of the actual meaning of Elohim and understood that it was plural. It made sense that there could be more than one god or many aspects of the same entity. And for each god or entity, there were different attributes. Of course, I am just as confused as I have ever been, but I still enjoy learning as opposed to being force fed doctrine.

  All the good to everyone here by the way. I have come to rely upon this site quite a lot of late. It has been uplifting and interesting, funny and sad.......
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  13

  Two creation stories in the bible, why have I never noticed this??

  by purrpurr in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i'm reading a very interesting book right now "your god is too small" by the atheist republic.

  it makes the point that there are two creation accounts in the bible!.

  in one humans are created after the animals in the second humans are created before the animals.

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  umbertoecho

  I don't see the contradiction in the creation accounts.
  

  The second account reads:(Genesis 2:18, 19) Then Jehovah God said: “It is not good for the man to continue to be alone. I am going to make a helper for him, as a complement of him.” Now Jehovah God had been forming from the ground every wild animal of the field and every

  The contradiction seems to be, that prior to getting to the Adam and Eve bit, where god says (what is already taken from your post) In the first instance there is no mention of man or woman taking precedence over the other. They, man and woman are created in "our" image. There is no talk of a rib be taken out of the man in order to create a mate for the man. The creation of Adam, whom it appears had it all at first, until God noticed something amiss ie a female companion, precipitates the need for Adam to fall into a deep sleep. And upon awaking, he is delighted with his companion. She is made from a portion of him. A rib. You may call it a spare rib if you like ribs.

  Today, we all have the same number of ribs, we have not come down through history with this reminder of how we came to be made from an already existing man. I know this opinion is badly put together but it does seem, in the light of much research through Archeology and Anthropology, that many many cultures and societies have been around much longer than this pair would seem to indicate.

  This garden that they grew up in, or rather inhabited as perfectly healthy people, was cut off from the rest of the world. It was a special place according to the bible. There was a tree of life within. Once this couple had made the decision to disobey a command, they were thrown out. The entrance was protected to prevent them entering.

  Outside. Life had continued on. It seems reasonable that others had been created that pre dated Adam and Eve. They were not special projects, if you like. However, the great number of findings and the dating of those findings, seem to indicate that there were indeed, humans who were around for thousands (some think millions) of years. And they developed culture and belief systems that are so much older than the Jewish ones, even older than Babylonian ones. Globally, there were many other cultures and they did not originate from the Genesis of Adam and Eve.

  They seem to pre date the exit story that was to become the fate of this couple. And yes, there were tribes and longevity for this first "special project" that was Adam and Eve. But they were by no means the only humans ever created.

  I am interested in this, not as a method of defaming the bible. No. But I do have an interest in making sense of the why that is always there in trying to figure out what the whole writing of Genesis was about. I don't see God, if indeed it was God dictating the history to Moses years after the event, in needing to take a people for himself, a special type of race of people whom the Messiah would come through. There were other races and cultures that God knew about and chose not to take for himself. And fortunately for Abram, he found some great favour with God, enough to be honoured with the future role of the Messiah.

  Just a thought friends, not the most erudite one, I agree. But it won't go away from me. I have never heard of God having to preface anything that he had to convey to us humans before. I'm not talking about prophecies or such here.

  I am reading Genesis Unveiled at the moment. It is a good book for opening up the good old brain pan and considering things less acceptable. It is not responsible for my thoughts on creation though.
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  47

  Cart Witnessing - Thrilling! Productive! Epic! Er.....um, well, not so much.....

  by sir82 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  talked with a pioneer recently, she was recounting her first experience with cart witnessing.. she brought the subject up, was going on & on & on & on about how wonderful the experience was, and how great, and how she enjoyed it so much, and it was so wonderful, and oh jehovah's blessing, and on and on and on...... a few questions to her revealed what really happened:.

  -- a jw who owns a small restaurant in a strip mall allows jws to set up their cart outside his restaurant.

  -- the restaurant is tucked pretty far out of the way, not prominent at all.

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  umbertoecho

  Cappytan

  Are the carts hard to put together or something. Ikea always has good little diagrams about how to put things together. Is that the special training?

  Or is it special training about feeling like a complete dork and how to maintain some semblance of dignity when you show up in a photo somewhere looking like a complete dork.
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  48

  Candace Conti Case

  by truthseekeriam in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  filed:.

  letter dated june 22, 2015, notifying the court that petitioners, watchtower and fremont congregation have reached a settlement with respondent, conti.. .

  click here to request automatic e-mail notifications about this case..

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  umbertoecho

  JWdaughter.

  That is exactly what I see about this case. The WT have bragged for decades about their almost perfect track record of wins in court. They made sure everyone read about it in their articles. They wore it like a badge of spiritual honour. Now it's changing. Now they are becoming viewed as something less than the perfect society of God directed people. They have had to respond to claims in courts of law around the world......They are not used to losing one tiny inch of status. And status is what it's all about with this religion.

  Don't forget. They claim to have a spiritual paradise right here and now on earth. They are arrogant about feeling better than every other religion. What will they do now? Now it is a matter of record that they are not as clean or guided as they like to claim. Oh dear! Status is going down with every such claim of abuse that makes it to court and the newspapers or internet.

  And horrifyingly for them, it's sex that has brought this about. They have enjoyed stripping all other religions or organizations to pieces for perceived laxity, perversion and so on. Now they are recorded in the worldly rule book as being in the wrong or wrongly protecting abusers.

  This is a terrible thing to live down for an organization that has wallowed in feeling superior in this world of inferior and damned people. They don't like being exposed and tarnished. No matter what they will say or write. It will not eliminate the fact that there are judgements from worldly courts of law........against them.
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  20

  Need a good laugh?

  by FadeToBlack in

  1. social
  2. humour

  if you could use a good laugh please have a look at page 7 of the july 2015 awake.

  my wife leaves the latest issues on my pillow when she gets back from her meetings.

  i often scan through them looking for nonsense.

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  umbertoecho

  This is insane! Appropriate dress standards! Just tack this one to the back of the hall and refer to it when unsure of how to dress when paddling on a lake.